Etihad Atmosphere - 2022/23

[pride in battle]

Ideally at the front of L2, but that won't happen. Unfortunately I doubt the club would allow it, never mind consider it.

At the back of L2 would be good but would the noise/sound/chants spread down the stand with everyone else joining in constantly? Probably not. The flags and banner displays would be pointless up there.

The remaining option is on L1 behind the goal, which is pretty pointless as it won't get L2 or the rest of the stadium singing. It would just be another 115/SSL1.

I honestly don't know mate.

Why not level 2 ? That would be under the roof like the south stand ? If so it would be perfect for the noise to carry around the stadium

 

[trevorriley]

hard to say where singers would go, one of biggest questions is will singers move over, we potentially could see singers spread out further

we will be having meetings with the club on how best to improve atmosphere, we cant say where singers will be until it is passed and decided what is going where within the two tier develop. With hotel / corporate / standing and bars we dont know what is where yet.

if all goes to plan, time wise work will start towards end of season like the SS expansion, a lot can be pre done.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

I think the issue with so much of this is how do you define a "singer"? What do you do with people who aren't singing? What do you do with the people in the south stand who get their kicks by giving it to the away end and don't want to be in a home end.

The simple answer is always "make the new area for [insert imagined demographic that will sing]" but there is no simple way of doing that legally or ethically.

Theres a lot of technical ideas for what seem to me cultural issues. And cultural issues are much harder to resolve.

 

[asahartford1]

Its simple go to the game open your mouths sing shout and cheer. Unless your in the south stand or the corner its not going to happen as no one can let themselves go and feel comfortable to do it without feeling a twat. Thats what has got to change.

So true.
It is folk that create the atmosphere not bricks and mortar.
All the ultra ends in Europe have one thing in common, the people want to be part of " something bigger " than an individual. That creates a sub culture representing the club.
We don't have that.

 

[pace89]

Traditionally the areas in all grounds where singers congregated were, coincidentally, the cheapest. If a big standing tier was priced correctly that would probably help.

Removing the safe standing in the corner and moving that rowdy lot into a new end, perhaps with some financial encouragement, could help.

I know some people want to be right next to the away fans but surely the club could persuade people that those days are over but in return you get a cheaper, bigger standing area? Most other supporters in more atmospheric stadiums than ours cope.

 

[citymad]

Absolutely, the bottom line is most can't be arsed backing the team, it's fucking tragic, the best sides we've had in our HISTORY and majority sit there like fucking Helen Keller, this is probably the BEST IT WILL EVER BE !! Wake up and smell the roses...

Agreed, we've never had it so good. It blows my mind that we have so many fans wanting to get home early and stay silent when we have this fantastic team. I think alot of fans have just lost an emotional connection with the club. I feels sad for the owners. They've done so much hard work to make this team one of the best clubs in the world and must wonder what more they can do to make the fans happy.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

I think the issue with so much of this is how do you define a "singer"? What do you do with people who aren't singing? What do you do with the people in the south stand who get their kicks by giving it to the away end and don't want to be in a home end.

The simple answer is always "make the new area for [insert imagined demographic that will sing]" but there is no simple way of doing that legally or ethically.

Theres a lot of technical ideas for what seem to me cultural issues. And cultural issues are much harder to resolve.

That’s part of the solution but the answer in mainland Europe is often to have ultras to regulate the main singing section. People who make no effort are pointed out and encouraged to raise their voices.

Some Blues have taken the piss by going into the singing section and made no effort to sing. That seems to be less of an issue this season though.

 

[Gray]

The two main singing sections separated by away fans is and always has been the problem.

We need to stick the away fans somewhere they can not be seen by the cameras.

This has always been a thorny issue with the police sticking in their two penneth and the away coach park location.

 

[jrb]

Why not level 2 ? That would be under the roof like the south stand ? If so it would be perfect for the noise to carry around the stadium

I would assume the club will make part of NSL2 corporate like SSL2 is.($adly) Isn't the plan to make L2 pretty much corporate and expensive seating?

A perfect scenario would be for the club to bite the bullet by improving the atmosphere first, install safe standing on NSL2, make the 2 central blocks on NSL2 official singing sections, and fill the other blocks on NSL2 with fans who want to stand and will join in singing.

1. Retain NSL1 as it is.
2. Retain NSL2 as it is and make the 2 central blocks the new singing sections where flags and 2 sticks can be waved, held up, and banners can be hung.
3. Build a stepped up NSL3 from NSL2 in the same stand, which would hold X thousands City fans.

The kids could stay in NSL1. Problem solved.
The new singing section/s would be in a prominent place on NSL2 so the whole stadium could see it and hear it including the away fans.
The home end would be complete with a large terrace of home fans on NSL3.(same terrace as NSL3, but stepped up)

To do this the club would have to sacrifice a new corporate area (I don't think the current corporate boxes will be retained in the expansion)

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I notice there are a lot of videos posted of other sets of fans and barely any, if any, ever, posted of City fans from when we’re good. Far too many of our fans are wanting to shift us away from our own club culture and completely ignore what we do well when we do it well.

I honestly think some people are more obsessed with this Ultras stuff than they are interested in our own long standing fans’ culture and songs… I think this is a justified opinion n’all with our SSL1 being very averse to singing proper City songs and looking at the list of City songs we no longer sing!

We get better videos from away fans of our atmosphere at the Etihad than we do from our own fans



Although this is a good one



Now, I don’t like people with their phones out during a game, so one thing I think we should organise is a proper video recording device pointed at our SSL1 for every game. Could be from the front of the stand or the back, wherever gives the best perspective, or move it around for different games… Crop the best bits and get a YouTube account set up and post the videos from each match. That will allow people to access the songs up close who don’t usually get to and get people learning the songs more.

I’ve posted this before and I hate to give United/United fans positivity but this sort of thing:


I think if SSL1 knew they were being filmed it would give them more of an emphasis on being vocal more n’all.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Stop clapping about Empty Seats, Edin Dzeko and Vincent Kompany straight from the kick off then. That killed the Brighton game.

Spot on!

Sing the City songs, you know that club we support, and fuck these clap along songs or player chants off that nobody joins in with around the stadium at the start of games or at 0-0 or at points in the game when the team need a lift and the opposition is on top… and our atmosphere would improve ten fold.

Where the fuck have these songs disappeared to?:

City, We’re From Manchester (Go West)
We Love You City
We’re The Pride Of Manchester
Oh Man City, The Only Football Team To Come From Manchester
Na na na na na na na na City
City ’Til I Die
We All Follow Man City, Over Land And Sea
Oh When The Blues Go Marching In
…plus many many more

We must sing the word City or the word Manchester or words Man City or Manchester City less than any other set of fans sing their club names in the country.

 

[supercity88]

Spot on!

Sing the City songs, you know that club we support, and fuck these clap along songs or player chants off that nobody joins in with around the stadium at the start of games or at 0-0 or at points in the game when the team need a lift and the opposition is on top… and our atmosphere would improve ten fold.

Where the fuck have these songs disappeared to?:

City, We’re From Manchester (Go West)
We Love You City
We’re The Pride Of Manchester
Oh Man City, The Only Football Team To Come From Manchester
Na na na na na na na na City
City ’Til I Die
We All Follow Man City, Over Land And Sea
Oh When The Blues Go Marching In
…plus many many more

We must sing the word City or the word Manchester or words Man City or Manchester City less than any other set of fans sing their club names in the country.

Exactly, and the videos you post show how easy good we can be. I don't think it's as complicated as people make out. Get a proper singing section in the NS, you'll naturally have some who wants to be by the away fans and give them some stick but you'll have a proper end to channel noise around the ground. Plenty of clubs have their singing areas away from the away supporters and it works just fine, it's about supporting the team, not giving the away fans shite, they'll get that naturally.

Before big games - derbies, Liverpool, CL knockouts I'd love to see us do a proper sing along to Blue Moon - a slow full version of the song. The current version is sped up and shite, but when it goes to the quicker clap along part it just loses its impact I think. Blue Moon sounds good when we all do it and it goes around the ground, we never do the quicker part because it's nonsense so the club should sack it off. If we did the full song before big games it would be amazing. I'm pretty sure most know the words to the full song and if they don't they'd soon remember them.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Spot on!

Sing the City songs, you know that club we support, and fuck these clap along songs or player chants off that nobody joins in with around the stadium at the start of games or at 0-0 or at points in the game when the team need a lift and the opposition is on top… and our atmosphere would improve ten fold.

Where the fuck have these songs disappeared to?:

City, We’re From Manchester (Go West)
We Love You City
We’re The Pride Of Manchester
Oh Man City, The Only Football Team To Come From Manchester
Na na na na na na na na City
City ’Til I Die
We All Follow Man City, Over Land And Sea
Oh When The Blues Go Marching In
…plus many many more

We must sing the word City or the word Manchester or words Man City or Manchester City less than any other set of fans sing their club names in the country.

A poster from 1894 group admitted last week on here they were trying to focus on the songs “with a good beat”. In other words the ones nobody joins in with. No disrespect to them but that means they’ve become part of the problem and not the solution.

 

[blue44]

A poster from 1894 group admitted last week on here they were trying to focus on the songs “with a good beat”. In other words the ones nobody joins in with. No disrespect to them but that means they’ve become part of the problem and not the solution.

Its just not gonna happen is it, I'v told my 15 year old we were the best fans in the league and respected by most and yet now,the success and the flat , boring , drab match day experience.
We're so ironic,
when crap = one of the best verbal support.
now successful = deathly silence and it appears to me,almost indifference.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Its just not gonna happen is it, I'v told my 15 year old we were the best fans in the league and respected by most and yet now,the success and the flat , boring , drab match day experience.
We're so ironic,
when crap = one of the best verbal support.
now successful = deathly silence and it appears to me,almost indifference.

To me it’s a big factor in the club’s expansion. Kids want to be part of an atmosphere and feel a club identity. I was more interested in the Kippax than the game when I was a lad. Kids come for the first time at a champions league group game or a Fa cup tie and it’s boring for them.

There’s nothing wrong with our fans. It’s the stadium and the little, seperated singing areas that’s the problem. The ground needs one voice, not two little ones going clap clap clap clap fucking clap from the first minute.

When we do get a good atmosphere in the big games the songs usually start at the back of the north stand or the south stand upper and are ALWAYS the slow, stand up, hands in the air anthems.

 

[blue44]

To me it’s a big factor in the club’s expansion. Kids want to be part of an atmosphere and feel a club identity. I was more interested in the Kippax than the game when I was a lad. Kids come for the first time at a champions league group game or a Fa cup tie and it’s boring for them.

There’s nothing wrong with our fans. It’s the stadium and the little, seperated singing areas that’s the problem. The ground needs one voice, not two little ones going clap clap clap clap fucking clap from the first minute.

When we do get a good atmosphere in the big games the songs usually start at the back of the north stand or the south stand upper and are ALWAYS the slow, stand up, hands in the air anthems.

I don't know what it is these days.
summert is missing for most games and you know it too.
the passion,people not gettin pissed up,the genteel atmosphere,people leaving early,it has always happened but not on the scale it is now,people just don't seem as arsed.

On a side,i bought 3 tickets for my sister for the chelsea carabao cup game,her,my nephew,they go to about 10 games a season on average,and they're bringing along a friend of my nephews,16 year old,loves City but never been before,I'll keep an eye on him and how he reacts,his opinion of a matchday etc

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I don't know what it is these days.
summert is missing for most games and you know it too.
the passion,people not gettin pissed up,the genteel atmosphere,people leaving early,it has always happened but not on the scale it is now,people just don't seem as arsed.

On a side,i bought 3 tickets for my sister for the chelsea carabao cup game,her,my nephew,they go to about 10 games a season on average,and they're bringing along a friend of my nephews,16 year old,loves City but never been before,I'll keep an eye on him and how he reacts,his opinion of a matchday etc

I actually think that since we came back from lockdowns, and especially at the end of last season and the start of this one, our atmospheres for Prem games at the Etihad have generally been better than they were in the years before the lockdowns.

There was a proper buzz around the stadium in the run-in last season. Liverpool Brighton Watford Newcastle and Villa home games plus Leeds and Wolves away were great atmospheres. And it spilt into this season with Bournemouth Palace Forest and the first hour against United all being top atmospheres.

They were games where the whole ground were more up for it with the ‘COME ON’s and ‘GO ON’s and ‘OOH’ and ‘AAH’s etc. We just struggle with getting songs going around the stadium even in our better atmospheres because so few around the ground join in with (or even know the words to) a lot of the songs started by the more vocal areas.

SSL3 booming out big songs two or three times helps massively as it gets the whole stadium going as they sing songs that everyone knows and like to sing.

But last Saturday we were back to pre-lockdowns shite again. And SSL3 were the quietest they’ve been all season.

Time for the Kippax Corner to step up soon n’all as I’ve not really noticed them since the Forest game this season. When they’re good they spread the atmosphere down ESL1 more. They were immense against Leeds at home last season!

 

[Deleted member 77198]

A poster from 1894 group admitted last week on here they were trying to focus on the songs “with a good beat”. In other words the ones nobody joins in with. No disrespect to them but that means they’ve become part of the problem and not the solution.

At Wembley in the semifinal last season, I decided to do a cheap one and get the free City bus and the cheapest £30 ticket on the very back row of the top tier.

I could see a group of City fans on the bottom tier clapping along to one of our clap-along songs but couldn’t hear them. The odd time something more anthemic like ‘the best team in the lad and all the world’ got going more fans joined in and I could hear them.

But up the other end Liverpool barely sung any clap-along songs and I could hear their fans all joining in with their more anthemic songs that all their fans know. The two clap-long ones they did sing, the Beatles one about Klopp and ‘oh I am a Liverpudlian’ were their quietest chants of the day.

Again in the Community Shield at Leicester, we had a group of fans who sang pretty much all game in our end, but they barely sung any songs that our full end joined in with. While Liverpool sang more sporadically, they were louder than us because they sang songs their whole end knew and they were less clap-along-y.

We’ve properly hammered United in the last two home derbies but instead of belting out stuff like this anthemic chant:

and others like it, that the whole stadium would join in with, our vocal area sings about ‘empty seats at home’ and ‘Gerrard slipped, Suarez cried’ (what are we singing that against United for?!) and the rest of the ground don’t join in.

SING OUR PROPER CITY SONGS!

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I actually think that since we came back from lockdowns, and especially at the end of last season and the start of this one, our atmospheres for Prem games at the Etihad have generally been better than they were in the years before the lockdowns.

There was a proper buzz around the stadium in the run-in last season. Liverpool Brighton Watford Newcastle and Villa home games plus Leeds and Wolves away were great atmospheres. And it spilt into this season with Bournemouth Palace Forest and the first hour against United all being top atmospheres.

They were games where the whole ground were more up for it with the ‘COME ON’s and ‘GO ON’s and ‘OOH’ and ‘AAH’s etc. We just struggle with getting songs going around the stadium even in our better atmospheres because so few around the ground join in with (or even know the words to) a lot of the songs started by the more vocal areas.

SSL3 booming out big songs two or three times helps massively as it gets the whole stadium going as they sing songs that everyone knows and like to sing.

But last Saturday we were back to pre-lockdowns shite again. And SSL3 were the quietest they’ve been all season.

Time for the Kippax Corner to step up soon n’all as I’ve not really noticed them since the Forest game this season. When they’re good they spread the atmosphere down ESL1 more. They were immense against Leeds at home last season!

Your word “spread” is important. A song needs to “spread” within the first few seconds to catch on. Both singing areas cannot really spread songs both ways at once so they often just die. I know this sounds stupid but some sort of acoustic assistance so that the two singing areas (or 3 if you count the upper tier)could all hear each other would help massively.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

At Wembley in the semifinal last season, I decided to do a cheap one and get the free City bus and the cheapest £30 ticket on the very back row of the top tier.

I could see a group of City fans on the bottom tier clapping along to one of our clap-along songs but couldn’t hear them. The odd time something more anthemic like ‘the best team in the lad and all the world’ got going more fans joined in and I could hear them.

But up the other end Liverpool barely sung any clap-along songs and I could hear their fans all joining in with their more anthemic songs that all their fans know. The two clap-long ones they did sing, the Beatles one about Klopp and ‘oh I am a Liverpudlian’ were their quietest chants of the day.

Again in the Community Shield at Leicester, we had a group of fans who sang pretty much all game in our end, but they barely sung any songs that our full end joined in with. While Liverpool sang more sporadically, they were louder than us because they sang songs their whole end knew and they were less clap-along-y.

We’ve properly hammered United in the last two home derbies but instead of belting out stuff like this anthemic chant:

and others like it, that the whole stadium would join in with, our vocal area sings about ‘empty seats at home’ and ‘Gerrard slipped, Suarez cried’ (what are we singing that against United for?!) and the rest of the ground don’t join in.

SING OUR PROPER CITY SONGS!

I was at Wembley and it was shockingly bad. I was also at the charity shield and it was better because the small stadium meant the clapalongs could actually be heard by everyone else instead of drifting off from the front rows into nothing.

Singers should be under the roof, not at the front in modern stadiums. Does my head in that our fans don’t get that.