Etihad Atmosphere - 2021/22

[Tim of the Oak]

So, what are we saying, Leeds filled up our empty seats in the home ends? ;-)

Some of that was happening but loads of Blues who can’t make most games got to see the match. That’s becoming a theme for games where we have an improved atmosphere.

FWIW, I gave a pair of tickets to my my mum’s carers and another to a mate for his daughter.

 

[M18CTID]

Leeds (like City) were one of the biggest clubs in England in the late 60s to mid 70s. There was a decade or so, up to about 5 or more years ago when the rugby league crowds weren’t much lower than Leeds Utd’s but they have had the bigger fan base for as long as I can remember.

FWIW, there isn’t that much overlap in the match going support between Leeds Utd and the mighty Leeds Rhinos. Many Leeds Utd fans who have an interest in rugby league will support their home town club like Castleford, Wakefield etc.

Yes Leeds has been transformed as a City over the last 25 years. It has more money and less edge to it than say Bradford. . Leeds have lots of loyal fans but also lots of JCL’s who pay £75 for membership cards, just to be able to apply for tickets. I’ve got mates who are long suffering Leeds season card holders who laugh at the JCLs paying £75 for memberships.

I’ve got a feeling Leeds are attracting a few more lions because of their rep from many years ago. FWIW, getting to and from Elland Road can be harder than going to the Etihad.

As I found out almost to my cost after Gerry Creaney's diving header in 1995! Quite a hairy walk back to the station that day ;)

You're obviously a bit more ITK about Leeds Tim but is it really true that they're extending the ground to 60,000? A Leeds fan was gobbing off on FB about it yesterday and even claimed that the club had done research that shows they could fill Elland Road 4 times over! I was tempted to ask him "Why not build a 160,000-seater stadium then?" but I couldn't be arsed as it was such a fucking stupid comment he'd made that it didn't deserve the airtime.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

As I found out almost to my cost after Gerry Creaney's diving header in 1995! Quite a hairy walk back to the station that day ;)

You're obviously a bit more ITK about Leeds Tim but is it really true that they're extending the ground to 60,000? A Leeds fan was gobbing off on FB about it yesterday and even claimed that the club had done research that shows they could fill Elland Road 4 times over! I was tempted to ask him "Why not build a 160,000-seater stadium then?" but I couldn't be arsed as it was such a fucking stupid comment he'd made that it didn't deserve the airtime.

Leeds are discussing raising their capacity from 37k to 55k. Much of that expansion would be increasing the John Charles Stand (away fans side if the ground these days) to a similar height to the big stand across the pitch. Leeds could certainly get more fans in a bigger stadium but it’s hard to know by how many, as the glamour of returning to the Prem might start to wear off.

FWIW, I’ve been given a free ticket to see Leeds twice this season. Both times they equalised late in added time. The atmosphere for the last half hour against Wolves was as good an atmosphere as I’ve heard in an English ground for many years. The recent Brentford draw was the opposite with Elland Road quiet for most of the game and half of their fans had gone home by the time of the equaliser. Leeds fans posted films if the South Stand celebrating the equaliser, wildly. They are Leeds’ singing section and stayed to the end. The nearest 30 Leeds fans who were next to me and my mate had gone home and missed the excitement.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

FWIW, both times I’ve been to Elland Road this season it’s taken me 2 hours to get there (4 mile journey) on public transport. That included half an hour delays for cancelled buses and 90 minutes on the bus crawling through Leeds. People who incessantly moan about the Metrolink don’t know they are born!!

 

[M18CTID]

Leeds are discussing raising their capacity from 37k to 55k. Much of that expansion would be increasing the John Charles Stand (away fans side if the ground these days) to a similar height to the big stand across the pitch. Leeds could certainly get more fans in a bigger stadium but it’s hard to know by how many, as the glamour of returning to the Prem might start to wear off.

FWIW, I’ve been given a free ticket to see Leeds twice this season. Both times they equalised late in added time. The atmosphere for the last half hour against Wolves was as good an atmosphere as I’ve heard in an English ground for many years. The recent Brentford draw was the opposite with Elland Road quiet for most of the game and half of their fans had gone home by the time of the equaliser. Leeds fans posted films if the South Stand celebrating the equaliser, wildly. They are Leeds’ singing section and stayed to the end. The nearest 30 Leeds fans who were next to me and my mate had gone home and missed the excitement.

Cheers for that mate. I think they will have problems filling a 55k capacity stadium every week, especially if they go down. From what I can tell, their support (both numbers wise and atmosphere wise) has been galvanised by Bielsa's arrival and when he goes they could have a problem and might struggle to regularly fill a 37k capacity ER, let alone a 55k one. That said, even if he goes and they go down I don't see a drop-off in attendances to the numbers they were getting in many of those seasons pre-Bielsa and would expect their crowds to hold up reasonably well.

On that last bit, it sounds like they have similar issues with atmosphere and early leavers that we do. On a decent day, they're very good but if they're bailing out of games in the numbers they did at that Brentford game in their first season back in the PL with fans in attendance, then maybe the novelty is wearing off quicker than expected. SSS (Second Season Syndrome) probably isn't helping of course. It's also worth remembering that when Stoke came up in 2008, they were getting loads of plaudits for creating a loud and intimidating atmosphere. And they were certainly loud on our visit there for an early Saturday kick-off in January 2009. Fast forward a few years though and they wanted rid of Pulis, the atmosphere took a significant nosedive, and while there was a brief pick-up under Hughes their atmosphere went to shit again. They're doing quite well in the Championship these days but I see footage of their games and their ground is never anywhere near full, unlike those early Premier League seasons.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Cheers for that mate. I think they will have problems filling a 55k capacity stadium every week, especially if they go down. From what I can tell, their support (both numbers wise and atmosphere wise) has been galvanised by Bielsa's arrival and when he goes they could have a problem and might struggle to regularly fill a 37k capacity ER, let alone a 55k one. That said, even if he goes and they go down I don't see a drop-off in attendances to the numbers they were getting in many of those seasons pre-Bielsa and would expect their crowds to hold up reasonably well.

On that last bit, it sounds like they have similar issues with atmosphere and early leavers that we do. On a decent day, they're very good but if they're bailing out of games in the numbers they did at that Brentford game in their first season back in the PL with fans in attendance, then maybe the novelty is wearing off quicker than expected. SSS (Second Season Syndrome) probably isn't helping of course. It's also worth remembering that when Stoke came up in 2008, they were getting loads of plaudits for creating a loud and intimidating atmosphere. And they were certainly loud on our visit there for an early Saturday kick-off in January 2009. Fast forward a few years though and they wanted rid of Pulis, the atmosphere took a significant nosedive, and while there was a brief pick-up under Hughes their atmosphere went to shit again. They're doing quite well in the Championship these days but I see footage of their games and their ground is never anywhere near full, unlike those early Premier League seasons.

Thanks Simon. I was surprised by the Brentford game but it was an early kick off on a cold Sunday lunchtime. Leeds have been very vocal in other games I’ve been to in recent seasons. That saidI had to laugh when it nearly kicked off between Leeds fans against Wolves when one old boy was slating a couple of guys for leaving early.

That said, I agree with you about Stoke. 55k might sound good atm but it might not be for a midweek game at home to Cardiff, if they got relegated.

 

[East Level 2]

Big mistake last night. Was in the Citizens (gave my season ticket to a friend), which I have done a few times. There have always been the odd table of away fans that clearly buy hospitality if they cant tickets in the away end, especially when they sell out their allocation. But last night there were loads - it felt like sitting at Elland Road. Together with all the early leavers (Blues and Leeds) it was a horrendous experience. Why does City allow so many away fans into hospitality?? Anyway...thats the last time I do that...but clearly that's the model - fuck the legacy fans, fill the stadium with prawn-cocktail munching plastics - and who cares who they support?

I don't think "fuck the legacy fans" is appropriate when discussing hospitality/corporate even though several people have expressed the same sentiments. I would estimate the hospitality sections at the Etihad contain fewer than 5,000 seats, so less than 10% of capacity. This means the rest of the stadium has at least 50,000 available seats which is more than before the south stand extension, and over 50% more than we had at Maine Road.
However I will agree the club has fucked over the regular fans, legacy or otherwise, with high increases in individual match and season ticket prices. Why the hell was PSG so much more than the other CL games? I didn't go to watch Messi, Mbappe and Neymar, I went to watch City just as I did when we played Leipzig and Brugge.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

I don't think "fuck the legacy fans" is appropriate when discussing hospitality/corporate even though several people have expressed the same sentiments. I would estimate the hospitality sections at the Etihad contain fewer than 5,000 seats, so less than 10% of capacity. This means the rest of the stadium has at least 50,000 available seats which is more than before the south stand extension, and over 50% more than we had at Maine Road.
However I will agree the club has fucked over the regular fans, legacy or otherwise, with high increases in individual match and season ticket prices. Why the hell was PSG so much more than the other CL games? I didn't go to watch Messi, Mbappe and Neymar, I went to watch City just as I did when we played Leipzig and Brugge.

Well said mate. Those of us who just go to watch City seem to be in the minority for midweek games.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Just catching up and saw this, which I wanted to agree with and amplify on this. I can't be bothered doing a year-by-year comparison, but if you were to run one, I suspect you'd find at the most around ten seasons in the last 100 years since they first participated in league football in 1920/1 where their average attendance was higher than ours.

A less exact exercise, but one much quicker to carry out, is to look at how often a club has finished outside the 15 best-supported clubs in the country in terms of a season's average gates. Our figure is twice since 1895. Leeds, in their much shorter history, have a total of 41 (and their forerunner club, Leeds City, had a further ten, managing never to attain this feat after their election to the Football League). FWIW, Wolves, another club supposedly giving it large about their support relative to ours last in a recent game, total 70.

Like you, I hate all this "my club is bigger/better supported than yours" stuff that you see a lot on social media now,but I've generally thought it prevalent among idiots on social media. I'm quite happy to acknowledge Leeds and Wolves as clubs with fine support bases and illustrious histories. But when they start chants at our stadium that question us in either area, they're really not on very firm ground.

I'll tell you why it pisses me off. I've got two 13 year old lads, City daft. They are very much part of the social media banter era. One of them has an injury and couldn't go on Tuesday. He has a mate of the same age who supports Leeds.

I was talkign to him about the game the next day and THE FIRST THING HE SAID was "there weren't many there, though, were they?" I asked him where did you get that from and he said Seb (the Leeds fan). So I gave my lad a few of the above facts: did you know that in the second division we got nearly twice their crowds, did you know that we got bigger attendances when they won the league etc. He didn't know any of that stuff. None of it. I, of course gave him a lesson and told him not to take it. I did something similar earlier in the season when a Liverpool fan had been telling him we had "no history".

This "shit support" myth has become so entrenched amongst kids now that our history has been erased.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

As I found out almost to my cost after Gerry Creaney's diving header in 1995! Quite a hairy walk back to the station that day ;)

You're obviously a bit more ITK about Leeds Tim but is it really true that they're extending the ground to 60,000? A Leeds fan was gobbing off on FB about it yesterday and even claimed that the club had done research that shows they could fill Elland Road 4 times over! I was tempted to ask him "Why not build a 160,000-seater stadium then?" but I couldn't be arsed as it was such a fucking stupid comment he'd made that it didn't deserve the airtime.

I was in the Leeds end for the Gerry Creaney winner. Lucky to get out unscathed after asking why was a lad from a one horse town in Russia running rings round the best midfielder in Britain.