North Stand Construction Discussion

Psychedelic Casual said:
Noooooo, never ditch traditions like this.

City should never have ditched navy socks or Manchester CoA on Cup final kits.
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Right. Let’s bring back the community singing and you can all sing “She’s a Lassie from Lancashire” and wave your song sheets in the air. And you can see it all on the newsreel in the cinema next week.
 
Beaker said:
Yes and no. Yes you do see more and more City shirts on kids all over the place but the club are doing nothing to encourage them into the ground the majority of the time. In fact with some of the pricing they appear to be actively discouraging parents from bringing them along. If kids aren’t attending matches as kids, then the likelihood is they won’t attend as adults.
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We have a fast-growing conurbation of 2.5m people, and the Red team is crap. That's a golden opportunity to build for the future, so it baffles me that City are not doing more to target young families more aggressively. When they do do it - like with the FA Cup - the results speak for themselves.

The club obviously knows that the recurring revenue you get from fans is important, which is why ST holders get squeezed for a little more each season. But where's the plan to create new generations of ST holders? The family friendly feel at City is great, but if your parents can't afford to take you it's not much use. And we've got a situation where a family of four will pay at least £120 for matchday tickets, and STs are only available to non-renewals for about 20 minutes of the year.

Does the club understand that many City fans picked up the matchday habit when matchgoing was much more affordable? We've got tens of thousands of young Mancs priced out of having that chance. Of course the club is providing the world's finest football, but where's the shame in creating loyalty with low prices - say like Amazon - and then using the quality to sustain the loyalty going forward?

I don't believe in knocking fans from abroad or other cities, they are among the most loyal and passionate fans you'll meet. But some tourist fans are just that. A lad sat behind me at Newcastle, well up for the game in the first half. Second half started saying he wanted to go home and play FIFA, and that maybe he should follow Forest because it's nearer his house. If I'd heard that story from someone else I'd say it was made up, but it happened. Might have been joking but I could tell his GF was embarrassed for him. Will he be back? Don't know, but probably less likely to return than a Manc kid who can get to the ground easily and feels like its his or her club because they're a Manc. The Silver ST is a step forward but I'd like to see more in this direction.
 
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Jazzyblue said:
We have a fast-growing conurbation of 2.5m people, and the Red team is crap. That's a golden opportunity to build for the future, so it baffles me that City are not doing more to target young families more aggressively. When they do do it - like with the FA Cup - the results speak for themselves.

The club obviously knows that the recurring revenue you get from fans is important, which is why ST holders get squeezed for a little more each season. But where's the plan to create new generations of ST holders? The family friendly feel at City is great, but if your parents can't afford to take you it's not much use. And we've got a situation where a family a four will pay at least £120 for matchday tickets, and STs are only available to non-renewals for about 20 minutes of the year.

Does the club understand that many City fans picked up the matchday habit when matchgoing was much more affordable? We've got tens of thousands of young Mancs priced out of having that chance. Of course the club is providing the world's finest football, but where's the shame in creating loyalty with low prices - say like Amazon - and then using the quality to sustain the loyalty going forward?

I don't believe in knocking fans from abroad or other cities, they are among the most loyal and passionate fans you'll meet. But some tourist fans are just that. A lad sat behind me at Newcastle, well up for the game in the first half. Second half started saying he wanted to go home and play FIFA, and that maybe he should follow Forest because it's nearer his house. If I'd heard that story from someone else I'd say it was made up, but it happened. Might have been joking but I could tell his GF was embarrassed for him. Will be back? Don't know, but probably less likely to return than a Manc kid who can get to the ground easily and feels like its his or her club because they're a Manc. The Silver ST is a step forward but I'd like to see more in this direction.
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Agree with you 100%.

It’s so short sighted, and it bothers me that they’ve currently got decision makers in place who are worried about squeezing every last penny out of the supporter base for the here and now, but aren’t worried about what the future will bring because by then they’ll be either on to their next job or nicely retired on a yacht somewhere.
I’ve no qualms with people coming from further afield to watch the team, if you’re prepared to make that effort regularly to travel then all credit to you but the club do not make it easy for families, whether local or not.
At the moment it is basically a case of if you haven’t got a season ticket then you need to really dig deep to even attend one match, unless a low profile cup match comes along. The club needs to understand that their will be literally thousands of people/families that would like to attend regularly but either can’t commit to or can’t get their hands on a season ticket and these people simply currently aren catered for. You’re either a season ticket holder or a tourist in the clubs eyes. We desperately need somebody who understands and cares about the fanbase in a position of influence.
 
Beaker said:
It’s so short sighted, and it bothers me that they’ve currently got decision makers in place who are worried about squeezing every last penny out of the supporter base for the here and now, but aren’t worried about what the future will bring because by then they’ll be either on to their next job or nicely retired on a yacht somewhere.
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It has to be this behind it - short-termism and self interest at a corporate level. And it's so out of touch with the current trend in Manchester, where bricks and mortar retail is declining like everywhere but leisure is moving into the gap. Co-op Live, Therme Manchester, these are all big bets that Manchester is going to continue to boom and that people want to come out of their houses and do real stuff.
 
youngbob said:
To be fair I think the entire population of Essex supports West Ham. We don't really have that kind of backing.
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The new stadium has been the making of them as a club. Maybe they have initiatives that draws in the 60,000+ fans that were not always backing their team. Credit to there owners for executing there strategy. Our owners need to be creative in the manner of bringing local and older fans back to support the team.
 
youngbob said:
To be fair I think the entire population of Essex supports West Ham. We don't really have that kind of backing.
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My MiL lives near the old Upton Park ground and have always had the sense it's quite a well-off fanbase - a lot of cockneys who have done very well out of the City of London and everything else being on their doorstep, hence the move to Essex. Manchester hasn't had an economic driver of that scale. But we have got 2.5m people and counting in GM, a commuter zone from Derbyshire to North Wales, fantastic football and the local rival on their knees. The club should be proactively trying to build that matchgoing backing now, converting the many young armchair fans into fresh air fans with friendly pricing imo.
 
youngbob said:
To be fair I think the entire population of Essex supports West Ham. We don't really have that kind of backing.
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West Ham have possibly the worst owners in the Premier League. However it can’t be denied they have managed to somehow get all Hammers onboard for their journey despite their terrible stadium.

They are looking to put extra seats in their terrible stadium whilst we have ripped seats out of ours and have still struggled to fill the seats for most games this season.

Our Management should really have a closer look at what they have done to get to the position they are in.

There is no doubt we have completely ballsed up supporter engagement somewhere down the line.

There shouldn’t be a spare seat anywhere at Etihad and a new stand being built should have been a requirement to meet waiting list demand. Instead our attendances are going backwards and we have the worst atmosphere in the Premier League.
 
Corky said:
He is the one who put the prices up without the team performing , just treated the club as "a product" but gave away tickets now and again so some fans thought he was great.
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He also listened and communicated with the fans constantly, Soriano treats us with contempt, we have heard from him once in his time with us , post CAS verdict.

We have a wonderfully run club, expect the relationship with match going fans, that relationship needs a lot of work.

Build the North stand, make it easy, cheap and convenient to go and we will fill it far more times than not and the atmosphere in the ground will be considerably better and let's be honest, it needs to be.
 
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From a cost and engineering point of view to do a 'one wall' stand would be completely out of the question in my view. You are demolishing a structure with plenty of life left in it so from an economical perspective it will never happen.

Shame as i think it is the way to go to create a better atmosphere in new stadiums, we are slightly hamstrung in terms of what we can do!
 
Alan Ladd said:
Right. Let’s bring back the community singing and you can all sing “She’s a Lassie from Lancashire” and wave your song sheets in the air. And you can see it all on the newsreel in the cinema next week.
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And sing:
Oh oh oh oh what a referee, what a referee, what a referee.
He's little wooden whistle wouldn't whistle.
 
Prophet of Doom said:
West Ham have possibly the worst owners in the Premier League. However it can’t be denied they have managed to somehow get all Hammers onboard for their journey despite their terrible stadium.

They are looking to put extra seats in their terrible stadium whilst we have ripped seats out of ours and have still struggled to fill the seats for most games this season.

Our Management should really have a closer look at what they have done to get to the position they are in.

There is no doubt we have completely ballsed up supporter engagement somewhere down the line.

There shouldn’t be a spare seat anywhere at Etihad and a new stand being built should have been a requirement to meet waiting list demand. Instead our attendances are going backwards and we have the worst atmosphere in the Premier League.
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Oh my God, think I'll go and support Oldham!!!
 
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