The whole conversation about football being a business is an interesting one.
On one hand, a football club anywhere on the pyramid system needs finances to survive. At the lower levels it's the parents paying for boots and balls, local small businesses sponsoring shirts, coaches giving their time for free all to do one thing. Play the game. Family and friends watch on the sideline. It's not about profit.
As you move up the pyramid, to say League One or Two...it's pretty much the same. Except now, players are professionals, there are full time staff and the stadium needs maintenance. It is still to do one thing. Play the game. Now you have local supporters (in the main) following the club over decades. It's still not about profit.
So let's go to the Premier League. The scale is totally different. The ambitions are higher. The expectations are higher. But intrinsically it's exactly the same. You need (more) money to pay the players, manage costs, and be competitive in the transfer market. If you're successful you attract more money through TV and sponsorship. The players still just want to play football. Yes they are paid more and yes the PL may attract a small percentage of mercenaries following the cash, but the vast majority of players are playing because they love the game. A lot of people working at the club have supported the club too for many years. Sure, Mary in IT, Bill in Catering and Suzy in the ticket office don't care. It's just a job. But for many others it's more than that. Now the supporters are global and in many cases the global support outweigh the local support. So watching it on TV, analysing it on forums and tweeting about on social media is more common that actually going to the game. But they are all still supporters. They are not interested in profit. It's still playing the game.
So when does this business model come into play? The millions of fans have never regarded themselves as 'customers'. I certainly don't. The players don't see themselves as 'employees'. The guy running the Museum, the people on MUTV, Cliff Butler the historian don't see themselves as 'co-workers'.
It's when ownership comes into play and decides to make money out of a club (in the Glazers case putting zero into it...they don't wash the shirts, stand on the sidelines, or help out after the match) that they start THINKING they can run a football club like they run a corporation with the primary focus on profit. They are the only people in this whole eco system who is NOT INTERESTED in the game.
No one has turned a football club into a business except the owner. And who in the f*** makes them think that we will all just agree with them.
I guess there is a percentage of people on here who want to be customers. Fill in the feedback form.
For the rest of us...it's still a game. A game with history, culture, community, heroes, family and friends. That's why we care.