My question would be when exactly was that? I grew up in the 80s when the fan was seen almost as a necessary evil, which they would happily have dispensed with if they could have done. I don’t disagree with what you say regarding pricing etc (I tend to only attend games with special offers), but I’m not sure there ever was a time when the fans were anything other than a means of revenue, given that the rationale behind their treatment always seems to have been ‘get as many of em through the door and comfort / safety etc (i.e. the entirety of the fans’ wellbeing) be damned.

I’d say that what’s changed is not clubs’ attitude towards fans at a class level, but the realisation that instead of piling them high and earning your ‘wonga’ through volume, you can be more selective and attract a smaller number who will spend more when they’re there. It’s a simple shift of business model and sadly, I believe fans have only ever been that…a box on a flow chart or a column in a balance sheet. We never really mattered beyond that.