Etihad Atmosphere - 2022/23

[stonerblue]

Here lies the problem with English football, we are English so we are not allowed to have ultras in the game, you may have the most competitive league in the world but the atmosphere really needs to be looked at, Rangers and Celtic both have ultras and they help create an atmosphere at games. There are capo stands at Celtic Park for the Green Brigade who help generate a lot of noise at Celtic Park and you just need to ask a lot of teams throughout the world where the best atmosphere and most of them will say, Celtic Park. Manchester City has 1894 but as a club needs to bring in new ideas to improve the atmosphere Pep has been quoted about this so many times about this. Please watch this video where a team set up in 2018 has a new stadium and they advise that the safe-standing section copy of the Dortmund Yellow Wall has been the best thing the club has ever done for the fans, so there is no argument saying you are too late to import it. Regarding football culture, you really need to move with the times the European teams and also MLS and Scottish teams have moved their culture by having ultra fans and doing marches before games etc with drums banging and smoke canisters going off.

Funny how the shit atmospheres in English football have made it the best league in the world eh?

 

[Elliot houghton]

We don’t have a problem with our atmosphere.

If we're judging it on English football standards we're far from the worse but sometimes its embarrassing how bad it is on Wednesday seen more people recording game on phone than singing and that was in the "singing section" things do need to change overall but they are other options before we need to even consider ultras

 

[Tim of the Oak]

The fact that so many people are saying drums should be banned (rather than us just making more noise than the drum) epitomises just how football fans have changed.

'I don't want loud sounds ruining my expensive match viewing experience, I want to turn up late, miss either side of half time at the bar, sit here in relative silence, and then leave 10 minutes early, because that's my right as a fan, it's my money and I'll do as I please'

OK that's a purposely extreme example made to make my point. However the fact is, whilst we may not need ultras with drums and flares, we do need better support in many home games. The Copenhagen game was a disgrace of a performance from city fans, all the home fans could have left early (and huge swathes did) and the atmosphere would have been no different.

Everyone will have their opinion on the subject, from "it is what it is" to "I can do what I want" to "people who complain about it are pricks" to "I'm not part of the problem".

The facts are though that players consistently say that great atmospheres help the team play better, we want our team to play even better and win everything (and complain when they dont), we can help them play better by creating a better atmosphere.

Surely, all excuses aside it's a no brainer.

The fact that so many people are saying drums should be banned (rather than us just making more noise than the drum) epitomises just how football fans have changed.

'I don't want loud sounds ruining my expensive match viewing experience, I want to turn up late, miss either side of half time at the bar, sit here in relative silence, and then leave 10 minutes early, because that's my right as a fan, it's my money and I'll do as I please'

OK that's a purposely extreme example made to make my point. However the fact is, whilst we may not need ultras with drums and flares, we do need better support in many home games. The Copenhagen game was a disgrace of a performance from city fans, all the home fans could have left early (and huge swathes did) and the atmosphere would have been no different.

Everyone will have their opinion on the subject, from "it is what it is" to "I can do what I want" to "people who complain about it are pricks" to "I'm not part of the problem".

The facts are though that players consistently say that great atmospheres help the team play better, we want our team to play even better and win everything (and complain when they dont), we can help them play better by creating a better atmosphere.

Surely, all excuses aside it's a no brainer.

I’m not quite sure what you see as a “disgrace”. The home crowd was quiet for most of the game but over 50k of us turned up in appalling weather and dodged train strikes to get there. I join in with every song and even start an occasional chant, but what other people do is up to them.

You are right that there hasn’t been a commitment across the Club and fans to have a good, consistent atmosphere. I1894 have helped to improve the atmosphere for Prem games in recent seasons but the messaging from the Club hasn’t always been great. When they told City Matters to look at away games first and put home games on the back burner is one example.

FWIW, I don’t like to read “solutions” (not in your post) that involve moving existing fans out of there seats in a redesigned stadium. I’m for an expanded North Stand but the answers are for fans to find their voices and the South Stand and Kippax Light to be better coordinated.

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

We don’t have a problem with our atmosphere.

I'd say you are at stage 1 of the Kubler-Ross Change Curve. You'll get there eventually

 

[JASR]

There’s absolutely nothing special about the atmosphere in that stadium whatsoever.

It’s as though the playing of 2 halves of 45mins of football has wilfully and rudely interrupted the entire experience…

 

[Deleted member 77198]

If we're judging it on English football standards we're far from the worse but sometimes its embarrassing how bad it is on Wednesday seen more people recording game on phone than singing and that was in the "singing section" things do need to change overall but they are other options before we need to even consider ultras

As I’ve said, our fanbase holds the Champions League Group Stages as seriously as we do the early rounds of the EFL and FA Cups. It’s not the business end of the season in that competition, we’re on something like 15 wins out of 18 Group Stage home games with an aggregate score line of something like 50-10. There’s no jeopardy, even when we lost to Lyon in the Group Stage at home (and drew with them away), we won the group.

Most of my mates don’t even go to the CL Group Stage games. I do, but I’m never as active or vocal in my support on those nights compared to Prem games or later in the season in the CL. Even when we played against Celtic in a British derby, they treated it like it was a massive game and we treated it like it was a pre-season friendly as we’d already qualified and it was only the Group Stage.

So I’d never judge our CL Group Stage atmospheres, just like we wouldn’t last season’s EFL Cup Third Round game against Wycombe or FA Cup Fourth Round game against Fulham.

We’ve been spot on this season with our Premier League atmospheres.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

Here is the solution you redevelop the North Stand into a bottom tier featuring all safe standing(ultra section) and the top tier into the cheapest area in the ground so attracting younger fans with a capo stand at the front for everyone else can have their normal seats in other stands

Please watch this video about Orlando and how they do it

The reaction you're getting on here is probably giving you a snapshot of what the capo would get in the ground! Lol!

It sounds easy ("turn the north stand into an ultra area, make the redeveloped area cheap for under 25s"), but that's not really how ticketing works. And we don't have "ultras" so how would you make sure only "ultras" got tickets in there? What would happen is some people would move there, lots of people already there would stay, a bunch of people on the waiting list would grab a season ticket, and it'd look like the south stand within a few years. IE: great in big games, and a lot of them skipping CL games and being replaced by newer people.

For what it's worth, I don't think atmosphere has been an issue since the pandemic. Games against Copenhagen that come sandwiched between a derby and another PL home game are a bit flat, that's how it is.

And I've watched the videos...I really don't think they're that amazing? I'm glad for the people there, it looks fun enough, and I think it's great the USA is developing its own identity that seems to be a cross between European spectating and college football marching bands and stuff, but it just isn't something that would work in Manchester. I'm not saying that to be close minded, I'm just telling you how it is. You've got to work with the existing supporter base, it's culture and everything else.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I'd say you are at stage 1 of the Kubler-Ross Change Curve. You'll get there eventually

I’m wondering if you’ve been to the Etihad for a Premier League game this season if you think that.

 

[mancityvstoke]

Here is the solution you redevelop the North Stand into a bottom tier featuring all safe standing(ultra section) and the top tier into the cheapest area in the ground so attracting younger fans with a capo stand at the front for everyone else can have their normal seats in other stands

Please watch this video about Orlando and how they do it

er.....no

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

I’m not quite sure what you see as a “disgrace”. The home crowd was quiet for most of the game but over 50k of us turned up in appalling weather and dodged train strikes to get there. I join in with every song and even start an occasional chant, but what other people do is up to them.

You are right that there hasn’t been a commitment across the Club and fans to have a good, consistent atmosphere. I1894 have helped to improve the atmosphere for Prem games in recent seasons but the messaging from the Club hasn’t always been great. When they told City Matters to look at away games first and put home games on the back burner is one example.

FWIW, I don’t like to read “solutions” (not in your post) that involve moving existing fans out of there seats in a redesigned stadium. I’m for an expanded North Stand but the answers are for fans to find their voices and the South Stand and Kippax Light to be better coordinated.

Having 50k+ people show up in the rain is great and all, but it depends on what the reason for having these fans in the stadium is. Is it so they can view a football game just for there own benefit and give the club good gate receipts, or is it for that AND to help their team by supporting them. If its the former then you could get the same effect from just inviting 50k neutral fans. I think it's the latter, which is why I made the disgrace comment, on Wednesday it felt like we had 50k neutral fans in the Etihad, in addition to a bunch of crazy jumping Danes with a drum. (p.s. you knew it's bad when Danish fans sing "is this a library" in English to you)