Stretfordian_Blue
Well-Known Member
How would you feel?
Personally I've been a bit disillusioned with the state of the game nowadays, and I've spoken to several other blues who feel the same. The money being thrown around is extortionate, the players are paid too much, the game has been commercialised around the world and we the fans have been milked for cash, with stupid kick off times part and parcel of the game. Some fans who were there week in week out twenty years ago have been priced out now, the atmospheres around the Premier League are dying, you cannot stand, we are still treated like criminals at away matches, excessive policing and stewarding is ridiculous too.
At concerts, you can stand, pint in hand amongst other concert goers, at One Direction the other week at the Etihad this was allowed, yet it's the same building where such activities are banned on a matchday? This surely must be some form of discrimination. Health and Safety in football is a joke.
Other things that aren't right are owners like Malcolm Glazer(rip) sucking the cash out of clubs, and turning them into money makers, borrowing the rags money to complete the takeover and leaving them in a crippling debt(god bless), but if it was any other club we'd see it as a disgrace. Portsmouth becoming fan-owned has been the best thing that has happened to them in years, saving them from the administrators and the trouble that all their fans have been through.
Supporter ownership is a fantastic model, and Bayern Munich are 9.1% supporter owned, and over the last 10 years have increased their revenue, still making big money signings and have still overtaken Glazer's United in the Money League. Bayern Munich's fans pay £104 for a season ticket in some areas of the ground, which is £80 LESS than an Under 16 season ticket in East Stand Level 1 this year. Still they make more money than every club in the world bar Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Another thing Bayern Munich have is an electric atmosphere. They stand, pint in hand on their terraces and they are incredibly loud. That is not coming to Premier League football anytime soon.
It does however, exist in lower league football. FC United sing throughout their games, win, lose or draw. Other teams such as Oxford,York, and to a lesser extent Middlesbrough & Palace(and you saw how good they were this year) are like this too. But FC United are the team that take some beating.
I am a blue like everyone here, I have a seasonticket and only missed 7 games home&away this year, but for personal reasons I have been to FC United quite a lot since they were founded. At first, I hated it. It was everything I'd always hated, United,United & more United, and what's more, they played in United's red. However, after chatting to their general manager, Andy Walsh, I began to see it less and less as United, and more about the stand against 'modern football'. Their fans are amazing, they sing non-stop every game, and the club as a whole is fantastic. They pay what they want for their seasontickets, and over 90% of them pay over the minimum price of £100 for an adult seasonticket, set by the owners, which is of course, all of them, the fans. One vote each. This year they move to a new ground, and at Gigg Lane, they filled two stands, and within them, they do as the name suggests, stand. They have got a solid support, a loud support, and are probably the loudest fans in England over 90 minutes, which is painful to say as a blue.
Obviously it is still United, they sing anti-City songs for a short spell every game, they wear red, they're all ex-united fans themselves and although I go occasionally because I love the atmosphere, I can't bring myself to like the club as I wish to.
My question is now, if there was a City equivalent, an FC City, how would you feel? Personally, singing old City songs and new songs for 90 minutes with 3000 other blues, with honest footballers on the pitch playing hard for their £200 match fee, giving it their very all for the fans would be perfect. It wouldn't be easy to leave Manchester City at all, but a supporter owned club would be brilliant, the fans in control, paying cheap prices, singing and standing, enjoying themselves every week and of course eventually having derbies with FC United!
I know people will say well, we have the supporter owned Maine Road FC, but they were set up in 1955 as a supporters team, not against modern football and attract 90 people to an average league game.
I have of course renewed my seasonticket at the Etihad this year, because although they milk us for our cash, they know we won't turn our backs on our team. However, if there was a movement and a significant number of fans set up a new City, with the intentions of clubs like FC United and Portsmouth, would you be in?
Personally I've been a bit disillusioned with the state of the game nowadays, and I've spoken to several other blues who feel the same. The money being thrown around is extortionate, the players are paid too much, the game has been commercialised around the world and we the fans have been milked for cash, with stupid kick off times part and parcel of the game. Some fans who were there week in week out twenty years ago have been priced out now, the atmospheres around the Premier League are dying, you cannot stand, we are still treated like criminals at away matches, excessive policing and stewarding is ridiculous too.
At concerts, you can stand, pint in hand amongst other concert goers, at One Direction the other week at the Etihad this was allowed, yet it's the same building where such activities are banned on a matchday? This surely must be some form of discrimination. Health and Safety in football is a joke.
Other things that aren't right are owners like Malcolm Glazer(rip) sucking the cash out of clubs, and turning them into money makers, borrowing the rags money to complete the takeover and leaving them in a crippling debt(god bless), but if it was any other club we'd see it as a disgrace. Portsmouth becoming fan-owned has been the best thing that has happened to them in years, saving them from the administrators and the trouble that all their fans have been through.
Supporter ownership is a fantastic model, and Bayern Munich are 9.1% supporter owned, and over the last 10 years have increased their revenue, still making big money signings and have still overtaken Glazer's United in the Money League. Bayern Munich's fans pay £104 for a season ticket in some areas of the ground, which is £80 LESS than an Under 16 season ticket in East Stand Level 1 this year. Still they make more money than every club in the world bar Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Another thing Bayern Munich have is an electric atmosphere. They stand, pint in hand on their terraces and they are incredibly loud. That is not coming to Premier League football anytime soon.
It does however, exist in lower league football. FC United sing throughout their games, win, lose or draw. Other teams such as Oxford,York, and to a lesser extent Middlesbrough & Palace(and you saw how good they were this year) are like this too. But FC United are the team that take some beating.
I am a blue like everyone here, I have a seasonticket and only missed 7 games home&away this year, but for personal reasons I have been to FC United quite a lot since they were founded. At first, I hated it. It was everything I'd always hated, United,United & more United, and what's more, they played in United's red. However, after chatting to their general manager, Andy Walsh, I began to see it less and less as United, and more about the stand against 'modern football'. Their fans are amazing, they sing non-stop every game, and the club as a whole is fantastic. They pay what they want for their seasontickets, and over 90% of them pay over the minimum price of £100 for an adult seasonticket, set by the owners, which is of course, all of them, the fans. One vote each. This year they move to a new ground, and at Gigg Lane, they filled two stands, and within them, they do as the name suggests, stand. They have got a solid support, a loud support, and are probably the loudest fans in England over 90 minutes, which is painful to say as a blue.
Obviously it is still United, they sing anti-City songs for a short spell every game, they wear red, they're all ex-united fans themselves and although I go occasionally because I love the atmosphere, I can't bring myself to like the club as I wish to.
My question is now, if there was a City equivalent, an FC City, how would you feel? Personally, singing old City songs and new songs for 90 minutes with 3000 other blues, with honest footballers on the pitch playing hard for their £200 match fee, giving it their very all for the fans would be perfect. It wouldn't be easy to leave Manchester City at all, but a supporter owned club would be brilliant, the fans in control, paying cheap prices, singing and standing, enjoying themselves every week and of course eventually having derbies with FC United!
I know people will say well, we have the supporter owned Maine Road FC, but they were set up in 1955 as a supporters team, not against modern football and attract 90 people to an average league game.
I have of course renewed my seasonticket at the Etihad this year, because although they milk us for our cash, they know we won't turn our backs on our team. However, if there was a movement and a significant number of fans set up a new City, with the intentions of clubs like FC United and Portsmouth, would you be in?