tourists yesterday

[daveduke67]

pmsl at the people on here trying to make it a race issue.

let me explain.
buy a ticket
sing for the lads
try and look interested.

thats the minimum requirement. is that too much too ask? no.
so all you lentil eaters take your racist shit to another thread.

Fuck me, now you've turned it into a vegetarianism issue......an ism is an ism you know :)

If I'm a veggie does that mean I can't do aways ?

Deffo not welcome, all fans must eat a dodgy burger, it's the only way.

And the best fans in all the land and all the world eat baby puffins and whales penis too.

 

[Frank H]

pmsl at the people on here trying to make it a race issue.

let me explain.
buy a ticket
sing for the lads
try and look interested.

thats the minimum requirement. is that too much too ask? no.
so all you lentil eaters take your racist shit to another thread.

I'm certainly not trying to make "it" a race issue. I very much wish it wasn't.

But what happens every time the "tourist" issue comes up? People start mentioning and posting pictures of "Asians", supposed "Chinese", "Japanese" etc.etc.

As someone who is totally English in "culture", but happens to look Chinese, how welcome would that make me feel at the Etihad/CoMS, knowing that a proportion of the fans will regard me as a "tourist"?

And actually, "singing for the lads" and being interested in the team won't necessarily help either.

I've actually seen on another football fan site I occasionally visit, a fan of that club complaining of Japanese looking people behaving as if they were fans, joining in with singing etc. He regarded this sort of behaviour as cringeworthy, as these supposed Japanese were behaving as if they were fans of the club - when clearly he had decided they must be tourists and couldn't possibly be fans.

This wasn't a Man.City site - but I expect that there will be some in the City fanbase who would react similarly.

So while you may not have a racist bone in your body, perhaps you can understand why some would be apprehensive whenever another anti-"tourist" thread appears, because there are only too many who are wanting to make it a "race" issue.

 

[stimo]

I find this debate interesting, despite it always coming up after an away game further than 30 miles away from Manchester.

I think a lot of people get the hump over the line 'tourist' because they feel as if they shouldn't be looked down upon just because they have other commitments in their lives than going to City.

But I don't think you know what OP means by 'tourist' unless you've attended games like Chelsea away for the past three seasons. These games have all sold out, and usually at a high number of points. In the top tier their has been about 100 people stood up at the back, but the bottom 5 rows are always filled with people who have nothing to do with City. Maybe these people are at every away game, and with a smaller allocation they are more noticable.

Two other subjects within this topic:

Where you're from. I don't really think it matters as long as long as you support the team. I've lived in Milton Keynes for over 20 years now, but I've got about 8300 points.

The 'faces'. City's regular away support isn't in the 1000's, so it's a bit like being at school - if you do this every weekend for years you know straight away who's a City regular and who's not, because you end up being in the same playground... oops I mean pub. Especially on the Euro trips. I couldn't even guess the number of City fans I'd recognise.

if this is who i think it is, did you hear about the latest addition to the blue alliance liam?

If you're referring to the blonde girl that was kidnapped from town and thrown in a skip, then yes, I even had a conversation with her.

we're horrible horrible people

 

[frasermcfc]

pmsl at the people on here trying to make it a race issue.

let me explain.
buy a ticket
sing for the lads
try and look interested.

thats the minimum requirement. is that too much too ask? no.
so all you lentil eaters take your racist shit to another thread.

Fuck me, now you've turned it into a vegetarianism issue......an ism is an ism you know :)

If I'm a veggie does that mean I can't do aways ?

Deffo not welcome, all fans must eat a dodgy burger, it's the only way.

Pretty sure it was a baked potato you were enjoying at Norwich?

 

[Eccles Blue]

Fuck me, now you've turned it into a vegetarianism issue......an ism is an ism you know :)

If I'm a veggie does that mean I can't do aways ?

Deffo not welcome, all fans must eat a dodgy burger, it's the only way.

Pretty sure it was a baked potato you were enjoying at Norwich?

Aha, but he had already eaten two cheese burgers and a very long hot dog with chips before you saw him.

 

[bluehousemusic]

Whatever my plan for financial sustainability would be (and it's a bit arrogant for anyone on here, without access to the exact figures to think that they know the minute knowledge of such plans), it would not include the totally financially insignificant issue - in terms of the club making an impact on it's spending - of shafting loyal fans with ticket price rises or allowing wankers with no connection to or feeling for the club to jump in front of genuine fans in the queue for tickets for big games.

You seem to be suggesting that such things lead to financial sustainability.

The only tenuous link you could make is that you might get some contacts or investment if you allow such people to take tickets. But I hardly think that anyone genuinely important would be plonked amongst the away fans.

I'm struggling to think how you are connecting the development of a worldwide fanbase (not my choice of phrase as I don't class someone on the other side of the world as a fan - maybe an interested, delusional observer but if they want to delude themselves and spend their money on City branded tat then that is their business and good for the club) and allowing a miniscule amount of people to take tickets that would otherwise be open to genuine fans of the club. Are you suggesting that these people then go back to wherever they are from (Milton Keynes, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, wherever) and are like evangelical preachers converting millions of susceptible fools to 'city fans' and allowing the club to break even?

I somehow doubt it. It is irrelevant in terms of financial sustainability, so I don't know why you connect the two.

Well, for every City-shirt sold in the UK there are two sold outside UK. That is a scale of importance surely..Those that buy those shirts might want tickets, and they will get them eventually.
We can´t afford to alienate them for the same reasons as the rags, Liverpool, Barca and others cater to them. They spend big while local fans spend as little as possible.

The percentage of shirt buyers outside of the UK who want tickets for the likes of Arsenal and United away is so small that it is not even worth discussing. 99.9999999% of them will never go to a City match and they will still buy the shirts. So why shaft the proper fans over it and deny them tickets to big games, just to satisfy the sad desires of those rich enough to be able to travel to watch a far away team they have latched on to.

Anyway, there is plenty of room for such people at home games and I personally haven't got an issue over a small percentage of tourists turning up there. There is room for that.

Remind me how much money such tourists are spending at the City shop on a day trip to the Emirates?

It's bollocks, there is such a small amount of tickets for such fixtures that to give priority to day trippers (only those who can afford to pay a big wedge mind) is a joke and it shafts actual fans. At home games, well, there is room for it to happen.

None of it has a huge impact of the club's bottom line though as the foreign markets that they (and other clubs) are cynically targeting consist overwhelmingly of numpties buying tat branded with the badge of a club they've never get anywhere near.

I'm a blue from Manchester but i have lived in London for about 20 years since I was 21. Prior to that I have been going since the 80's at Maine Road, less so COMS but always tried to do as many South East Away games as I can, it's harder nowadays with the points, but sometimes I can still get them with my citycard, season ticket holders get them for me, or I pick up the odd one from here. Sometimes I notice the away support is not as "intense" as it used to be, but then when I go back to the Blue Camp and sit in the 300's I think this ain't the crowd i used to be near in the North Stand, Platt Lane, Kippax, even the Main Stand. The truth is football crowds are more diluted now, they have been for years, like it or not the banning orders have quitened the crowds, the prices have, we are all a bit older, the younger fans haven't really experienced a proper mooch at an away, it's all sanitized, family friendlier. Our fan base is simply less hostile than it was, most clubs are, maybe this is magnified in the smoke, a lot of exiled blues in London are professional types, who demographically may be less likely to create an atmosphere, unlike gangs of teenagers and early 20 somethings with less repsonsibilty and social awareness. Day trippers at all top EPL clubs are a fucking fact, some of you better get used to them. I don't want them getting tickets over loyal blues, but that's the way of the world. All this moaning makes me laugh, I ain't a season ticket holder, but I got to Schalke Lokeren, Bayern, the Semi the charity shield, the Final, Gillingham, Bradford in 89. Where there is a will there is a way, any fucking blue worth his salt who lives in the UK has some income, and no family illness to deal with would have been at Wembley last April and May, yet there were people on here bleating about not have tickets and watching in some shit pub in farringdon.

Finally, I have watched doemstic fixtures in Portugal, Italy, Spain and South America, and no-one has ever been bothered about my presence. Sat in the Curva Noord watching Lazio vs Reg and Gina with about 25,000 others and no one else in the other stands, they seemed quite happy a tourist would want to watch them, same at Bilbao in the San Mames, AC Milan, Cienciano amongst others. Most people seem pleased you are showing an interest, I don't claim to be a fan, but I buy a bit of tat for my collection, got my momento. Even Ajax fans were pleased to host us, and they most get bombarded with pissed stoned english idiots every week. A few excitable japanese types with cameras isn't diluting our fanbase, I'd suggest the moaning minis about standing up smoking general fun police are a bigger menace.
Peace be with you blues

 

[coleridge]

pmsl at the people on here trying to make it a race issue.

let me explain.
buy a ticket
sing for the lads
try and look interested.

thats the minimum requirement. is that too much too ask? no.
so all you lentil eaters take your racist shit to another thread.

I'll eat all the lentils that I like and be offended by 'racists' inferences in the term 'tourist' any time I like. Laughing at people who don't eat steroid-filled crap that destroys the planet just makes my early point that I have almost nothing in common with most other fans save for following the same club. Thanks for making my point better than I ever could. You'e rapidly turning into the Jeremy Clarkson of BM, but maybe that's your ambition.

 

[christian.russell]

We could have empty seats, or we could have tourists. I pick tourists.

Exactly.

But I can guarantee if the tourists weren't there, the tickets would still be sold to fans but just with lower loyalty points