Atmosphere 2024/25

[bobbyowenquiff]

I was bored for most of last night. Watching fans from abroad getting giddy over a dull game like that is a bit surreal and I can’t say I am that excited about the remaining 3 matches at home. I’m not even planning on watching the away games live, just the BBC highlights. Or I might not bother at all until the knockout stages.

Luckily watching City is not compulsory.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

I didn't know where to post this really, so in here it will go! I've been thinking about last night's game a lot since the full time whistle and I can't shake this uneasy feeling I have. The whole night just felt really off about it, and I think it's because it's the most egregious example we've seen so far of football feeling like something you'd experience stateside. It was pure undiluted capitalism and it felt a little gross if i'm being honest.

Firstly, thousands of fans voted with their feet at the ridiculous ticket prices, obviously motivated by a hungry money hunt from the club. That left City with a crowd of tourists and newer fans - all there to 'experience' City. I don't blame them at all, they tried their best, but it just isn't the same atmosphere. It isn't their fault that football is this way, but we can't deny the effect it has on the night. Then you add to that the absurd nonsense of wearing an away kit at home. The reasoning behind that? Marketing. I wouldn't mind, but it's not even a kit in honour of City's heritage. It's essentially a marketing tool for a band reforming. We willingly sold out our club colours in a game that was a rerun of arguably the biggest night in the club's history to basically push a kit that is more or less a tribute to a band. Money....the kit is fucking shite too, which doesn't help.

Then when you consider the competition itself has changed dramatically, for money, leaving a confusing mess of a format that will feel inconsequential for a long time. A bunch of games, all random, all disconnected and all just a long slog until the inevitable big team qualifications...well yeah, the whole night just felt like a money grab, with a side serving of football. I understand some won't care about this and accuse me of being dramatic, but I don't think it's ever been that overt. Last night it felt like football and City changed in front of our eyes, or at very least we saw the direct result of this aggressive pursuit of money, and worryingly it only feels like the tip of the iceberg. It's not going to get any better.

There will be more kits at higher prices, more game at higher prices and fans will be pushed out. Can't wait for adverts at half-time in the stadium and even more 'innovations' that take the game closer to the dream NFL model of intense profitability at the expense of the consumer. A Champions League game of that magnitude should not feel like a preseason game, but it did. I really can't shake the feeling that last night things changed a lot, and personally i didn't like it at all. It's a crying shame.

The CL never gets going till the knock out stages.

 

[EastMidlandsBlue]

You did well getting home. I got in at that time and I only live in Wythenshawe.

Did you walk?

 

[pride in battle]

Great post. These games for me I don’t feel like I’m attending a city game anymore. We may as well play at Wembley, as the core fan base isn’t being considered.

Unless Im getting you mixed up. Have you considered making a YouTube video about this? It would make for a really interesting discussion.

Over the top reaction on here as usual

 

[M23 Citizen]

Does your missus read this and you’re hiding what you actually did for a couple of hours after the match?

Did you walk?

Well, there were a couple of Old Fashioned cocktails between the Etihad and home!

 

[pride in battle]

If only half the tourists could actually understand the alphabet. Had group of 4 tourists trying to move people from seats in row W in our block and the steward had to point out to them their row was actually row M. And then the selfie brigade standing in the aisles when your trying to watch the games. Feels like we've sold our soul as a club now to tourists and half and half scarves.

Utter bollocks, tourists ? ffs half our 'legacy' fans are the like the walking dead, half the younger age group in ss1 DON'T sing, what do you expect ?

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Over the top reaction on here as usual

This thread has become dominated by people who seem to be trying to outdo each other by saying how much they dislike watching City. It’s a free choice. During the 1980s thousands deserted the club because they didn’t like the matchday experience with just 20,000 in a deserted Maine Road. Some of us chose to stay to follow the club through thick and thin. That was also a free choice.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Over the top reaction on here as usual

How is it over the top? The crowd is completely different for champions league games compared to say premier league or cup games. Lots of long standing city fans don’t attend these games, which can make it feel very different. Similar to the community shield was my example.

Pricing plays a big part in that and can directly affect the atmosphere.

I’d say the reaction on here is pretty similar to what I’ve seen online or heard from city attending mates. Lots of people were priced out of attending and rightly don’t agree with it.

 

[Jazzyblue]

As for playing in the fourth kit. Don't even get me fucking started on our "relationship" with that mildly talented smug fucker who comes to about five games a season, four of which are freebies from his pals in London and the other which is almost always the last day of the season when the league's on the line. Akanji has even said he got Bernardo confused with the linesman at one point. The headline that it's the fastest-selling City shirt of all time is complete horseshit - the fastest-selling fourth shirt maybe because we've never had a fourth shirt before, but for no other reason. If they insist on us wearing it in the Champions League, at least keep it to away games. That's the kind of shit Barca, Bayern, Madrid, etc. do and we're just copying them. Playing in away kits at home should have been banned after the Middlesbrough game in 2005.

You made me laugh with this bit. As another Manchester band put it:

'Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package!
Re-evaluate the songs
double-pack with a photograph
Extra Track (and a tacky badge)'

Oasis were a marketing juggernaut then - kids who didn't really like music before lapped the whole 'theme park Manc' thing up - and it's the same thing now. Except they're not aiming it at kids in Sevenoaks like they were in '94, they're aiming it at kids in South Korea.

For me though, I don't blame 'tourists' for killing the atmosphere - there just aren't enough of them to do that. I've been all over the ground at all types of games and in every case the number of people with grey hair and local accents outnumbers everyone else.

 

[pride in battle]

How is it over the top? The crowd is completely different for champions league games compared to say premier league or cup games. Lots of long standing city fans don’t attend these games, which can make it feel very different. Similar to the community shield was my example.

Pricing plays a big part in that and can directly affect the atmosphere.

I’d say the reaction on here is pretty similar to what I’ve seen online or heard from city attending mates. Lots of people were priced out of attending and rightly don’t agree with it.

Yawn...