City Fans Leaving Early/Empty seats

[Blue Pete]

Am I the only one who doesn't care about empty seats? I go, I don't leave early. If others don't go or do leave early why does it matter?

 

[philiph20]

Frankly embarrassing stuff. Its a semi-final of a trophy and hardly anyone was bothered to come at £25 (£15 in some areas!!).

How many times must Pep and mancity beg us to show up??

It was a crowd very much in excess of our previous two semi finals in this competition. As much as a third and possibly more of our season ticket holders don’t attend cup games full stop and it is their choice, we don’t have a lot of day trippers and tourists and when regulars don’t attend there aren’t enough to take up the slack. I’m not embarrassed in the slightest personally.

 

[kevin horlocks wand]

It was a crowd very much in excess of our previous two semi finals in this competition. As much as a third and possibly more of our season ticket holders don’t attend cup games full stop and it is their choice, we don’t have a lot of day trippers and tourists and when regulars don’t attend there aren’t enough to take up the slack. I’m not embarrassed in the slightest personally.

Me neither , night matches are a nightmare to get to the ground and back, given proximity to centre and rush hour it’s just deadlock. Add to that school night it’s tricky. Fair play to those blues who made the effort.

I will be at anfield.....

 

[oldhamblue]

Our core support is around the 30-35k mark. I would rather have 15k empty seats, rather than them seats being taken by JCL's in half and half scarves taking selfies throughout the match, or filming the entire match on their ipad

 

[philiph20]

The last survey of season ticket holders highlighted 68.3 percent were from Greater Manchester with the other 31.7 percent from other areas of the Uk with notable concentrations around Leeds, Edinburgh and of course London.

There is nowhere near enough local fans, are fans who wish to attend, to replace the 13/14k plus from outside Manchester.

This is highlighted at Cup games and even Champs lge nights, where arguably non-local fans are less likely to purchase, where even at slashed prices the matches usually do not sell out.

Interesting stats but I’d argue the overwhelming majority of the 30% live just outside the GM boundary in places like Poynton, Wilmslow, Macclesfield, Glossop, Warrington, Chorley etc.

When fans are interviewed outside the ground at least 9/10 have local or localist accents and rest in many cases are long established blues from supporters clubs such as Cheltenham and Gloucester, Leicester and Rugby etc.

There was an article in the Independent a couple of years ago mentioning City’s ever increasing supporter base overseas but indicating that the increase post takeover in the Uk was negligible, having said it we continue as we are our support nationwide with kids will go through the roof.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Frankly embarrassing stuff. Its a semi-final of a trophy and hardly anyone was bothered to come at £25 (£15 in some areas!!).

How many times must Pep and mancity beg us to show up??

Which part of the ground were you sat in while you were suffering this bout of embarrassment?

 

[Gaylord du Bois]

Frankly embarrassing stuff. Its a semi-final of a trophy and hardly anyone was bothered to come at £25 (£15 in some areas!!).

How many times must Pep and mancity beg us to show up??

Hmmmm. Best start to a season in the history of English football and you've barely posted a thing on City. Manchester City, that is.

 

[Bill]

Am I the only one who doesn't care about empty seats? I go, I don't leave early. If others don't go or do leave early why does it matter?

Same here.
Thing is as a fan base we are not well off. Some are but not many. Some clubs from just outide of Manchester draw their support from the wealthier South of the country. Even then in fear of PR not looking good they force fans to attend cup games with the season card.

 

[Indaparkside]

Am I seriously reading this on a football forum?? It's a winter sport, there will inevitably be lots of games in the "cold and dark", stick an extra layer on. Anyhow it's Manchester, any time it isn't pissing it down is a bonus.

Heard it all now it was cold and dark ffs, we'll speak to spion Bob and borrow some candles from anfield

 

[oakiecokie]

I left last night with 5 minutes to go.Had I not I would have probably have been thrown out of the ground for using foul and abusive language at Sane and Mangoman,who drove me to near suicide,with their inept displays.
Besides,I was bursting for a piss,so it wasn`t worth all the effort of trying to get back to my seat.
I had just walked out of the ground when Sergio scored.
Do I regret it ? Do I fuck. Shit happens.
Having watched the Blues for 54 years, I don`t get upset with early leavers or empty seats.Why would I ?

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

The jist of this thread for many appears to be what other people think about our club , the "embarrassment " of empty seats that can be clearly seen on the telly. Well for a start we know who started this load of bollocks from across the road and they sing it along with their nursery rhymes. The simple fact is on any given Premier league match day it is virtually impossible to buy a seat , so the club have sold all the tickets , other people can say what they want but our support and loyalty cannot and should not be questioned when you take into account the thirty odd barren years many have suffered.
But dont get me started on the early leavers , i can never understand why anyone leaves a match early , does it really matter that much if you get home between 15-30 minutes later because of the congestion after a game ?

 

[blueinsa]

The jist of this thread for many appears to be what other people think about our club , the "embarrassment " of empty seats that can be clearly seen on the telly.

Nailed it.

They cant cope with a few texts or facebook messages unfortunately.

 

[blue by birth]

Frankly embarrassing stuff. Its a semi-final of a trophy and hardly anyone was bothered to come at £25 (£15 in some areas!!).

How many times must Pep and mancity beg us to show up??

43,000 is hardly anyone bothering to come...
Yeah we should be selling out with the football we play but realistically we weren't going to play our strongest team and money is in short supply after Christmas.
As I have mentioned before it's a nightmare getting home from night games on the tram but last night wasn't too bad apart from 15 minute wait for bloody thing to turn up but at least it was a double.
I honestly think people have bought into the empty seats propaganda that SKy,BBC etc love to mention.
FFS there are loads of empty seats at the swamp but they tend to be hidden in the top stands and covered by them not lighting the stands.
The media and other fans have fuck all to beat us with as we are far and away better than any other team in the Premier league so out come the seat counters...Fuck the sad bastard's.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Frankly embarrassing stuff. Its a semi-final of a trophy and hardly anyone was bothered to come at £25 (£15 in some areas!!).

How many times must Pep and mancity beg us to show up??

It's the clubs fault too.

All the years of upping just regular SC prices (mine has gone from £475 to £800 in six seasons). Moving all those fans out of the North Stand and providing them with either worse seats or splitting them up from people they've sat with for a long time. Moving fans out of their seats to create corporate areas and [again] cases of fans not being given seats next to who they've sat with before. Making fans in the East Stand walk all the way up to the bridge or all the way round the ground just to walk back to Town because we can't walk straight out of Entrances K and G due to away fans' fencing off (doesn't happen at any other big grounds in this country). And City's obsession at aiming everything at out of town'ers and foreign fans...

Despite the fantastic football some people have grown tired of coming so if they don't have to, they won't. And in many many cases long standing local fans have just fallen away from our support in droves. So in games like last night when a lot of SC holders won't bother their seats aren't being filled and the usual matchtickets aren't being sold out because City can't replace them with out of town'ers and foreigners because it's midweek and the local fans aren't being targeted by the club anymore so they aren't buying.

 

[BurnCK]

The jist of this thread for many appears to be what other people think about our club , the "embarrassment " of empty seats that can be clearly seen on the telly. Well for a start we know who started this load of bollocks from across the road and they sing it along with their nursery rhymes. The simple fact is on any given Premier league match day it is virtually impossible to buy a seat , so the club have sold all the tickets , other people can say what they want but our support and loyalty cannot and should not be questioned when you take into account the thirty odd barren years many have suffered.
But dont get me started on the early leavers , i can never understand why anyone leaves a match early , does it really matter that much if you get home between 15-30 minutes later because of the congestion after a game ?

I'm not embarrassed because of other fans comments, more embarrassed that our fan base can't even turn out for a semi-final, regardless of opposition. I can guarantee there would have been a lot more there if it was versus Arsenal or Chelsea. I can also guarantee that a lot who didn't turn up last night will be clambering for final tickets if we get through.

As for early leavers....leaving a game on 80 mins seems to be the norm now. It's not just a few, it's streams of them. I usually leave deep into injury time just so I'm not stuck queuing to get out but with 5-10 mins to go? No chance.

 

[oakiecokie]

The jist of this thread for many appears to be what other people think about our club , the "embarrassment " of empty seats that can be clearly seen on the telly. Well for a start we know who started this load of bollocks from across the road and they sing it along with their nursery rhymes. The simple fact is on any given Premier league match day it is virtually impossible to buy a seat , so the club have sold all the tickets , other people can say what they want but our support and loyalty cannot and should not be questioned when you take into account the thirty odd barren years many have suffered.
But dont get me started on the early leavers , i can never understand why anyone leaves a match early , does it really matter that much if you get home between 15-30 minutes later because of the congestion after a game ?

You sound like one of the "I`m a better supporter than you because I stayed till the end". Do you want a fucking badge ?
People leave early for varying reasons.Some people have trains to catch.If you live miles away from the ground maybe being held up in traffic does have an effect on what time you leave the ground.
You should try and travel getting to City coming up the M56 at knock off time ... its a fucking nightmare and likewise going back home over the Mancunian Way.

 

[BurnCK]

And City's obsession at aiming everything at out of town'ers and foreign fans...

That's not really the case though is it. There's a handful of things geared to day trippers, but when we're only filling our ground vs top 4 teams why wouldn't they try to increase attendance in any way they can?

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Nailed it.

They cant cope with a few texts or facebook messages unfortunately.

Nope, complete incorrect generalisation. Football is 50% what goes on on the pitch and 50% what goes on in the stands.

Football fan culture is about making noise, atmosphere and having the good aesthetics of a full stadium. Not no noise other than from the away fans, no atmosphere and a sparsely populated stadium that looks shite.

If you think that doesn't matter then you don't understand football fan culture and are saying that every single other country and set of fans in Europe and South America are wrong.

 

[BurnCK]

I honestly think people have bought into the empty seats propaganda that SKy,BBC etc love to mention.

It's not really propaganda though is it. You can see it every week. Some weeks it's a lot more obvious.

Football fan culture is about making noise, atmosphere and having the good aesthetics of a full stadium. Not no noise other than from the away fans, no atmosphere and a sparsely populated stadium that looks shite.

I wouldn't mind the empty seats so much if there was an atmosphere. Fans just sit there making zero to little noise. Semi-final of cup and there was about 5 songs sung all night and they may as well not have bothered it was so quiet. I've experienced better atmospheres watching City in a pub...

 

[blueinsa]

Nope, complete incorrect generalisation. Football is 50% what goes on on the pitch and 50% what goes on in the stands.

Football fan culture is about making noise, atmosphere and having the good aesthetics of a full stadium. Not no noise other than from the away fans, no atmosphere and a sparsely populated stadium that looks shite.

If you think that doesn't matter then you don't understand football fan culture and are saying that every single other country and set of fans in Europe and South America are wrong.

Like it or not, the league cup is now as a competition almost dead not only for clubs, especially those in the PL but also a majority of working class fans who right now are having to pay for very expensive league tickets, CL tickets and also FA cup tickets.

Stick that game in the Emirates or the meccano set last night as just 2 examples and its also half empty. That's the reality. I've just been on the Bristol City forum and yes they brought 8000 fans last night, it was a cup final game for them so its understandable but a quick look finds their own fans moaning about a shit atmosphere when they played Wolves just the other week so its every club up and down the country.

All seater stadium, increasing costs have not helped and clubs now chase a different demographic of fans, that's clear and it isnt going to change either.

As for grounds in Europe, dont kid yourself as a majority of games are played out before half empty stands as well and an example is Barca whose ground the other day was at least half empty.

Our attendances have continually gone up with us now filling a 55,000 seater every home game and i dont see a problem and if folk want to leave early whilst i dont agree, i accept its their right and i wont lose sleep over it either.