City Matters thread

[LEXSTARproject]

So sad to see all these comments on multiple threads about how the club is treating the fans, so sad to see loads of empty seats at the stadium. So sad to see that you can't even get a response from the club.

The only thing that the club will see is demonstrations, like what happened last season.

City Matters needs to call an EGM where you tell the club.

The whole ticketing issue is affecting the club so much, there needs to be a hard reset. There needs to be a hard reset on the North Stand, and postpone the opening of the new North Stand until they give the fans the BLUE WALL, an atmospheric home end with the only corporate section in the North Stand being the Sky Bar

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

The only way the club can ensure only home fans are in the home areas of the stadium would be to operate a policy that tickets can only be sold by them so they can enforce the criteria of prior match attendance being needed. If they allow the 3rd party sites they partner with to sell tickets with no criteria then it will be bedlam and an unsafe atmosphere. There is 100% a decision to be made here over fan safety v profit , sadly I know which side the club will choose. They will put home fans at risk by allowing their partner ticketing sites to sell tickets to anyone with no criteria so long as they are able to pay the inflated price on the relevant website. Can city matters flag this concern now and ensure us fans concerns are aired , if the club then choose to ignore that then whatever happens next is on them

Gala have huge numbers of fans based in the UK and the Manchester area. I know some who also follow City. They say that most Gala fans hate United and LFC but like City after Istanbul so hopefully it won’t kick off. The only major trouble we have had was with Celtic but they behaved like animals. Poznan fans were everywhere but they get on well with City so there was no trouble. They have a fierce reputation in Poland though. Let’s hope the Gala match is a dead rubber as well.

 

[Chappie]

Gala have huge numbers of fans based in the UK and the Manchester area. I know some who also follow City. They say that most Gala fans hate United and LFC but like City after Istanbul so hopefully it won’t kick off. The only major trouble we have had was with Celtic but they behaved like animals. Poznan fans were everywhere but they get on well with City so there was no trouble. They have a fierce reputation in Poland though. Let’s hope the Gala match is a dead rubber as well.

Pep went out of his way last week to makesure it won't be.

 

[Ryan Kinlon]

Gala will be a tough sell no matter what, but I don’t see how the club get this right. To avoid the risk of half the seats being empty, you’d think they’d require some sort of previous purchase history. But knowing the club, it’ll probably end up on general sale, which could easily lead to trouble.

 

[uwerosler28]

Gala will be a tough sell no matter what, but I don’t see how the club get this right. To avoid the risk of half the seats being empty, you’d think they’d require some sort of previous purchase history. But knowing the club, it’ll probably end up on general sale, which could easily lead to trouble.

It doesn't matter if the club impose previous history or not on their selling rules , so long as they still release 1000's of tickets to their partner ticket selling sites who don't operate any criteria it will be irrelevant whatever they try and impose.

 

[East Level 2]

It doesn't matter if the club impose previous history or not on their selling rules , so long as they still release 1000's of tickets to their partner ticket selling sites who don't operate any criteria it will be irrelevant whatever they try and impose.

Nonsense. There were no Leeds fans in home areas on Saturday, we're there?
Or did I get that wrong?

 

[jrb]

Thank God we’ve got independent fans groups that refuse to suck up to the club, and will fight for the fans. Even City Matters are onboard now, which will be a concern for the club.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Gala will be a tough sell no matter what, but I don’t see how the club get this right. To avoid the risk of half the seats being empty, you’d think they’d require some sort of previous purchase history. But knowing the club, it’ll probably end up on general sale, which could easily lead to trouble.

As above, having ticket restrictions makes no difference at all. The amount of tickets on third party sites mean previous purchasing history is irrelavant

 

[percypawpaw]

We need to start demonstrating like last season then they will listen, like last season. I am a season ticket holder in the 93:20, after being relocated by the club over 3 years ago from a seat I had been given after leaving Maine Road, the 93:20 is full of half and half scalf, I have been watching City for over 60 years and grew up on the Kippax, so trouble has never been a problem for me over the years, I am surprised that what happened against Leeds hasn't happened before, but for certain it will happen again unless changes are made, the club don't listen anymore, so we need to make them listen with action.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Thank God we’ve got independent fans groups that refuse to suck up to the club, and will fight for the fans. Even City Matters are onboard now, which will be a concern for the club.

View attachment 176361

what have they signed?

 

[Manchester1894]

For me the biggest issue is when there is a seat waiting to be filled the club obstruct a Mancunian from attending. Every fan should have a supporter number only as an identifier.
If you've ever had a seasoncard in the history of the club you should be exempt from having to buy a membership and be able to buy any ticket immediatey.
If you've never had a seasoncard and attended over 20 games, the club also have enough verification to identify you as a fan.
Anything below that threshold should required a membership. The quicker you get to the 20 game mark, helps boost attendance, especially in the early cup rounds.

Scrap "have you attending x amount of games in the last few seasons"... measure the loyalty as a whole first. Someone with 20 points over two seasons could be a smart away fan attending just their teams fixture". If they revert back to the loyalty point scoring, we'd be allowing the ex-sc/and matchday fans with thousands or hundreds of points to quickly book without a financial penalty.

 

[jrb]

When the club bring in facial recognition, which they will do, we all know it’s coming, as the installed facial recognition cameras aren’t not just for City staff, regardless of what the club have already said, which will probably be another lie by the club, this will have a huge impact on our home support as well. Tickets that are passed on to people via phones won’t work, and those people will be turned away. Those people passing on their tickets via phones to other people will probably be suspended, and may have their season tickets taken off them. Whilst this is going on people who have bought tickets from the clubs 9 ticket touting partners, including away fans, will still be able to get inside the Etihad via some kind of agreement between the club and the clubs 9 ticket touting partners.

 

[jockblue]

When the club bring in facial recognition, which they will do, we all know it’s coming, as the installed facial recognition cameras aren’t not just for City staff, regardless of what the club have already said, which will probably be another lie by the club, this will have a huge impact on our home support as well. Tickets that are passed on to people via phones won’t work, and those people will be turned away. Those people passing on their tickets via phones to other people will probably be suspended, and may have their season tickets taken off them. Whilst this is going on people who have bought tickets from the clubs 9 ticket touting partners, including away fans, will still be able to get inside the Etihad via some kind of agreement between the club and the clubs 9 ticket touting partners.

So what exactly can the club do to combat the contrasting demands of the above two posts and the need to keep away fans out of home areas...

Because lets face it, if I can buy tickets for a game because I've been to a few games five years ago, and I dont need to worry about transferring that ticket to one of my mates or some bloke I know from the pub, I'm not sure how you cannot expect a load of these tickets ending up in the hands of mates of mates who are away fans. It was alleged (and sorry, I've no idea if that's been debunked) that the Leeds fans involved in the 9320 incident were brought in by a City ST holder. So what you're asking for is the wild west that exists in corporate areas being extended to the whole ground.

One thng the club could and should do is restrict the sale of tickets it gives to our 9 official touts to specific parts of the ground. If that leads a "neutral" section then so be it - matchgoing blues can be safe in the knowledge that they wont be bothered by away fans or influencers taking videos of themselves, and can create the atmosphere we all expect.

 

[East Level 2]

They would have to get inventive, the home section already expands in that stand when the away team dosent fill it & contracts for cup games
Maybe discounted unreserved seat season tickets. Wouldnt be any worse than on a champions league game with thousands of extra tourists trying to find a seat ;-)
Premier League/Health & Saftey probably wouldnt allow a cash turnstile, but cheaper tickets in an unreserved stand would appeal to some of our fans

Worked OK in the old Platt Lane stand when I was a regular in there from 1968-72.

 

[East Level 2]

For me the biggest issue is when there is a seat waiting to be filled the club obstruct a Mancunian from attending. Every fan should have a supporter number only as an identifier.
If you've ever had a seasoncard in the history of the club you should be exempt from having to buy a membership and be able to buy any ticket immediatey.
If you've never had a seasoncard and attended over 20 games, the club also have enough verification to identify you as a fan.
Anything below that threshold should required a membership. The quicker you get to the 20 game mark, helps boost attendance, especially in the early cup rounds.

Scrap "have you attending x amount of games in the last few seasons"... measure the loyalty as a whole first. Someone with 20 points over two seasons could be a smart away fan attending just their teams fixture". If they revert back to the loyalty point scoring, we'd be allowing the ex-sc/and matchday fans with thousands or hundreds of points to quickly book without a financial penalty.

What if you support a club that doesn't have records going back before 2003? Seriously, the club only have a record of those who had STs transferred from Maine Road. The would have no record of someone who had an ST from 1975 to 1995 for example and no records whatsoever of away games attended before the points system was introduced.
But I agree with your point in general and anyone who has had an ST since we moved to the Etihad should not be required to purchase membership, or at least make membership a one-off payment not an annual fee.

 

[Saddleworth2]

These are the minutes from the November meeting. It might be an idea for one of the reps to post them on here when they are released.

https://www.mancity.com/meta/media/uagfzomy/city-matters-november-2025-meeting-minutes.pdf

 

[Mike_F]

Was this the only recommendation City Matters had for helping ensure local fans continue to feel important?

How about things like:
- Reduced ticket prices for people with an M postcode?
- Significantly reduced ticket prices for people living in areas close to the ground like Ardwick, Newton Heath, Beswick etc

I'm not saying these suggestions are perfect and am sure there are better ones. More that if this was the only suggestion City Matters had then that's disappointing.

 

[Saddleworth2]

View attachment 177108Was this the only recommendation City Matters had for helping ensure local fans continue to feel important?

How about things like:
- Reduced ticket prices for people with an M postcode?
- Significantly reduced ticket prices for people living in areas close to the ground like Ardwick, Newton Heath, Beswick etc

I'm not saying these suggestions are perfect and am sure there are better ones. More that if this was the only suggestion City Matters had then that's disappointing.

I thought the whole content was extremely bland but that may be just how the minutes have been written by the club. I hope the discussion about the 10 personal attendance rule went much further than has been minuted. We shall see.

 

[Corky]

So after 6 PL games 200ish have already defaulted 4 times and possibly lose their season tickets with no way of making up the numbers.

I surprised there wasn't much made of this, there will be others with 3 and 2 likely to do the same over the coming months and could end up in the 1000s.

 

[Eric Hitchmough]

View attachment 177108Was this the only recommendation City Matters had for helping ensure local fans continue to feel important?

How about things like:
- Reduced ticket prices for people with an M postcode?
- Significantly reduced ticket prices for people living in areas close to the ground like Ardwick, Newton Heath, Beswick etc

I'm not saying these suggestions are perfect and am sure there are better ones. More that if this was the only suggestion City Matters had then that's disappointing.

Be good to get an answer to Mike’s question if possible @CityMatters-LeeB