I wonder if they reduced ALL prices by 20% the ground would be rammed jammed full every game and the club would still have the same revenue.......worth a try surely?
In the 1967/8 title winning season with Bell/Lee/Summerbee the average attendance was only 36,000, but Maine Road's capacity was 65,000.
Lower prices would have meant all those thousands who used to go all the time and had to give up their SeasonCard over the years because it got too expensive, may not ever have had to give it up and stop going, being replaced by people who don’t turn up.It would more than likely have the opposite effect. Lower prices usually means not bothered about missing a few games
That is EXACTLY what should happen. They don’t deserve their SeasonCard if their seat is empty for games.The Leicester game had been effectively sold out for several days, on Monday I struggled to buy a single ticket, never mind the 4 together that I needed.Therefore, watching motd this morning it very fucking frustrating seeing a lot of unoccupied seats, especially in the family stand.
Are all these ST no-shows? If so, why don't people put them up for resale?! I get that people can't make every game, but I think if you miss (or don't sell on your ticket) for a certain amount of games per season you should lose your ST - obviously create exceptions for illness, bereavement etc.
I can’t believe people didn’t complain about all the empty seats at “ the charlton” game?? after all their was only 47,000 on!! :-)Yes and it was busting at the seams lying fucker that Swales fiddling the gate money.
Great post.Time and time and time and time again big goals, winning goals or absolute screamers are scored late on by City and thousands miss it just to be sat in a car for 30 minutes instead of an hour.
The funny thing is all they’re going home to do is sit down all night in their living rooms watching tele, so why not do the same in the car for a bit longer and stick a decent album on or have a decent conversation?
Do these people turn off The Departed ten minutes before the end or not watch the last episode of a series so they don’t have to sit on the sofa for too long?
What is it about being sat down these people don’t like?
Absolutely. It's ludicrous when there are plenty of people who'd be willing to use those tickets, be there to support the team and spend money.That is EXACTLY what should happen. They don’t deserve their SeasonCard if their seat is empty for games.
I’ve heard of people who live in other countries who have SeasonCards and they only come to about half a dozen games all season. I remember speaking to a bloke at Blackburn away in the Cup a few years back and he said he worked in Australia for four months of the year during the season and he has a SC.
Get them fucked off if their SCs aren’t passed on.
Lower prices would have meant all those thousands who used to go all the time and had to give up their SeasonCard over the years because it got too expensive, may not ever have had to give it up and stop going, being replaced by people who don’t turn up.
I’ve had about two dozen friends and family fall away from going to games either through being foracbly moved and not given seats with mates they’ve sat with for years or by their SCs going up hundreds of pounds in just a few years. When they did go to games, they pretty much all never missed a game.
unless they are trying to profit,then they shouldn't lose their right.that's probably the only point we would agree on.I appreciate you can get tickets through other channels, however it's not the point. People consistently not turning up or failing to make their tickets available for others should lose their right to renew.
It’s all been the clubs fault. They’ve done so much right but when it’s come to the fans and the ground they’ve done a hell of a lot wrong.Somethings got to be done about the family stand/North stand lower tier. Yesterday was rammed other than this stand(AGAIN )Pockets of empty seats all over, yet trying to get tickets for this game for the last two weeks was like pulling teeth with very limited availability. Why would people buy season tickets then not bother going to 60-70 % of the games and not even pass them on to friends or family if they know they can't go??? I wonder if it's the same kind of fans who were smiling as Steptoe reeled away after he scored ?? Or similar fans to the ones who couldn't be arsed standing up after Sergio slammed his 2nd goal in because their brews were more important( check MOTD) Just so many robotic fans with absolutely no passion have infiltrated our ground in the last few seasons and I ******* hate it !! Rant over. CTIFD
So you're happy to have loads of empty seats when people are desperate to get tickets for the game - just because people are buying a SC for half a dozen games a season? Not sure why any city fan would not agree with my point.unless they are trying to profit,then they shouldn't lose their right.that's probably the only point we would agree on.
So you're happy to have loads of empty seats when people are desperate to get tickets for the game - just because people are buying a SC for half a dozen games a season? Not sure why any city fan would not agree with my point.
i don't believe people are buying season cards for half a dozen games,one or two possibly. the rest will have a reason and i don't think its anyone's place to whinge about it.So you're happy to have loads of empty seats when people are desperate to get tickets for the game - just because people are buying a SC for half a dozen games a season? Not sure why any city fan would not agree with my point.
It’s all been the clubs fault. They’ve done so much right but when it’s come to the fans and the ground they’ve done a hell of a lot wrong.
They did everything in the wrong order.
They firstly fucked off - with no consultation - 6000 fans from the North Stand and created an un-needed (in its size) Family Stand. Other than the two title winning games the Family Stand has never been full despite games being “SOLD OUT” and fans not being able to buy tickets even though many want to. The fans who were evicted were moved to different parts of the ground, some were moved to seats that were £100 more expensive than they were paying in the North Stand, some were told they couldn’t sit next to friends or family they’d sat next to for years, some were so disillusioned with the move they never came back to the stadium.
Then - with no consultation - they upped SeasonCard prices by something like £75, £65, £50 and £50 season-on-season. Then froze it for a year. Then upped them by £50 again. Since that Agüerooooo moment my card has gone up from (IIRC) £560 to £800. For a large number of people the conintual rises made them decide to give up their SC. For me (combined with the growth of the number of cup games we’ve had over the years) it’s stopped me being able to afford go to as many away games as I used to.
Then they moved the Singing Section to the single worst place in the ground it could possibly be. It’s isolated between the away fans to its right, a corporate area above and the quiet CBell stand to its left. This is especially worse for cup games where they may as well not even bother turning up when there’s 7000 away fans above them. And it is the smallest Singing Section I relation to capacity of any ground anywhere. Plymouth Argyle’s (just one example plucked from thin air) Singing Stand holds 5000 in a 16,388 stadium; Stockport County’s Cheadle End holds 5400 in a 10,841 stadium. You can pick any ground in any league in any country and find everyone has a bigger Singing Section either in its own capacity or percentage of overall capacity. SSL1 only holds about 3000!
Then they started putting tickets on foreign travel package sites and we have groups of non-City fans going to games. Tourists who don’t give a shit about the club and smile when the opposition score (that’s even happened with United and Rooney scoring once at our ground when we had people in the home stand smiling and taking pictures of Rooney sliding on his knees).
Then they started the eviction process again with the rise of corporate areas. With the same outcome as when they did it in the North Stand.
The very first thing they should have done was target the Singing Section and make that the priority. Liverpool Kop 12000, Villa Holt 14000, SheffU Kop 145000. That’s what we should be aiming for. We should have done that first before anything else was ever done. Any City Sq, any CFA, any SSL3, any New York/Melbourne etc., anything at all. Number one should have been a proper singing stand. Then the rest should have followed but the Family Stand should be half the size, it has not worked.
There are cheaper tickets available but that came after the big price rises came in and people had already left the match going support and there aren’t actually that many. It’s not like Bayern and other German clubs who have 12000 cheap tickets. If we have more than a few hundred I’d be surprised.
Very good post indeed and makes great points.It’s all been the clubs fault. They’ve done so much right but when it’s come to the fans and the ground they’ve done a hell of a lot wrong.
They did everything in the wrong order.
They firstly fucked off - with no consultation - 6000 fans from the North Stand and created an un-needed (in its size) Family Stand. Other than the two title winning games the Family Stand has never been full despite games being “SOLD OUT” and fans not being able to buy tickets even though many want to. The fans who were evicted were moved to different parts of the ground, some were moved to seats that were £100 more expensive than they were paying in the North Stand, some were told they couldn’t sit next to friends or family they’d sat next to for years, some were so disillusioned with the move they never came back to the stadium.
Then - with no consultation - they upped SeasonCard prices by something like £75, £65, £50 and £50 season-on-season. Then froze it for a year. Then upped them by £50 again. Since that Agüerooooo moment my card has gone up from (IIRC) £560 to £800. For a large number of people the conintual rises made them decide to give up their SC. For me (combined with the growth of the number of cup games we’ve had over the years) it’s stopped me being able to afford go to as many away games as I used to.
Then they moved the Singing Section to the single worst place in the ground it could possibly be. It’s isolated between the away fans to its right, a corporate area above and the quiet CBell stand to its left. This is especially worse for cup games where they may as well not even bother turning up when there’s 7000 away fans above them. And it is the smallest Singing Section I relation to capacity of any ground anywhere. Plymouth Argyle’s (just one example plucked from thin air) Singing Stand holds 5000 in a 16,388 stadium; Stockport County’s Cheadle End holds 5400 in a 10,841 stadium. You can pick any ground in any league in any country and find everyone has a bigger Singing Section either in its own capacity or percentage of overall capacity. SSL1 only holds about 3000!
Then they started putting tickets on foreign travel package sites and we have groups of non-City fans going to games. Tourists who don’t give a shit about the club and smile when the opposition score (that’s even happened with United and Rooney scoring once at our ground when we had people in the home stand smiling and taking pictures of Rooney sliding on his knees).
Then they started the eviction process again with the rise of corporate areas. With the same outcome as when they did it in the North Stand.
The very first thing they should have done was target the Singing Section and make that the priority. Liverpool Kop 12000, Villa Holt 14000, SheffU Kop 145000. That’s what we should be aiming for. We should have done that first before anything else was ever done. Any City Sq, any CFA, any SSL3, any New York/Melbourne etc., anything at all. Number one should have been a proper singing stand. Then the rest should have followed but the Family Stand should be half the size, it has not worked.
There are cheaper tickets available but that came after the big price rises came in and people had already left the match going support and there aren’t actually that many. It’s not like Bayern and other German clubs who have 12000 cheap tickets. If we have more than a few hundred I’d be surprised.