Atmosphere tonight

[TGR]

That's not bollocks, that's fact, think some people are deluded about how bad it has actually become.

So there was no atmosphere at the Liverpool game the other week?
The Chelsea game last week?
Every game during the title run in last season?

Nostalgia - it's not what it used to be...

Don't think it was a great atmosphere for either game no. Both were fairly poor. Much better than Roma, but that ain't saying much. Those games you mention were against our main title rivals, it should be absolutely bouncing in those games. The best atmosphere we have ever had at east lands was the hamburg game, ironic that it was in the lesser European competition.

The best atmosphere was the derby game against the rags when a young Shaun Wright hammered in the 4th goal! :-)

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

So there was no atmosphere at the Liverpool game the other week?
The Chelsea game last week?
Every game during the title run in last season?

Nostalgia - it's not what it used to be...

It's not nostalgia at all. The chelsea game was good but it wasn't exactly amazing, apart from when we score not much chanting. The liverpool one was average. I'm not expecting deafening noise, but come on they weren't great.

Why do people always try and make out we have a good atmosphere now, by saying main roads was shit. It's just an excuse.

I used to sit behind a guy in the Maine Stand at Maine Road ( yes I was a Maine Stand moaner) who used to read the
Daily Telegraph during the game every Saturday because he said it was more interesting than what was going on in front of him on the pitch. Maine Road was great until they redeveloped it. After that it was nothing special. In fact it was a fucking dump of a stadium. The Etihad is a zillion times better on every level.
And just for the record I went to Maine Road for the first time in '68 so iz do have some idea regarding a comparison.

I agree the actual stadium is better now. Although it doesn't quite feel like home to me yet and I prefer maine road, i feel like the Etihad is a bit of corporate bowl

. I'm on about atmosphere though. For me maine road was miles better. What's your opinion do you honestly think we have a good atmosphere now ?. Or do you think the atmosphere is better at the Etihad than Maine road.

I honestly don't see how anyone can say we have a better atmosphere now than when in our old home.

 

[The-Dogs-Pollocks]

So there was no atmosphere at the Liverpool game the other week?
The Chelsea game last week?
Every game during the title run in last season?

Nostalgia - it's not what it used to be...

Don't think it was a great atmosphere for either game no. Both were fairly poor. Much better than Roma, but that ain't saying much. Those games you mention were against our main title rivals, it should be absolutely bouncing in those games. The best atmosphere we have ever had at east lands was the hamburg game, ironic that it was in the lesser European competition.

The best atmosphere was the derby game against the rags when a young Shaun Wright hammered in the 4th goal! :-)

That wasn't bad either! But stuffing the rags should be half decent shouldn't it.

Hamburg was good right from the kick off, team played well which encouraged the crowd and even though the result didn't go our way, most people leaving the ground were proud to be a blue.

The best way to solve a problem is to admit you have one the first place. If you are happy with the atmosphere as it is then fair enough. I just hope there are other blues out there who would like to do something about it.

 

[twosips]

The powers that be are pricing games on the basis that we have the same fan base as United/Liverpool etc, we don't

I agree with that bit emphatically. City are playing the game where they are pretending that we have the drawing power of a team that has been successful for 30 years and it is starting to blow up in their faces. It is a total misunderstanding of who City are as a fanbase and how we should be prioritising different income streams.

We are a working class club from the backarse of Manchester and in terms of matchgoing fans, we skew older than most due to the success of United over the past 20 years and the constant promotion of them through SkyTV. Because we skew older our matchgoing fans can generally stretch their expenses further but it also means that we don't have the next generation of rapid teenagers coming through to bring that enthusiasm because they can't get a ticket. They are either swamped out by a bunch of 50 year olds with 7000000 loyalty points or they cannot afford to pay half their wage for one ticket.

This isn't a problem of City, it's a problem that affects the whole of English football at the top level. It's amazing to me that we see fans singing at Palace and Stoke now and we remark how weird it is where every ground in the country was like that 20 years ago.

The biggest clubs in Germany have shown the way forward and City had the chance to be the first English club to really have a go at this model. They had the club to do it, the commercial revenue streams to do it and the fanbase to do it. Yet they are pretending that they're Arsenal or United instead of just trying to be City. We are not them and no matter how many bullshit bands they put on in City Square or how many bullshit "fun competitions" they do at half time, we don't want to be them and the atmosphere and interest will continue to wane as City continue not to listen to their fans and try to be Manchester United lite instead of Manchester City proper.

Is there any way we can actually get this to someone in marketing at City? Its utterly perfect.

 

[Manchester33]

When the Family stand is expanded - I like the idea of putting the family stand in the 3rd tier to get the empty seats away from view. It would be miles better getting another Standing/Singing section behind the opposite goal for ours supporters who aren't bothered about away fans and would give us a proper end where we wouldn't be moved from!

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

When the Family stand is expanded - I like the idea of putting the family stand in the 3rd tier to get the empty seats away from view. It would be miles better getting another Standing/Singing section behind the opposite goal for ours supporters who aren't bothered about away fans and would give us a proper end where we wouldn't be moved from!

Partly agree. The Family stand should be made smaller and only contain groups who actually have U16s with them, and also offer the same price for kids anywhere in the ground so when they get older they can experience more vocal parts of the ground. But I'd split the FS over 3 levels same way as the away support is going to be.

 

[ped]

sa long as we have 2 separate,singing sections,this topic we continue,imo

 

[Manchester33]

sa long as we have 2 separate,singing sections,this topic we continue,imo

I slightly disagree with that point. It doesn't matter about the amount of singing sections (Obviously it would be better for them to be joined). I think it's got more to do with the positioning of them and obviously the amount of fans in each. Because the move to the new stadium wasn't planned as thoroughly as it should have been we've ended up with different demographics of people sat in all areas of the ground. Certain people, like myself, who sit in the quietest part of the ground should have easier access to relocate our tickets for certain games to parts of the ground where the atmosphere is generated. Another issue with the current areas is that there simply isn't enough room for the demand we have - the club wont move people out of the family stand who don't sing because they've been a season ticket holder there for however many years (and rightly so I suppose), but surely with the expansion the club could be encouraging more areas to get people into such as South Stand Level 3.

I'm assuming that the club aren't that bothered about helping improve the atmosphere, so instead they'll just get kolorov to slag it off.

 

[FanchesterCity]

I'm sure the club ARE bothered about atmosphere, but there's a limit to what they can facilitate to improve it.

- If they rearrange fan seating so encourage more singing, people are going to have to move seats. That will upset some fans, please others.

- In moving away fans, they will end up placing away fans next to fans who didn't bargain on sitting next to away fans. Again, that's going to upset a fair few fans who thought they were buying less confrontational seats.

- Even if a new seating plan is announced in good time and only implemented during the summer, fans who've settled in a particular spot are likely to have a few gripes.

Of course, none of the above are insurmountable, but it's (as yet) difficult to prove any changes really would result in a tangible improvement to atmosphere.


Then there's other stuff the club could do:

- Dimming the lights / Blue Moon imagery / Blue Moon song / Flags & Banners etc, some are more popular than others, but for the large part they are only effective for a few minutes before kick-off.

All in all, if we want 'the fans' to create more atmosphere, it's down to us 'the fans' to create it. We are capable of it, because we've done it many times. We just seem to be choosing not to most of the time these days. In that sense, we've only ourselves to blame.

 

[dobobobo]

When the Family stand is expanded - I like the idea of putting the family stand in the 3rd tier to get the empty seats away from view. It would be miles better getting another Standing/Singing section behind the opposite goal for ours supporters who aren't bothered about away fans and would give us a proper end where we wouldn't be moved from!

I take it you've never been up on the third tier?