City Fans Leaving Early/Empty seats

[abu13]

I've had this out with a rag **** that keeps going on about the crowd and i've told him straight that i'm glad we are seeing some empty seats. He have a core of fans who have been with us over the years and who will by and large be there week in and week out. We have increased our capacity by extending the stand and made the tickets affordable to many people. The result is many of the seats that appear empty now have been vacated by people who are now in the new stand. If we were suddenly to start getting an extra 10 - 15k extra fans each week it would be down to plastics latching onto the club. we need time to grow organically. My wife works in a primary school and the number of these kids that i now see in City shirts compared to 10 years ago is amazing. It takes years to grow a genuine fanbase, happy clappers come and go and we don't need them. the key is to get the next generation of fans and this seems to be happening.

The future is secure, we need to keep doing what we are are the crowds will follow.

I struggle to believe that we ket critisism fr having the 8th biggest matchday attendance in Europe, especially when the teams above us have genarrally had years and years of success and dominance to establish the fan base.

 

[cibaman]

I think the Bayern thing is a good shout, although i thought it was 7 or 8 games they were allowed to miss before losing their seasoncard? Either way it would definitely encourage the no show crowd to go the extra mile or at least try a bit harder to get someone else to swip their card for them!

I just don't see City doing it in the next few years. The club is still in the process of buiding up the match going fanbase, hoping to be able to expand the stadium still further. Most non seasoncard holders can get a ticket for most PL games and all cup games. Non attending seasoncard holders are not really stopping other fans from going and the club are not going to penalise them just because of digs from fans of other clubs about empty seats. The club would much rather sell seasoncards to fans that can't get to every match than risk alienating them.

 

[117 M34]

I've said many times, the first thing we should do to 'sort' the empty seats problem is stop selling the 3rd tier of the away end when the away team don't sell it until every other seat in the stadium is sold out.
Show that it is the other team who haven't sold the tickets rather than us

 

[Marvin]

I've said many times, the first thing we should do to 'sort' the empty seats problem is stop selling the 3rd tier of the away end when the away team don't sell it until every other seat in the stadium is sold out.
Show that it is the other team who haven't sold the tickets rather than us

Match-going blues inconvenienced because of whining Man Utd fans? No thanks.

 

[lancs blue]

Totally agree. There isn't a "support" problem whatsoever. The club aren't stupid. We've got more fans attending games than ever before on a regular basis so things can't be all that bad. The West Ham thing is interesting considering you see waves of empty seats at their ground every game - far more than at City. Arsenal the same too.

Attendance stats for all clubs are based on tickets sold, not people actually in attendance so absent S/T holders are still included.

 

[Marvin]

I've had this out with a rag **** that keeps going on about the crowd and i've told him straight that i'm glad we are seeing some empty seats. He have a core of fans who have been with us over the years and who will by and large be there week in and week out. We have increased our capacity by extending the stand and made the tickets affordable to many people. The result is many of the seats that appear empty now have been vacated by people who are now in the new stand. If we were suddenly to start getting an extra 10 - 15k extra fans each week it would be down to plastics latching onto the club. we need time to grow organically. My wife works in a primary school and the number of these kids that i now see in City shirts compared to 10 years ago is amazing. It takes years to grow a genuine fanbase, happy clappers come and go and we don't need them. the key is to get the next generation of fans and this seems to be happening.

The future is secure, we need to keep doing what we are are the crowds will follow.

I struggle to believe that we ket critisism fr having the 8th biggest matchday attendance in Europe, especially when the teams above us have genarrally had years and years of success and dominance to establish the fan base.

The criticism is rubbish. Utd and Barcelona have games where their grounds aren't full. If we are selling out now, we need to expand the ground now. Spurs, Everton, Chelsea all building new grounds. We need to get on with this whilst we're doing well.

 

[Marvin]

Attendance stats for all clubs are based on tickets sold, not people actually in attendance so absent S/T holders are still included.

We know that. There are no-shows from season ticket holders at every single ground. I remember GMP publishing some stats about Man Utd's actual attendances (Which I thought were absolute nonsense)

 

[desperatedon]

My son, having moved down South for a year or two and working match days can only get to a small number of games. I have taken my wife to some games and given the card to a friend now and again but often it is left empty. I tend to put it on the ticket exchange which sells for the big games but not for the other games.

I, and I am sure many others in a similar position, would have no objection to the club having a scheme whereas in the event of the seat not selling by the deadline time, the seat is given free of charge to a person who otherwise couldn't go or deserves to go, such as unemployed, Christies patient, or some other worthy recipient.

I have no idea how this could work but it is just an idea.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

My son, having moved down South for a year or two and working match days can only get to a small number of games. I have taken my wife to some games and given the card to a friend now and again but often it is left empty. I tend to put it on the ticket exchange which sells for the big games but not for the other games.

I, and I am sure many others in a similar position, would have no objection to the club having a scheme whereas in the event of the seat not selling by the deadline time, the seat is given free of charge to a person who otherwise couldn't go or deserves to go, such as unemployed, Christies patient, or some other worthy recipient.

I have no idea how this could work but it is just an idea.

I'd have no problem with this with mine. If I can't go, I offer it to a mate, always free. Sometimes I can't shift it but what I don't want to do is give the card to some random person in the hope they will then return it.

The empty seats don't bother me much. The emptihad jibes will never go away whatever we do.

 

[Bluemoon dan]

I sit in 102 and a couple of seasons ago there was always an empty seat next to me for every game. I wanted to bring my daughter to a match so phoned up and enquired about buying it for a match. I was told that it was actually taken by a season ticket and according to their records it had been used for every game. It turned out from asking around where I sat that the guy bought the season ticket but then went and stood behind the goal with his mates in the South stand. Looking at the areas behind the goal and in the corner where everyone is stood up they do look a lot fuller than everywhere else so could that explain a few of the empty seats elsewhere in the lower tier if people were doing that?