How many more people will now become City fans?

beleve it or not, there has always been city fans in doncaster not many but neither did utd, about the 70s i tried to get a supporters club going but it didnt get off the ground, we had about 20 fans but most went by car or train then, fast forward to 2010 and i tried again, this time the first meeting over 40 came, so we did form a supporters club, and since then we have 125 members who have season tickets or members card, but when im out i do see orther lads with shirts on, young lads and so on so i would think in donny there must be 500 or more, if im walking and see some1 with a shirt on, i go up to them and talk about supporters club, give them my email and if they want they can join, on saturday night we had about 20 go over and about 26 in a pub, 2 from rotherham and 2 from lincoln to watch game with us
 
Guys, how long is the mcfc reddit gonna be dark for?? its been 2 days already and other sub had already resumed
 
bluestevei said:
beleve it or not, there has always been city fans in doncaster not many but neither did utd, about the 70s i tried to get a supporters club going but it didnt get off the ground, we had about 20 fans but most went by car or train then, fast forward to 2010 and i tried again, this time the first meeting over 40 came, so we did form a supporters club, and since then we have 125 members who have season tickets or members card, but when im out i do see orther lads with shirts on, young lads and so on so i would think in donny there must be 500 or more, if im walking and see some1 with a shirt on, i go up to them and talk about supporters club, give them my email and if they want they can join, on saturday night we had about 20 go over and about 26 in a pub, 2 from rotherham and 2 from lincoln to watch game with us
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This takes me back, late seventies we sometimes walked back into the City Centre with a group of Doncaster blues. Great bunch of characters especially one lad I remember longish hair, denim jacket with City badges all over it and City flat cap who was funny as f**k.
 
Even if we never won another cup the last fortnight or so’s events would sustain a big matchgoing fan base through any lean times for the next fifty years. The effect of the ECWC on sustaining the fan base through the 90s is very understated imo - City fans in those lean years were not just gluttons for punishment, the Mercer-Allison years were within living memory and the club was a sleeping giant as the game emerged from general decline in attendances.

People talk about seeing ‘young fans’ and ‘new fans’ these days but supporting City isn’t supposed to be a fringe hobby based on whether you’ve got the disposable income to turn up and watch us lose week after week. It’s supposed to be a popular cause and a tribal affiliation in the world’s greatest industrial city. We are supposed to be the Pride of Manchester. We represent a huge area that draws people in from all over. Not just from North Wales to Carlisle but from all over the world. The city has a profile all over the world and so should the club. It’s a feedback loop. What success does is unites the blue tribe and make it more vocal, more visible, more confident, and stops the active fan base from dying on the vine.

The matchgoing fan base is only ever a snapshot of the number of people who identify as City and that was as true in the lean years as it is now. The whole idea of glory hunting is totally overblown in City’s case. It’s natural growth. There are about 500k more people in Manchester than there were thirty years ago, and many of them are young. They are going to pick a local PL club and there are only two to pick from. Family ties, favourite colour, favourite player, what friends do, what teachers encourage, where you live, City in the Community, all influence decisions as much as success when you’re little. But even getting a bit older, take our Chinese fans in their twenties - are they the result of success or the natural result of us having a big international student population and the legacy of Sun Jihai, even Thaksin? I’d say it’s as much the latter as it is the winning.

So yeah, we will grow as a club off the Treble. But we’d be growing anyway - and that’s the way it should be.
 
broadwayblue said:
Although I've supported this club for over 20 years and have family roots in Manchester, I am an American and therefore, admittedly, look at this issue a bit differently than most of the rest of you. But here are my thoughts, which you can take it or leave it.

It's pretty obvious to anyone that success breeds more fans. There's a reason why the biggest clubs in the world are the most historically successful… Real, Barça, Bayern, Liverpool, U****d, etc. And just like the worldwide fans of those clubs, some will be casual and some will be Blues until their dying day. However, I think there is an idea amongst the legacy Blues that this is still the same club playing in Division Two. It's a romanticizing that I, as a New Yorker, have heard plenty of when some talk about NYC in the 1970s. But just like how NYC has turned into Disneyland and a playground for the rich, Manchester City have become a global brand that just won the fucking treble. Some Blues, especially those who were there during the darker days, want to actively fight against this. But no matter how you look at it, that battle has already been lost. It's fighting windmills.

City are one of the most successful clubs of the 21st century and now have sister clubs all over the world, from my hometown of NYC to Uruguay, Australia, India and beyond. The club has been fully globalized. And I fully understand how that has rubbed many legacy supporters the wrong way. We were always the plucky underdog, everyone's second favorite club, the ones who were considered the proper Manchester club that plays in Manchester and has a proper local fanbase. Many of us remember when City were begging us to buy shit shirts and shit pies in order to stay afloat. That's a core piece of our identity, an identity has shifted dramatically since the money came in. And now City have fans everywhere.

Maybe it's because I help run the supporters club chapter in NYC, but I believe in welcoming everybody in. When I first started going to The Mad Hatter (RIP), everyone there was so warm and welcoming. They didn't gatekeep or make me feel less of a fan because of my lack of a Mancunian accent. We were all Blues at the end of the day, and that's all that mattered. I try to remember that every time I walk into our new home, Amity Hall, and do my best to make sure everyone who comes in has a similar experience as I did. To help foster a community of Blues.

Our supporters' club started in 2007 with seven people. Now we have over 300, and had to work with four separate bars to account for the over 750 people who came to to watch the Champions League Final with us. Most of the people who showed up, I have never seen before. But those people are going to support City regardless, which is why I believe that if we take these newer fans under our wing and really show them the culture surrounding this club—especially the history—they will become proper Blues for life. The who, what, where, when, or why should be completely irrelevant, because it all comes down to one thing: would you rather see someone walking down the street, anywhere in the world, wearing red or blue? I know what my answer is.

It's inevitable that we will get an influx of newer fans with our success since Sheikh Mansour bought the club. But we should welcome them with open arms and show them the ropes. Introduce them to the culture of the club before they change it themselves. Ingratiate them into the community and teach them what it means to be a Blue—the history, the songs, the humor—everything that makes City, City. I truly believe that we will lose our soul as a club if we don't.

And to any Blues out there that doubt our level of support, I offer an open invitation to watch any match with us at Amity Hall whenever you're in NYC. I have a feeling you will be surprised. And, having watched the Champions League Final with the supporters' club in Seattle, I have to say this: 12:30pm kickoffs are at 4:30am on the West Coast of the US. The 5:30pm kickoffs are at 9:30am. And they watch EVERY match. That, right there, is dedication, and they have all my respect for that.

Apologies for the essay. I'll close with a quick observation. I visit Manchester every year to see friends and family, and find it a bit rich that so many of the people telling Americans to support their local club are the same people I see around Manchester wearing hats and shirts of US teams. (Just saying.)
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Great read... How's the general feeling in New York towards the club after they announced the stadium build?
 
The more the merrier. Success breeds success and a bigger fanbase (globally) is important to sustain the club. When Pep leaves it won't be this good - but these fans WILL stick around and the legacy will live on.
 
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