Open Letter on Season Tickets and Pricing | Club announce price freeze on "general admission season tickets & PL match tickets" for next season (p163)

[There is a Light]

I’ll say it again, ban half and half scarves from the stadium. They are turning it into a theme park where people feel they are high in numbers and naively can act how they like. Wearing United, Liverpool or Arsenal colours makes it visible how many non-Blues are in the ground. It may seem like a small matter, but I genuinely feel it contributes to this increasing resentment and hostility from match going fans. Not only that, but the club could do with making some concessions that make some of us feel like we are still a priority. It would be a popular decision that at least tells us they’re doing something and they wouldn’t even lose out financially.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Key word in all this mate is "etiquette".

Regardless of where your season ticket is in the stadium, I'm sure we've all had a tourist non-local-having-a-day-out-at-the-football character sat or stood next to us at some point. And I think the vast majority, if not all City fans don't really give a fuck who's next to them as long as they're being respectful - it certainly wouldn't stop me from contributing to the atmosphere at the back of 117/118 where I stand - but what I will give a fuck about is people thinking they can take the piss - and this doesn't matter if they're from Ardwick, Argentina or Afghanistan.

Last year vs Real Madrid I had someone I'd never seen in our section stood in front of me who had his phone at eye level and typed out to his friend, "I'm Madrid for life". Do I regret getting him ejected from the stadium? Not really, although it's not in my nature usually to be a grass. Do I regret lobbing the hat off his head and telling him repeatedly to fuck off in the hope he never goes to The Etihad again? Absolutely not.

As Psychedelic Casual described the other week, there’s a manner of showing your passion for City that makes it less likely that away fans will take liberties. It’s not guaranteed to work but the more passion we show for City, the less likely the away fans will take liberties. Of course away fans should be all in their end but that’s wishful thinking.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

And when people insisting tourists are a problem creates a problem, those people conveniently forget they insisted tourists are a problem.

The 1894 survey asked the question about what people thought the biggest problem was. It wasn't prices or availability of season tickets, but (and I quote) "away fans/tourists/non-City fans in home ends". And most people thought that was the biggest problem.

This is the result of the hysteria being whipped up and 1894 can't refuse to take responsibility for assisting that, by including that very loaded question.

FWIW, I have friends who are Donald Trump fans who say Bluemoon is too right wing for them. I disagreed but they stuck to their guns.

 

[Damocles]

Joining a pile on of dozens against one or two is no integrity. Get your dictionary out.

BTW get your specs on too. I’ve said I don’t agree with the decision but I’m not going to criticise peole when I don’t know how the discussion went.

BTW it’s a sad indictment of you and this forum that nobody who was at the meeting wil come forward and describe how the discussion went.

I had an accident recently and am hopped up on painkillers but I ran out and my patience was thin when I wrote that original post. Apologies for having a pop.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

I had an accident recently and am hopped up on painkillers but I ran out and my patience was thin when I wrote that original post. Apologies for having a pop.

Me too mate. Apologies.

 

[Damocles]

FWIW, I have friends who are Donald Trump fans who say Bluemoon is too right wing for them. I disagreed but they stuck to their guns.

Bluemoon is always too left wing or right wing depending on whatever person wants to say at that point.

Every moderator here is left leaning and we have like 10 posters in the politics forum as a maximum who would classify themselves as right wing. It is an overwhelming left leaning forum.

 

[Marvin.]

Spot on. Most of us have been a football tourist at some point. I’ve done it myself a few times but one thing I wouldn’t do is go twerking for the opposition team. If the 4 of us - 3 blues and 1 red - who went to see 1860 Munich play Ingolstadt in 2008 then the chances are we would’ve got tuned in. That of course doesn’t excuse the incident against Liverpool - in any case I’m sure he didn’t get attacked because he was an American tourist and it was because people mistakenly thought he was a Liverpool fan (which of course doesn’t make it right either) because he was filming their fans celebrating - but it’s advisable to be aware of your surroundings.

Speaking of American tourists, we had one with us at the infamous Pollock OG game against QPR in 1998. My mate’s brother was away on holiday so his season ticket was going spare. We were in the Birch Villa/Hardy’s Well beforehand and asked if anyone needed a spare and this American guy who was with some local City fans said he was after one. We took him under our wing and looked after him. He loved it and got band into it from a City fan point of view, even having a pint of Boddies at half-time!

So this notion that I’ve got an issue with football tourists per se couldn’t be any further from the truth. It’s inevitable that with all the success the club has had that more people from around the globe will want to come and see us play. What people don’t want to see is anyone - tourist or otherwise - supporting the away team from the home areas or filming opposition players/fans after they’ve scored.

I think it's a mistake to explicitly link football tourism with foreigners or tourists from another country. Football tourism is not a foreign phenomenon. You could argue that many fans following the London teams started as 'tourists' because they have money and leisure time and there aren't many better things to do on a weekend than go to your local side. Hence clubs like Fulham, West Ham, Brentford can grow. City are growing too. Manchester is a young City, and City have been very successful on a CL night, or FA Cup when the seasoncard base doesn't show, many locals turn up, many are Asian, particularly so on a CL night which isn't family friendly. Against Real Madrid, there were a lot of local Asian fans and Real Madrid fans and often in the same areas (the non-seasoncard seats). And then we have the half and half scarfs which get sold in their thousands on Cup games when new fans come to the game. This is a minefield. Ideas are important especially those that can be twisted.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Bluemoon is always too left wing or right wing depending on whatever person wants to say at that point.

Every moderator here is left leaning and we have like 10 posters in the politics forum as a maximum who would classify themselves as right wing. It is an overwhelming left leaning forum.

You can’t pleas all of the people all of the time.

I don’t even know Nat Pike was on here. FWIW, one of my Trump fan mates isn’t a fan of Nat. She was stood in front of his flag in Germany and my mate tweeted loads of Blues are in the bar including Nat Pike. He got a negative reply lol

I’ve lost interest in politics but I’m sure some Bluemooners post with their blue MBAA hats on. Make Beswick Ace Again!

 

[Marvin.]

Bluemoon is always too left wing or right wing depending on whatever person wants to say at that point.

Every moderator here is left leaning and we have like 10 posters in the politics forum as a maximum who would classify themselves as right wing. It is an overwhelming left leaning forum.

Left and right are meaningless concepts nowadays because the world has changed with the collapse of the Soviet Union. I'd argue that Guardianistas and the liberal establishment who support NATO and western militarism hold the most anti-foreign anti-working class ideas of all.

 

[Marvin.]

You can’t pleas all of the people all of the time.

I don’t even know Nat Pike was on here. FWIW, one of my Trump fan mates isn’t a fan of Nat. She was stood in front of his flag in Germany and my mate tweeted loads of Blues are in the bar including Nat Pike. He got a negative reply lol

I’ve lost interest in politics but I’m sure some Bluemooners post with their blue MBAA hats on. Make Beswick Ace Again!

Nat used to sit in front of me in R block, at the back of the North Stand at Maine Rd next to the away fans. And then when we moved to COMs, we all moved over to 216, and she came too. That group broke up when City made 215 the block next to us corporate. The whole reason that group formed at Maine Rd was to be where the atmosphere was and that ended that. But I have always liked Nat. since then because I know she followed City through the bad times.