It's hard to see where the next generation of the traditional junior fan is coming from, the way football is being consumed is changing the world over, I think that the junior club in the traditional sense, the pie, the bovril, the half time draw etc will change over the next ten or so years, I also think that the financial changes in the game will also move the current set up to one with no player wages, no transfer / retention fees and eventually no admission fees, the clubs will become essentially elite amateur sides, I think that there is enough tradition and small town sentiment to keep our clubs going but i also believe they need to change the entire format to bring a new generation of fans, new revenues and higher attendances in the short to medium term, the senior game also needs to scale down to be more competitive (this is a whole other issues but there are 3 times as many professional clubs in Scotland than there are NFL teams in the United States, just think about that for a minute in terms of market size, fan base etc crazy) there are however some similarities we can use to boost the image an attendance of our junior game, for instance the USA has vast areas of rural / small medium size towns with local 'football' teams all trying to make a living, they excel, they thrive and the pull big crowds and big sponsors, how?, they clubs are intrinsically linked to their community via school teams, kids teams, local businesses , bars, churches, competitions, local media, free tickets for high schools, family tickets etc, now junior clubs in our towns and villages already do a lot of that stuff so I wouldn't be a million miles for many to push a little further on that score, but there are two other major factors why these small town teams excel, they realised 25 years ago that the family dynamic was changing and work an family stuff was preventing the 'typical fan' from attending games at the typical times and that the glamour of the senior/ professional game was dragging fans away also, they implemented three things; - make the club more family/ community/ town centred - don't play matches on the same days as the professional leagues -alter the season start n end to bring in more summer matches and thus the Friday night match became a staple of small town America, For years we've heard people say you get a better crowd with good weather an no senior games, so it's nothing new, sorry for rambling on and I'm no saying it would all work but surely some of those concepts would work in junior football,
