City Fans Leaving Early/Empty seats

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.
 
Worksop Blue said:
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!
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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.
 
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
 
117 M34 said:
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
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Match-going blues inconvenienced because of whining Man Utd fans? No thanks.
 
gkmcfc said:
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.
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Attendance stats for all clubs are based on tickets sold, not people actually in attendance so absent S/T holders are still included.
 
abu13 said:
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.
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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.
 
lancs blue said:
Attendance stats for all clubs are based on tickets sold, not people actually in attendance so absent S/T holders are still included.
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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)
 
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.
 
desperatedon said:
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.
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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.
 
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?
 
People leaving early i really don't get, but empty seats.... do we really give a shit? Why the fuck should we? Surely what happens on the pitch is all that really matters.
 
bainy said:
My cousin is 72 and registered disabled. He has chronic pain and breathing difficulties. He has a walking aid. The effort he puts into getting to the matches is unbelievable. He regularly leaves at 70 minutes as the pain becomes too much. Instead of being applauded for his efforts for attending, at almost every game there is usually a sly comment or a shout made towards him when he leaves.
I agree with others on here - we are obsessed with this issue and its ridiculous!
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Correct,why does anyone give a fuck.I'll tell you why,scared what some daft **** rag might say.
 
Marvin said:
Match-going blues inconvenienced because of whining Man Utd fans? No thanks.
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Not really inconvenienced are they?
They still get to go and can sit in similar seats in the ground.
If the away team took their full allocation, they wouldn't be able to sit in that seat anyway.
 
Bluemoon dan said:
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?
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I know loads of lads who never sit in their own seat. The seasoncard is just a means to get through the gate.
 
117 M34 said:
Not really inconvenienced are they?
They still get to go and can sit in similar seats in the ground.
If the away team took their full allocation, they wouldn't be able to sit in that seat anyway.
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City sell those seats in the "away" end a lot cheaper though than other seats in the ground, presumably as it mirrors the season ticket prices in most of the rest of that stand which are the cheapest in the stadium. So for Stoke the other week and Hull in a couple of weeks where both teams didn't take up their 3rd tier allocation, the tickets were/are £20 each whereas all other areas of the ground they're £35/£36 each. As such, it's obvious those £20 tickets are going to get snapped up quickly. In any case, there's not much availability in other areas of the ground for Hull. Stoke was different of course - as it was rearranged at very short notice, loads appeared on the planner via the ticket exchange.
 
117 M34 said:
Not really inconvenienced are they?
They still get to go and can sit in similar seats in the ground.
If the away team took their full allocation, they wouldn't be able to sit in that seat anyway.
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It makes sense to follow your suggestion when City aren't sure the game will sell out eg a midweek Cup game, but for a league game it's better to make all the seating available immediately.

Expensive isolated singles and doubles dotted round the ground don;t suit everyone, and most people want to sort their weekends out in advance now. Not wait on City to make seats available in the last few days
 
Man_City_Loyal said:
always been a problem at the new ground (can we still call it new)

Seem's to have increased now we have more fair weather fans following us.
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It's not a problem, and how can that be right when we've established the majority of empty seats are s/c holders who may or may not for whatever reason be in the ground, 'fair weather fans' whatever that means if they have bought a ticket, will be in their seat probably early and probably until the end as well.
 
blueparrot said:
It's not a problem, and how can that be right when we've established the majority of empty seats are s/c holders who may or may not for whatever reason be in the ground, 'fair weather fans' whatever that means if they have bought a ticket, will be in their seat probably early and probably until the end as well.
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was talking about the leaving early.
 
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