Atmosphere Thread | 2025/26

I genuinely think this will be our last season sticking with the UCL/European Cup scheme.


The four people around us are regulars who are at every home match like we are, but there were far too many others more interested in filming a pointless light show than actually supporting the team. Nobody wanted to sing. The atmosphere in CB3 during Champions League games is worse than in the Premier League.


I’m all for creating an experience that works for everyone before, during, and after the match, but this constant dance/rave music the club insists on playing needs to stop.


As for the game, it wasn’t the worst atmosphere we’ve had, and there have been UCL matches where we’ve been either dead quiet or incredibly loud.


The club is really shooting itself in the foot by making it harder for home supporters to generate any noise. But it’s not just a City issue — it’s a wider problem in English football with how atmosphere is handled and how fans are treated.


I’m a big fan of the Ultra culture, especially the tifos and the noise, but the drums and megaphones like the Germans used last night became repetitive and, after a while, pretty tedious.


Like many have said, I don’t even think they celebrated their goal — just 90 minutes of constant drumming. I can go to a rock concert if I want to hear that.


Anyway, it was nice not seeing rival fans in the home end. Not sure it’ll be the same for Leverkusen and Galatasaray next year.
 
It's a negative opinion though mate. It's looking at under 1,000 seats within an area holding about 12,000 and letting those negatives convince you it's not going to work. I said on the other thread a couple of weeks ago, if we were moving into the Etihad for the first time you'd get some wanting to be near the away fans but knowing what we know regarding acoustics/split of singing sections you'd want to have a huge single tier under the roof in the North Stand. You've got away cup game level quantities of people in a single tier. Yes there might be some having a pint and a prawn sandwich and not joining their seats until late, but you'd barely notice and realistically in time people would want to sit in those areas either to be part of the atmosphere, and join in, or would want to go elsewhere so the club could relocate the GA+ to vacated parts of the SS if they needed to. Who knows. I wouldn't be writing it off just because of a few GA+ seats though.

I've seen people talk about the yellow wall and say you wouldn't see this there. But equally, Dortmund fans would turn this into a home end if the yellow wall didn't exist. We are where we are, this is the last chance and whilst I understand people being sceptical - I'm holding out hope the pricing is incentivised and it becomes what we need it to be.
It's not me being negative.
It's just an opinion.
It doesn't mean I'm right.
It doesn't mean I will be right.
Hopefully I will be wrong.
I have stated on numerous occasions that I want NSL2 to work, to be successful, and to create a home end atmosphere and support that gavenises the whole of the Etihad into supporting the team more.
 
It all seems a bit complex doesn't it? If it's going to be a mix of STs/Flexis and match day tickets in the safe standing areas, we could do with knowing the breakdown. Also, how many STs/Flexis will be new ones and how many relocations? I think the first thing the club should be doing to gauge demand is to e-mail ST holders and members and ask them if they'd be interested in relocating to (if you're a ST holder elsewhere)/buying a new Flexi Gold or match day ticket in the safe standing section, and make the point that it will be an atmosphere section where fans will be standing and singing. That mail should be a piece of piss to knock up and send out. I appreciate it's difficult to do that in advance of any announcement on prices but it should be going out to everyone once the pricing is known.

That's what we've said all along. NSL2 a mixture of everything, and a mixture of nothing in particular. It's a complete mish-mash of ticket options, hospitality options, and hotel stays thrown into the mix. There isn't a tier like in in the PL. Nobody knows if it will work or not. It's not a normal tier. It's a PL first.

We don't know what the club has got planned. Or when the club will be release information on season ticket prices, matchday ticket prices, relocation windows, etc.
 
I’ve always thought that the large number of fans who leave the first half early and come back to the second half late is a culture within our support that has hungover and sustained from when we were shit. Where each match isn’t really that important unless it’s the Derby or a game near the end of the season where we need a win to stay up. The game was often bobbins so it didn’t matter if they missed 10mins either side of HT, the half time beers were more important.

When we played Liverpool in the 2016 EFL Cup final, loads of our fans missed Fernandinho putting us 1-0 up on 49mins and a few around me who came back a few minutes later didn't know we’d scored and only realised when they randomly looked at the scoreboard on about 55mins.
You watch the Scouse cunts on Sunday, I always notice that they’re all back in their seats and singing for the start of the second half. One year they caught us cold and Mane scored in the first minute of the second half, with loads of our fans not seeing it.

Also, I always think that leaving early en mass at the end of the game like we do is what a support does when it’s disgusted with the team’s performance and they’re showing their disdain for the team. Another culture within our support where I bet half those who leave early just do it out of habit.

After the two late goals against Burnley, I reckoned up how many goals those who leave on 80minutes every week have missed since the takeover in 2008… add that to the two we’ve scored after 80mins since, and they’ve missed a staggering 348 City goals!
Great post…totally agree.
 
I look at it like this

SSL1 has 6000 safe standing seats spread across the whole width of the tier.
6000 standing fans.
SSL1 has a diverse mixture of City fans stood on it.
SSL1 is pitch side.
The fans on it can be seen and heard.

NSL2 has 3000 safe standing seats spread across the back and down the sides of the tier.
3000 safe standing fans. Half of SSL1.
NSL2 will have 5000 GA+ and GA seated seats across the centre of the tier.
SSL2 will have a more diverse mixture of City fans stood and sat on it.
By diverse I mean season tickets, match day tickets, hospitality, Hotel stays, etc
NSL2 isn't pitch side.
The majority of the safe standing seats will be at the very back of the stand.
On the plus side, the specially designed roof will amplify the vocal support and noise coming from NSL2, that SSL1 doesn't have.
 
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I look at it like this

SSL1 has 6000 safe standing seats spread across the whole width of the tier.
6000 standing fans.
SSL1 has a diverse mixture of City fans stood on it.
SSL1 is pitch side.
The fans on it can be seen and heard.

NSL2 has 3000 safe standing seats spread across the back and down the sides of the tier.
NSL2 will have 5000 GA+ and GA seated seats across the centre of the tier.
SSL2 will have a more diverse mixture of City fans stood and sat on it.
By diverse I mean season tickets, match day tickets, hospitality, Hotel stays, etc
NSL2 isn't pitch side.
The majority of the safe standing seats will be at the very back of the stand.
On the plus side, the specially designed roof will amplify the vocal support and noise coming from NSL2, that SSL1 doesn't have.
Vocal fans being pitch side is part of the problem. You might as well be in an open end. The sound just drifts off into the air and doesn't spread. Every Wembley game where we've made a good noise all the big songs start at the back and spread downwards and sideways in a second or two.
 
That's because for some reason they decided to move to the front of 315 without any kind of consultation with the fans who already regularly sit in 315, or consideration for what that area is usually like.

It's not a standing area. For league games it's pretty much full of existing and long standing (therefore on the older side shall we say) season ticket holders, although for CL games it's probably 50/50 how many are there and how many aren't.

For context, in the other thread you are referring to, it is mentioned that a pensioner could not see the game due to the standers in front of them, and after asking them to sit down were met with a less than friendly response. That's not a group of fans trying to make the experience for those around them better, it comes across as a group of lads doing what they want to do and saying "fuck everyone else". It's bound to cause friction.
There was plenty of availability in south 3 / 315 which allowed us to trial trying to link up the singers from the back of south 3 to the singers lower down.

For this champions league game there were a lot of families and a lot sat down. There were pockets stood up at the back and especially 314.

Apologies to anyone who had a bad experience it was clear after a few minutes this block would only work in a standing area or a block that was unsold and therefore free.

I didn’t witness anyone having a pop at anyone but if it didn’t happen that’s a lack of discipline from someone so apologies from the group.

The majority relocated to the back rows of 314 /315 at half time - again to
Empty seats and got things going a lot better
 
That's what we've said all along. NSL2 a mixture of everything, and a mixture of nothing in particular. It's a complete mish-mash of ticket options, hospitality options, and hotel stays thrown into the mix. There isn't a tier like in in the PL. Nobody knows if it will work or not. It's not a normal tier. It's a PL first.

We don't know what the club has got planned. Or when the club will be release information on season ticket prices, matchday ticket prices, relocation windows, etc.
You are overthinking it as always...
 
Vocal fans being pitch side is part of the problem. You might as well be in an open end. The sound just drifts off into the air and doesn't spread. Every Wembley game where we've made a good noise all the big songs start at the back and spread downwards and sideways in a second or two.
TBH I don't see it as a problem.
Everywhere I have sat in the Etihad I have heard the fans in SSL1 singing.
Even on CBL3 and ESL3.
We all know the players can hear SSL1, 111, 110 and 109 clearly on the pitch.
The problem for me is our singing sections and singers are spread across 3 stands, SSL1, blocks 111, 110, 109, and at the back of SSL3.
We even have different groups of singers spread across SSL1 starting their own and different chants.
 
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I’ve always thought that the large number of fans who leave the first half early and come back to the second half late is a culture within our support that has hungover and sustained from when we were shit. Where each match isn’t really that important unless it’s the Derby or a game near the end of the season where we need a win to stay up. The game was often bobbins so it didn’t matter if they missed 10mins either side of HT, the half time beers were more important.

When we played Liverpool in the 2016 EFL Cup final, loads of our fans missed Fernandinho putting us 1-0 up on 49mins and a few around me who came back a few minutes later didn't know we’d scored and only realised when they randomly looked at the scoreboard on about 55mins.
You watch the Scouse cunts on Sunday, I always notice that they’re all back in their seats and singing for the start of the second half. One year they caught us cold and Mane scored in the first minute of the second half, with loads of our fans not seeing it.

Also, I always think that leaving early en mass at the end of the game like we do is what a support does when it’s disgusted with the team’s performance and they’re showing their disdain for the team. Another culture within our support where I bet half those who leave early just do it out of habit.

After the two late goals against Burnley, I reckoned up how many goals those who leave on 80minutes every week have missed since the takeover in 2008… add that to the two we’ve scored after 80mins since, and they’ve missed a staggering 348 City goals!
Decent post that.A lot of our older fans have seen us win everything and they'll die happy. There doesnt seem to be any enthusiasm to see the resurgence of this new City team even with the best striker in the world. Having said that its a free country and you can do what you like but but we can be a strange crowd at home. That was a top CL game last night.The club made an effort with the light show, the players turned in a top performance but the fans were meh!
 
Loads of tourists where I sit, hardly recognised anybody as the ST holders have given the CL a swerve.
Half 'n' half wankers were all over the place, but most seemed to be Blues rather than undercover Dortmund fans. It's clear a huge proportion of our fanbase has fallen out with European football and it can't all be UEFA's fault.
The half and half wankers filled the seats that the season ticket holders couldn't be arsed with
 
You are overthinking it as always...
You're being a knob as usual and adding nothing to the conversation.

On ignore you go again. This time for the final time, so I don't have to read your drivel ever again. (cue a sarcastic reply)

Apologies to everyone else for another instigated spat by Superbia in Proelio.
 
You're being a knob as usual and adding nothing to the conversation.

On ignore you go again. This time for the final time, so I don't have to read your drivel ever again. (cue a sarcastic reply)

Apologies to everyone else for another instigated spat by Superbia in Proelio.
You do though, every stand has different sections, standing, seated, corporate etc the only difference is the hotel which is not a problem anyway.
 
As many have eluded to already but making an incessant noise for 90 mins just becomes background noise can’t lift the team when required
I used to live on Manchester Road at Thornley Park incessant noise of traffic went unnoticed for 15 years only realised this when we moved to leafy Cheshire lol

A good old Come on City Come on City is far better than that Nuremberg Rally we saw last night
 
The half and half wankers filled the seats that the season ticket holders couldn't be arsed with
The season ticket holders didn’t sign up for the sanitised tourist event that European home games have become. It’s not a question of can’t be arsed, it’s just not very interesting. My first season ticket was 1974 and tbh I’d rather watch us play Birmingham than Bayern Munich because I have history with them. European aways are fun but after Istanbul my hatred of UEFA hit such levels I’m loath to subsidise their shit competition. Yes I know the players love it, the owners crave it but it does nothing for me. Don’t mistake disdain for apathy.
 
Not read the thread but seeing fucking that fucking idiot with a loud hailer in South Level 3 last night..I had to double take I really did.

Just fuck off. Idont care who it is or what you are trying to do but what a load of bollocks that was
 
The season ticket holders didn’t sign up for the sanitised tourist event that European home games have become. It’s not a question of can’t be arsed, it’s just not very interesting. My first season ticket was 1974 and tbh I’d rather watch us play Birmingham than Bayern Munich because I have history with them. European aways are fun but after Istanbul my hatred of UEFA hit such levels I’m loath to subsidise their shit competition. Yes I know the players love it, the owners crave it but it does nothing for me. Don’t mistake disdain for apathy.
It was a high-quality, exciting game of football.
 

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