Atmosphere 2024/25

[Blue Mist]

Agreed but can you imagine how good it would be with the 20 thousand tourists replaced with genuine hard core ....that is what is called the 12th man

Ok I get that and I have no problem with people kicking off when 8 blokes turn up at anfield in Barca shirts.
But, whilst I'm still gutted about how we fucked up, I cannot blame the crowd.

 

[M18CTID]

Its not the same though, those away tickets had a strictly criteria that meant those people should never have got them, yesterday's game practically went on open sale as the "legacy" fans couldn't be arsed going so they got bought by "tourists " legitimately.

You make some good points but it didn’t practically go on open sale. You needed a purchase history in the CL in the past couple of seasons to guarantee a ticket. The bun fight at the end over 1500 tickets for those match day members without that CL purchase history saw tens of thousands of members in the queue and I’m sure many of those would’ve been legacy fans so to say the legacy fans couldn’t be arsed going last night isn’t really true IMO.

What can be argued though is that plenty of legacy fans haven’t been arsed going to the bread and butter CL group games down the years and if they had been arsed to even buy just 1 ticket through the club for a CL game over the past 2 seasons then they would’ve been higher up the pecking order for a Real Madrid ticket rather than battling it out for the remaining 1500 or so tickets with members who only joined in the past few weeks. It’s often a different crowd around me for those CL group games with few season ticket holders in attendance, yet last night most of those season ticket holders were there.

 

[fathellensbellend]

What were the prices last night? I only paid £37:50

depends where you purchased them from, we have the official site, and the Manchester City 3rd party site, the only criteria being how much are you willing to spend

 

[Cellarite]

Things will continue to boil over as long as we have tourist fans in home sections. To the left of the South Stand, the stewards seemed to be doing their job of getting a number of fuckwits who celebrated when Madrid scored their first. I have mixed feelings about tourist fans. City supporters should always take priority of course and working that out is key - although I doubt it will ever be fixed while maximising ticket money is the way the club are operating. Tourists simply need to know how to behave. I'll be a tourist myself in 10 days when I go to the San Siro to watch Inter Milan. The difference with me and some of these weirdos at the Etihad though, is that despite me preferring AC Milan (we're watching Inter v Genoa), I wouldn't dream of cheering a Genoa goal and will be all in hoping for an Inter win on the night. It's about having respect for your surroundings.

While I'm here though, I witnessed some ugly behaviour from City fans last night. The FOC stood behind me who was on Rico's back from the second he took his tracksuit off needs to be reminded of Richard Edghill. Rico is a young player who, regardless of whether he will ever be at the level of Kyle Walker, bleeds blue and gives 100% every time he turns out. Last night, he was up against one of the best players in the world. He won a few challenges and lost a few. The twat behind me was almost gutted when Rico won a couple of tackles.

Then it got worse. At full time, a foreign lady and an older gent (maybe her Dad) were harassed on the stairs between 117 & 118. I don't know if they had celebrated a Madrid goal but what shouldn't have happened was the skin headed thug pulling the chaps hood over his face and holding it there, followed by him throwing punches at the woman when she tried to defend what I assume was her Dad. To be fair to the girl, she was game and went back at him. She was visibly shocked though. I went over to try and get the pair of them to safety, abandoning my (grown up) sons to do this. She was crying saying "I work here. This is the first time I've brought my family to the match." I don't know if she meant she worked at City or just in Manchester.

I hope that neanderthal was spotted on CCTV. I hope his mates tell him what a shithouse he is for picking on old blokes and punching women. She fucking shocked you when she gave you a few back didn't she? Dickhead.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

if the club didnt have such a lax/easy attitude to widely selling champs league tickets, how full do you think the ground would be for group games, even last night's match against Madrid? 75% full? if that?

fact is, lots of City fans have abandoned this competition years ago. it's a shame.

? 75%
The only spaces were in the away end.

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

What were the prices last night? I only paid £37:50

£52.50 for me in EL1. Actually £105 because I pay for two. That’s adult price in the cup scheme. I think it was £57.50 for non cup scheme. Bit steep and I won’t be paying that next year as I probably will be coming out of the scheme - night games are just a bit awkward for us at the moment for family reasons. Means leaving the Carabao too as only in that for the double points.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Agreed but can you imagine how good it would be with the 20 thousand tourists replaced with genuine hard core ....that is what is called the 12th man

At the Hamburg game there wouldn't have been half a dozen neutrals that night. How times change. The atmosphere at that game will never be replicated!

 

[BringBackSwales]

Rarely have I read so many pages of a thread and given so few “likes”. Unfortunately not because I don’t agree with them but because they are all so fucking true. This has been coming for years, and last night it felt like the inevitable conclusion of where the club has been blindly heading for more than 10 years, and especially the last 5.

No new season tickets

Sell tickets for big games to those who pay the most

Tickets way too expensive for a largely working class legacy fan base

Execs like Sorriano who don’t have any connection with the fan base

Posters all around the ground and in the bogs telling me if I smoke, swear, gesture I’ll be banned for 10 games or a season or forever

The general gentrification of football

Probably too much success and too many of our fans becoming entitled or at least apathetic

And so on

Last night really hit home. The ones I felt most sorry for were my 16 and 18 year olds - they sang every song, as they always do, and yet the only people joining in were me and a single bloke 3 rows behind, no other fucker singing anywhere within earshot - and I don’t think they were Madrid fans in our area, just occasional football attenders who hadn’t grown up with proper football experiences

How I yearn for Blackburn away under Royle, dodging bricks at Stoke, ladders at Oldham, even relegation at West Ham, proper atmospheres with thousands of like minded Blues. It dawned on me last night that this has gone forever and my kids have got to put up with it forever, we will never get atmospheres like we used to

 

[Marvin.]

Marvin

Personally I don't think this has anything to do with race. To me I saw video of people just filming on their phones or giving a haircut lol.
I just thought what the fuck is going on ? I didn't qualify for tickets plus I won't spend 70quid on a ticket.
It was that longer go that cl tickets were 40 quid to watch RM, PSG etc and the place was rocking.
I doubt I'll ever attend another cl because I can't afford to go to the early games.
I doubt I'll ever go to a match again after May.
Seeing a tourist walking out of the souvenir shop wearing a spuds shirt, puts this new City over it for a game City v Southampton was bizarre. I question myself 'what am I doing here this isn't my club anymore'
I guess if I was local I might not give up so easily. 600 mile round in my mid 60's to be sat on my own with .u lad and mates doing the same. Modern football isn't for me anymore

PS mu back balance is looking good

Well last night over half the crowd were Asian. And people call them tourists which is identifying them as a problem.
The problems I had were Real Madrid fans behind me and celebrating when they scored. I don't like that. That's the flip-side of the underlying problem which is that regulars cannot afford season tickets and champions league games, and then they say, I am not going to the game because it's full of tourists. What they mean is Asians. How many people do you think were having a haircut? 1. Filming on their phones is what people do now, especially at the start of the game and they haven't been many times.

I am sorry that you aren't enjoying games as much. Me neither. I liked the old school city fans that I grew up with, and now they are not going so much. The ideal would be a vibrant South stand singing and passing on the DNA to the new. That was what happened when you and me first went. I used to sit in the Platt Lane and watch the Kippax and then when I was older I went to the Kippax. But some City regulars see the new supporters and they label them as tourists. I don't like that. That group is largely City fans. And within them are some people who just want to go to a game, and some away fans. I think some City fans bundle them altogether because they are easily identifiable and write them off.

 

[jamielowndes]

You make some good points but it didn’t practically go on open sale. You needed a purchase history in the CL in the past couple of seasons to guarantee a ticket. The bun fight at the end over 1500 tickets for those match day members without that CL purchase history saw tens of thousands of members in the queue and I’m sure many of those would’ve been legacy fans so to say the legacy fans couldn’t be arsed going last night isn’t really true IMO.

What can be argued though is that plenty of legacy fans haven’t been arsed going to the bread and butter CL group games down the years and if they had been arsed to even buy just 1 ticket through the club for a CL game over the past 2 seasons then they would’ve been higher up the pecking order for a Real Madrid ticket rather than battling it out for the remaining 1500 or so tickets with members who only joined in the past few weeks. It’s often a different crowd around me for those CL group games with few season ticket holders in attendance, yet last night most of those season ticket holders were there.

This is a fair point. As someone who lives an hour away from Manchester, I've had to pick and choose which CL games I can get to and it's often the Copenhagens and the Leipzigs etc, and those games aren't exactly full of old timers singing for 90 mins.

Those games are always available and not prohibitively expensive either.

 

[BMR]

So should the club leave the seat empty because someone's budgets doesn't stretch to it ?

What the club should do is remember they would be nothing without those low paid workers following them when we were shit and keep ticket prices reasonable for "Legacy" fans. I am lucky enough to afford the constant price rises but I know a lot of blues who have season tickets for decades that are now very close to not being able to afford to renew.

 

[East Level 2]

There were loads of Asian tourists and half and halfers in Colin bell upper but I didn’t see a single R Madrid fan.

Same at the north end of the East Stand. Nobody celebrated the Madrid goals.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Same at the north end of the East Stand. Nobody celebrated the Madrid goals.

I honestly feel like I've been to a different game when I come on this thread sometimes.

 

[East Level 2]

The number of tourists in SS3 was incredible tonight. I’ve never seen anything like it. Outside before the game too.

Ask Khaldoon and Soriano, they think CL nights are great at the Etihad.

8000 more tourists in the CL when the expanded North stand opens.

That's what happens when City fans don't turn up. The reasons don't matter: don't like UEFA, can't afford it even though some games are cheaper than PL games, place is full of tourists etc, etc.
If fans won't buy tickets then the club will sell them to tourists. Last night was arranged at short notice, but it was also short notice for tourists.
I doubt there are an additional 8,000 tourists to help fill the north stand so what will the club do next season if even more City fans decide to watch on the telly?

 

[The Norfolk Blue]

At the Hamburg game there wouldn't have been half a dozen neutrals that night. How times change. The atmosphere at that game will never be replicated!

Or the 2-1 League Cup semi derby v United when Tevez netted a couple .... as loud as anything I ever witnessed at Maine Road.

Light years away from that now, and probably gone forever.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Or the 2-2 League Cup semi derby v United when Tevez netted a couple .... as loud as anything I ever witnessed at Maine Road.

Light years away from that now, and probably gone forever.

2-1 win wasn’t it that one.

 

[Lowtower]

Club will probably see that haircut vid and open a concourse parlour for haircuts

"Get your matchday ticket and Phil Foden hairdo £150"

"Haaland hairbraiding, half and half scarf and seat £200"

 

[Marvin.]

Rarely have I read so many pages of a thread and given so few “likes”. Unfortunately not because I don’t agree with them but because they are all so fucking true. This has been coming for years, and last night it felt like the inevitable conclusion of where the club has been blindly heading for more than 10 years, and especially the last 5.

No new season tickets

Sell tickets for big games to those who pay the most

Tickets way too expensive for a largely working class legacy fan base

Execs like Sorriano who don’t have any connection with the fan base

Posters all around the ground and in the bogs telling me if I smoke, swear, gesture I’ll be banned for 10 games or a season or forever

The general gentrification of football

Probably too much success and too many of our fans becoming entitled or at least apathetic

And so on

Last night really hit home. The ones I felt most sorry for were my 16 and 18 year olds - they sang every song, as they always do, and yet the only people joining in were me and a single bloke 3 rows behind, no other fucker singing anywhere within earshot - and I don’t think they were Madrid fans in our area, just occasional football attenders who hadn’t grown up with proper football experiences

How I yearn for Blackburn away under Royle, dodging bricks at Stoke, ladders at Oldham, even relegation at West Ham, proper atmospheres with thousands of like minded Blues. It dawned on me last night that this has gone forever and my kids have got to put up with it forever, we will never get atmospheres like we used to

It's hard enough on a Saturday/Sunday to get songs going in the East Stand where I sit when it's packed with season ticket holders. Asian fans or what some fans call tourists because they are very obvious are not the problem. It's that they don't sing, and the numbers of regulars, a proportion of whom do sing, is falling. There are different interpretations of the same observations that we all make. I fear people hear foreign languages and an Asian face, and they nudge their mate and say 'tourist'.

 

[The Norfolk Blue]

2-1 win wasn’t it that one.

Sorry pal, yes my memory isn't what it was, I know we went out narrowly over 2 legs.

 

[Marvin.]

Agreed but can you imagine how good it would be with the 20 thousand tourists replaced with genuine hard core ....that is what is called the 12th man

Yes it would be brilliant because I want a supportive crowd.

In reality, on a premier league game when there are very few 'tourists' how many sing. Just the South stand and then every now and then a few join in.

What we have to do is turn the new into the old. It will be very difficult as much of the old are silent anyway. And it will be even more difficult if the old take against the new. I am aware that a large number of City fans sense difference and don't like it but all they are is new fans. In amongst them are neutrals and away fans. You'd think people would be able to work it out.