Etihad Atmosphere - 2022/23

I was at a supporters club event with Danny Wilson and Roel de Vries, the COO for City Football Group, who is in charge of match day experience. He’s responsible for getting fans into the ground and he thought the light shows were a real success in giving us something different on Champions League nights. The success measure for him won’t be what people on Blue Moon think, rather it’ll be tickets sold, new members, the likelihood that they’ll regularly fill the new stand that will increase capacity by six thousand and the ability to grow around the stadium on the back of that. Against all those measures, the light shows are a roaring success and the general feedback he got from the floor was that people enjoyed them as well (not from me I should add). This was earlier in the season when they were a bit more of a novelty, but from the general tone of the conversation I’d say they won’t be going anywhere any time soon, in fact even more worrying, they were discussing viability of having more interactive experience pre-match like you’d see at a Coldplay concert (although he did say cost could be an issue).
 
Bit tense at times but, I thought 114 was pretty good being loads of SS3 in there & we were loud at times. If the majority of East/CB don't want to play what can you do?

Noticed the FS stood up lots in the second half which was a positive.
I agree. There seems to be a microclimate effect with atmosphere a lot of the time. I could hear SS singing very clearly from where I was in the NS, and I was in a bubble of shouters and singers with loud voices so I left feeling like the atmosphere was good. The only song that SS couldn’t get NS involved in was Follow, but it didn’t feel like a disaster.

Now everyone here is telling me it was shit, but behind the goals and corners sounded good to me. The ‘main’ sections of East and CB will be slower to change. Probably, if we’re honest, quite a few fans who aren’t that excited anymore but are attached to the ritual and won’t be giving up their season tickets.

Arsenal have a strong element to their fan base that is quite throwback. It is youngish, vocal, well dressed, organised, diverse and confident with the siege mentality of years of underachievement. They treat it like an aspirational lifestyle thing rather than dragging yourself out of bed on a Sunday to get to church.

We def have that passionate element to our fan base too, but everything is bigger in London, there’s more money sloshing around, and we are in a different phase.

Combine that with the feel good factor thats returned to the Emirates, the fact that the passionate casual element is over represented on aways, plus there’s so many Londoners up here and it’s a short train journey on a Friday night anyway, and they were always going to put on a decent show. But I genuinely don’t feel last night was a nadir for us. And we beat em.
 
I was at a supporters club event with Danny Wilson and Roel de Vries, the COO for City Football Group, who is in charge of match day experience. He’s responsible for getting fans into the ground and he thought the light shows were a real success in giving us something different on Champions League nights. The success measure for him won’t be what people on Blue Moon think, rather it’ll be tickets sold, new members, the likelihood that they’ll regularly fill the new stand that will increase capacity by six thousand and the ability to grow around the stadium on the back of that. Against all those measures, the light shows are a roaring success and the general feedback he got from the floor was that people enjoyed them as well (not from me I should add). This was earlier in the season when they were a bit more of a novelty, but from the general tone of the conversation I’d say they won’t be going anywhere any time soon, in fact even more worrying, they were discussing viability of having more interactive experience pre-match like you’d see at a Coldplay concert (although he did say cost could be an issue).
Natalie was banging on about the light show.

get in your seats at 10 to 8 for the LIGHT SHOW.

The two kids in front of me seemed to like it. They were about 7 (the future ?)
Plenty of fucking phone lights twinkling.

Everything in life is changing for us daft old fuckers.
 
I honestly think they move the mics from where the singing is, or muffle the sound or something. It was the same when city was at old Trafford. Couldn't here city at all and no way was there no city singing.
 
When we played Liverpool in the EFL Cup, during the shit light show, where the announcer was reading the team out, he said ‘number twenty-five, the human calculator, Manueeeeeeel Akaaaaaanjiiiiii’.

You could hear the Liverpool fans laughing.

It’s fucking cringeworthy in and around our stadium pre-game, half-time and post-game. It’s like a weird Alton Towers version of a football club.
I hate it but I bet the tourists don’t. Like you sort of suggested, it’s like they’re catering for a audience that belongs at a theme park.

I’m pretty sure influential people at City read this forum, why don’t they take on board to what we say to improve the atmosphere? These light shows are wank. Shoving 7000 away fans in the top two tiers of the south stand is wank. Our announcer is wank.

I can remember about ten years ago or so we would turn off the lights and just leave the fans to sing bluemoon to their own accord. That’s all it takes to get us going. Not some shite disco. I had enough of it two weeks ago against Spurs so I stayed in the concourse last night. Not for me.
 
I was at a supporters club event with Danny Wilson and Roel de Vries, the COO for City Football Group, who is in charge of match day experience. He’s responsible for getting fans into the ground and he thought the light shows were a real success in giving us something different on Champions League nights. The success measure for him won’t be what people on Blue Moon think, rather it’ll be tickets sold, new members, the likelihood that they’ll regularly fill the new stand that will increase capacity by six thousand and the ability to grow around the stadium on the back of that. Against all those measures, the light shows are a roaring success and the general feedback he got from the floor was that people enjoyed them as well (not from me I should add). This was earlier in the season when they were a bit more of a novelty, but from the general tone of the conversation I’d say they won’t be going anywhere any time soon, in fact even more worrying, they were discussing viability of having more interactive experience pre-match like you’d see at a Coldplay concert (although he did say cost could be an issue

The way I see it we’ve gone from a council house to winning the lottery so there’s nothing wrong with a bit of bling.

But I do worry about the control freakery. The club needs to listen to fans about what produces atmosphere rather than manufacturing it and bolting it on top down. My kids haven’t even noticed the light show. And the fan thing they handed out to kids at the Chelsea cup game my eldest used to bang against the display on the back row of NS1, which I don’t think was what the club intended. They will make their own fun.

If you throw in the light show with the ticket I’ll take it with the price I’m paying. But if you ask me what will really get in young people and secure our support for the next fifty years it’s not going to be light shows, but affordable prices.
 
I was at a supporters club event with Danny Wilson and Roel de Vries, the COO for City Football Group, who is in charge of match day experience. He’s responsible for getting fans into the ground and he thought the light shows were a real success in giving us something different on Champions League nights. The success measure for him won’t be what people on Blue Moon think, rather it’ll be tickets sold, new members, the likelihood that they’ll regularly fill the new stand that will increase capacity by six thousand and the ability to grow around the stadium on the back of that. Against all those measures, the light shows are a roaring success and the general feedback he got from the floor was that people enjoyed them as well (not from me I should add). This was earlier in the season when they were a bit more of a novelty, but from the general tone of the conversation I’d say they won’t be going anywhere any time soon, in fact even more worrying, they were discussing viability of having more interactive experience pre-match like you’d see at a Coldplay concert (although he did say cost could be an issue).
If Danny was designing the Matchday experience around the views of Bluemooners, we’d either have about 10k in the ground or the Club would be going bust for all the £10 season cards that had been dished out.

My own view is that the laser show is there to mask the lack of atmosphere. I hardly ever see it because I only get to my seat a minute or two before kick off.

People have the choice to learn the songs and raise their voices during the 90+ minutes. Most don’t. Fair enough. That’s said, if it had been a Prem game last night there’s a fair chance they Blues around the ground would have given their full backing fir the lads.
 
Against Wolves was the worst yet for me. I got in 20 mins before with my daughter and the volume was seriously fucking my earing up. A load of nonsense. The match day experience is starting to grate the fuck out of me and it needs addressing quick!!
You shouldn't be wearing earrings at your age.
 
We cant match 8k away fans put in one block especially when we do that by moving out all the people in SS2 and SS3 who do generate noise and atmosphere. So using the North stand extension to create a way in which we can match that sort of way support is essential if we want to do so. The worry is that it will be used to create another corporate area.
 

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