Atmosphere - 2023/24

[franksinatra]

I dont think there are any excuses for the poor atmosphere on saturday, who cares if it is 12.30 KO, doenst stop us from singing. We showed we can sing after the goal for 5 mines then went flat again, sorry but if going to a game one and half hours early effects how vocal we are then we are always going to have flat atmosphere. In the grand scheme of things why should it make a difference ?

Again we had fans going for a beer in 115 area at 35 mins, we where one nil up and going forward for a goal ffs.

The change is the culture and why we go to watch football, this is changing. Then the fans seem to come up with other reasons.

As for pep comments, needs to keep things like that to himself, it isnt going to help at all. Not his best publicity stunt by a long way.

I did not think the atmosphere was the worst but I can see the reasons why it was not the best either. In many ways it was the perfect storm for a lesser atmosphere. Kick off time/sense of jeopardy and type of game.

Obviously there is logic in why should an earlier kick off time impact on the atmosphere but it does, not just at City, but up and down the country. Many fans travel long distances to get there and so for many its an early start and to be honest It can leave you feeling drained. I consider myself one of the more vocal fans but after leaving my house at 4:30am I was a bit half-hearted myself.

The game itself was a tight affair and although City were the better side you always felt, particularly as the game went on, Liverpool would have their say and from 1-1 it was pretty much a non-event.

Also as much as I love and admire the artistry of Peps football, were still very much an english crowd and react to goalmouth action/incidents. We played some lovely football, at times, against Liverpool, but it was more triangles, beating the press, slick one touch football than pressure exerted on the oppositions goal. More the stuff you sit back and applaud, rather than football which makes you jump out of your seat.

Still we go again. Its been miles better the atmosphere this last year, than previous seasons so don’t think we have too much to beat ourselves up about.

But you are correct the culture of football has changed considerably. You can go back to the early 90s and young fans would be congregating on the Kippax from 1:45 or earlier trading songs with the opposition fans. That culture amongst a lot of young supporters has gone. Too many other distractions in life nowadays. Its the same at running events, do a half marathon, 10 miler, Park run etc and the biggest age group will be forty plus.

 

[Sheikh rattle and roll]

Perhaps if the club really wanted an atmosphere they could merge the singing sections that are currently divided by an away end !-
Oh wait they are going to do that with the stadium extension
Also they could do a Newcastle and put the away end up in the gods of Level three
It cuts both ways

 

[Greenandblue]

There is a huge problem with ticket distribution. I was in 306, near the back. 4 of us together, 3 empty seats beside me, 2 on our right, 3 more in front, 2 behind. I counted at least 20 in a very small area around us. I don't care about empty seat jibes, that game is sold out since last July, so every seat is sold, but there are Blues on this and other forums begging for tickets, but very few were offered, none were reappearing on the planner as returns either. This isn't really a season ticket holder part of the ground, so I don't accept it's simply ST holders who can't make a 12:30 game, and who don't relist them, that's not credible.

There were scousers everywhere, a whole row behind us were ejected, and many more outbreaks of scouser spotting in adjacent blocks, and you can tell from many around us that they were at best neutral, and many were at their first game. But this game has a minimum previous attendance requirement, it was a safety issue, many non-regular Blues didn't qualify for tickets.

I think the club sells thousands of tickets to agencies, Stubhub and Livefootball had hundreds available for this game, they have still about 1,000 available for Spurs and the Derby. Say they get 3,000 from the club at £70 each. That's £210k. They generally sell these for about £250 each for the big games, (after they add fees etc), so if they only sold 2,500, they'd still pull in £625k, a huge profit. They don't care about the other 500 they bought from the club, the "sold but empty" problem which we all see. They have no incentive to reduce prices, or discount the remaining tickets, economically they are much better leaving them empty than selling more cheaply.

Their purchasers don't need memberships, don't need a purchase history, don't need to be City fans. The club likes it because it broadens the global fan base, the resale sites have greater reach, and the punters are likely to buy more in the club shop. Also the "game sold out" narrative helps the resellers, so you're "lucky" to get those secondary tickets for a big game £250.

That's why we have significant numbers of "sold but empty" seats in certain parts of the ground, why we have opposition fans of Liverpool, Arsenal, United and others in the back rows of the third tier, and why we have passionless casual observers in significant parts of the ground.

The club is hugely popular at the moment, we could fill the ground with enthusiastic genuine fans. If the club wanted to improve the atmosphere by selling tickets at face value to passionate fans, without an "all comers" JCL ticket lottery, or through the touting agencies, they could fill every single seat with loud Blues. They choose not to do that. It drives me nuts seeing so many empties at big "sold out" games, with huge unmet demand on the bluemoon ticket forum.

It's the wrong policy, for so many reasons, but they won't listen though. It's easy to knock the atmosphere at times, and blame the fans, but the club's own ticket selling policy is a very significant part of the issue. Easier to blame us than change that apparently.

 

[Danny Hoekman]

It was like a CL game. The amount of tickets that the club sold to tour operators and third party agencies for the game on Saturday was astonishing. I haven't seen that many half'n'half scarfers from all parts of the globe for a league game before.

 

[mancityvstoke]

It was like a CL game. The amount of tickets that the club sold to tour operators and third party agencies for the game on Saturday was astonishing. I haven't seen that many half'n'half scarfers from all parts of the globe for a league game before.

yeah the half scarfers ....who the fuck wears Liverpool colours ??

piss boiling behaviour

 

[jrb]

Perhaps if the club really wanted an atmosphere they could merge the singing sections that are currently divided by an away end !-
Oh wait they are going to do that with the stadium extension
Also they could do a Newcastle and put the away end up in the gods of Level three
It cuts both ways

City can’t. A percentage of the fans have to be pitch side. PL rules. Newcastle and the Rags get special dispensation from the PL. With the Rags it’s due the location of their disabled section below and to the side of the away end. With Newcastle it’s probably down to the size of the stand and not being able to split the home fans and the away fans safely.

When the NS is expanded City should move the away fans currently in SSL3 and put them in the corner of the East stand, blocks 111, 110 and 109, and give the the current away seats in SSL3 to City fans. Obviously fans in 111, 110, 109 would have to relocate. Give them first refusal on the expanded North stand seats, or they could move over to SSL3, SSL1 or to another part of the ground. Arsenal and Spurs put away fans in the corner of their stadiums. That way all of SSL3 would be full of City. SSL1 would stay the same. And we’d also have a proper home end when the North stand is expanded. Most of the vocal support you hear comes from the away fans in SSL3. Let’s move them to the corner of the ESL1 where their vocal support would make less of an impact.

 

[jrb]

City and the stewards should ban half and half scarfs from the start of next season. It’s too late now. Fans should be asked politely by stewards to remove their half and half scarfs and to leave them on the table. Yes it would piss City and football fans off initially, but word would soon get around. That way it would stop the hawkers from selling half and half scarfs outside the ground. If City fans want to buy a ‘City scarf’ there are plenty of official shops and cabins around the ground to buy a City scarf.

 

[PDBLUEMOON]

Pep, just focus on the pitch and don’t be worrying about what we are doing in the stands and pissing everyone off with your crap comments about the atmosphere to the media. Giving every fucker ammunition to have a go at us again. It was basically fucking freezing, shit 12.30 kickoff and a bastard to get there, but we got there and some of us then went straight to work to complete a 12 hour shift, moaning bald twat.

 

[TivvyBlue]

It was like a CL game. The amount of tickets that the club sold to tour operators and third party agencies for the game on Saturday was astonishing. I haven't seen that many half'n'half scarfers from all parts of the globe for a league game before.

Especially for a game that you had to have bought 5 games over the last two seasons to qualify for. American lad in front of me in 119 spent the whole game on his phone texting his pals about the game rather than watching it. Even put in a message "we need to do Arsenal v Chelsea next".

Is it any wonder the atmosphere was flat when there's 100s of blues who couldn't get a ticket are left to watch in the pub or at home. If the club wants to sell them to tourists and keep an atmosphere, shove them all in a couple of blocks in tier 3 out the way so the rest of us can keep an atmosphere going. The early kick offs don't help, barely an atmosphere in the pub on Saturday.

 

[Bantamgaz]

City and the stewards should ban half and half scarfs from the start of next season. It’s too late now. Fans should be asked politely by stewards to remove their half and half scarfs and to leave them on the table. Yes it would piss City and football fans off initially, but word would soon get around. That way it would stop the hawkers from selling half and half scarfs outside the ground. If City fans want to buy a ‘City scarf’ there are plenty of official shops and cabins around the ground to buy a City scarf.

Only a clueless seeyouhentea would wear one of them and that should come with a lengthy ban