Atmosphere 2024/25

[East Level 2]

Is there a chance the club will allow fans with STs in other areas of the ground to try out the new stand next season before committing to a move? Put your own ticket on the exchange and get an NS2 ticket for a game or two.
It would help judge the interest. Also, the club might lose a few thousand fans if they expand the hospitality sections in ES2 and CB2, and just try to shove the displaced fans into the north or south stands.

 

[I'm not really here]

If possible I will go in the away end on SSL1 one day. There are always ways to get tickets. Just to see and feel what’s it’s like being an away fan at the Etihad on SSL1, with the singing sections either side of me.

Make sure it's localish team, otherwise your accent could pose some issues [emoji28]

 

[jrb]

Make sure it's localish team, otherwise your accent could pose some issues [emoji28]

I’m a Fulham member. :-) I joined so I could buy a ticket in the neutral end, just in case I missed out on a ticket in the City end. United can f*ck off!

 

[wearethesouthstand]

Do some on this thread really think that Soriano and Khaldoon are sitting round a table debating what price to stick on tickets for the Salford FA cup game ?? Do they think in the afternoon they move onto the price of chips and a pint of Asahi.

Sorry to disappoint but the pricing decisions are getting made much further down the food chain.

I doubt either Soriano or Khaldoon would have a clue how much a match ticket costs.

Ticket pricing is all analytics these days. Supply demand and the algorithm says charge £x. Unfortunately, loyalty, legacy, atmosphere, half and half scarves etc are not fed into the calculation. It’s basically what is the highest price that the match will sell out ( or nearly sell out ). If it close to full they will think the algorithm has done its job to perfection. An early sell out indicates it was too cheap !

Every club is at it. Atmospheres around the country are dying a slow death and it will never change.

they set the targets for revenue generation , people further down have to implement that to the best of their ability, but the whole club is based on maximising anything and everything.

 

[.db.]

I think it’s very poor from the club they won’t answer your questions.

To me it seems pretty clear the “blue wall” and large safe standing area dreams can be forgotten, they would’ve come forward already.
They’ll try to spin it in the marketing materials but it will end up as… just meh.
We’ll end up with a meh NS and meh SS and the rest is shit anyway

We just need to commandeer the stand for ourselves and not let the club put us off from moving there. Because that’s what I think they’re trying to do. I reckon they are keeping schtum and making it seem like it might be a bit shit for those of us who want a proper atmosphere stand, to put us off from moving there and then having more seats they can sell to nobodies for more money.

But, even if we can just get 3,000 to move from all the areas around the ground that aren’t already designated singing areas (110-111; SSL1), that would be a great start. If we could get even more than that, I don’t see why we couldn’t, it’d be mint - say we get United away in the next round of the FA Cup, we’d take 9,000 singers there, so I don’t see why we couldn’t get a shit load of singers in NSL2.

However, like the 1894 lads have said, we need more information from the bloody club. Just some key details and we could drive this new stand ourselves as a fanbase.

 

[There is a Light]

Do some on this thread really think that Soriano and Khaldoon are sitting round a table debating what price to stick on tickets for the Salford FA cup game ?? Do they think in the afternoon they move onto the price of chips and a pint of Asahi.

Sorry to disappoint but the pricing decisions are getting made much further down the food chain.

I doubt either Soriano or Khaldoon would have a clue how much a match ticket costs.

Ticket pricing is all analytics these days. Supply demand and the algorithm says charge £x. Unfortunately, loyalty, legacy, atmosphere, half and half scarves etc are not fed into the calculation. It’s basically what is the highest price that the match will sell out ( or nearly sell out ). If it close to full they will think the algorithm has done its job to perfection. An early sell out indicates it was too cheap !

Every club is at it. Atmospheres around the country are dying a slow death and it will never change.

Maybe Khaldoon and Soriano don’t have a clue about the actual cost of a ticket. Maybe ticket pricing is generated using analytics.

But they will decide how important match day revenue is in the grand scheme of things and what direction the club is taking when it comes to the fabric of the fan base.

They should be interested in fan engagement and satisfaction. Even if they’re not, it doesn’t mean we should ever give up.

We’re collectively fucked if we just accept that things will only continue to change for the worse. That literally give them an open goal to fully flog the club to tourists and those who can afford to pay whatever crazy prices are set.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

We just need to commandeer the stand for ourselves and not let the club put us off from moving there. Because that’s what I think they’re trying to do. I reckon they are keeping schtum and making it seem like it might be a bit shit for those of us who want a proper atmosphere stand, to put us off from moving there and then having more seats they can sell to nobodies for more money.

But, even if we can just get 3,000 to move from all the areas around the ground that aren’t already designated singing areas (110-111; SSL1), that would be a great start. If we could get even more than that, I don’t see why we couldn’t, it’d be mint - say we get United away in the next round of the FA Cup, we’d take 9,000 singers there, so I don’t see why we couldn’t get a shit load of singers in NSL2.

However, like the 1894 lads have said, we need more information from the bloody club. Just some key details and we could drive this new stand ourselves as a fanbase.

3000 vocal fans at the back of this stand would totally transform the atmosphere forever. If we get that many to move it’s job done. 3000 together can make a right racket and that’s all it needs to spread around the stadium at the right moments.

 

[.db.]

The powers that be at city arent fans, they are people at the top end of their careers who are tasked with maximising profits down to the last penny.
I met a lawyer at city 5 month or so ago. Decent bloke, from the south coast, not really a fan of football, never comes to a game but one of his roles is ticketing prices (alongside the bean counters).

He cares about squeezing every last penny out of match day revenue.
As hes not a fan he doesnt care if ‘legacy’ fans dont come if they are replaced by a high spending tourist
He also doesnt give one shit if the atmosphere is silent or rocking.

I said the annual increase of season ticket prices is needless and united have frozen theirs for years. He replied “yeah but they are shit and city are brilliant”.

And that sums it up!! This convo was before this slump , he thinks that as long as we a winning the tourists will come. He also said the good times are here to stay.
The club need to be careful

So people need to stop thinking the club care about atmosphere, they dont, they care about the till ringing.
The players and pep also need to get out of their bubble and understand this before calling fans out

I liked your post mate, but what an incredibly empty feeling I got reading it.

 

[Elliot houghton]

If possible I will go in the away end on SSL1 one day. There are always ways to get tickets. Just to see and feel what’s it’s like being an away fan at the Etihad on SSL1, with the singing sections either side of me.

Surely even if the atmosphere isn’t always great can’t be many worse grounds to be an away fan in England both sides kippax corner and south giving it you all game

 

[.db.]

I’m not naive enough to think we have the best fans. Tbh one set of fans is pretty much like the next. What has changed is the cohort of fans particularly at successful clubs and the atmosphere dampening policies adopted by City.

I don’t agree that long term blues don’t contribute to the atmosphere like they used to because success has made them apathetic - it’s because they’ve got old. The club should’ve done much much more to attract young happy bouncing energetic under 25s to augment our ageing fanbase but instead they’ve actively deterred them with £70 tickets, force fed corporate cheese pre match at ear splitting volumes, killjoy anti blue stewards and uninterested tourists /away fans all over the place. It’s not a fun place for a young group of lads to be anymore.

The small percentage of young up for it lads at the match who do want to create an atmosphere and the shrinking number of middle aged fans who feel likewise have their vibe crushed by these factors and their enthusiasm wanes. It’s like a nightclub that used to be fun until every other boring fucker heard it was cool and wanted to go there and so it loses the feeling it had and the people who were there when it was fun don’t find it fun anymore cos the place has changed to better suit all the squares now attending.

The game’s gone, I admire the persistence of the 1894 lads and the guys on here who mean well and really want to do what they can to help but sadly I think their efforts are futile, they’re chasing something that slipped away a long time ago

I’m similar. 30 years old and I can’t really justify paying for tickets now, match day in particular. I’ve stopped attending champions league matches.

In my friend group of mainly city and United fans, most of them don’t attend games regularly. The ones that do are similar to you - using someone else’s ticket.

I honestly think football at the top level is screwed in a few years. Younger people aren’t attending games. Who’s going to replace the older fans we have now?

You can see the difference when you attend cheap cup games compared to league matches.

Good posts. Spot on.

Again, sad to read though.

 

[blubanjo]

Gone are the days when the club would allow Fergie cock and Neville cock into the ground on derby day.

Some people might think it's childish, but to me it's football fan banter. Something that is disappearing more and more from (PL) football matches as the clubs and the Police crack down on such behavior.

I remember the Fergie cock at the Hamburg game.....couldn't stop pissing myself.

 

[.db.]

Younger lads are going to County, macc, wherever.
Matches like that are still a bit like what we experienced all those years ago.
Prem football isnt and wont ever be the same again , sadly

We’re not exactly young (30s and 40s) but five of my mates (4 City, all ex-season ticket holders; 1 United) went to the Wythenshawe derby on Boxing Day instead of City (or Utd). They would all rather have gone to City but they couldn’t justify the price of the tickets at Christmas.

All of them are coming and bringing their kids on Saturday against Salford.

All of these lads are the type of fans who would enjoy a proper atmosphere stand at City for good prices like Bayern have.

 

[.db.]

Given the layout similarities between the 'Dortmund Yellow Wall' stand and our new North Stand. It would seem a no-brainer to try at all costs to attempt to replicate and learn from their set-up. I've said lots to defend the club, but if the new stand is not used for our more hardcore singing fans, they will have made a grave error.

Completely agree.

There isn’t another football club in world football who’d build this:



…and it not be a dedicated atmosphere stand.

Look at it. It’s fucking ideal for atmosphere. You couldn’t think up a much better stand for atmosphere: huge tier to group many thousands of fans together (which we’ve not had as a club since 1994, and it’s conspicuous in its absence!), big deep roof, nobody would be moved for Cup games to accommodate larger away allocations.

What are City playing at?! This could be so special, and creating a big atmosphere stand is a huge marketing opportunity for the club.

I nearly wrote ‘I can’t believe they’re going to miss this opportunity’, but I can really, however it’s so frustrating!

Could you imagine if Liverpool decided to flatten the Kop and build an even bigger one, yet then say it’s going to be a bit of everything and a bit of nothing and not necessarily for atmosphere?!

 

[.db.]

It might be a very small step. Visual if nothing. It certainly won't improve the atmosphere. But, I want City to ban half and half scarfs inside the Etihad next season.

When you come to watch City, you support City, not the opposing team, wearing their colours on your scarf.

Not only that, buying half and half scarfs from the souvenir hawkers outside the Etihad is taking money from the club, whilst the fans are facing increased season ticket and match day ticket price increases season after season.

The name Manchester City Football Club is owned by the club, and I would assume copy righted, so City, the City Council, and their trading standards department can confiscate fake City merch outside the ground. Chelsea are in the process of doing that legally.

By all means wear a scarf inside the ground, but wear a City scarf, not a half and half scarf.

Spot on that!

And it’s not even half’n’half scarves. Some are coming in wearing shirts of other clubs. I’ve seen a lad wearing a fucking Celtic shirt at a game. I’ve seen another fella with a Liverpool scarf (it wasn’t even a City v Liverpool game) not a HnH City:Lpool scarf, a full on fucking Lpool scarf.

What the fuck’s going on?

If I wore my City shirt at Parkhead or my City scarf at Anfield, in their home ends, I’d get my head kicked in. And wouldn’t complain about having my head kicked in either, I’d have it coming. Why do these cunts think they can come into our stadium taking the fucking piss like that?

All other club colours - not just HnH scarves, but any colours or badges of other clubs, scarves, shirts, coats, hats etc. - should be restricted items and no admission to the stadium should be allowed with them on. Should be part of our Ts&Cs.

 

[.db.]

3000 vocal fans at the back of this stand would totally transform the atmosphere forever. If we get that many to move it’s job done. 3000 together can make a right racket and that’s all it needs to spread around the stadium at the right moments.

Yeah it definitely would. And it would feed down the rest of the stand.

But we just need the bloody club to give us some key details. If they could just come out and say; ‘yes, we will allow as many season ticket holders to move there, and to keep their tickets as their current season tickets are, as want to move there’… that would be the only thing we need to drive this to the wider fanbase across as many channels as we can hammer it out.

 

[Zabbasbeard]

JCfuckingL.

Get up to ESL3. 305. Row E.

No one under 70, most approaching 80, and all as mad as hatters cos were from Denton,formerly the hat capital of the world !!

I must be a JCL compared Geriatric Corner! And there was me thinking I was a fully paid up FOC...

 

[Bluesince1979]

We’re not exactly young (30s and 40s) but five of my mates (4 City, all ex-season ticket holders; 1 United) went to the Wythenshawe derby on Boxing Day instead of City (or Utd). They would all rather have gone to City but they couldn’t justify the price of the tickets at Christmas.

All of them are coming and bringing their kids on Saturday against Salford.

All of these lads are the type of fans who would enjoy a proper atmosphere stand at City for good prices like Bayern have.

Exactly.
The problem isnt particular to city, its a prem thing. Or certainly a “top 6” problem

 

[Prophet of Doom]

Maybe Khaldoon and Soriano don’t have a clue about the actual cost of a ticket. Maybe ticket pricing is generated using analytics.

But they will decide how important match day revenue is in the grand scheme of things and what direction the club is taking when it comes to the fabric of the fan base.

They should be interested in fan engagement and satisfaction. Even if they’re not, it doesn’t mean we should ever give up.

We’re collectively fucked if we just accept that things will only continue to change for the worse. That literally give them an open goal to fully flog the club to tourists and those who can afford to pay whatever crazy prices are set.

But the club have shown multiple times in recent years they don’t give a toss about atmosphere , supporters, loyalty etc etc.

They’ve been caught red handed selling as many tickets as possible both home and away to the highest bidders - no matter who they support.

They won’t engage with City matters or 1894, and seem intent on alienating legacy supporters at every turn.

Nothing is gonna change - the charge is on for Matchday revenue to be well north of £100m a season no matter how many legacy supporters are priced out.

We’re collectively fucked already. The only thing that might give us a sniff is when they see thousands of empty seats in the shiny new stand and realise that tourists aren’t as interested when the team is not challenging for pots and they have outpriced thousands of time served legacy supporters.

 

[pottsy]

But the club have shown multiple times in recent years they don’t give a toss about atmosphere , supporters, loyalty etc etc.

They’ve been caught red handed selling as many tickets as possible both home and away to the highest bidders - no matter who they support.

They won’t engage with City matters or 1894, and seem intent on alienating legacy supporters at every turn.

Nothing is gonna change - the charge is on for Matchday revenue to be well north of £100m a season no matter how many legacy supporters are priced out.

We’re collectively fucked already. The only thing that might give us a sniff is when they see thousands of empty seats in the shiny new stand and realise that tourists aren’t as interested when the team is not challenging for pots and they have outpriced thousands of time served legacy supporters.

Sadly mate you are correct on everything and that’s why 1894 gave their “red lines” everyone agrees with them really and it’s reading the room, there are nationwide protests going on at practically every ground over most of these issues - tickets, tourists, prices, aggressive stewarding and clubs generally telling fans to like it or lump it.

Ours is one of the worst though for only offering flexi golds and no season tickets. In fact is that even legal ?

This is a line in the sand from some fans to say stop taking the piss and reverse the trends. Surely we need these issues sorting out first. Otherwise stuff your corporate stand.

That’s more important surely than finding “useful fools” to fill the club’s half hearted attempt at an “atmospheric end”

Let’s see if club blink again. If they relent and make some concessions and provide guarantees maybe fan groups will also move position.

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

They’ve been caught red handed selling as many tickets as possible both home and away to the highest bidders - no matter who they support.

I'm wonder if you'd use an account in your own name and traceable to you and still make those accusations?