Venice has sold a myth of itself to tourists for centuries, so why has no one ever never succeeded in promoting its football club?

The travel writer Thomas Watkins wrote: “There is no country so much frequented yet so little known by foreigners as Venice.” Watkins made that observation in June 1788 but his point remains remarkably pertinent today. There still exists a myth of Venice: a foreign conception of the city that does not go much further than the luminous water, titanic structures and Grand Canal.

Venice sells itself as the most beautiful city you have never been to. As a result, when visitors arrive in Venice, they rush to take selfies on the Rialto Bridge, pay extortionate prices for gondola rides and join the multitude of tour groups congregated in the Piazza San Marco. Their experiences end up reinforcing the myth of the city that attracted them there in the first place.

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Yet this means that most tourists only ever experience a tiny slither of what the city has to offer. There is an absence of real Venetian life in the standard package holiday. A lot of Venice remains hidden from tourists, from the silent discos at the Campo Santa Margherita, to casual aperitivos in the largely residential area of Cannaregio.

Perhaps the most obvious example of this foreign ignorance of real Venetian life is the city’s football team, Venezia FC. The club’s home, the Stadio Pierluigi Penzo, is situated right on the eastern tip of the island, away from the sites. With barely any signs pointing you in the direction of the club, it almost feels as if the city does not want you to go there. Most of the people I studied with in Venice were surprised to discover there is a stadium on the island; unless you know where it is, you would be hard pressed to find it.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Stadio Pierluigi Penzo in Venice. Photograph: Dino Panato/Getty Images

The majority of fans at the ground take the boat in from the industrial, unattractive and largely working class city of Mestre on the mainland. The rusty old structures on which they stand are a far cry from the white sheen of the Rialto. During the game, a few dedicated if slightly maniacal ultras stand at the front of the terraces, never taking their eyes off the fans, armed with megaphones and extreme levels of self-confidence. They lead a succession of chants all game long, pointing to areas of the crowd that are not quite generating the boisterous atmosphere they desire. The constant jostling and heckling among the more stocious fans feel a world away from the quaint but largely tame Venetian bars.

By distancing itself from this working class reality, Venice is missing a trick. Even people who are not sports fans would marvel at attending a football match in such a unique setting, with water surrounding you on two sides. Enjoying the atmosphere generated by the ultras under the beating sun – which is occasionally relieved by some flying beer – complements the civility of the piazza. Venezia FC injects some much needed life and variety into the often sterile surroundings of the lagoon city. Believe it or not, parading through its throng of beautiful churches can become a little monotonous. Attending a game is different, and great fun too, which renders it extremely marketable.

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If Venice were looking for a model of how to commercialise their football team, they need only glance across the Atlantic for inspiration. Last March, it was confirmed that the NFL team Oakland Raiders would be relocating to Las Vegas, much to the dismay of their large fanbase. Until recently Vegas had been deemed an unsuitable host city due to the NFL’s relationship with gambling but, with those restrictions now relaxed, the move made sense from a business perspective, if not a fan’s one. The team’s owners hope that when tourists “do” Vegas for a weekend, they will now add attending a football game to the itinerary. Now that Vegas has a football team – and the recently relocated Vegas Golden Knights hockey team – it has diversified beyond the glitz and glamour of the casinos and hotels.

The resort city is one of the few places in the world that is comparable to Venice. They both depend on a continuous cycle of customers who visit for long weekends to enjoy the world-renowned pleasures their famous cities have to offer. Vegas is trying to make money from sports franchises that combine a small pool of loyal fans and a stream of causal tourists. If it works for Vegas, it will be attractive to Venice too.

Joe Tacopina, Venezia’s extremely ambitious American-Italian owner, has employed Filippo Inzaghi as manager and overseen two promotions from Serie D to Serie B. But he is not planning to stop there. The celebrity lawyer – who has represented Maroon 5, Jay-Z and former New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez – has aspirations to expand further. “I’ll take the club to Serie A and then into Europe with a new stadium,” he said last year.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Venezia FC owner Joe Tacopina. Photograph: Luigi Costantini/AP

Tacopina will surely have to break into the gigantic Venetian tourist industry to realise his ambitions. It is not difficult to imagine how the club would go about attracting new fans. The various stalls in the airport that sell boat rides and tours of the sites could be stocked with tickets for the weekend’s game. Fixtures could be advertised in San Marco, with discounted tickets available in hotels and along the Strada Nuovo.

The Stadio Penzo, a unique site in its own right, could be incorporated into tours of the city. It is only 10 minutes’ walk from the Arsenale and there are some lovely park areas nearby. If just 1% of the 30 million people who visit Venice each year were to attend a game, the Stadio Penzo would need to double its capacity to fit them all in. Tacopina would be able to sell the idea to the city’s government by arguing that a popular football club would enhance Venice as a destination, diversifying its appeal and adding something to do in a place where often there are only things to see.

Of course, such an overtly commercial strategy would upset the extremely proud and exclusive fans, but that has hardly stopped owners before – look at Oakland. As a fan, I hope Venezia remains detached from the myth of Venice, but the financial benefit to the club and the city may prove irresistible.

• This article first appeared on The Gentleman Ultra

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