Etihad atmosphere

Some of the cunts don't realize how lucky they are. Give that chance to some of us foreign fans and we'll show.
 
mrtwiceaseason said:
Genuine question mate ,you have done your bit and got all the singers together ,you carnt do much more ,but why do you think when you have pretty much got safe standing and like minded fans together its all gone so quiet?
As I've just posted do you think losing so many " greatest hits chants" has played a part ?
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It's a perfect storm for us in particular. After Hilsborough stadiums became modernized in general - no more terracing, fans treated even more so like scum, which has lead to highter security. Ticket prices have gone up which means younger lads can't afford it. Modern ticketing systems mean you have to buy tickets well in advance etc. All that means is young, working class groups of lads have mostly been priced out. Even if they do go it's near enough impossible for them to gang up together in a stadium and get the songs going. Police are happy with quiet/civil stadiums because it means they can manage them more easily. If you're seen to pose a threat to that they'll criminalise you. Now we can't even drink a pint at our seats, we can't even take alcohol on private buses going to and from football. We can't stand (legally) etc. All of that is legal at pretty much every other sport or event.

Now if you look at City more closely, we've moved into a new stadium recently. Our previous stadium had 80 years worth of history. Fans knew to gather on the kippax. Meet in regular pubs and so on and most importantly it was easy. You'd go to the pub, find your mates, all go in together, stand with each other and the go home. I firmly believe every new stadium will take between 5-10 years to create it's own culture and unfortunately for us it was mismanaged from the start. We should have been smarter in terms of where we put our singing sections/away fans. We had the whole North stand turned into a Family section which pissed a load of people off and got rid of any chance of having an 'end'. Then we get taken over. The atmosphere was great the year we won the league, but after that it's been a bit of an anti climax. UEFA, FFP, even the FA to some extent have annoyed most of our fans. Tourists and day trippers have filled the seats that once belonged to hardcore, local fans.

I'd argue though, that one of the most important factors that have made our atmosphere stale is the football we play. We expect to win every game. We keep the ball. Slow, methodical build up play. The teams that have a good atmosphere usually play counter attacking football. It gets everyone going. German teams like Bayern can get away with this because their culture buys into a drum. Ours wouldn't. (Even with a drum you could argue that their atmosphere is stale at times).

The solution for me would be safe standing - but not necessarily for the standing aspect (as you've quite rightly said, we have that now). Most clubs that incorporate safe standing in Europe use an unreserved standing basis. If we did this, the whole south stand (and preferably North Stand as well) level 1 would be rail seating. You'd get a ticket to South Stand Level one, block 115 etc. Then groups can go together, with their mates and stand with them. It should make tickets cheaper for standing areas as well.
 
The atmosphere isn't great, but that's not unique to City. Old Trafford is terrible, as their own players have admitted in the past. A lot of teams that have moved to new stadiums have experienced poor atmospheres Arsenal for one and I'm sure it will be the same for West Ham.

It's difficult to know what can be done about it, the South Stand in full cry is a wall of sound and that has made a bit of a difference. The problem is it doesn't spread to the rest of the ground.

I still think closing City square and the outside bars further in advance of kick off would help get people in to the ground earlier and let the atmosphere build up. The bars inside the stadium should also shut a bit earlier. I know people like a pie and a pint at the games but as long as revised timings were announced well in advance of kick off the fans can still plan to do that anyway. To be fair the food and beer isn't very good anyway, so I wouldn't be that bothered missing out on an extra pint.
 
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