My love for City will never diminish. But my love of the ''match day experience'' has certainly diminished and my desire to go to the game has declined with it.
i think there is an element of 'wow we finally did it' which finally capped off all the support given through the dark days. But for me the main reasons for this are:
1/ Cost. The total cost of going to games that is not just the ticket price. I simply cannot justify this anymore. OK when the lad was £99 but now he's full price and he doesn't earn a penny so I have to wear the ever increasing above inflation cost rises when my disposable income is ever decreasing. i simply can no longer justifying putting such a large percentage of my after-tax income into City. Sorry and all that..
2/ Atmosphere. Again sorry but this has got worse. All the moaning twats around me don't help who just sit there whinging rather than supporting City. I know this is personal choice and you are entitled to sit there quietly if you like, but that's not for me. Nor do i want to stand up the whole game when i've paid for a seat. When i go to derby matches or to see us play flipping Real Madrid and the atmosphere is flat i despair. This is a major negative for me.
3/ TV. I hate all the stupid kick off times that may suit $ky/ESPN but do not suit me. 4pm on a Sunday? Fuck off. Likewise Monday night.
4/ TV. it is easier not to go when the game is probably live on TV anyway as the empty seats too often testify.
5/ Refs. i am sick of seeing refs so frequently changing the outcome of results through incompetence or seeming bias.
So. i gave up my/our ST after many years figuring I would still go to a good few games. I have not been yet this season as it turns out. Firstly you have to pay for a membership that doesn't actually give you anything that I can see and I object to paying for the right to buy already over-priced match tickets so I will take my chance on general sale. I tried to buy tickets for the Hull game on Viagogo but after seemingly buying twice and then being informed that the transaction had failed by email the only two tickets I could find online on the club site were in the gods and still cost the best part of a hundred quid and adding up all my costs for going to the game was over a hundred quid. Once again I can't justify a hundred quid for me and the lad to watch 90 minutes of football. Good Luck to those of you that can. So it looks like we will go to the ''unattractive'' home games that many aren't arsed about in the League Cup or whatever and some aways that go to general sale and that will have to do us for the time being. I'll probably try and get one of these cheaper ST's in the expanded sections of the ground if that happens and the tickets are genuinely cheaper. (No doubt they will be to start with and then they'll gradually rise to match the rest).
Not going though is proving to be habit forming in the same way that going is!
Yours sincerely
A new part-timer armchair supporter (with his tin hat firmly on)
xx
