Maine Road's atmosphere was way way better than Eastlands solely because a larger and larger percentage of the crowd now are people who are there to be entertained and for the "match day experience"

When Sporting got their 2nd a woman behind me said "Don't their fans go crazy when they score". Jesus, that's how most goals used to be celebrated by us. Now some people don't even stand up when we score.

And I take the point that Maine Rd wasn't always a hotbed of passion in the latter years there but then again there wasn't much to get excited about. Charlton in 85 was a particular high point for me.

When we play the rags here and for example Rooney comes to take a throw in or corner, there are more people taking fucking pictures of him than screaming abuse. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ALL ABOUT ?

When Sheikh Mansour pulls out one day, as he assuredly will, and we suffer some lean times you can bet your bottom dollar that these new found fans will be nowhere to be seen.

half the stand in front of me were more worried about their smartphone camera shots of Balo scoring the pen than they were worried about him actually scoring ffs

sorry but I don't like these tourist twats even if we do need them for now

but even if the big boss did ever pull out we'd still be there so what difference

MCFCOK

Yeah Balti we'd still be there

But how many of we will there be left mate ?

this

The same hardcore or their sons and daughters
Does it really matter buddy?

We support City whoever owns us; whoever manages us; and sometimes even regardless of which twat might be wearing the shirt lol

city have about 30-35 thousand i reckon who will go no matter what the fucks going on, the next 5-10 will go if we're in the prem and then there's another 5+ thousand that will go if we're doing great. now we're seeing another 5k+ of tourists that will buy their way into league games and occupy some empty seats at cup games.

then there's probably 500 that will do 70+ away games (fuck knows how they afford it), then about 500-1000 that will do 30+ each year. the rest of the away attendances are made up of people like me that will do a handful each year depending on money, say 2-5 each season.

that's my take on our fanbase.

Not sure the atmosphere was much better but the anticipation waiting for the next game was.
The thing was we weren't saturated with football on tv as we are now. One game on a Sunday and that was it. If you weren't at the away game you listened to it om Piccadilly Radio.

Too many games nowdays - whilst you really want to see City you're getting Barca, Inter, Bayern and so on league/cup games to watch too. Add that to your favourite Championship side and our domestic cup games and you're eagerness for the next game is slightly weaker as you have at least had something to watch.

good thread this, was talkin to some 1 about this the other day and i dont think nothing gets much better than maine road, most of my tennage years was spent there and the best. i just feel at this new ground the atomsphere is shite i dont no whats go on but its just dead. i cant get to every home game but when i do its just poor, like at maine road each stand used to sing to each other,

you would of thought tho not beein shitty city n e more the atompshere would be better but its worse, them 35 thousand blues at maine road sang to the hearts content, i fuckin hate the tourists and daytrippers now

I think it is unfair to blame this on the day trippers and tourists. This is our 8th season at Eastlands and the tourists have been here, what.... 2 at the most?

There's a few things we can blame it on.... all seater stadiums is an easy target - where fans once congregated on a terrace in the parts you knew where you wanted to be depending if you wanted to sing or not, today fans are given a seat and told to remain there. So singers / standers are forced together.

The game today (supporter related) is much, much more led. Long gone are the days when there was no piped music drowning out the crowd 10 minutes before the teams come out. Blame TV. When teams run out (and they used to run out one team at a time), the TV companies do not want to beam ''who the fucking hell are you'' into the homes of armchair supporters. So teams walk out together to prevent the verbal abuse, walking out to club anthems drowning out chants from the stands. Then the ridiculous handshakes, again set to some crap theme loud enough to put off any thoughts of chants from fans.
Fans haven't stopped singing..... they have just been beaten into submission from over zealous PA systems dancing to the tune of the TV companies that do not wish to hear ''naughty songs'' being aired to their ''family viewing''......

What does this mean? Pull out? Pull out how? He's going to spend over a billion investing in the club in the area and then just pull out... What, he's going to just take his money and leave the club to rot and not even try to sell it on? Surely no-one is stupid enough as to believe that but this only raises the issue of why anyone who would buy a valuable club which would cost upwards of a billion in a few short years who would then be happy to see it devalued? Going back to a presumed continuance of Sheikh Mansour ownership, is it not his intention to build a successful self-sustaining club - which is what this investment in infrastructure is all about? In that case, why the need to pull out?

Or, did you just make this throwaway comment to try to make a point about the tiny number of tourists and 'new fans' not being true fans?