North Stand Expansion | Configuration plans revealed by club (p 1285)

Noooooo, never ditch traditions like this.

City should never have ditched navy socks or Manchester CoA on Cup final kits.
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.
 
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.
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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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.
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.
 
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.
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.
 

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