We've all seen European ultras walking to the stadium. It can be quite an impressive sight. Unfortunately, the club is trying to spin too many plates. They want a better atmosphere, but they also want to appeal to kids/families (for the record when I was a kid I'd have still hated this) and they end up with utter cringefest material like this 'organised walk to the ground'.
We need to change the mentality of the 90% of fans who can't be arsed contributing to the atmosphere. The Etihad is too friendly and nice. There should be a bit of an edge about going to a game. Football is intrinsically tribal and we should want to be a noisy, intimidating venue for any opposing fans/players. That doesn't mean we should all dress up as green street idiots, but come on, this is embarrassing. Imagine these lot trying to walk down the street outside Maine Road?
The club tries to control the atmosphere too much, which sets a certain psychology around the stadium (lazy, apathetic, reactive approach to building atmosphere).
- Light shows
- City Square 'entertainment'
- West Reception 'entertainment' as players arrive
- Bands/DJs in the stadium
- Noisy, chart music played at a deafening volume over the PA system
- LED flags on advertisement boards
It's all too much! Cut out all the cheese, literally replace all the above with nothing, and fans will start to build an atmosphere themselves. It might take a while but it will happen. At both Leeds away and United away, there was no 'pre-match entertainment', no music on in the stadium, and so on. It creates an environment where fans CAN build an atmosphere rather than having a cheesy one shoved down our throats and destroying any potential do it organically!
