Stadium Expansion (Confirmed)

[mostonbluemark]

This is the 3rd time in this thread I have made reference to this point that we are failing to address.

Just how are we going to get young supporters, 8-13 year old, from working class backrounds, back into our football club.

I see absolutely nothing in any proposal to address this issue that sees the average age of a match attending supporter in their 40's, whilst it remains impossible for a child under the age of 14 to enter the stadium as an individual, even if they had the considerable amount of money required to purchase a ticket.

Ask yourself this; How many of the posters on here would heve ever got to watch City as a youngster if it required you to convince your Mum, Dad or some other adult to take you along and a huge amount of money as well.

To put this into perspective and removing inflation from the equation, at the age of 10 I was travelling 6 miles on buses to Maine Road, paying admission money onto the Kippax, buying Chips, a Match Programme and then travelling back home again all within what I used to get as Pocket Money (£2)

Is it only me that can see that we have an issue here?

Your points are well made. But I don't think this is a specific City issue, or for that matter a football issue. When we were kids we used to do all sorts of things on our own. For the simple reason was it was safer to do so. I used to go with my mates on the Football Bus special from the Ben Brierley so it was a relatively easy commute. Occasionally we used to get the number 80 and walk across Alexandra Park. If my grandson tried to do this at the same age as I did to be honest it would scare me to death. It just isn't the same these days. In short we are where we are unfortunately and we can only hope as we grow as a successful football club it will attract more of the younger end. Maybe the club will come up with some ideas when they expand the family stand to three tiers.

 

[ManCitizens.]

This is the 3rd time in this thread I have made reference to this point that we are failing to address.

Just how are we going to get young supporters, 8-13 year old, from working class backrounds, back into our football club.

I see absolutely nothing in any proposal to address this issue that sees the average age of a match attending supporter in their 40's, whilst it remains impossible for a child under the age of 14 to enter the stadium as an individual, even if they had the considerable amount of money required to purchase a ticket.

Ask yourself this; How many of the posters on here would heve ever got to watch City as a youngster if it required you to convince your Mum, Dad or some other adult to take you along and a huge amount of money as well.

To put this into perspective and removing inflation from the equation, at the age of 10 I was travelling 6 miles on buses to Maine Road, paying admission money onto the Kippax, buying Chips, a Match Programme and then travelling back home again all within what I used to get as Pocket Money (£2)

Is it only me that can see that we have an issue here?

Your points are well made. But I don't think this is a specific City issue, or for that matter a football issue. When we were kids we used to do all sorts of things on our own. For the simple reason was it was safer to do so. I used to go with my mates on the Football Bus special from the Ben Brierley so it was a relatively easy commute. Occasionally we used to get the number 80 and walk across Alexandra Park. If my grandson tried to do this at the same age as I did to be honest it would scare me to death. It just isn't the same these days. In short we are where we are unfortunately and we can only hope as we grow as a successful football club it will attract more of the younger end. Maybe the club will come up with some ideas when they expand the family stand to three tiers.[/quote]

There will be three tiers with empty seats instead of two if they extend the family stand. The family stand should be 2-3,000 seats in one of the corners corner, with the rest of the kids sitting in different parts of the ground (same cost).

 

[mostonbluemark]

This is the 3rd time in this thread I have made reference to this point that we are failing to address.

Just how are we going to get young supporters, 8-13 year old, from working class backrounds, back into our football club.

I see absolutely nothing in any proposal to address this issue that sees the average age of a match attending supporter in their 40's, whilst it remains impossible for a child under the age of 14 to enter the stadium as an individual, even if they had the considerable amount of money required to purchase a ticket.

Ask yourself this; How many of the posters on here would heve ever got to watch City as a youngster if it required you to convince your Mum, Dad or some other adult to take you along and a huge amount of money as well.

To put this into perspective and removing inflation from the equation, at the age of 10 I was travelling 6 miles on buses to Maine Road, paying admission money onto the Kippax, buying Chips, a Match Programme and then travelling back home again all within what I used to get as Pocket Money (£2)

Is it only me that can see that we have an issue here?

Your points are well made. But I don't think this is a specific City issue, or for that matter a football issue. When we were kids we used to do all sorts of things on our own. For the simple reason was it was safer to do so. I used to go with my mates on the Football Bus special from the Ben Brierley so it was a relatively easy commute. Occasionally we used to get the number 80 and walk across Alexandra Park. If my grandson tried to do this at the same age as I did to be honest it would scare me to death. It just isn't the same these days. In short we are where we are unfortunately and we can only hope as we grow as a successful football club it will attract more of the younger end. Maybe the club will come up with some ideas when they expand the family stand to three tiers.

There will be three tiers with empty seats instead of two if they extend the family stand. The family stand should be 2-3,000 seats in one of the corners corner, with the rest of the kids sitting in different parts of the ground (same cost).[/quote]

Well comments like that are really going to help attract young people to the stadium. My personal opinion, for what its worth, is the family stand has been a huge success. You only have to look at the number of kids in there on match days. Granted there is an issue of non attendance at some matches, but that's largely down to night games where school, rightly so, has precedence.

 

[ManCitizens.]

Your points are well made. But I don't think this is a specific City issue, or for that matter a football issue. When we were kids we used to do all sorts of things on our own. For the simple reason was it was safer to do so. I used to go with my mates on the Football Bus special from the Ben Brierley so it was a relatively easy commute. Occasionally we used to get the number 80 and walk across Alexandra Park. If my grandson tried to do this at the same age as I did to be honest it would scare me to death. It just isn't the same these days. In short we are where we are unfortunately and we can only hope as we grow as a successful football club it will attract more of the younger end. Maybe the club will come up with some ideas when they expand the family stand to three tiers.

There will be three tiers with empty seats instead of two if they extend the family stand. The family stand should be 2-3,000 seats in one of the corners corner, with the rest of the kids sitting in different parts of the ground (same cost).

Well comments like that are really going to help attract young people to the stadium. My personal opinion, for what its worth, is the family stand has been a huge success. You only have to look at the number of kids in there on match days. Granted there is an issue of non attendance at some matches, but that's largely down to night games where school, rightly so, has precedence.[/quote]

In my opinion kids can sit in other places other than the family stand, that's why I said ticket prices for kids should be the same in all areas.

 

[alanblue]

When is work due to start on the Stadium Expansion, [ can't wait ]

 

[City_Sean]

I'd love the family stand to be like east stand third tier, and then making the north and south stand all standing to generate better atmosphere.

 

[Joe Hart's Dandruff]

Any pics of what it is projected to look like?

 

[lancs blue]

This is the 3rd time in this thread I have made reference to this point that we are failing to address.

Just how are we going to get young supporters, 8-13 year old, from working class backrounds, back into our football club.

I see absolutely nothing in any proposal to address this issue that sees the average age of a match attending supporter in their 40's, whilst it remains impossible for a child under the age of 14 to enter the stadium as an individual, even if they had the considerable amount of money required to purchase a ticket.

Ask yourself this; How many of the posters on here would heve ever got to watch City as a youngster if it required you to convince your Mum, Dad or some other adult to take you along and a huge amount of money as well.

To put this into perspective and removing inflation from the equation, at the age of 10 I was travelling 6 miles on buses to Maine Road, paying admission money onto the Kippax, buying Chips, a Match Programme and then travelling back home again all within what I used to get as Pocket Money (£2)

Is it only me that can see that we have an issue here?

Your points are well made. But I don't think this is a specific City issue, or for that matter a football issue. When we were kids we used to do all sorts of things on our own. For the simple reason was it was safer to do so. I used to go with my mates on the Football Bus special from the Ben Brierley so it was a relatively easy commute. Occasionally we used to get the number 80 and walk across Alexandra Park. If my grandson tried to do this at the same age as I did to be honest it would scare me to death. It just isn't the same these days. In short we are where we are unfortunately and we can only hope as we grow as a successful football club it will attract more of the younger end. Maybe the club will come up with some ideas when they expand the family stand to three tiers.

I don't believe that it's any more dangerous now for kids on their own, the media hype is just greater - as with many other subjects. When I was 10 the Moors Murderers were still on the loose in the Manchester area but kids still went out on their own. With regard to the policy of not allowing U-14s to attend matches on their own I think the club are just reflecting the fact that it's frowned upon by the authorities to leave an U-14 unsupervised in the house.

 

[johnmc]

Why are people questioning how we get kids supporting us?

Don't we have kids tickets for £120? Other than that though, a lot of kids will want to support a team winning things. Nothing breeds support like success. We have a gap as united dominated. That's not the case anymore. It doesn't change overnight though. I'd guess that's far more of a factor than ticket prices.

 

[bluwes]

Any pics of what it is projected to look like?

No sorry , nothing has been released yet