Went to Spurs away in the CL.
The away end has safe standing.
It didn’t improve the away support that night..
We stand now and have been for years at the Etihad.
Adding safe standing bars in-front of people won’t make them sing more. Certainly not if it’s implemented in SSL1.
Sadly, the hope that Safe Standing in general will some how improve the atmosphere at the Etihad is wrong. It won’t.
What will improve the atmosphere is a 1894 block full of fans who want to sing and are ‘all stood next to each other’, and not split up across SSL1 and throughout the stadium.
It’s whether the club are prepared to ‘name that block’, it doesn’t have to be the 1894 block, give singers an incentive to relocate to that block from other parts of the SSL1 and the stadium, and somehow keep people who don’t sing out of that block when Safe Standing is introduced at the Etihad. The club have to make this a priority when Safe Standing is introduced. Be strict with implementing that new Safe Standing singing block. Abd involve 1894 and other City fans as much as possible before any final decisions are taken.
If the club get it right, then we will finally get a proper singing section. If the club don’t get it right, we will have lost another opportunity to create a proper singing section.
It pains me to say it, but the Rags are already up and running with a proper singing section in the corner of the Stretford End. 3 blocks, with 1000-1500 singers located there. Why can United and their fans organise it (so quickly), yet we can’t?