From Turnstiles to Touchscreens: 25 Years of Swansea Fandom in Flux

Welcome to your Sunday Extra, and not just any Sunday Extra. This one carries more weight, more meaning. Because this season marks 25 years of jackarmy.net. A quarter of a century since the site first flickered into life, built by fans, for fans, at a time when Swansea City were scraping the barrel in the bottom tier of the Football League. No fan zones. No matchday experience. Just cold concrete, dodgy pies, and the hope that someone might nick a goal.

Back then, the idea of a digital community was barely a concept. Forums were clunky, phones didn’t stream, and the only analytics we cared about were how many corners we’d wasted. But jackarmy.net was there. A place to vent, to dream, to argue, to belong. And it’s still here. Through promotions, relegations, Wembley days, and Tuesday nights in Rotherham. Through the rise of social media, the fall of message boards, and the endless churn of football content, this site has remained a constant.

So this Sunday Extra isn’t a nostalgia piece. It’s a reflection. A look at how things have changed, not just for Swansea City, but for the people who follow them. We were once a club clinging to survival. Now we’re a well-established Championship side, with a fanbase that’s evolved in ways we couldn’t have imagined. The supporter’s role has shifted. The way we watch, talk, and even think about football has transformed.

Over the next few sections, we’ll explore those differences. What it meant to be Jack Army in 2000, and what it means now. How the rituals have changed, how the culture’s adapted, and how the digital age has rewired the way we connect with our club. But through it all, some things haven’t changed. The pride. The passion. And jackarmy.net. Still standing. Still shouting. Still ours.

🕰️ 25 Seasons On

I remember the day I was handed the keys. It was 1 July 2001 and the Swans had just been relegated back to the bottom tier with a whimper. The mood was flat. The future uncertain. Tony Petty wasn’t a name anyone knew yet, the Supporters Trust was still a discussion point, and the internet, while widely available, was mostly driven by 1p per minute connections. People faded in and out depending on how long they could afford to stay online.

Back then, mailing lists were busier than message boards. The Swansea online community had been growing steadily for four years, but it was scattered, informal, and mostly reactive. What we didn’t know at the time was that the timing was perfect. Jackarmy.net was about to become something far more than a fan site.

Not long after, we were the unfortunate ones to break the news that Tony Petty was coming in. The site exploded. The community rallied. Jackarmy.net became the place the club couldn’t speak through, but the fans could. It was where people came to ask what next and actually get answers. It was raw, emotional, and absolutely vital.

The club didn’t have the channels it has now. There was no Twitter feed, no press release pipeline, no media team spinning stories. So when things needed saying, they were said here. Jackarmy.net became the unofficial heartbeat of the fanbase. Not polished. Not perfect. But real.

Compare that to now. Social media leaks are commonplace. Word travels faster than ever. A rumour hits WhatsApp and it’s halfway around the fanbase before anyone’s had time to confirm it. The site back then was a haven for finding out the next thing. Now it’s a 140-character tweet and it’s viral in minutes.

But that doesn’t make what we had any less important. If anything, it shows how far we’ve come. Jackarmy.net didn’t just survive the shift. It helped shape it. From dial-up to fibre, from mailing lists to memes, from Petty to present day. Twenty-five seasons on, it’s still here. Still ours.

But as time moves on, so does everything with it. And the needs of a football fan now extend way beyond a ten-minute spell on the internet.

🎟️ The Matchday Then vs Now

Matchday used to be simple. Not better. Not worse. Just different. You’d wake up, check Ceefax for the league table, maybe ring a mate to confirm the pub meet-up. Your season ticket came in a little book, each game a perforated voucher you’d rip out at the turnstile. Lose the wrong page in your pocket and you were in trouble. Tickets were paper, often bought in person, and if you were lucky, you had a seat. But for most, it was standing on the North Bank, shoulder to shoulder, rain or shine.

The walk to the ground was part of the ritual. Familiar faces. Familiar moans. The same man selling fanzines outside the turnstiles. He’s still there now, which makes you wonder if Swansea fans are just built differently. You didn’t need a playlist or a light show. You needed three points and a reason to believe.

Inside the ground, the experience was raw. No replays. No stats. No curated content. If you missed a goal, you missed it. If you wanted to know who was on the bench, you squinted at the tannoy announcement and hoped someone nearby had better ears. The buzz came from the crowd, not a screen. And when the final whistle blew, you either celebrated in the pub or sulked on the walk home. That was it.

Now matchday is layered. You’ve got apps for tickets, apps for stats, apps for parking. You can watch warm-ups on your phone, check xG before kick-off, and scroll through fan cams while the game’s still going. Fan zones are a thing. Curated playlists. Branded giveaways. QR codes for everything. The club shop is online. The commentary is instant. The post-match reaction is already trending before you’ve left your seat.

It’s not worse. It’s not soulless. But it’s different. The matchday experience has become a product. Packaged. Polished. Pushed across platforms. For younger fans, this is normal. For older ones, it’s a shift. The buzz is still there, but it’s filtered through screens and algorithms. You don’t just go to the game. You engage with it. Document it. Share it.

And yet, some things haven’t changed. The walk to the ground still matters. The moans are still familiar. The man selling fanzines is still there. Whether you’re checking stats or checking in with mates, matchday still means something. It’s just evolved, like everything else.

🎤 The Digital Club

Football clubs used to speak through match reports and programme notes. A few lines in the local paper, maybe a quote from the manager if things were going well. Swansea were no different. The media output was minimal, the tone was formal, and the idea of a club brand was something reserved for the Premier League.

Now every club is a content machine. Graphics, interviews, behind-the-scenes clips, training montages, birthday shoutouts. Some lean into TikTok trends, chasing reach and relevance. Swansea? Less TikTok, more YouTube. Longer form, more considered, more in tune with the fanbase. It’s not about viral dances. It’s about showing the graft, the goals, and the grit.

And then there’s Snoop Dogg. Yes, that Snoop Dogg. A minority owner of Swansea City. It’s the kind of sentence you wouldn’t have imagined writing back in 2001, but here we are. His involvement might be light-touch, but it’s real. It’s part of the modern football landscape, where global names attach themselves to clubs and suddenly the reach multiplies. One post, one mention, and Swansea are trending in places they’ve never been mentioned before.

The club’s own channels have grown, but so has the independent voice. Podcasts, fan cams, tactical breakdowns, long-form blogs. Jackarmy.net was doing this before it was a category. Before content became a strategy. It was the place for raw reaction, proper debate, and the kind of insight that didn’t need a sponsor.

Now the landscape is crowded. Everyone’s got a platform. Everyone’s got a take. But jackarmy.net still cuts through. It’s not chasing clicks. It’s not trying to be clever. It’s just there, consistent, grounded, and still trusted. When the club puts something out, it’s polished. When the fans speak here, it’s real.

And you have to wonder what’s next. Holograms of players answering questions in your living room. AI-generated interviews that feel real enough to quote. As clubs clamp down on illegal streams, maybe your season ticket becomes a hybrid pass, one price but the choice to watch from your armchair or your usual spot in the stand. The 3pm blackout surely has to become a thing of the past.

Maybe we’ll see real-time tactical overlays on your phone as you watch. Or fan votes that influence substitutions. Or augmented reality replays in the concourse. It’s all possible. But through it all, the need for a trusted voice remains. Jackarmy.net might not be flashy, but it’s still the place where fans speak freely, and where the club’s story still belongs to the people who live it.

🧠 The Fan Mindset

Twenty-five years ago, being a fan meant backing your team without question. If the manager picked a left-back at right wing, you trusted the decision. If the striker hadn’t scored in ten games, you said he was due. Loyalty came first. Analysis came later.

Now the mindset has shifted. Fans are tacticians, scouts, analysts. They know the difference between a double pivot and a false nine. They debate formations before the team sheet drops. They track pressing stats, compare heatmaps, and dissect every substitution. You don’t just support. You assess.

New signings are judged before they’ve unpacked their boots. YouTube clips are circulated within minutes. If the highlights show a good first touch and a tidy finish, he’s a steal. If he looks slow in transition, the comments are already calling for a loan. The welcome thread is now a scouting dossier.

Even the results aren’t safe. We might lose 3–0, but if the xG says we should have scored two, then we deserved to win. The post-match debate isn’t about effort. It’s about metrics. The manager’s quotes are cross-referenced with data. The fanbase splits into factions. The eye test versus the spreadsheet.

And then there’s the replays. Not one, not two, but thirty-four angles later, someone spots that a stud caught a lace. That should be a penalty to us and a red card for them. An online petition calls for a replay. It’s viral inside minutes. The fan mindset has become forensic, emotional, and occasionally unhinged.

Part of this comes from access. Twenty-five years ago, your football education came from Match of the Day and the bloke next to you in the pub. Now it’s podcasts, tactical threads, and data dashboards. Fans think like scouts, sports scientists, and directors of football. They question recruitment, fitness, mentality, and media strategy. They know what a high ankle sprain means. They know which agents are circling. They know when a press conference is spinning a narrative.

But there’s still heart in it. Still emotion. Still that moment when a goal goes in and everything else fades. The analysis pauses. The spreadsheets close. And for ninety minutes, it’s still about the feeling. The noise. The connection.

Jackarmy.net has always reflected that mindset. It’s where emotion meets logic. Where fans vent, debate, and dissect. Where loyalty lives alongside scrutiny. The fan mindset isn’t what it was. But it’s still ours.

🧓 The Generational Shift

There’s a moment at every home game when you see it. A grandparent and a grandchild, side by side in the stand. One grew up at the Vetch, the other grew up on YouTube. One still calls it “the match,” the other checks the lineup on their phone before they’ve even zipped up their coat. Different languages. Same love.

Twenty-five years ago, being a Swansea fan meant rituals. The walk to the ground. The same pub. The same seat or terrace spot. You didn’t need a second screen. You needed a scarf and a voice. The older generation still carries that rhythm. They remember the smell of the terraces, the sound of the tannoy, the feeling of being part of something local and loud.

The younger generation lives it differently. They stream games, clip goals, and follow players on Instagram. They know the academy prospects before they’ve made a senior appearance. They debate tactics in Discord servers and post match reactions on TikTok. Their connection is no less real. It’s just wired differently.

Sometimes that gap shows. The older fan wants grit and graft. The younger fan wants structure and stats. One sees a 1–0 win as a job well done. The other wonders why the xG was so low. One trusts the manager’s instinct. The other questions the press resistance of our midfield pivot. It’s not conflict. It’s evolution.

Jackarmy.net sits in the middle. It’s where generations meet. Where the long-form post sits next to the meme. Where the fan who saw Curt debut can chat with the fan who thinks Josh Key is the future. It’s not about choosing sides. It’s about keeping the conversation going.

This connection between generations remains key. As fandom evolves further, the game needs to ensure that bond is never lost. It’s part of the glue that holds clubs together.

🧭 What Comes Next

Twenty-five years ago, jackarmy.net was a leap into the unknown. A fan-built space in a dial-up world. No roadmap. No strategy. Just instinct and passion. It worked because it mattered. Because it gave Swansea fans a voice when few others did.

Now the landscape is louder. Busier. More fragmented. But the need for connection hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s grown. The club is global. The fanbase is scattered. The game is faster, slicker, and more data-driven than ever. But the core remains the same. People want to belong. To be heard. To feel part of something that’s theirs.

So how does it evolve?

Does jackarmy.net become a digital clubhouse? A place where match reports meet memes. Where tactical threads sit alongside terrace memories. Where fans can stream, chat, analyse, and argue, all in one space.

Does it become a bridge? Between generations. Between local and global. Between the fan who’s been going since the Vetch and the one who found the club through a YouTube algorithm.

Does it become a platform for new voices? Writers. Analysts. Creators. People who love the club and want to shape how it’s talked about. Not polished PR. Real perspective.

Or maybe it becomes something else entirely. That’s the question. What would you suggest? What does the next chapter look like?

As football fandom keeps evolving, the spaces that hold it together need to evolve too. And jackarmy.net, built by fans for fans, is still one of the places where that evolution can begin.  It’s testament to the good ship Swansea City that we are still here, still talking, still building.

🧶 The Thread That Holds It Together

Twenty-five years of jackarmy.net isn’t just a milestone. It’s a mirror. A reflection of how Swansea fandom has changed, stretched, and adapted. From paper tickets to QR codes. From terrace chants to tactical threads. From the Vetch to virtual overlays.

We’ve seen the rise of the hybrid fan, the shift in mindset, the clash and connection between generations. We’ve watched the club evolve, the media multiply, and the game itself become something faster, smarter, and more global.

But through it all, the thread remains. The need to belong. To speak. To share. Jackarmy.net has been that thread. Not perfect. Not polished. But persistent. A place where the club’s story is told by the people who live it.

As the next chapter begins, the question isn’t just what comes next. It’s how we hold on to what matters. The humour. The honesty. The connection. The glue.

Because fandom isn’t just content. It’s culture. And this site, this community, is still part of the fabric.