City Fans Leaving Early/Empty seats

[hateutd]

I’m 55yrs old. City fan since 10yrs old. Always used to go to Maine Rd and stand in the Kippax. Didn’t go for about 15yrs. Up until 18 months ago I was a season ticket holder for about 10yrs, East Stand Level 2. Great seats. Paid £850 per season for league games only. Paid the extra for all cup games. When the Aguero Bar got built my season ticket alone went from the £850 to £1,750. At least Dick Turpin wore a mask! I wrote to the club complaining how they could justify such a disgraceful increase. They didn’t even have the decency to reply to a life long fan. I couldn’t justify paying that amount for where I’ve sat with many many friends for years. So I stopped going. So did most around me. Some moved to cheaper seats. But the club doesn’t want true fans anymore, they want what ManUre do, Liverpool, Arsenal etc and just want the corporate business and the tourists who will buy a half&half scarf, a programme, a meal, some merchandise etc spending £250 or more for the experience. Then they wonder why there’s so many empty seats and there’s no atmosphere. Go figure. I hate not going. I really miss the buzz of walking up those few steps to see the inside of the stadium and the pitch. Now I just watch it on telly and listen to my rag mates laugh at the emptyhad. But at least that’s all they can laugh at now to deflect away from how superior we are on the grass.

 

[talkativesprout]

That does not mean there were 73k in the ground, just because the official website says so, especially if they have a compulsory purchase scheme. From the pictures I saw, there were plenty of empty seats.

Are you saying they manipulate the figures?...surely not

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I’m 55yrs old. City fan since 10yrs old. Always used to go to Maine Rd and stand in the Kippax. Didn’t go for about 15yrs. Up until 18 months ago I was a season ticket holder for about 10yrs, East Stand Level 2. Great seats. Paid £850 per season for league games only. Paid the extra for all cup games. When the Aguero Bar got built my season ticket alone went from the £850 to £1,750. At least Dick Turpin wore a mask! I wrote to the club complaining how they could justify such a disgraceful increase. They didn’t even have the decency to reply to a life long fan. I couldn’t justify paying that amount for where I’ve sat with many many friends for years. So I stopped going. So did most around me. Some moved to cheaper seats. But the club doesn’t want true fans anymore, they want what ManUre do, Liverpool, Arsenal etc and just want the corporate business and the tourists who will buy a half&half scarf, a programme, a meal, some merchandise etc spending £250 or more for the experience. Then they wonder why there’s so many empty seats and there’s no atmosphere. Go figure. I hate not going. I really miss the buzz of walking up those few steps to see the inside of the stadium and the pitch. Now I just watch it on telly and listen to my rag mates laugh at the emptyhad. But at least that’s all they can laugh at now to deflect away from how superior we are on the grass.

Why didn’t you just move? I’ve got one of the best seats in the stadium and it’s less than the £850 you used to pay.

 

[cadds92]

Is that strictly true though?

Off Wikipedia:

England was the first country in the world to develop codified football, coming about from a desire of its various public schools to compete against each other.

If the origins of association football lie within public schools it was hardly the poor that kicked it all off over here.

Maybe it was different in South America and continental Europe.

 

[franksinatra]

I’m 55yrs old. City fan since 10yrs old. Always used to go to Maine Rd and stand in the Kippax. Didn’t go for about 15yrs. Up until 18 months ago I was a season ticket holder for about 10yrs, East Stand Level 2. Great seats. Paid £850 per season for league games only. Paid the extra for all cup games. When the Aguero Bar got built my season ticket alone went from the £850 to £1,750. At least Dick Turpin wore a mask! I wrote to the club complaining how they could justify such a disgraceful increase. They didn’t even have the decency to reply to a life long fan. I couldn’t justify paying that amount for where I’ve sat with many many friends for years. So I stopped going. So did most around me. Some moved to cheaper seats. But the club doesn’t want true fans anymore, they want what ManUre do, Liverpool, Arsenal etc and just want the corporate business and the tourists who will buy a half&half scarf, a programme, a meal, some merchandise etc spending £250 or more for the experience. Then they wonder why there’s so many empty seats and there’s no atmosphere. Go figure. I hate not going. I really miss the buzz of walking up those few steps to see the inside of the stadium and the pitch. Now I just watch it on telly and listen to my rag mates laugh at the emptyhad. But at least that’s all they can laugh at now to deflect away from how superior we are on the grass.

Although I have sympathy for the price increase with your profile you could have had first choice in the top tier 3. Tickets which are significantly better than the view you had previously for a fraction of the price.

If you genuinely hated not going and missed the buzz so match you could sit somewhere else. It sounds more like a lifestyle choice which is fair enough but it is your choice.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Worst seats in the stadium are front and center to the cameras in the CB Stand. When it rains they get pissed wet through, and the view at pitch level in a stadium like ours isn’t the worst there is. Therefore, they are some of the last to be sold, are the cheapest season tickets, which means probably not Cup Scheme tickets, and as one can readily see from the pictures, many of those seats are taken by parents with young kids, who need to get home quicker than most.

There will ALWAYS be people who leave early, and they will often be the same seats that are left vacant when we don’t sell out.

Who cares? United will win the “average attendance” trophy this season. Yea them! I’d rather watch the football I’m watching, seeing the results I’m seeing, and actually win some trophies this season. They can have the “average attendance trophy!”

Btw, does that get you into the Champions League or the Europa League for next season?

 

[ffs]

We have a core fanbase of 30k and another 10 to 15k of blues who have given up and can't stand the matchday experience anymore. Feel like a chore going to that ground these days regardless of how well we play, just watched the 2012 season under Mancini and you can see the difference.

I totally agree with the Mancini comment if you watch any game back from that season you can feel the atmosphere. But I don’t agree with your statement of 30,000 core definitely not! We’ve had 42000 season ticket holders now for ten years.
But I think the point is that we lost generations of young supporters during the 80s90s00sand that takes generations to build back up, to which I think we are actually way ahead of Were we probably thought we would be 10 years ago.
I agree the corporate support as fucked things up for some at the stadium and the only way around this problem is to build on the north stand and reduce tickets to maybe £189 a season ticket. I said 30 years ago that if city got it right on the pitch we would get 63000 through the turnstiles. We’re at 54500, now in 5 years time and more titles in the bag we will achieve that goal. The more we winge and woman about the atmosphere etc nothing will change. Everybody has got a voice I suggest next time your in the stadium use it as loud as possible ctid

 

[Rosler's Grandad]

I don't get on as often as I'd like- prices are hard if you have an average job. I've been a City fan since I was 10 years old, despite coming from Preston (1981 was my first game at Maine Road).
I've lived in Liverpool the past 7 years and had 4 years in London. So every game has been an "away" game for me.
But City- although not in my blood biologically, have been a way of life for 35 years. I've seen them all over the country.
Now my lad comes with me too, has all my old shirts and dvd's -first shirt had a 5 on it for Tommy Caton, that I got done, or rather my mum got done, in a sports shop in Preston.

But I can honestly say I've never left a game until the players are off the pitch. Maybe it's because I don't get as many chances these days and maybe it's just manners.

But I know this much- it's something City fans never used to do.

I remember being on Ewood at Easter the year Blackburn won the title and Horton was manager and laughing at the band wagon Rovers fans heading for the door.

The game has changed but some things are not for the better.

 

[Ban-jani]

I’m 55yrs old. City fan since 10yrs old. Always used to go to Maine Rd and stand in the Kippax. Didn’t go for about 15yrs. Up until 18 months ago I was a season ticket holder for about 10yrs, East Stand Level 2. Great seats. Paid £850 per season for league games only. Paid the extra for all cup games. When the Aguero Bar got built my season ticket alone went from the £850 to £1,750. At least Dick Turpin wore a mask! I wrote to the club complaining how they could justify such a disgraceful increase. They didn’t even have the decency to reply to a life long fan. I couldn’t justify paying that amount for where I’ve sat with many many friends for years. So I stopped going. So did most around me. Some moved to cheaper seats. But the club doesn’t want true fans anymore, they want what ManUre do, Liverpool, Arsenal etc and just want the corporate business and the tourists who will buy a half&half scarf, a programme, a meal, some merchandise etc spending £250 or more for the experience. Then they wonder why there’s so many empty seats and there’s no atmosphere. Go figure. I hate not going. I really miss the buzz of walking up those few steps to see the inside of the stadium and the pitch. Now I just watch it on telly and listen to my rag mates laugh at the emptyhad. But at least that’s all they can laugh at now to deflect away from how superior we are on the grass.

I’m currrently paying £299 and like my seat.

My ticket prices went up and I moved.

You should have done the same as I currently have the best value in the country watching football.

 

[PW]

I'm getting really fucked off with all this shit about empty seats, it's just the only thing left that we can be criticised about. Last week I tried to pick up a couple of extra tickets for my eight year old nephew and much to my surprise I was infored that I couldn't get two together for any day time league games. Due to my nephews age a late night mid week game is out of the question, so this got me thinking. A lot of season ticket holders with kids might not go for this same reason, or like my parents who are both season ticket holders in their eighties feel the cold at night are not in the best of health and feel vulnerable may choose not to go.

One of the biggest differences between us and the vermin is that we tend to have fans who simply go to the game having one or two sherbets before, during and after the game, wheres a large portion of scum fans make a trip out of it, taking in shit tours and stopping in hotels in Manchester . That cost some serious brass and its not beyond the realms of possibilities that it plays a role in fans attending the games. We don't have a mass of Irish fans who come over the water, or a big southern contingent who can boost the numbers and simply have to make the numbers up out of our limited but loyal following. I wouldn't give a fuck if I was sat with twenty people watching the game because those twenty would be a dam sight more loyal, humble and dare I say local than them glory hunting self entitled cnuts.