Etihad Atmosphere - 2022/23

[Didsbury Dave]

Agree with most of your ideas Dave. Like given.

A few ideas I’m not sure about.

City won’t do cheaper beer before the game in the new singing section. It would piss other City fans off in other parts of the ground.

Giving first refusal to City fans in the current singing section and season tickets at half price, which the club won’t do, would only encourage non-singers to move to the new singing section from the current singing section.

Offering cheaper tickets. Again, that would just attract City fans who want cheaper tickets, not because they want to move to a new singing section and sing

Making the back of the top tier a singing section is double, but only if the club make that happen. I’m more inclined to think the club will make a new singing section in the 2 NSL1 blocks behind the goal. Which isn’t ideal tbh.

The roof idea will be down to the stand design, so until we see the proposals, that certainly is a possibility.

Banners hanging from NSL3. Great idea.

Market the new NS singing section heavily. Great idea.

Offering 1894 and other fan groups a block. A great idea. Something I have always pushed for. Not because I’m in 1894.

Yes, City have years to get this final chance at creating a proper singing section right. They also have a blank seating plan, meaning they can create a singing section in any block they won’t depending on how they configure the current and new seating, and where they relocate current season ticket holders from NSL1. That wasn’t possible to do in SSL1 as it’s already full of season ticket holders. The club wouldn’t move season ticket holders to create a proper singing section in SSL1 and rightly so. (I stand corrected, but I think United moved fans out if their new singing section or gave them the opportunity to stay there, even though it was going to be made A new singing section)

I know it’s the Rags. Spit! But they’ve now got a successful singing section. Originally it held 1400 Rags, now it’s been expanded to hold ‘2000’ Rags. Note. At the back of the stand and under the flat, leaking roof :-), banners hung at the front of the block, flags, 2 sticks, Cockneys, etc, You got to give United credit for listening to and working with their fans to create a proper singing section that works and has improved the atmosphere at Old Trafford.

Last night saw United come away with a 1-0 win against a potentially tricky Real Sociedad side. It also saw the trial of the Manchester United singing section, where 1,400 Reds were encouraged to make noise to build the Old Trafford Atmosphere – an idea that certainly worked from my point of view.

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The fans were encouraged to enter the ground early, and various marches to the ground were also planned, both ideas proved to help the general atmosphere around the stadium. Flags and banners were also welcomed, and it certainly made a huge difference to the atmosphere.

The club have to push this hard as a singing section in the media and through their own channels throughout an entire summer.

If they do what you say and make the lower tier some kind of a singing section things will get worse, not better. That would be a monumentally stupid idea.

The WHOLE top tier has to be "Tee New Kippax" and the existing singing areas given cheap first refusal. That's the key point here. Everything else would follow I believe.

 

[jrb]

You're missing the whole point. The club have to push this hard as a singing section in the media and through their own channels throughout an entire summer.

You keep saying "the club won't do" but they could. The beer stuff doesn't really matter.

If they do what you say and make the lower tier some kind of a singing section things will get worse, not better. That would be a monumentally stupid idea.

The WHOLE top tier has to be "Tee New Kippax" and the existing singing areas given cheap first refusal. That's the key point here. Everything else would follow I believe.

I’m not Dave.

I’m agreeing with you on most of your ideas.

From numerous rumours and snippets posted on the Etihad Stadium and Campus thread, the NS expansion, if it happens, won’t start until after the Coop Live Arena is built, which won’t be until December 2023, if construction stays on schedule? Rumours are that has slipped. It will take a further 2 years for the NS expansion to be built depending on what shape and form that takes. That means the NS expansion won’t be ready for at least another 3 years. I think any singing section and how it’s implemented into the NS is very much on the back burner atm at City. Once the Coop Live Arena is built, details of the NS expansion are made public, etc, that’s when City will start pushing the NS and a new singing section.

On the plus side that gives us another 3 years to discuss the new singing section. :-)

 

[jrb]

Slightly off topic.

Posted by Stockton Heath Blue on the Etihad stadium and Campus thread.

I’m trying to tap up my mate, who works for Laing O’Rourke but it’s Top Secret

The only thing he would give up was 8,000 seats, museum, plaza & hotel, but no photos or indication of whether the hotel was part of the stand. His description - WOW!

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I’m not Dave.

I’m agreeing with you on most of your ideas.

From numerous rumours and snippets posted on the Etihad Stadium and Campus thread, the NS expansion, if it happens, won’t start until after the Coop Live Arena is built, which won’t be until December 2023, if construction stays on schedule? Rumours are that has slipped. It will take a further 2 years for the NS expansion to be built depending on what shape and form that takes. That means the NS expansion won’t be ready for at least another 3 years. I think any singing section and how it’s implemented into the NS is very much on the back burner atm at City. Once the Coop Live Arena is built, details of the NS expansion are made public, etc, that’s when City will start pushing the NS and a new singing section?

On the plus side that gives us another 3 years to discuss the new singing section. :-)

Sorry pal, I re-read your post and edited it. I scan read it the first time. 3 years is a long time!

 

[Manchester33]

@Didsbury Dave

What I would say to you, playing devil's advocate, is that we currently have around 4k fans in SSL3 for 90% of games, and they pay the lowest season card prices in the stadium. They are good when they get going, but they aren't consistently noisy up there. SSL1 sings more consistently than any other area in the stadium but the tickets there aren't the cheapest. So why is that? Should we not be looking at those fans and asking them questions rather than the fans who do currently sing in level 1?

My point is that cheap tickets don't directly correlate with a better atmosphere. There's more to it than that. You could make an argument that the 10 lads starting chants off at the back of 115 would be more effective in the third tier. But remember, it's only around 10 of us that actually get the songs going at all. That's all it would take - surely there are 10 lads who'd happily relocate to the back row of SSL3 and do the same job - but it's harder than you'd think to organize even just 10 people.

Finally, there are logistical issues with implementing singing sections in the upper tiers. For example, the current angle of the tiers isn't suitable for rail seating (or so we've been told). Security doesn't like the idea of more boisterous fans being higher up (as things might get thrown below). The obvious, easy choice for the club is to keep designated singing sections on the bottom tier, and I don't think the head honchos who make these decisions care enough about the atmosphere to overrule these things.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

@Didsbury Dave

What I would say to you, playing devil's advocate, is that we currently have around 4k fans in SSL3 for 90% of games, and they pay the lowest season card prices in the stadium. They are good when they get going, but they aren't consistently noisy up there. SSL1 sings more consistently than any other area in the stadium but the tickets there aren't the cheapest. So why is that? Should we not be looking at those fans and asking them questions rather than the fans who do currently sing in level 1?

My point is that cheap tickets don't directly correlate with a better atmosphere. There's more to it than that. You could make an argument that the 10 lads starting chants off at the back of 115 would be more effective in the third tier. But remember, it's only around 10 of us that actually get the songs going at all. That's all it would take - surely there are 10 lads who'd happily relocate to the back row of SSL3 and do the same job - but it's harder than you'd think to organize even just 10 people.

Finally, there are logistical issues with implementing singing sections in the upper tiers. For example, the current angle of the tiers isn't suitable for rail seating (or so we've been told). Security doesn't like the idea of more boisterous fans being higher up (as things might get thrown below). The obvious, easy choice for the club is to keep designated singing sections on the bottom tier, and I don't think the head honchos who make these decisions care enough about the atmosphere to overrule these things.

I agree with all of that actually, mate. The simple answer is/was staring us in the face with SS3. If the whole bunch of singers who are stuck out on a limb in the corner of the East stand were moved up there the atmosphere would be miles better. Hell, if they moved to the south stand that would make a difference to. But the club missed the chance when it was available and now the ship has probably sailed I think.

I don't think cheap tickets is the be all and end all but I'm making that suggestion to try to overcome the intertia of existing fans and reluctance to change. The biggest driver of all for me would be a big time amrketing campaign and discussion and involvement with groups like yours.

I take your points about the logistics of the upper tier.

 

[Manchester33]

At our best we are by far the best. It’s not even contest!

No drum lead atmosphere anywhere beats proper English atmosphere like this:



Or Anfield at its best, or Elland Road over the last two years (it was fucking wild there on Saturday!), or Newcastle in the last year (especially when they beat Arsenal late last season)…

Palace at their best don’t come close.

Copenhagen fans were very enthusiastic a few weeks ago, but they aren’t as good as English atmospheres when we’re at our best.

We just aren’t as consistent as the Europop stuff.

Leeds last week:

(some fantastic footage of the Leeds fans on this video, the sort of thing I’ve mentioned about filing our fans but not from smartphones of fans in the stand, getting a proper camera filming fans from the back or foot of stands).

Newcastle v Arsenal:


Ours above^ proper atmospheres that are as intertwined with the game as the football itself.

This is a good post. I agree with you.

I don't think we need a drum to make an atmosphere, but having something to bang would help.

The issue with a drum is that it's a little bit cringy and too orchestrated. But when we used to play Stoke away, and the lads down the side would bang the metal cladding, everyone loved it and it helped our atmosphere there. So having a beat would be beneficial, even for traditional British support - I think it's more the physical drum itself and the clean noise it makes that irritates our fans.

There are things we're working on to improve that style of 'banging'. We tried implementing some metal sheeting on the floor for fans to stamp on - they worked great in an empty stadium, but we've found they aren't great in practice. We (1894) have a member, who's also an engineer, who's worked on some designs for metal sheeting to bolt onto the rail seats. It would be designed to be noisy. If we could cover the whole home end of the rail seats with it, we could have around 4k 'drummers' rather than one. It would be really loud, more distorted, and organic and represent a mix of 'Europop' and traditional support. It would also empower more fans to start off their own songs because now they have a big loud thing to bang and get it going if they wanted to.

 

[Manchester33]

I agree with all of that actually, mate. The simple answer is/was staring us in the face with SS3. If the whole bunch of singers who are stuck out on a limb in the corner of the East stand were moved up there the atmosphere would be miles better. Hell, if they moved to the south stand that would make a difference to. But the club missed the chance when it was available and now the ship has probably sailed I think.

I don't think cheap tickets is the be all and end all but I'm making that suggestion to try to overcome the intertia of existing fans and reluctance to change. The biggest driver of all for me would be a big time amrketing campaign and discussion and involvement with groups like yours.

I take your points about the logistics of the upper tier.

We haven't been able to (because of the higher demand) recently, but we usually organise singing sections for cup games.

If the third tier of the away section is returned, we could always try putting a singing section up there to see what difference it makes. Let's see what happens in the new year.

 

[Prophet of Doom]

Sorry to put a dampener on these ideas but I think people are losing their minds here.

The idea that there will be a stampede of 8000 singers relocating to the 3rd tier in the new stand which will make the Etihad as load as La Bombinera is fantasy.

People on here have used every excuse imaginable on why the atmosphere is crap. The answer is simple - the majority of our support sit in silence. If they didn’t there would be no need for any campaigns to relocate people.

Good luck with any campaigns but it won’t make a difference as the new stand will be a mixture of tourists new fans and a smaller number of relocations no matter what they try to do.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Sorry to put a dampener on these ideas but I think people are losing their minds here.

The idea that there will be a stampede of 8000 singers relocating to the 3rd tier in the new stand which will make the Etihad as load as La Bombinera is fantasy.

People on here have used every excuse imaginable on why the atmosphere is crap. The answer is simple - the majority of our support sit in silence. If they didn’t there would be no need for any campaigns to relocate people.

Good luck with any campaigns but it won’t make a difference as the new stand will be a mixture of tourists new fans and a smaller number of relocations no matter what they try to do.

I think you're wrong. Nobody is saying that the Etihad will become the next "WElcome To Hell" but as it stands due to various factors it could be a whole lot better. Two lots of singers split by the away fans on the lower tier is a worst case scenario. A lot of people who don't sing would sing if others did. It's crowd psychology. That's why some away games are a lot better than others with the same people attending.