Etihad Campus, Stadium and Collar Site Development Thread

[Wilf Wild 1937]

Success attracts new fans who have added to the core City support attending games.

Kids usually settle on their team at 6 to 10 years old. Failure for more than a generation meant following United and other successful meant that supporting City was not an attractive proposition for a young kid. Since the takeover in 2008, a lot of emphasis has been placed on attracting youngsters and families. Success started in 2011 with the FA cup and City is now one of the top clubs in the world.

Soon those kids following City will start to be old enough to attend games on their own. I can see the demographic and numbers of City fans attending games rapidly changing in the next 10 years. This is why I support the expansion of capacity at the Etihad sooner rather than later, but as JRB has posted, with an eye to improving the matchday experience. We cannot be seen to be lagging in terms of development and capacity.

We do know our support will continue to grow with continued success. I am sure our owners are fully aware and have done their calculations. Safe standing will be a key consideration and they may be waiting to keep their powder dry.

Great post.

It's interesting if you look back to the last era of sustained success: average attendances actually peaked in 1978, ten years after the first trophy. I think you're right that in the next 3-5 years we'll see gates rising purely due to the demographic effect of the kids getting older. It's vital that we have a pricing structure that allows this to happen. They are the future of this club.

I think that you're probably also right about the uncertainties surrounding safe standing delaying any new work at present.

 

[tonea2003]

Success attracts new fans who have added to the core City support attending games.

Kids usually settle on their team at 6 to 10 years old. Failure for more than a generation meant following United and other successful meant that supporting City was not an attractive proposition for a young kid. Since the takeover in 2008, a lot of emphasis has been placed on attracting youngsters and families. Success started in 2011 with the FA cup and City is now one of the top clubs in the world.

Soon those kids following City will start to be old enough to attend games on their own. I can see the demographic and numbers of City fans attending games rapidly changing in the next 10 years. This is why I support the expansion of capacity at the Etihad sooner rather than later, but as JRB has posted, with an eye to improving the matchday experience. We cannot be seen to be lagging in terms of development and capacity.

We do know our support will continue to grow with continued success. I am sure our owners are fully aware and have done their calculations. Safe standing will be a key consideration and they may be waiting to keep their powder dry.

good points mate, the long game is where we should be aiming for

 

[sweenyuk]

Success attracts new fans who have added to the core City support attending games.

Kids usually settle on their team at 6 to 10 years old. Failure for more than a generation meant following United and other successful meant that supporting City was not an attractive proposition for a young kid. Since the takeover in 2008, a lot of emphasis has been placed on attracting youngsters and families. Success started in 2011 with the FA cup and City is now one of the top clubs in the world.

Soon those kids following City will start to be old enough to attend games on their own. I can see the demographic and numbers of City fans attending games rapidly changing in the next 10 years. This is why I support the expansion of capacity at the Etihad sooner rather than later, but as JRB has posted, with an eye to improving the matchday experience. We cannot be seen to be lagging in terms of development and capacity.

We do know our support will continue to grow with continued success. I am sure our owners are fully aware and have done their calculations. Safe standing will be a key consideration and they may be waiting to keep their powder dry.

Back in the 70's and 80's the Junior Blues used to be the envy of every team in the land. The club really looked after the kids and they stuck with City through 35 years of pain. When we moved to the Etihad kids could sit anywhere in the ground for £95 a season and this was affordable to the dads to purchase the extra season ticket even if they shared it around their offspring. Now kids are only at affordable rates in the family stand, a stand most young parents do not want to move to, there is nothing on a non-match day for kids to interact direct with players and our fan base is one of the oldest in the league. If kids get used to watching football on the TV rather than attending games they will not feel the need to attend once they become adult. Unless a drastic change is implemented very quickly our working class fan base will keep getting older and less inclined to attend every game, we wont have a young adult fan base to replace them and we will be left with the tourist and hospitality crew.

 

[Englisc]

Its not just the fact we are getting older,its the fact clubs are more bothered about the people who are willing to spend big and sit in the posh seats and eat shit posh food.
A lot of working class fans just cant afford or justify the prices clubs are asking.
In twenty years time unless changes are made,football and working class will be a thing for history books.

 

[Why Always Ste]

Football attendance in this country at the top level is in its "Theatre" era as in its entertainment limited to a select few based on income.
The entertainment is so popular as evidenced with crazy amounts of people watching it on TV.
One club even nickname their stadium The "Theatre" of Dreams.
This for me is significantly why we have such a high average age of match attender.
Young Adults either can't justify the cost of attending one match they can watch on TV or they'd rather do something else as entertainment which wasn't available as much in the 1980's

I was the only kid on the whole estate who lived in an house with a PC (and this was 1995)
Kids coming to my house to piss around on MS paint lol.

Now most kids have some kind of gaming device, and Young Adults have years of experience with video gaming, internet habits, and so on.

If ticketing prices were significantly lowered and thus made accessible for the majority of our community, we would easily fill the Etihad (even with an expanded NS)
And significantly decrease the average age.

This is where Bundesliga succeeds and the Prem' fails.
Initiatives such as public transport travel with the match ticket and of course safe standing which allows for higher capacity (thus allowing the clubs to lower prices due to more people attending)

The bubble has to burst though I feel for these measures to come in to The Prem'
Which it will. When?
Who knows. But the club should expand the stadium in anticipation of the bubble bursting and prices decreasing... Thus bringing in those who are put off due to the cost.

 

[blueparrot]

Its not just the fact we are getting older,its the fact clubs are more bothered about the people who are willing to spend big and sit in the posh seats and eat shit posh food.
A lot of working class fans just cant afford or justify the prices clubs are asking.
In twenty years time unless changes are made,football and working class will be a thing for history books.

I'm guessing you didn't see the prices for s/c in the seats from the last extension. No reason to think the North stand won't be similarly priced.

 

[desperatedon]

Under 16's should be a fiver at either end of the stadium, under 18's fifteen and under twenty-ones should be thirty quid. All of these should be for match day walk up with a dedicated ticket booth for these only.

Season cards should be priced accordingly for those who want to make a commitment.

 

[blueparrot]

Under 16's should be a fiver at either end of the stadium, under 18's fifteen and under twenty-ones should be thirty quid. All of these should be for match day walk up with a dedicated ticket booth for these only.

Season cards should be priced accordingly for those who want to make a commitment.

Don't really agree with your prices but fair enough. Except why should U21 get a reduction . I know quite a few 18 year olds working with no commitments and more disposable income than me. Possibly could have a student price for those still in full time education. That said for Swansea my ticket was £31, my 15 year old son £11, Those prices are fine for me,.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Here's my idea for a future North Stand expansion.

TBH it probably doesn't really matter, as I would assume any expansion of the North Stand, and the design of it, has already been agreed. But here goes.

A 10,000 capacity double tiered stand.

Level 1. 3000 safe standing places. The middle 2 blocks given over to 1894, and to fans who want to sing, wave flags, do displays, perhaps a drum, and anything to create an atmosphere.

The front of level 2. 2000 seats. So the kids and the Family Stand aren't displace too much and forced to climb level 2. The kids will be in a place where they can see, feel, and enjoy the atmosphere below them. And will one day hopefully move down to the lower tier to be part of it. :-)

The back of level 3. 5000 seats. Open to all City fans, and priced accordingly like the 3rd tier of the South Stand.

Can somebody forward this to either Sheikh Mansour, Khaldoon, Soriano, John Stemp, or Danny Wilson. Thank you. :-)

There would be more than 3000 Safe Standing places on L1 as there are 1.5 people to every space. There are around 3000 seats there now so you could say if that was replicated into spaces for Safe Standing, we'd have 4500 Safe Standing fans on L1 - not many whatsoever, we'd still have a smaller vocal area than Stockport County and dozens upon dozens of clubs around the country (some with tiny stadiums).

 

[desperatedon]

Don't really agree with your prices but fair enough. Except why should U21 get a reduction . I know quite a few 18 year olds working with no commitments and more disposable income than me. Possibly could have a student price for those still in full time education. That said for Swansea my ticket was £31, my 15 year old son £11, Those prices are fine for me,.

I was thinking of both students who were not earning or kids on minimum wage just starting out to work. It is easier to categorise in ages at their years rather than make them prove their earnings. If some high earning youngsters get to take advantage then it is a small price to pay to buy theirs' and their friends' loyalty (as they will most likely not attend on their own). Between eighteen and twenty one there are many other distractions to turn a young man/woman's head and take him/her away from attending football.