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Please please please no whingeing about the Juventus crowd
- Thread starter Didsbury Dave
- Start date
Millwallawayveteran1988
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- 23 Sep 2010
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I think alot of it is an age thing. I have been going to the games for 35 years plus.
When I was a kid (under 10) I was more bothered about spending time with my dad and climbing on the kippax Wall than I was with the game.
From 15-25 I could do nothing but think about City and when the next game was. It was my life. For most of that time we were absolute crap, Stadiums were falling to bits. You had to watch from behind a ten foot fence with dogs snapping at your heels when you were escorted from the football specials. I never missed a game for ten years.
I then had a child and other priorities came first. money became tighter, I skipped the odd home game and away days were a rarity.
As i am in my 40's I now find myself as passionate as ever about us but find that i dont need to go to every game to justify that. I go to all home games and about 5 aways a season. I tend to go to the european games and have tickets for these three this season but I cant say I always enjoy them. I find the atmosphere flat, the kick off times too late and the intensity a bit lacking until the knockout stages.
In general I dont like the way football is going. I find it overpriced and getting worse especially if you dont have a season ticket which a couple of my mates dont. I think charging £3.90 for a lager that always tastes dire is a joke, the food is over priced and kick off times are a nightmare espcially Monday night and Saturday evening games.
The point is I would give up a night or a game if something more important came up but I would never have done this in my earlier years. Everyone is different and everyone has a choice! I bumped into a man who used to come to the games with us. he is now 90 years old. I hadnt seen him for years and all we talked about was City! he is as passionate as the next man BUT he cant go to the game anymore!
To some people City is their life, to others City is part of their lives and alot of this depends on where you are in your life.
When I was a kid (under 10) I was more bothered about spending time with my dad and climbing on the kippax Wall than I was with the game.
From 15-25 I could do nothing but think about City and when the next game was. It was my life. For most of that time we were absolute crap, Stadiums were falling to bits. You had to watch from behind a ten foot fence with dogs snapping at your heels when you were escorted from the football specials. I never missed a game for ten years.
I then had a child and other priorities came first. money became tighter, I skipped the odd home game and away days were a rarity.
As i am in my 40's I now find myself as passionate as ever about us but find that i dont need to go to every game to justify that. I go to all home games and about 5 aways a season. I tend to go to the european games and have tickets for these three this season but I cant say I always enjoy them. I find the atmosphere flat, the kick off times too late and the intensity a bit lacking until the knockout stages.
In general I dont like the way football is going. I find it overpriced and getting worse especially if you dont have a season ticket which a couple of my mates dont. I think charging £3.90 for a lager that always tastes dire is a joke, the food is over priced and kick off times are a nightmare espcially Monday night and Saturday evening games.
The point is I would give up a night or a game if something more important came up but I would never have done this in my earlier years. Everyone is different and everyone has a choice! I bumped into a man who used to come to the games with us. he is now 90 years old. I hadnt seen him for years and all we talked about was City! he is as passionate as the next man BUT he cant go to the game anymore!
To some people City is their life, to others City is part of their lives and alot of this depends on where you are in your life.
fathellensbellend
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- Joined
- 30 Jul 2005
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- 4,290
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:I think alot of it is an age thing. I have been going to the games for 35 years plus.
When I was a kid (under 10) I was more bothered about spending time with my dad and climbing on the kippax Wall than I was with the game.
From 15-25 I could do nothing but think about City and when the next game was. It was my life. For most of that time we were absolute crap, Stadiums were falling to bits. You had to watch from behind a ten foot fence with dogs snapping at your heels when you were escorted from the football specials. I never missed a game for ten years.
I then had a child and other priorities came first. money became tighter, I skipped the odd home game and away days were a rarity.
As i am in my 40's I now find myself as passionate as ever about us but find that i dont need to go to every game to justify that. I go to all home games and about 5 aways a season. I tend to go to the european games and have tickets for these three this season but I cant say I always enjoy them. I find the atmosphere flat, the kick off times too late and the intensity a bit lacking until the knockout stages.
In general I dont like the way football is going. I find it overpriced and getting worse especially if you dont have a season ticket which a couple of my mates dont. I think charging £3.90 for a lager that always tastes dire is a joke, the food is over priced and kick off times are a nightmare espcially Monday night and Saturday evening games.
The point is I would give up a night or a game if something more important came up but I would never have done this in my earlier years. Everyone is different and everyone has a choice! I bumped into a man who used to come to the games with us. he is now 90 years old. I hadnt seen him for years and all we talked about was City! he is as passionate as the next man BUT he cant go to the game anymore!
To some people City is their life, to others City is part of their lives and alot of this depends on where you are in your life.
great post.
Scooby Blue
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- 7 Sep 2008
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- 542
BurnCK said:Scooby Blue said:I think this will be a welcome reality check for the club (and some fans) as to where we are in terms of support + pricing etc.
The club's hierarchy craves CL football as (a) symbol of progress (b) ability to attract very top players.... but if we're honest we will struggle to get more than 30-35K for CL group stage games if pricing is similar to this season.
3 games for £50.....how much cheaper do you want ???
I'm not saying that the pricing is too expensive... quite the opposite... I think the pricing is very fair.
My point is that the club has put a lot of effort into selling season cards with various initiatives (£250 deal / changes to family stand / endless surveys etc) which is leading to decent crowds for PL games.
The moment we try + sell tickets for European games (including attractive opposition such as Juventus) at "fair" prices ... we are struggling to get 30k.
This is not something to lose any sleep about in the Europa league... but it is an issue for when we are in CL.
We are all trying to work out what the recent investment in the club has done to the breadth + appetite of our fanbase.
My impression is that the core 25-30k who were watching us in Div2 are very excited, look forward to games more + appreciate the difficult balance the club has to try and achieve in pricing for games.
The wider pool of 100,000 "occasional" or "selective" supporters have obviously had their interest levels raised... but the club are finding it difficult to convert them into paying customers at anything other than "bargain" prices (e.g. Hamburg).
As I implied in my earlier post: Man City v Juventus has a Champions League "feel" about it... and for a club starved of success...to be finding it so difficult to shift tickets at "fair" prices... gives the club plenty of food for thought in relation to when we make the CL proper.
I think we'll find that City will have by far the biggest Europa League attendance of the night. It's not a knock-out, and the Europa League has been diminished somewhat by the Champions League so why beat everyone up on the back of what looks like a good crowd (looks like it will approach 35k)?Scooby Blue said:BurnCK said:3 games for £50.....how much cheaper do you want ???
I'm not saying that the pricing is too expensive... quite the opposite... I think the pricing is very fair.
My point is that the club has put a lot of effort into selling season cards with various initiatives (£250 deal / changes to family stand / endless surveys etc) which is leading to decent crowds for PL games.
The moment we try + sell tickets for European games (including attractive opposition such as Juventus) at "fair" prices ... we are struggling to get 30k.
This is not something to lose any sleep about in the Europa league... but it is an issue for when we are in CL.
We are all trying to work out what the recent investment in the club has done to the breadth + appetite of our fanbase.
My impression is that the core 25-30k who were watching us in Div2 are very excited, look forward to games more + appreciate the difficult balance the club has to try and achieve in pricing for games.
The wider pool of 100,000 "occasional" or "selective" supporters have obviously had their interest levels raised... but the club are finding it difficult to convert them into paying customers at anything other than "bargain" prices (e.g. Hamburg).
As I implied in my earlier post: Man City v Juventus has a Champions League "feel" about it... and for a club starved of success...to be finding it so difficult to shift tickets at "fair" prices... gives the club plenty of food for thought in relation to when we make the CL proper.
City always struggle to fill the ground for Cup games because a lot of our regular fans don't come from Manchester!! and we are not well enough supported locally to make up for it
carlosthejackal
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The only person anyone needs to worry about is themselves.
darrenwassall
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^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^carlosthejackal said:The only person anyone needs to worry about is themselves.
Scooby Blue said:BurnCK said:3 games for £50.....how much cheaper do you want ???
I'm not saying that the pricing is too expensive... quite the opposite... I think the pricing is very fair.
My point is that the club has put a lot of effort into selling season cards with various initiatives (£250 deal / changes to family stand / endless surveys etc) which is leading to decent crowds for PL games.
The moment we try + sell tickets for European games (including attractive opposition such as Juventus) at "fair" prices ... we are struggling to get 30k.
This is not something to lose any sleep about in the Europa league... but it is an issue for when we are in CL.
We are all trying to work out what the recent investment in the club has done to the breadth + appetite of our fanbase.
My impression is that the core 25-30k who were watching us in Div2 are very excited, look forward to games more + appreciate the difficult balance the club has to try and achieve in pricing for games.
The wider pool of 100,000 "occasional" or "selective" supporters have obviously had their interest levels raised... but the club are finding it difficult to convert them into paying customers at anything other than "bargain" prices (e.g. Hamburg).
As I implied in my earlier post: Man City v Juventus has a Champions League "feel" about it... and for a club starved of success...to be finding it so difficult to shift tickets at "fair" prices... gives the club plenty of food for thought in relation to when we make the CL proper.
It's an interesting challenge. The fact that it is the CL will in itself boost the numbers but by how much and will it be enough? I would guess not. The club needs to think outside the box on this one. It is nothing new, City fans have always come in bigger numbers to league games. Early round cup games in particular are particularly unattractive it seems.
I am sure the marketing men will solve the problem and if I was one of them I'd be thinking:
* Give priority for all the cup finals and big occasions along the way that we are about to experience to those that attend early round cup games that season irrespective of whether they are ST holders or not and how many loyalty points they have overall. A new version of the old voucher system effectively. This would help get more ST holders into the stadium. It would be unpopular but fair imo (I am a ST holder). New fans would also have an incentive whereas at the moment with 6/5/3K whatever points likely to be required for the bigger games they may well think oh well whats the point going now if I can't get a ticket to the final or a semi.
* Give ST holders an attractive option to add on cup games for a low-ish fixed cost. Up to the QF say. Yes I know the number of games will vary but where there is a will there is a way. Sometimes the club will benefit. Sometimes the deal will benefit the supporters more. If they have paid and the cost is known then perhaps more will come. Deffo if they have a points incentive as above which they only get if the card is used. The club knows its minimum likely revenues up to a certain point in advance. The fans know what tickets are going to cost them up to the point where they won't be as bothered what they have to pay for the big category A games close to a final.
* Finally, kids/ guests/ students/ forces/ pygmies whatever for a quid to fill as many remaining empty seats as possible
I'm sure there are other ways but off the top of my head these might be the basis of ideas worth consideration. If the club does nowt then the situation will remain broadly the same.
Millwallawayveteran1988
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jimbo101 said:millwallawayveteran1988
was that the cup replay at cold blow lane (1-1)
No mate it was the one nil win. in the old division 2, I might be wrong on the year. it was either late 87 or early 88...Tony Adcock scored the winner.
It was frightening to be honest. We took around 800-1000 that day and all of them were between 18-35 or so it seemed. There were no kids and no women. This was at the height of the Guvnors and they were out in force that day! There was a load of trouble at London Bridge after the game. That ground was a mare. You had to walk round the back of their main stand to get to the away end...