Operation One End

[Gary James]

It's always been the case that City fans have liked the banter with away fans. Wherever the away fans have been moved to on a permanent basis the more vocal fans tend to move to be near them (over a period of time).

If away fans are to be moved on a permanent basis then the more vocal home fans would also have to move as well to ensure atmosphere works.

When away fans were moved to the old North Stand at Maine Road, the rest of the North Stand became much more vocal than it had ever been before (since it was seated). It used to contain families and so on, but the makeup of those sitting there changed because fans liked the banter.

The same happened with the old wooden Platt Lane in the early 80s when away fans had a large support on the open corner. Fans gathered at the end of the Kippax nearest the away fans and in the PL seats nearest them.

We have lots of evidence of this and what's happened over the years.

Moving the away fans from our most vocal support (and giving the away fans an area where the sound can come booming down due to the stadium's design) is never likely to help the atmosphere unless the vocal home fans also move.

Personally, I'd extend the stadium and look at ways of creating something special then. Bring in acoustic experts and experts on human behaviour and get to grips with the nature of support, banter etc. This needs to be properly researched and investigated, but with the right level of detail it must be possible to create an area for support that allows the banter, the noise (from home fans) to grow, while keeping the away fans out of sight of the cameras.

Had we had City's more vocal fans on level 3 next to the Bayern fans the atmosphere would have been outstanding last night - that's why the old Kippax developed its reputation because they were on the side of the pitch next to away fans.

 

[King Of The Kippax]

My theory is that everyone who usually sings I.E. usuaul South stand lot & usual East Stand corner lot stay where they are for the champs leageu games and then the blocks where the away fans usually are are sold to the supporters who don't usually sit there and therfore don't usually sing/shout etc therefore creating the same issue as normal (That there are 2 seperate singing sections) without the banter of the away fans in the middle so creating a worse atmosphere all round. Might be totally out there, but just a point.....

 

[Stockton Heath Blue]

Firstly, I'm not a fan of operation one-end because our seats are in EL 307, so I always end up getting moved for this particular experiment.

However, it was never going to be great last night given how nervous most of the crowd were going to be and what was at stake. Who knows whether the atmosphere would've been any better if the Bayern fans were in the customary away fans position in the south stand.

As we've seen in the ECL this year and Europa of previous years, European fans create a different kind of atmosphere. It's almost as though the match is a secondary issue, with singing pretty much being orchestrated. We are never going to replicate that kind of atmosphere. There have been some pretty good nights (Hamburg & Rags CC semi final), where the atmosphere has made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - and where were the away fans? That's right - south stand next to our fans.

Therefore, please can we stop these requests for operation one-end because I can pretty much guarantee they don't come from EL3 seasoncard holders. The time to consider this issue properly is when we eventually expand the stadium and not before.

 

[jonmcity]

Think the youth of today are to busy worrying about what others think of them than getting up for it and being loud. Most of the songs are from the old days as well. We used to go and know that the whole stand would be singing for the majority of the game. You need to get together and organise. We need to get away fans in a corner as they used to be at main road, then expand the singing sections either side.

 

[Ruhr]

It's time to put it to bed. Majority of noise came from the Bayern fans. Infact the sung throughout the entire match and were well co-ordinated.

"Well co-ordinated". They brought along Drums, megaphones and choreography, I wouldn`t be surprised if they had song sheets as well but most of them will already know the words to The Smurf song and By the rivers of Babylon.

atmosphere in germany is always co-ordinated. The Ultras, that travel in large numbers to away matches, have a megaphone and a repertoire of 10-20 songs, creating some new ones every season. On away matches all other fan groups follow them, that is why german fans are so much louder on away matches than at home. At home matches other fan groups sometimes initiate singing and when the guy at the megaphone is a good one, he joins in.

One of the "laws" of the Ultras is: 90 minutes singing, whatever happens in the game

 

[sweep]

As someone who's been in 109 since we moved stadium, it's easy to see there was a shift of vocal support when the club promoted the 'singing section', thats right, a shift, not an augmentation. As the corner got more vocal fans in, the south stand got quieter.

As has been noted by a couple of posters above, many of the south stand fans stand motionless and quiet most of the time. The same applies to most of the new standing fans who've appeared in 109 over the last season and a half, while 109 is now nearly all standing it is no noisier than it was a couple of years back.

This will be hard for some to accept but it seems fairly plain to me we have far less vocal fans than many seem to believe, my guess they probably only barely number into 4 digits so form a small percentage of our home support and therefore, wouldn't come anywhere even close to filling the south stand. That is why operation one end was always doomed to failure.

 

[6-1 at the swamp]

What a load of shite, worst atmosphere of the season.

Always is on a big night when we need a win nerves get the better.

 

[lancs blue]

It's time to put it to bed. Majority of noise came from the Bayern fans. Infact the sung throughout the entire match and were well co-ordinated.

"Well co-ordinated". They brought along Drums, megaphones and choreography, I wouldn`t be surprised if they had song sheets as well but most of them will already know the words to The Smurf song and By the rivers of Babylon.

atmosphere in germany is always co-ordinated. The Ultras, that travel in large numbers to away matches, have a megaphone and a repertoire of 10-20 songs, creating some new ones every season. On away matches all other fan groups follow them, that is why german fans are so much louder on away matches than at home. At home matches other fan groups sometimes initiate singing and when the guy at the megaphone is a good one, he joins in.

One of the "laws" of the Ultras is: 90 minutes singing, whatever happens in the game

That may suit the German mentality but it all sounds far too regimented for my taste, I wouldn't react well to some dick with a megaphone telling me what to sing and when.

And the "one end" should be the North stand, it's the family area that needs relocating, not the away fans.

 

[6-1 at the swamp]

"Well co-ordinated". They brought along Drums, megaphones and choreography, I wouldn`t be surprised if they had song sheets as well but most of them will already know the words to The Smurf song and By the rivers of Babylon.

atmosphere in germany is always co-ordinated. The Ultras, that travel in large numbers to away matches, have a megaphone and a repertoire of 10-20 songs, creating some new ones every season. On away matches all other fan groups follow them, that is why german fans are so much louder on away matches than at home. At home matches other fan groups sometimes initiate singing and when the guy at the megaphone is a good one, he joins in.

One of the "laws" of the Ultras is: 90 minutes singing, whatever happens in the game

That may suit the German mentality but it all sounds far too regimented for my taste, I wouldn't react well to some dick with a megaphone telling me what to sing and when.

And the "one end" should be the North stand, it's the family area that needs relocating, not the away fans.

I agree pal.

 

[lancs blue]

What a load of shite, worst atmosphere of the season.

Always is on a big night when we need a win nerves get the better.

I just didn't get this last night, why were so many nervous? I'd already discounted getting anything from Villarreal, as far as I was concerned we were "Thursday night, channel 5" from the final whistle in Napoli. I went last night wanting to enjoy a good performance to close off the CL campaign, I couldn't believe the hush that descended when news filtered through about Napoli's goal, WTF did people expect?