Open arms for new fans !

[mgxsleck]

Hello all,
I Live in US, been a fan of Man city for three years ( Since mancini came actually) but Obviously i've been obsessively following the team for the passed year and a half because the team is just so entertaining.
I feel like born man city fan, really. I've never love a team in the same way. And it would really bother me if Man city becomes a commercial team. I ve watch or followed every game this season, and trust me from the US that means waking up at 4 am, or spending lunches stranded alone listening the the bbc manchester commentators, in school class stressing in front of my comp looking at the premier league live scores. City has changed my life.
In my City, I have never yet met a man city FAN, only once i have seen someone where a jersey, and that was barely a week ago (it was a revelation). What dominates here is man u, chelsea, barca and real madrid. I kinda like it this way…Man city is known to be the money team without a heart. I fight daily to prove that man city is more than that . I, like all of us here, knows man city has a huge heart.

I like that my love for man city is solely mine ( amongst the people i know). I don t talk to anyone about man city….and when i I do, no one listens. I want man city to remain the best kept secret in the football world. And i sure will get pissed when people in the town i live in start wearing man city shirts. I may be a hypocrite because I have not been a city fan till recently (then again, i am only 16: age at which we become and devoted to certains things),
but i really don't like those who become fan of a team of success.
THis topic is difficult to adresse, because inevitably man city success will come and people will love us for it. But we like the small nit community of man city fans. I guess we can't win here: we either win and get more fans, or loose and keep the most loyal fans .

BOY, i've loved watch win, win, dominate, and conquer.
I want victory, and i want it to be ours: ours= thoses who suffer and stress and believe.
BUT, I don't want to stop stressing when man city play ( for example most man u or barca fans don't stress in the group stages of CL for example). I want to stress every time city play,A real fan should stress.
So i think u shud know that there are fans far away from manchester who love manchester city: we love the spirit, the colors, the history, the players, the website, and we DREAM of standing in the etihad stands next to all you lovely beautiful people. The day i go to a city match at etihad stadium will be the best day of my life.
All i would ask from the chairman and those who run the club and the stadium, to keep the ticket prices low because the local fans are the best thing CITY have…And i don't want to see the AMAZING middle class fans be swept away from season tix.

Finally, One has to be reasonable and realize when he or she is a fan and when your not: we, or you all local man city fans, should not judge those who decide for them.
CTID

 

[moomba]

Presumably you have a connection with Manchester (I always presumed you lived near the area, reading your posts) and, presuming that this is the case, you and I both know that that is why, by your own admission, your feelings are stronger for City than some of the other teams you claim to 'support'.

In fact, I would be interested to know whether, in comparison to your 'support' of City, you feel that your 'support' of these other clubs around the world in even in the same ball park in terms of feeling and commitment. If it isn't, then I would suggest that they are merely teams whose results that you look out for - rather than being a genuine supporter or having a real connection. Those teams no doubt have a number of supporters whose support for those teams matches yours for City. They are actual supporters of those teams. Not someone who looks out for games on TV from another part of the world/country.

Now, I know that paragraph sets me up for a fall with all sorts of assumptions that may well be false. However, it is the comparison that I am getting at. And if it doesn't apply to your situation then it most certainly applies to the situation of most/all who 'pick' a team that has absolutely nothing to do with them and who represents an area that they have not a single connection with.

I know that I am overly rational. That's me. But if I were to suddenly decide to adopt Barca or Madrid and claim to be a fan of theirs, merely because I like the way they play, or like their manager, or like their kit, or saw a match on TV and liked the atmosphere, or don't like their rivals, there would come a point - very quickly - where I would be constantly asking myself why I am doing this. Why am I describing this far away team in language that suggests some sort of emotional connection? Why do I want to share in their success? Why can't I appreciate this sport/team/competition without wanting to make out that I am part of it? Does saying that I am part of it and maybe buying a piece of merchandising with a badge on it automatically make me part of it?

And I honestly do not think I would like the answers to those questions and what it might say about a certain part of my personality. Or at least I would struggle to rationally come to a conclusion that doesn't state that it is because I just want to be part of success. And if I am claiming that I supported them when they were rubbish, then honestly, really, what was it that made me shun similarly unsuccessful teams that represent areas that I am connected with? If success wasn't an issue then what was the difference? There must have been something and "I was an impressionable 5 year old" only tends to be an viable reason for anything until you cease to be an impressionable child. Do adults eat slugs because "as an impressionable five year old they looked tasty and it is not on to swap once you have decided to be a fan of eating slugs."

Am I in the business of verbally attacking individuals in person and trying to make them feel shit about such an unimportant topic when they are enjoying their day. Not at all. Would I want something to stop them doing it? Not really, it's none of my business. But when I hear such behaviour constantly defended in such emotive language, language comparable to that used about relationships, religious conversions and political fight then I do often feel compelled to comment.

The fact that such over the top out of place language is used, mostly because that it what football fans are 'supposed to speak like', seems to me to just point further towards the absurdity of it all and the lengths that people are willing to go to to avoid admitting that there are some unsavoury reasons behind them having to latch on to something and being unable to enjoy a sport without making out that they are 'huge, massive, integral parts of it all'.

Look at some of the language on this thread. The desperate justification. The emotional 'I won't feel welcome if people don't laud my choice' stuff. It's football. A sport. At times it is difficult to take some of the language used by football fans seriously when it is coming from people with a life long commitment to a team representing an area they have a connection with and whom they have spent decades following. It can all seem a bit silly. But when people who have just chosen to say they support a random (usually quite successful) sporting team from another place and use the same daft and emotive language to justify how much it all means to them then, come on, it is a bit laughable.

Personally I would just constantly be asking myself - why am I doing this? Why? Maybe that is just me though.

I don't need to ask myself why I chose to support City. I did, and I'm glad I did whatever the reasons were. And I had an emotional investment in the team long before I visited, and eventually moved to the UK. Perhaps you need to have dragged yourself up at silly o'clock to listen to a match over the internet, or have celebrated the goat equalising against the rags in a pub filled with blues, many of whom had never been to Manchester to appreciate that passion, and love of the football club is not dependent on where you were born.

Monday night was one the greatest memories of my life, I know that it would have been no less so if I was stood in a pub with other blues in another country, proud of the team I support.

FWIW, the level of passion and commitment I have for the teams I support has nothing to do with their location, or my location.

 

[Rascal]

Hello all,
I Live in US, been a fan of Man city for three years ( Since mancini came actually) but Obviously i've been obsessively following the team for the passed year and a half because the team is just so entertaining.
I feel like born man city fan, really. I've never love a team in the same way. And it would really bother me if Man city becomes a commercial team. I ve watch or followed every game this season, and trust me from the US that means waking up at 4 am, or spending lunches stranded alone listening the the bbc manchester commentators, in school class stressing in front of my comp looking at the premier league live scores. City has changed my life.
In my City, I have never yet met a man city FAN, only once i have seen someone where a jersey, and that was barely a week ago (it was a revelation). What dominates here is man u, chelsea, barca and real madrid. I kinda like it this way…Man city is known to be the money team without a heart. I fight daily to prove that man city is more than that . I, like all of us here, knows man city has a huge heart.

I like that my love for man city is solely mine ( amongst the people i know). I don t talk to anyone about man city….and when i I do, no one listens. I want man city to remain the best kept secret in the football world. And i sure will get pissed when people in the town i live in start wearing man city shirts. I may be a hypocrite because I have not been a city fan till recently (then again, i am only 16: age at which we become and devoted to certains things),
but i really don't like those who become fan of a team of success.
THis topic is difficult to adresse, because inevitably man city success will come and people will love us for it. But we like the small nit community of man city fans. I guess we can't win here: we either win and get more fans, or loose and keep the most loyal fans .

BOY, i've loved watch win, win, dominate, and conquer.
I want victory, and i want it to be ours: ours= thoses who suffer and stress and believe.
BUT, I don't want to stop stressing when man city play ( for example most man u or barca fans don't stress in the group stages of CL for example). I want to stress every time city play,A real fan should stress.
So i think u shud know that there are fans far away from manchester who love manchester city: we love the spirit, the colors, the history, the players, the website, and we DREAM of standing in the etihad stands next to all you lovely beautiful people. The day i go to a city match at etihad stadium will be the best day of my life.
All i would ask from the chairman and those who run the club and the stadium, to keep the ticket prices low because the local fans are the best thing CITY have…And i don't want to see the AMAZING middle class fans be swept away from season tix.

Finally, One has to be reasonable and realize when he or she is a fan and when your not: we, or you all local man city fans, should not judge those who decide for them.
CTID

Good post.

I hope you get as much out following our club as I have.

 

[Anonymous]

funny how as soon as we beat united theres about twenty new posts from different fans from countries saying theyve been city fans since 2007. Ha guess its what success brings

question to all of those fans though- a genuine question, why didnt you support us when we were shit if you love us so much now ( no harm or insult intended)

 

[Citizen52]

funny how as soon as we beat united theres about twenty new posts from different fans from countries saying theyve been city fans since 2007. Ha guess its what success brings

question to all of those fans though- a genuine question, why didnt you support us when we were shit if you love us so much now ( no harm or insult intended)

If you read some of the posts on this thread you'll see quite a few of them have been following us for a good while.

I know what you mean though, I posted around August 2010 on a thread like this. We are being marketed globally and we play in an extremely popular league around the world, as we become more successful it is an inevitable consequence that we will attract a lot more fans.

There will be a lot of blues no doubt not differentiating between the two above - after all you can't quiz every single Blue around the world how long they have followed us and then make a judgement call. Best way for me as some have pointed out on here is to take people as you find them.

 

[Palerider]

I always track the FB stats. On average we get about 60,000 new "likes" a week. The latest weekly figures aren't out but it has already jumped 30,000 or so since yesterday. And that photo of Vinny with the boys in the dressing room Has 30,000 likes alone. Madness really.

The most popular age range for the 2.5m fans we have is 13-17 year olds...

I've never been on Facebook in my life but it's obvious to anyone with half a brain that to be a major football club you have to go global. The above figures are very encouraging. United are supposed to have around 300M supporters worldwide and only a small proportion of those actually go to matches. We have a much smaller fan base but a much higher proportion of our fans go to matches. However, it's not enough we need to get upto 65000. In a relatively poor city with an alternative available to support that will not be easy. Liverpool are a case in point, big club, failed miserably to expand the ground and increase revenue and now are in decline as a result. It will take them years to recover unless they get lucky. We should not make the same mistakes. We simply have to look forwards not backwards. I welcome every new fan wholeheartedly, wherever they come from. I detest the arrogance and entitlement that many of the "big" clubs exhibit and that's already shown itself at City with that awful "score when we want" crap. Some fans want to dress that up as humour but for me ( and many others ) it was the first time that I'd question what our current fans were becoming. Bit like Animal Farm really for anyone who did that for an O Level!

 

[Peoria Blue]

funny how as soon as we beat united theres about twenty new posts from different fans from countries saying theyve been city fans since 2007. Ha guess its what success brings

question to all of those fans though- a genuine question, why didnt you support us when we were shit if you love us so much now ( no harm or insult intended)

Fair question. For me, my life opened up considerably. I didn't grow up around the sport. When the US hosted the World Cup in 1994, for the first time ever there was money available to start up youth programs. In fact, the first year it was offered in my town (and probably anywhere in the county) was the last year I would have been eligible to be in the "youth" program.

So watching the '94 matches for me was like trying to read a novel in its original foreign language.

I was a college student when our school team won its first ever conference title and went to the championship tournament. Though I went to matches I still struggled to fully grasp what was going on.

But then watching Euro 2000 with my Belgian and Dutch host families allowed me to experience the game properly and learned a lot through asking them the questions. The interesting twist is this summer I look forward to watching the City players on their respective national teams, instead of seeking out the players I remember from certain countries/matches I watched.

After graduation, I worked a number of years basically 70 hours a week non-stop which really has only stopped in the last couple years. So as my personal life opened up, so to did my exploration of the game.

Today's American young adults are really the first generation to come of age where all grew up with a lifelong exposure to the game. Basically there are 3 kinds of football fans in the US right now: Those who grew up with the game & love it, those who don't want to even bother because it is foreign and they think it "boring" (which in my earlier post I argue is ironic), and those like me who sort of unwittingly grew to love it.

A little anecdote about the impact of that generational shift and growth of football stateside, a good number of longtime powers in prep American football downstate now struggle to get enough kids to go out for that sport while fielding some of the best 'soccer' teams in the state.

 

[KansasCITY]

funny how as soon as we beat united theres about twenty new posts from different fans from countries saying theyve been city fans since 2007. Ha guess its what success brings

question to all of those fans though- a genuine question, why didnt you support us when we were shit if you love us so much now ( no harm or insult intended)

when we were really shit I wasnt born. and i've only been interested in football for a few years but I've supported City ever since I took an interest. I havent seen the dark days you have but I guarantee you I'll be there when they come. Sports have never been about success for me, same with City.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[mackenzie]

For all those that say you will welcome any new fan, you'll change your tune if they price you out of your seat.

 

[cleavers]

For all those that say you will welcome any new fan, you'll change your tune if they price you out of your seat.

Sadly, the more successful we are, the more they will, I posted about this 2 or 3 years ago, when people though SM would make our tickets cheap. Success brings higher prices, that's part of the model to beat FFP. I'll never be against new blues, but the reality is more success will mean less of us long term blues because we will be priced out, its already happened to a degree.