If I go by my own stand towards Champions League I understand why it's harder to sell out a CL-game rather than a PL-game. I thought about it a few times why I don't like the league and I can come up with a few points without knowing if and how it affects my mood in the build up to a CL-game.
I understand why I didn't like it when we were not in it, but we are now in for the 5th year running and I still find it hard to get excited. I mean I do get excited, but not in a way I am when we play a PL-game. Maybe because I disliked it so much when we were not in it made it hard to change my system.
The fact we have not been performing will be a factor. Living through the bad years I should be able to cope, but it's probably the negative opinions afterwards that makes it harder than when everybody in the UK was used to us losing games and being mismanaged. People had a soft spot for us for being who we were in those days. It's easy to say "don't give a feck what other people or the media think", in the end somehow it does. It certainly doesn't help to brighten my day after another poor CL-result.
The fact that doing well in the CL is probably the most important way to try and get a positive spin to the rising of our club and with it many more fans all over the world, either gloryhunter or not. Maybe I don't like the way you need to be a top contender in a glittering league to get people buy merchandise and start to "support" City.
The way UEFA has been handling us, obviously being moved to do so by the old cartel of clubs and their sponsors that ruled for too long, might be another factor. If so it's an added factor, because we had not much to do with that lot before we entered European football.
Can't think of anything else really, realising that European football contains trips to some nice cities all over Europe, and it's a great way to meet foreign fans to make this competition interesting. But that's not on the pitch. Anyway it's just the way I see this and maybe some day it'll change to the positive. However I honestly can't imagine the day a CL-game will be the most important game ever.
Whatever, let's get 3 points and make a decent start to this competitoin for a change...