Etihad Atmosphere - 2021/22

[blue ranger]

Loved the DJ before the champions league match. Would prefer to get rid of the match day presenters and go with that.

 

[Spurs quarter 69]

@twosips , I would say the issues are:

1. Main Singing Section trapped between the quietest stand in the stadium (Colin Bell) and the away fans, and below a corporate area. Our Singing Section is just like an away section in a home stadium instead of a collective place that songs naturally spread from, songs actually struggle to spread from there. There probably isn’t a worse place our singing section could possibly be in the stadium.

2. Main Singing Section in SSL1 far too small. If away fans fill their end, they louder than the singing section is.

3. Having two vocal areas situated where we do, like we do, creates a situation where two different songs are often sung at the same time and the rest of the ground has no idea which one to join in with. If the away fans are also singing there can be three different songs being sung at the same time, it just sounds like a random incoherent mash of noise - “oh we never win at home, standing alone, when the Saints go marching in, and all the world”.

4. The away fans; they’re in the way! I think we need to move our singing sections right across the other side of the stadium as far away from the away fans as we can get.

5. The club selling tickets on those tour/tout sites they use in the singing sections, diluting the amount of singers there. Absolutely no tourists should be in the singing areas, none, none at all! United have got strict rules about this at Old Trafford now, people aren’t even allowed to get their phones out, if they do their seat numbers are sent to the singing section lead fans who then have a contact at the club who can move them out of that area. I’m not saying we should do this at City, but there should not be any tourists in the vocal areas.

6. Fans not being in their seats at kick off. Never known a singing section anywhere that isn’t full at kick off belting out songs. But ours is regularly not full at kick off. Something needs to be done to get fans into their seats (not just in the singing sections, but stadium-wide, really) earlier.

7. Another point about our singing section not being full and belting out songs before kick off… wouldn’t actually matter if it was full 30 minutes before kick off because at the moment speaker system belts out noise so loudly that nobody can even hear what the person next to them is saying even if they’re shouting at you, never mind hear what a small singing section could be singing. Turn the bloody music down! Better still, turn the bloody speakers off full stop from 15 mins before kick off, we do not need them!

8. One that probably won’t be a popular answer… we have too many season ticket holders. We have too many people sat in the same spot year-after-year with loads of other people around them all comfortable with each other sitting in silence; and too many season ticket holders who don’t mind not turning up to games and leaving their seat empty. Our stadium needs a proper fucking shake-up. Reduce the amount of season ticket holders and disperse fans around the ground more.

9. The club are too bothered about everything but atmosphere. It’s money, money, money, money, freebies to hangers on, families, then right at the bottom of the pecking order - atmosphere. It’s great that they’ve put in rail seats but where they’ve put them in adds to the problems I’ve mentioned in points 1-4: wrong place, too small, two sections, away fans… imagine if the club had put rail seats right along East Stand Level 1 or at the other end in North Stand Level 1 instead!

10. Price rises are often too sharp and are the breaking point in losing fans. 12% rises we’ve had some years in a time when inflation has been no higher than 1.5%. I know numerous people who have given up their season ticket over the years when we’ve seen the biggest price hikes.

11. There aren’t enough cheap tickets. I’ll use an example of Bayern München - they have 12,000 cheap season tickets (about £250 a pop). How many do we have at City? I bet we don’t have 1,200. Individual match day tickets for Prem games are too high as well (if I wanted to buy my Sister and two of her kids tickets in my block for the Burnley Prem game it’d set me back £117 and her kids are 9 and 6).

12. We need a platform to put City fan culture out to the masses. The City masses have no idea about the words to songs, no idea about many songs full stop. People not in the singing sections have no way of getting their new songs into the singing sections to be sung. There’s too much of a disconnect between the singing areas and the rest of the stadium. It’s like we’re two different sets of fans. I had a look at the 1894 YouTube channel a year or so ago, and it had two videos and 9 subscribers. How the fuck is anyone ever going to be exposed to City fan culture if that’s the case?
Something that City could do is have a professional camera on the singing section all game, every game, and put together videos every week of the singing section singing songs. It could be like a Tunnel Cam series but of fans singing songs rather than what goes on in the tunnel. Do it for our away section at away games too. Put these videos on City+ and the City YouTube channel every week, get the fans learning the songs, give the singing section some motivation to sing all the time as they know they’re being filmed.

…I could probably think of a few more, but they’re the main ones I reckon.

A very simple help would be to move the cameras onto the east stand, the away fans would be far less visible like at Anfield and the Swamp. I find it irritating to find away goals so visibly celebrated on TV. Better yet shove them on top deck like at Newcastle and Sunderland

 

[stan bowles]

A very simple help would be to move the cameras onto the east stand, the away fans would be far less visible like at Anfield and the Swamp. I find it irritating to find away goals so visibly celebrated on TV. Better yet shove them on top deck like at Newcastle and Sunderland

The camera angle when we scored against Leipzig at the SS end made it look like the ground was empty - a City goal is scored and there are no fans visible from the angle of the CB stand cameras at that end.

 

[herrock]

The club are driving away long time match goers and prefer seats filled by once a season fans. We are turning into what we hated about our neighbours and it does not sit well with me. Saying that, the sight of hundreds disappearing to the bars on 34 minutes when there was an injury on the pitch, was soul destroying. You wouldn't do it in theatre so why at a football match. Last season the lad sat next to me was on his betting app for much of the game, I have moved seat this season and the bloke next to me prefers to be on facebook for a lot of the match, what is happening to us!

 

[jrb]

The club are driving away long time match goers and prefer seats filled by once a season fans. We are turning into what we hated about our neighbours and it does not sit well with me. Saying that, the sight of hundreds disappearing to the bars on 34 minutes when there was an injury on the pitch, was soul destroying. You wouldn't do it in theatre so why at a football match. Last season the lad sat next to me was on his betting app for much of the game, I have moved seat this season and the bloke next to me prefers to be on facebook for a lot of the match, what is happening to us!

People leave early to get a drink at half-time because they have to queue up. People are waiting 10-15 minutes in the queues to get a drink and some food. By the time they get a drink, and start drinking it, the 2nd half has started. Even if you get a drink straight away, tell me where else a person would down a pint in 15 minutes normally?

I waited until 5 minutes before half-time to get a pint. In the end I gave up as the queues where stretching across and along the SSL1 and CBL1 concourses. I couldn’t get a can of 7 Brothers Pilsner as they had ran out at every bar.

There were no beer carts at half-time. They were all parked up near the M2 entrance. Either they had run out of beer, or they weren’t in use on Saturday? Arrived close to kick off so went straight to my seat.

The bars don’t open until the half-time whistle goes. Apologies if I’m wrong about that.

 

[Agueroooo9320]

If you can watch the Barcelona match now and see the number of fans probably 2/3rd of the stadium is empty but not a thing said in the media. Half their tourist have left with messi lol.

 

[radcliffe1309]

@twosips , I would say the issues are:

1. Main Singing Section trapped between the quietest stand in the stadium (Colin Bell) and the away fans, and below a corporate area. Our Singing Section is just like an away section in a home stadium instead of a collective place that songs naturally spread from, songs actually struggle to spread from there. There probably isn’t a worse place our singing section could possibly be in the stadium.

2. Main Singing Section in SSL1 far too small. If away fans fill their end, they louder than the singing section is.

3. Having two vocal areas situated where we do, like we do, creates a situation where two different songs are often sung at the same time and the rest of the ground has no idea which one to join in with. If the away fans are also singing there can be three different songs being sung at the same time, it just sounds like a random incoherent mash of noise - “oh we never win at home, standing alone, when the Saints go marching in, and all the world”.

4. The away fans; they’re in the way! I think we need to move our singing sections right across the other side of the stadium as far away from the away fans as we can get.

5. The club selling tickets on those tour/tout sites they use in the singing sections, diluting the amount of singers there. Absolutely no tourists should be in the singing areas, none, none at all! United have got strict rules about this at Old Trafford now, people aren’t even allowed to get their phones out, if they do their seat numbers are sent to the singing section lead fans who then have a contact at the club who can move them out of that area. I’m not saying we should do this at City, but there should not be any tourists in the vocal areas.

6. Fans not being in their seats at kick off. Never known a singing section anywhere that isn’t full at kick off belting out songs. But ours is regularly not full at kick off. Something needs to be done to get fans into their seats (not just in the singing sections, but stadium-wide, really) earlier.

7. Another point about our singing section not being full and belting out songs before kick off… wouldn’t actually matter if it was full 30 minutes before kick off because at the moment speaker system belts out noise so loudly that nobody can even hear what the person next to them is saying even if they’re shouting at you, never mind hear what a small singing section could be singing. Turn the bloody music down! Better still, turn the bloody speakers off full stop from 15 mins before kick off, we do not need them!

8. One that probably won’t be a popular answer… we have too many season ticket holders. We have too many people sat in the same spot year-after-year with loads of other people around them all comfortable with each other sitting in silence; and too many season ticket holders who don’t mind not turning up to games and leaving their seat empty. Our stadium needs a proper fucking shake-up. Reduce the amount of season ticket holders and disperse fans around the ground more.

9. The club are too bothered about everything but atmosphere. It’s money, money, money, money, freebies to hangers on, families, then right at the bottom of the pecking order - atmosphere. It’s great that they’ve put in rail seats but where they’ve put them in adds to the problems I’ve mentioned in points 1-4: wrong place, too small, two sections, away fans… imagine if the club had put rail seats right along East Stand Level 1 or at the other end in North Stand Level 1 instead!

10. Price rises are often too sharp and are the breaking point in losing fans. 12% rises we’ve had some years in a time when inflation has been no higher than 1.5%. I know numerous people who have given up their season ticket over the years when we’ve seen the biggest price hikes.

11. There aren’t enough cheap tickets. I’ll use an example of Bayern München - they have 12,000 cheap season tickets (about £250 a pop). How many do we have at City? I bet we don’t have 1,200. Individual match day tickets for Prem games are too high as well (if I wanted to buy my Sister and two of her kids tickets in my block for the Burnley Prem game it’d set me back £117 and her kids are 9 and 6).

12. We need a platform to put City fan culture out to the masses. The City masses have no idea about the words to songs, no idea about many songs full stop. People not in the singing sections have no way of getting their new songs into the singing sections to be sung. There’s too much of a disconnect between the singing areas and the rest of the stadium. It’s like we’re two different sets of fans. I had a look at the 1894 YouTube channel a year or so ago, and it had two videos and 9 subscribers. How the fuck is anyone ever going to be exposed to City fan culture if that’s the case?
Something that City could do is have a professional camera on the singing section all game, every game, and put together videos every week of the singing section singing songs. It could be like a Tunnel Cam series but of fans singing songs rather than what goes on in the tunnel. Do it for our away section at away games too. Put these videos on City+ and the City YouTube channel every week, get the fans learning the songs, give the singing section some motivation to sing all the time as they know they’re being filmed.

13. Sort out the transport situation after the games because the skint of people who leave early (even in a tight 0-0 we need to win) is plainly fucking ridiculous!

…I could probably think of a few more, but they’re the main ones I reckon.

Hallelujah.....fuckin perfect, take a bow and if your reading this kaldoon please take note !

 

[argyle]

If you can watch the Barcelona match now and see the number of fans probably 2/3rd of the stadium is empty but not a thing said in the media. Half their tourist have left with messi lol.

They still have covid restrictions on the amount of people allowed in the stadium

 

[twosips]

Thanks everyone for the thoughts/suggestions. Somehow, weirdly, im gonna meet someone at the club tomorrow so ill do my best to relay as much of this as possible.

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

The club are driving away long time match goers and prefer seats filled by once a season fans. We are turning into what we hated about our neighbours and it does not sit well with me. Saying that, the sight of hundreds disappearing to the bars on 34 minutes when there was an injury on the pitch, was soul destroying. You wouldn't do it in theatre so why at a football match. Last season the lad sat next to me was on his betting app for much of the game, I have moved seat this season and the bloke next to me prefers to be on facebook for a lot of the match, what is happening to us!

That an individual issue specific to two people, one of whom is a gambler and the other is a twat.