Great post.
I think this boycott was badly thought out in that this is the first game since winning a treble and as you say this team deserve our support.
In my humble opinion it was enough to get a first initial victory of moving to 4pm from a ridiculous 5.30pm.
Great work and thanks to 1894 for this.
Disruption that affects the TV companies in £ Is the only way.
Zebra pants excepted united did a great job getting a game called off, imagine that impact a few times during a season.
I did not want to be sat in a half empty City end so am really happy that fans that dont often get to see us are getting a chance.
I do care what other fans think of our support so was dreading the ridicule.Im not a soft arse, its just when we were shit I was always so proud of our support, it was all we had, the red shirts will never understand that.
Its a shame 1894 and the like are not there as the atmosphere will be flat without them I suspect.
Morning mate as a member of 1894 got to come back on you here. A boycott is a boycott. People either do it or they don’t. A huge number of regulars are boycotting it. The club know this now and I would hope would have the wishes of the “legacy” fans in mind. I say you would hope but they don’t care. They now know by making it general sale and letting any tom dick or harry (and 4 of their mates) in our end they can fill the end but it does not solve the problem. They have had to do this to quash the boycott. 2 years ago it would have comply worked. What we didn’t account for was the club throwing regulars under the bus (people who always go sacrificing a game to make a point) only to be replaced by the club saying well we have other people who can go now. We have new fans.
Remember it was fans contacting 1894 to start a boycott in the first place and us throwing weight to their wishes not 1894 saying i know let’s have a boycott and thousands of fans meekly following suit like sheep.
Other regular Blues wanted to go and no in the 1894 leadership has any beef with any Blue who feels they need to be there. There are of course circa 2000 members in 1894 some will be going. We just feel it will make things a lot harder to push back.
If everyone everywhere boycotted a game and whole stadium things would change overnight. If City v Utd can be played at 3pm then no need for this to be played at 4pm as Arsenal fans can walk there. It’s us with the inconvenience and anything else is just accepting TV diktat.
1894 stood alone to challenge 5.30 when other groups didn’t want to rock the boat (other than some on Citymatters) but we got the initial win.
It would have been easy to “accept” the 4pm concession and dress that up as look at what we’ve achieved but we genuinely felt that the game should be earlier and fans were even saying why can’t they move it to Villa Park.
We put out a tweet about the boycott and within 24 hours sky sports, talksport, five live, radio mcr, hits radio, the MEN and others had all contacted 1894. When you have momentum to drive a point home you don’t end the campaign there. We know full well the FA were highly unlikely to move the game again from 4pm to 3pm but if that’s a time which ensures an excellent turn out (from our regulars.. because they can bring families with them and get home at a more reasonable time) then why not.
The principle is still right. Game should be earlier and when deciding 4pm the FA didn’t consult with fans, the most important stakeholder, just the police, the broadcaster and the local council. The sales after 2 days show we were right in what we were arguing for.
Kick off times are now a National conversation but it’s takes all fans to collectively make a sacrifice to change things - ie get concessions for fans written into the next deal - however can’t happen if people aren’t strong minded enough to forgo a glorified friendly. At 6.30 pm (should we win) you’ll be starting to fight your way back out of wembley- coaches for the 3pm cup final derby got back at 1am. As soon as that game is over on 6th August the problem will not have gone away.
You say it was the wrong game. Given every other game this season is a competitive game when would be a good game to make a point? Sunday 7pm kick offs come on next season. We could have Palace away after xmas in January on a sunday at 7pm. When they could play it at other times that weekend. We will have less power to challenge that game directly now... club will just make it general sale from day 1 at any hint of a boycott and fill it with anybody again.
If club announce season tickets go up or quarter final of a champions league is £80 and fans want to walk out on 80 minutes to stop it, we cannot pull it off because people aren’t strong minded enough to see it through.
We are all being played mate. They know there’s a blind loyalty out there. We at 1894 have a good connection with most regular match going Blues but it will be a challenge for us to make current football issues relevant to some of the newer fans or matchday members desperate to go. These kick off times affect us all and people may look back at this game in the future and go... we should have boycotted it.
