City Fans Leaving Early/Empty seats

I watched Barca v PSV the other night, must have been easily 50,000 short of capacity.

Nobody poking fun at them, simply because this is a stick to only beat City with, as there is nothing left to keep our rivals warm at night.

It's a cheap hit for the media now, too.

I have never read any match report citing every seat being taken, simply because it's irrelevant in the first place.
 
Marvin said:
It's open 24 hours (online) however there looked like there were some admin problems. I doubt that was significant.

City should be pleased that we have so many new supporters. This is not me guessing. I know from looking at the ticket sales online that that was what was happening. And if you read the annual report you will find that City had 125,000 unique fans in the home areas last season (almost certainly the bulk from Cup games). On the debit side a lot of seasoncard holders don't go unless its a weekend.
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If that includes away fans then it's not quite so impressive as they'd account for nearly half of that.
 
I believe the only way you're going to get the majority of season card holders buying CL group game tickets is by having a pricing policy for the three games, so let's say £50 for all three and then a guaranteed latter stage pricing incentive for supporters who signed up.
So as another example, if City qualify, the season card holder who bought the three game package will not be charged any more than £25 per ticket no matter who City are drawn against in the knock out stages, right up to and including the semi final

The first knock out game could be against a so called lesser team, in which case to fill the stadium City would price the tickets at £15 to everyone. On the other hand it could be Bayern Munich, so CL cup schemers would pay £25 everyone else is £40, £50 or £60
 
City are at home. I’m there. There is NOTHING better then going to the match, whatever the opposition, whatever the competition. Chance to head into town, have a few bevvies, meet mates, chat shite, go to the game, back to town, couple more bevvies, train home, bingo, Great day/night whatever the result. I fucking love going to the match.
 
heres an idea. if you want a full ground in mid week. why not just make all champions league games 10 quid. it would sell out and there'd be a good atmosphere. league cup games last season against wolves and lots of cup games prove that. we got a full ground against wolves midweek - so its not the traffic...

the entire ground last night didnt feel like a city match. it was all about tourists and plastics. theyve forgotten about the clubs core fan base
 
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johnnytapia said:
City are at home. I’m there. There is NOTHING better then going to the match, whatever the opposition, whatever the competition. Chance to head into town, have a few bevvies, meet mates, chat shite, go to the game, back to town, couple more bevvies, train home, bingo, Great day/night whatever the result. I fucking love going to the match.
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I knew you were the bingo type.
 
Cheadle_hulmeBlue said:
heres an idea. if you want a full ground in mid week. why not just make all champions league games 10 quid. it would sell out and there'd be a good atmosphere. league cup games last season against wolves and lots of cup games prove that. we got a full ground against wolves midweek - so its not the traffic...

the entire ground last night didnt feel like a city match. it was all about tourists and plastics. theyve forgotten about the clubs core fan base
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I'd like to see us try £10 games. Think it'd sell out for first few games at least.
But overall i just don't think we have enough fans locally (yet). The prices for this 3 CL package isn't too bad but as you say a fair chunk of last night's crowd were tourist types and we still only sold 40k. There's obviously a combination of factors that have been listed in this thread & no doubt it costs too much for some of us. But our prices are comparable to others in the CL
Personally i don't have a problem with our crowds. People can only afford what they can and we only have the fanbase that's out there (for now). We've all stuck by City for 20+ years but I think we need another 10 yrs+ to rebuild and add on to the local fanbase to be able to sell out these sort of games.
We'll get there.
 
WNRH said:
Going to the match is all about routine.

You leave at the same time, normally with the same people, take the same route, same pre match rituals whether that be programme, food, drink.

When you get out of that routine, it is hard to get back into it. I fell out of that routine four seasons ago, still got my season ticket but i now find it a chore to go to the match.

Many reasons happen for getting out of the routine, family, work commitments, finances. For me it is simply the pain and the stress of actually getting to the ground. Long traffic ques, park miles away with a 20 min walk, then a 20 min wait to get in sometimes with awful security measures (i sit in SS3), shit pre-match shenanigans, shit half time shenanigans and the the tiresome journey home in traffic. The only thing about the so called "Matchday experience' that is great is the game itself, which i can see on TV anyway, in the comfort of my home without all the stresses noted above.

For me, too many city fans have lost that routine. It starts by knocking off league cup games (which i did), then FA cup (which i did) and now Champions League (which i have). The point where it was all lost for me was the Liverpool second leg last year where i decided to watch on TV instead of paying £40+ to see it live. I can never say i will never go to another Champions League game again but the chances aren't very likely as i will always favour the stress free option which i now actually prefer.

This may not be the same for most city fans but it is something that i have noticed with those i know or close to me.

Every City fan should be applauded for going tonight but for all the right we have done both on and off the pitch the last 10 years, unfortunately IMO it has been at the expense of what really matters and that is the match going fans and it will only deteriorate in the coming years as the club continue to ruin it and the sport itself becomes more and more saturated on TV.

For something so simple to get right, the club and the sport have overkilled it all and you get the product that is served up now.
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Have to agree with a great deal of this.
I’m lucky that I have a lot more spare time these days but in the past I would have finished work, driven home, had an easy to prepare tea and theb bundle the Mrs and the kids into the car at about 6:30 for a 7:45 game. Used to take us about 40 minutes to drive, 20 minutes to walk to the ground and get straight in at 7:30 with just enough time for a very swift pint.
Now it would take at least an hour to drive in, still a 20 minute walk, then a twenty minute queue which means leaving about 6pm and leaving no time for a swift pint, which is part of the ‘match day ritual’.
So it’s an earlier start, so less time for tea, no pint, and getting home about 11ish.

If I was still in full time employment I just wouldn’t be arsed.
 
fallowfield said:
I'd like to see us try £10 games. Think it'd sell out for first few games at least.
But overall i just don't think we have enough fans locally (yet). The prices for this 3 CL package isn't too bad but as you say a fair chunk of last night's crowd were tourist types and we still only sold 40k. There's obviously a combination of factors that have been listed in this thread & no doubt it costs too much for some of us. But our prices are comparable to others in the CL
Personally i don't have a problem with our crowds. People can only afford what they can and we only have the fanbase that's out there (for now). We've all stuck by City for 20+ years but I think we need another 10 yrs+ to rebuild and add on to the local fanbase to be able to sell out these sort of games.
We'll get there.
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i dont agree. i think we do have the fan base now and theres thousands of locals who dont go swell. as i said the league cup games showed we can sell out. hamburg a few years ago we sold 17,000 tickets in a few hours from what i remember. I'm not saying make every game dirt cheap, but if you want to sell out and create an atmosphere thats the best way of doing it. you make some good points mate and your right its a combination of factors.
 
Two Gun Bob said:
Cost implications the weather a not fit for purpose transport system,little johhny at school dad at work the next day.Some might say we had some good deals on offer but you cannot just factor in the ticket price because the ancillaries have to be taken into consideration like scoops of ale a bite to eat and transportation.For two of us our bill was £150 and we took it easy.Two tickets tier 2 @£75.Transport £35 food and drinks £40.A Minimum wage worker so that cost us half a weeks wages for a night out but our choice how we spend our hard earned wonga. Same again at Fulham so it's not a cheap pastime by any means.The exodus on 81 minutes tonight looked rather dramatic and slightly akin to a fire drill but I guess they have all paid the ferryman and do we really have a right to judge why people don't stay to see us pull of that late equalizer.If their "matchday experience" dictates an 80 minute outing then fair fooks to them as were all different.See you all in the Fatherland. Meinn gott !
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Jeez mate, that’s a lot of transport from south Rozendorf
 
Cheadle_hulmeBlue said:
heres an idea. if you want a full ground in mid week. why not just make all champions league games 10 quid. it would sell out and there'd be a good atmosphere. league cup games last season against wolves and lots of cup games prove that. we got a full ground against wolves midweek - so its not the traffic...

the entire ground last night didnt feel like a city match. it was all about tourists and plastics. theyve forgotten about the clubs core fan base
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Wolves game was during half term,so a big change in demographic of those who can attend.
 
Tim of the Oak said:
Sorry mate but Liverpool have “ten times as many fans”. Maybe in Outer Mongolia but not match going fans. People can do whatever they want with their time and 50 percent of our weekend Premier League fanbase chose not to go last night. Fair enough.

We’ve had years of so called “tourists” filling in the gaps at CL and other Cup games. Now they’ve wised up to prioritising the “big games”. They can pick and choose tickets from forums (and from The Club at the start of the season) so why are they going to warm a seat for less glamorous ties until the people who were too busy decide to go to a final
or semi final.
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You make a valid point.
There have been posters in the past who have gone, say, to three out of four cup ties and then can’t get a ticket for the final because they go to seasoncard holders who have not been to a single game in the comp.
We need to look at other ways of rewarding ‘loyalty’
 
CityPar said:
Agreed. What I can't get my head past is the fact that ManUre, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea.....all seem to manage to get sellouts or pretty much close to on CL nights. Regardless of times or transport or anything else for that matter. This looks to me like it's an issue for us only. But if we're being honest even on a Saturday the Etihad resembles a picnic outing. Can't remember the last time we really had the place totally full and rocking.
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So far from the truth. Have you not seen the top tiers of the cesspit deliberately kept in darkness?
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
I watched Barca v PSV the other night, must have been easily 50,000 short of capacity.

Nobody poking fun at them, simply because this is a stick to only beat City with, as there is nothing left to keep our rivals warm at night.

It's a cheap hit for the media now, too.

I have never read any match report citing every seat being taken, simply because it's irrelevant in the first place.
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Nail on head there Tolm
 
squirtyflower said:
Jeez mate, that’s a lot of transport from south Rozendorf
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Its not off peak between 1600 hours and 1830 hours.South Dorf to Rochdale train station by Taxi circa £9.Two returns on Northern rail at £16.Taxi from the dale back home £9.It would have cost more but we decided to yomp it back from the ground to Victoria to burn off the splendid chicken dinner we had @Llyods nos 1.
 
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