is the champions league losing its pull

the goats backside said:
BoyBlue_1985 said:
the goats backside said:
No, the fans of the contrived tournament enjoy it, and a few other teams that are there to make up the numbers until the semis

I dont watch many group games other than ours and I take a fleeting interest in the big games but once the knock outs are on as long as rags are not on I love watching the excitement of it all. I dont think there are many people these days that care for the league bit in terms of watching a team other than yours.
Although when we were shit I used to love watching it all as I got to see some good football, haha

Would be great if it was just a knockout all the way through, even the draw would be exciting, alas the old days! I love the fact we are playing 3 top teams, if only all the groups were like ours, but we better make sure certain teams make the semi. I almost feel like were in a different tournament, oh yeah, an actual Champions group
In fairness you dont get many of them these days
Some strange twist of ball picking amazingly made this group, I bet the sponsors were creaming themselves over getting away with this set up ............... I mean the balls being picked at random
 
I love the Champions League, always have, and for me it is the highlight achievement for any club in Europe.

I do believe its trying to get too big too expensive, they should only have the top 2 teams from each league, not 3 or 4. The 3rd and 4th positions should go into the Europa - a competition that UEFA keep making out it needs a revamp to make it worthwhile again, having 3rd and 4th placed teams will enable a revamp to happen.<br /><br />-- Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:40 am --<br /><br />I love the Champions League, always have, and for me it is the highlight achievement for any club in Europe.

I do believe its trying to get too big too expensive, they should only have the top 2 teams from each league, not 3 or 4. The 3rd and 4th positions should go into the Europa - a competition that UEFA keep making out it needs a revamp to make it worthwhile again, having 3rd and 4th placed teams will enable a revamp to happen.
 
BoyBlue_1985 said:
the goats backside said:
BoyBlue_1985 said:
I dont watch many group games other than ours and I take a fleeting interest in the big games but once the knock outs are on as long as rags are not on I love watching the excitement of it all. I dont think there are many people these days that care for the league bit in terms of watching a team other than yours.
Although when we were shit I used to love watching it all as I got to see some good football, haha

Would be great if it was just a knockout all the way through, even the draw would be exciting, alas the old days! I love the fact we are playing 3 top teams, if only all the groups were like ours, but we better make sure certain teams make the semi. I almost feel like were in a different tournament, oh yeah, an actual Champions group
In fairness you dont get many of them these days
Some strange twist of ball picking amazingly made this group, I bet the sponsors were creaming themselves over getting away with this set up ............... I mean the balls being picked at random

One wonders if some balls were er hot and some cold, it can make a difference, or so i am told
 
M18CTID said:
whyalwaysLee said:
73k to see Braga on a tuesday night is pretty good going.

Every single one of their 50,000-plus season ticket holders is forced to buy a ticket for their Champions League home games. Add in what Braga brought over and all the screaming schoolkids given tickets for free and what you effectively have is well less than 20,000 people that voluntarily bought a ticket for their game last night. Same goes for Arsenal - their season ticket prices are extortionate but the price includes the first 7 home cup games in the FA Cup and Champions League each season and as such they're guaranteed 42,000 sales (they have 35,000 gold level and 7,000 club level season ticket holders) for each home Champions League group game before they even put tickets on sale to non-season ticket holders. Factor in 3,000 away fans and they only have to physically shift 15,000 tickets.

I'm not knocking United's (or Arsenal's) crowds by the way - just pointing out the reasons as to why the attendance looked so impressive last night. And I fully accept that on top of all that, they've had umpteen consecutive seasons of Champions League football so these group games have long since lost their novelty for plenty of their fans.


What about the 3 rows of seats around the edge of the pitch that can't be used due to Champions league advertisment hordings? I'd say that last night was about 1k off capacity.
 
To me, the champions league is a bonus competition, (which is technically exactly what it is). I care far more about the premier league than the champions league, anything we do in the CL is just a bonus.
 
Marvin said:
Utd are struggling to sell out all their games

eg Stoke, Galatasaray and Braga where once this would not have been a problem.

The attendance against Stoke was 75,585. Which is about 300 empty seats.

Galatasaray attendance was 74,653 (with the first 3 rows of seats around the pitch unavailble due to CL hoardings) This was only 350 people less than attended the CL semi final with Barcelona.

Sorry, like
 
whyalwaysLee said:
M18CTID said:
whyalwaysLee said:
73k to see Braga on a tuesday night is pretty good going.

Every single one of their 50,000-plus season ticket holders is forced to buy a ticket for their Champions League home games. Add in what Braga brought over and all the screaming schoolkids given tickets for free and what you effectively have is well less than 20,000 people that voluntarily bought a ticket for their game last night. Same goes for Arsenal - their season ticket prices are extortionate but the price includes the first 7 home cup games in the FA Cup and Champions League each season and as such they're guaranteed 42,000 sales (they have 35,000 gold level and 7,000 club level season ticket holders) for each home Champions League group game before they even put tickets on sale to non-season ticket holders. Factor in 3,000 away fans and they only have to physically shift 15,000 tickets.

I'm not knocking United's (or Arsenal's) crowds by the way - just pointing out the reasons as to why the attendance looked so impressive last night. And I fully accept that on top of all that, they've had umpteen consecutive seasons of Champions League football so these group games have long since lost their novelty for plenty of their fans.


What about the 3 rows of seats around the edge of the pitch that can't be used due to Champions league advertisment hordings? I'd say that last night was about 1k off capacity.

I'd say it was nearer 2k off capacity last night and that is borne out by their attendance against Galatasaray which, as you have kindly pointed out, was 1500 more than this game. And while I'm nowhere near as obsessed with empty seats as some of our red friends, I'll confess that late yesterday afternoon I had a quick peek at their website and found that there were plenty of blocks with seats still available, and in some instances - particularly the upper echelons of the East Stand - there were hundreds of seats available in several blocks.

Regardless, my initial point was that the likes of United and Arsenal have an instant standing start of 50,000-plus and 42,000 respectively in terms of tickets sold for Champions League group games due to the policy that both clubs have of giving all their season ticket holders no choice but to take up tickets for these games. Do you seriously believe that every single United and Arsenal season ticket holder would attend their group games in the Champions League if they were given the choice, especially considering the amount of United fans that didn't turn up last night despite already having paid for a ticket?
 
wireblue said:
mansour's tow ropes said:
Blue Hefner said:
I don't like it and haven't for a number of years. The tournament starts in August and its rare there is a good game until March, says it all

Its nothing more than a rolling advert and a cash cow for the elite teams in Europe

ridiculous statement, was our game against madrid not a 'good' one for the neutral? and i don't know about you but i enjoyed seeing chelsea being outplayed by shaktar and barcelona winning in the last 30 seconds against celtic...


no good games....... YCNMIU!

Agreed. I've thoroughly enjoyed every champ league game at etihad. Standard is fantastic and great to watch

I said rarely, I didn't say never.
For every good one of ours there is games that are just big teams rolling over minnows. I stand by my statement
 
tidyman said:
mansour's tow ropes said:
tidyman said:

ah ok. its far too early

Fair do's. If I remember correctly though, when United beat Bayern Munich in '99, it was the first time the final had been contested between two sides, neither of which had won their domestic league the previous season.

Both of which in that current season won the Championship and the Cups of their country and with the CL were going for a Treble...

So maybe they have not been the "Champions" in the year before - but in 1999 both were... - maybe that is even better than the other version. I remember that the Bayern team that won the CL 1974 to 1976 was German Champion in 1972 to 1974. Not in 1975 and not in 1976. Actually they have been tenth in 1975 but were in the competition because of winning the year before. In 1976 they were third.
 

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