Etihad Atmosphere - 2021/22

[Northblue]

Genuinely curious, as I might have a small chance of relaying this to someone at the club...what does everyone think all the problems are currently re the matchday experience, the issues around attendance/atmosphere etc are and what would you do about them? All suggestions welcome.

I don't know what the main issue is or whether it's even anything the club can control (If people just cba for example) but one thing that could help (if only a little) is the service at halftime.

It's very noticeable that half the stadium aren't back in their seats until the 50th minute or so which gives a very dull start to the second half where in some cases we might need that energy.

I'm not saying a pint or chips are a necessity at HT but clearly a lot of people don't mind missing a couple of mins of the game to queue for one - I'm guilty myself of queuing for 15 mins and thinking "I've got this far, may as well see it out" but started binning it off the past couple of games, would be nice if we could still queue up and get served in time to be back in our seats. I think that could help.

 

[Eds]

Genuinely curious, as I might have a small chance of relaying this to someone at the club...what does everyone think all the problems are currently re the matchday experience, the issues around attendance/atmosphere etc are and what would you do about them? All suggestions welcome.

You can start with all the nonsense with digital tickets, transferring them and even buying them via the website. In fact the the website needs a major overhaul to be more fan and user friendly. More staff outside to enable queues to go down quicker, better parking would also help. Why am I queuing to get into a car park which uses ANPR? It's because the steward manning the entrance wants to see proof that we have paid in advance. But when cars see a sign for a car park and don't know you have to pay in advance they slow everyone down so maybe huge signs telling people this basic info would help and then we don't get queues. Also having stewards who are meant to direct cars where to park would do their job better if they weren't on their phones. Not even inside the ground yet!

 

[carlosthejackal]

Genuinely curious, as I might have a small chance of relaying this to someone at the club...what does everyone think all the problems are currently re the matchday experience, the issues around attendance/atmosphere etc are and what would you do about them? All suggestions welcome.

The atmosphere is not really any different than any other premier league club , all seater stadiums have killed it throughout the league , hopefully the safe standing experiment will improve it .
Ticket prices are a big issue , we are still mainly a working class fan base , the cost of kids tickets is especially scandalous.
I’ve zero interest in the match day experience in relation to entertainment or City square , obviously some enjoy it and good luck to them .
Very little if any consultation about mobile tickets .
Queues to get in are a joke, decided to arrive late for the kick off rather than spend twenty minutes queuing.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Genuinely curious, as I might have a small chance of relaying this to someone at the club...what does everyone think all the problems are currently re the matchday experience, the issues around attendance/atmosphere etc are and what would you do about them? All suggestions welcome.

the main issue for me is that we don’t have a proper home end. We have a few blocks separated by away fans.

one of the few clubs without an actual home end.

My suggestion: when we expand or even before that, we need to add rail seating into the north stand and create a home end there. Move the family stand to another area.

we could even build a large second tier in the north stand and create a home end there. We’ve gotta do something as what we have now is rubbish

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Genuinely curious, as I might have a small chance of relaying this to someone at the club...what does everyone think all the problems are currently re the matchday experience, the issues around attendance/atmosphere etc are and what would you do about them? All suggestions welcome.

The biggest issue facing the club is the one that they are ignoring: the atmosphere.

Young fans are as interested in the atmosphere and the singing and the noise in the stadium as they are the football. It is exciting to them. It is the reason they decide to become a fan: they want to be part of that "tribe". If the club make the effort to improve this, and there are readily available solutions, they will increase the matchday attendances and fanbase. Lots of old fans have also stopped attending for this reason.

To create a real big match atmosphere the whole ground need to make noise. Basic human psychology means that if people around them are making noise, they will too. Nobody wants to be the only person in the whole block singing. The layout of the ground and the singing sections are all wrong to achieve this aim. If the singing comes from one "leading" source, one area, more people will join in more because it is louder and it will spread both ways at once around the stadium instead of just one. Currently, noisy away supporters mean that both singing sessions cannot hear each other so do not sing together and often sing two seperate songs at once. the rest of the stadium will NEVER join in when this happens.

The club missed an enormous opportunity to make this change when the South Stand Top tier opened. That should have been called The New Kippax and cheap season tickets offered to fans in the existing singing areas. But there must be other ways to achieve this. The most obvious of course would be to relocate the away fans into the east stand and move the fans in the corner singing area into the south stand (almost a straight swap) so they are next to the current vocal supporters. But there are other potential solutions which can't be hard to find.

Ultimately efforts to improve the atmosphere by creating one single singing area will increase the fanbase by improving the matchday experience for everybody and will of course help the team. It is ridiculous that these relatively simple steps to change the club's culture have never been taken.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Genuinely curious, as I might have a small chance of relaying this to someone at the club...what does everyone think all the problems are currently re the matchday experience, the issues around attendance/atmosphere etc are and what would you do about them? All suggestions welcome.

Thanks. The more feedback the better. I enjoyed your Goater interview on Saturday by the way. The reason less people were watching though on such a nice day was that it was impossible to get served with food and drink by the stage (not even water) because the service was terrible with long queues.

My ideas are:

1. Better public transport (especially night games) The club, TFM and City Council need to sort this out, starting with shuttle buses into town down bus only lanes, taxi rank, more trains if possible.

2.The experience in the ground in my block (East Stand Upper) is dire. No chance of ever getting food and drink in the stadium because of crap service (been like this for 10 years now)

3. Creative ticket pricing as we have done in the past like the Hamburg game

4.Clearer information about purchasing tickets. It is almost impossible for walk-up fans to get tickets. Why not have a stand-by system as they do at other grounds. The website is a disaster. It should be the primary source of ticket info along with social media

5.More leadership from the club. Fans have been demoralised by the negative media campaign. We need to come out fighting in public. Khaldoon should speak more and defend our business model.

 

[stan bowles]

The biggest issue facing the club is the one that they are ignoring: the atmosphere.

Young fans are as interested in the atmosphere and the singing and the noise in the stadium as they are the football. It is exciting to them. It is the reason they decide to become a fan: they want to be part of that "tribe". If the club make the effort to improve this, and there are readily available solutions, they will increase the matchday attendances and fanbase. Lots of old fans have also stopped attending for this reason.

To create a real big match atmosphere the whole ground need to make noise. Basic human psychology means that if people around them are making noise, they will too. Nobody wants to be the only person in the whole block singing. The layout of the ground and the singing sections are all wrong to achieve this aim. If the singing comes from one "leading" source, one area, more people will join in more because it is louder and it will spread both ways at once around the stadium instead of just one. Currently, noisy away supporters mean that both singing sessions cannot hear each other so do not sing together and often sing two seperate songs at once. the rest of the stadium will NEVER join in when this happens.

The club missed an enormous opportunity to make this change when the South Stand Top tier opened. That should have been called The New Kippax and cheap season tickets offered to fans in the existing singing areas. But there must be other ways to achieve this. The most obvious of course would be to relocate the away fans into the east stand and move the fans in the corner singing area into the south stand (almost a straight swap) so they are next to the current vocal supporters. But there are other potential solutions which can't be hard to find.

Ultimately efforts to improve the atmosphere by creating one single singing area will increase the fanbase by improving the matchday experience for everybody and will of course help the team. It is ridiculous that these relatively simple steps to change the club's culture have never been taken.

Great point about the siting of the away fans killing the atmosphere.

 

[Tarzan41]

I don't know what the main issue is or whether it's even anything the club can control (If people just cba for example) but one thing that could help (if only a little) is the service at halftime.

It's very noticeable that half the stadium aren't back in their seats until the 50th minute or so which gives a very dull start to the second half where in some cases we might need that energy.

I'm not saying a pint or chips are a necessity at HT but clearly a lot of people don't mind missing a couple of mins of the game to queue for one - I'm guilty myself of queuing for 15 mins and thinking "I've got this far, may as well see it out" but started binning it off the past couple of games, would be nice if we could still queue up and get served in time to be back in our seats. I think that could help.

I agree. We’ve always taken turns to go on 37 minutes to get beers for the rest. Now you’ve got to start queuing at 30 and so we’ve sacked it after the first shambles this season. May not be much but that’s £20 per match from our group that City won’t ever see. The staff, the management and the product offered are not fit for purpose. This compounds the ticketing issues as there is zero incentive to get in early.

 

[Corky]

City fans all around the stadium in 40.5 blocks but the 1.5 blocks for away fans kills the atmosphere? Not a chance.

Cheapest seats are on level 3 will never be heard.

Fans too bothered about watching the game they paid to see.

The fans who are really worried about how it looks on TV not going to the game themselves.

Burton away showed it isn't standing that is the problem, that was the worst atmosphere ever, with away fans in the seats making more noise.

Digital tickets forced on the fanbase at the worst possible time is the final straw for some people, and the club not being contactable to sort out any issues.

 

[Keeper!]

Genuinely curious, as I might have a small chance of relaying this to someone at the club...what does everyone think all the problems are currently re the matchday experience, the issues around attendance/atmosphere etc are and what would you do about them? All suggestions welcome.

Pay on the gate, at least electronically and sit where you want, ideally be able to sit with your mates/family, not been able to do so puts a lot of people off attending.


A lot of people simply don't have time to be searching for tickets etc.

Wednesday night pay on the gate and I think you would have had a lot of causal fans turning up to attend.