Community Shield - Arsenal (N) | Sun 6th Aug - 16:00

[wearethesouthstand]

I’m not sure where he said people didn’t have the right to decide for themselves mate.

I do agree about the ticket sales point though - the criteria was announced before sales started and part of City’s job as a football club is to sell tickets to fans. Community Shield games at Wembley always have a more relaxed selling criteria than semis and finals because so far we haven’t sold one out. I’m quite sure that the Liverpool game in 2019 was even more relaxed in that it was on general sale for days on end and you didn’t even need a membership to buy one.

The 4pm kick-off time suits a lot more of our fans than a 5.30pm kick-off so I’m not sure what your point is there.

It usually isn’t 3 hour windows of 5,000 points each, cityzens junior can buy 4 (ie just buy a membership on day 3 and buy as many as you want immediately) and it isn’t usually general sale any points from 1pm on day 3. They knew the regulars were boycotting - applications into supporters club branches were right down- so they had to do something drastic to quash the boycott... which is what they have done

 

[blueparrot]

I’m not sure where he said people didn’t have the right to decide for themselves mate.

I do agree about the ticket sales point though - the criteria was announced before sales started and part of City’s job as a football club is to sell tickets to fans. Community Shield games at Wembley always have a more relaxed selling criteria than semis and finals because so far we haven’t sold one out. I’m quite sure that the Liverpool game in 2019 was even more relaxed in that it was on general sale for days on end and you didn’t even need a membership to buy one.

The 4pm kick-off time suits a lot more of our fans than a 5.30pm kick-off so I’m not sure what your point is there.

Yes I wasn’t meaning to say he was saying people shouldn’t go, I was just trying to ask what he thinks the club could do to support any boycott other than refuse to sell tickets to those that do or have decided to go.Don’t think anyone can blame the club for the arrangements.
As for myself ,due to my own personal arrangements that weekend I could have got to the 5.30 but not the 4.00 :)

 

[BringBackSwales]

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.

I am going with my sons and am sorry if you feel a lot of us are letting you down, I understand that. I genuinely admire what the 1894 group do and especially the efforts you go to to enhance the atmosphere at the Etihad. It’s an unfortunate fact that the Community Shield and FA cup semi finals are played at Wembley; we saw how many more City fans than Chelsea fans were in attendance when the CS was played at Villa Park, yet we still get smug cockney cunts (arsenal chelsea united liverpool) taking the piss when they don’t have far to travel, and we always have to make such a big effort; what 1894 do is marvellous and it pisses all over the pathetic OSC in this respect - Kevin Parker is useless and makes an absolute tit of himself and the club when he comments publicly .

However the bigger issue for me isn’t the CS being played at 4 on a Sunday during the school holidays, it’s the distribution of tickets to OSC members for fa and league cup final and semi final tickets, CL final tickets and away matches in general.

How the fuck can the club and the OSC justify priority tickets for the Champions League final (and it will be an even bigger issue if we get there at Wembley) to people just because they are in an OSC and know an OSC chairman (but might only go to the odd game) over people who have season tickets, go to every home game and as many away games as possible? Why dies their OSC membership give them more entitlement than the loyalty points of my kids who have been season ticket holders since they were 5? It’s completely unjustified and utterly fucking disgusting, and as a fan base we should be all over this. No problem with OSC’s at all, and if OSC membership allows OSC members to sit and travel together that’s fine, but an OSC member’s loyalty points should be worth no more or less than a non-OSC member’s loyalty points. I also think the complete lack of visibility of exactly how many tickets have gone to supporters clubs, and how many to members who aren’t even on the relevant cup scheme is fucking shit

 

[Oystercatcher28]

If our boycott appears as a huge percentage of overseas fans, and less fans that are of the traditional variety, it's a victory for the F.A., Wembley, and those who line pockets. The more I think about it, the desire in football is about the quick and easy money. Went to a few nonleague friendlies this week and felt more connected than any Community Shield. That's a shame. This joyous charity and community benefit game kick off time and venue has divided proper fans.

 

[wolfie1988]

I need 3 in the lower tier if anybody hears of any. Just assumed it wouldn't sell out and we'd have the pick of our end but that's obviously not the case.

Don't think my 6 year old will engage with it if we're sat in the gods!

 

[chaddblue]

I'm genuinely shocked if we've sold 31k out of 31.5k.... thought we'd be lucky to have 10k in there

 

[wearethesouthstand]

I am going with my sons and am sorry if you feel a lot of us are letting you down, I understand that. I genuinely admire what the 1894 group do and especially the efforts you go to to enhance the atmosphere at the Etihad. It’s an unfortunate fact that the Community Shield and FA cup semi finals are played at Wembley; we saw how many more City fans than Chelsea fans were in attendance when the CS was played at Villa Park, yet we still get smug cockney cunts (arsenal chelsea united liverpool) taking the piss when they don’t have far to travel, and we always have to make such a big effort; what 1894 do is marvellous and it pisses all over the pathetic OSC in this respect - Kevin Parker is useless and makes an absolute tit of himself and the club when he comments publicly .

However the bigger issue for me isn’t the CS being played at 4 on a Sunday during the school holidays, it’s the distribution of tickets to OSC members for fa and league cup final and semi final tickets, CL final tickets and away matches in general.

How the fuck can the club and the OSC justify priority tickets for the Champions League final (and it will be an even bigger issue if we get there at Wembley) to people just because they are in an OSC and know an OSC chairman (but might only go to the odd game) over people who have season tickets, go to every home game and as many away games as possible? Why dies their OSC membership give them more entitlement than the loyalty points of my kids who have been season ticket holders since they were 5? It’s completely unjustified and utterly fucking disgusting, and as a fan base we should be all over this. No problem with OSC’s at all, and if OSC membership allows OSC members to sit and travel together that’s fine, but an OSC member’s loyalty points should be worth no more or less than a non-OSC member’s loyalty points. I also think the complete lack of visibility of exactly how many tickets have gone to supporters clubs, and how many to members who aren’t even on the relevant cup scheme is fucking shit

Hi thanks for the kind comments on 1894 and no way do we think anything bad of anyone. We felt we want to make a stand and encourage a boycott if there’s not an earlier kick off. Our regulars have a wembley fatigue and we were saying make it easier for them to go. We would want people to understand and respect our point of view and so we also understand and respect their point if view. We are all Blues.

 

[CatMan]

I'm genuinely shocked if we've sold 31k out of 31.5k.... thought we'd be lucky to have 10k in there

We have not sold that many at all. 2 blocks in both the upper and lower tiers were never released. One of those upper tier blocks on the south side, has it appears been shaded white not grey, and will probably, if not already, be given to Arsenal.

 

[wearethesouthstand]

If our boycott appears as a huge percentage of overseas fans, and less fans that are of the traditional variety, it's a victory for the F.A., Wembley, and those who line pockets. The more I think about it, the desire in football is about the quick and easy money. Went to a few nonleague friendlies this week and felt more connected than any Community Shield. That's a shame. This joyous charity and community benefit game kick off time and venue has divided proper fans.

And soriano who perhaps sees established fans as blocking the way to increasing match day revenues. There could be a train of thought which was get rid of season tickets and have 53,000 apply each time for a match ticket at double the price

 

[M18CTID]

Yes I wasn’t meaning to say he was saying people shouldn’t go, I was just trying to ask what he thinks the club could do to support any boycott other than refuse to sell tickets to those that do or have decided to go.Don’t think anyone can blame the club for the arrangements.
As for myself ,due to my own personal arrangements that weekend I could have got to the 5.30 but not the 4.00 :)

Fair enough.

It’s unfortunate that you now can’t make it. There will always be outliers where a kick-off time that is inconvenient for the majority is convenient for others. Many fans would like every game to kick off at 3pm on a Saturday but there will always be examples where a 3pm Saturday kick off doesn’t suit everyone.