Loyalty is usually seen

as a good thing. Supporting others is  usually seen as a good thing. There are "loyalty" cards from shops - where you supposedly get perks for being a regular shopper and plenty more besides.
And then there is loyalty to your football team...you know, the one you "barrack" for. You buy the team scarf, cap, flag and other "gear" at highly inflated prices to "support" your team. 
Years ago, when I first started teaching, there was almost no such merchandise available. I taught all the ten and eleven year old children in my class to knit and they made themselves football beanies in their team colours. 
They all supported the same team so there was a lot of black and white in the room. They tended to see the world in terms of black and white too - I was attempting to change that, gradually. 
I wonder what they do now though. I doubt they knit their own beanies. They wouldn't be "official" you see. 
Having the "official" gear is apparently important - and the cost is part of "supporting" your team.  
The same is true of attending the matches. Going to a match is expensive. 
This morning's paper is full of an upcoming "final" for which supporters are apparently prepared to pay not just hundreds but even thousands of dollars to see their team play.  Apparently people are prepared to pay to travel interstate to do it too. This means hundreds of dollars in airfares - at inflated prices because of the demand - and the ticket to the match plus all the associated expenses. The minimum cost for a ticket was over three hundred dollars - and apparently you would have to be incredibly fortunate to get one that cheaply.  Some tickets in prime viewing positions are apparently going for almost ten times that price.
I don't know anyone who has a ticket to the match. I don't know anyone who would be willing to pay that much. Most people I know also know that they can't afford to spend that sort of money on a single afternoon's entertainment.
     "It wouldn't be worth it, even if you knew your team was going to win," the Whirlwind informed me yesterday. She doesn't much care for football. 
I asked her if she would pay it to go to a cricket match - something she has, like me, a vague interest in.
     "No, not even my Dad would do that," she told me, "Think of all the things you could have forever with that sort of money."
And yes, it is a thought.
Her father said to me, "I'd rather spend the money paying off the mortgage."
I know other people's priorities are different. For them, their team is everything. They are devoted and fiercely loyal in a way I won't ever understand.
But it does seem like an awful lot of money - and what if your team doesn't win?