Stand leaders

[Didsbury Dave]

How did we let it get to this?

Because of all the giddy kids wanting a capo... coz Dortmund were 'mint'...

Fuck me mate. You remember that lot?

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I take it 'Super Fans' only need apply.

 

[bernabias home shirt]

What is responsible for this is the biggest City myth.
Maine Road was bursting with atmosphere and noise every game, when nothing could be further from the truth

How true your post is mate
It was fucking awful most of the time

I don't know the solution to the atmosphere problem,but if the club want to try something fair play to them
Let's be honest it's fucking dire and getting worse.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Disagree

Our stadium has the worst atmosphere of any top club in the Premier League so far this season and has become the butt of jokes, the same sort of jokes we've made about the swamp for years. It used to have one of the best of the top clubs, but a big chunk of our fans seem to have lost their passion since we won the league.

FWIW, I sit in Block 107 and at weekend, this guy stood up out of nowhere and at the top of his voice sang "We're not really here!" and an unusually high number of people in the often quiet 107 joined in. All it took was one brave guy in the sullen silence to get people to join in. If there was someone like that in every block, I wouldn't complain. The Family Stand could benefit, especially.

Is this really true though?

I'm not trying to say that our atmosphere is anything to be desired, but if anything I'd say it's been better (post-move to CoMs) since the takeover because we've had bigger games.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bw6pNPioQw[/youtube]

watch that. Look at the fucking state of it.

Compared to this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22BtVb3hLjw[/youtube]

And I'm not even talking about a derby.

The best atmospheres come from the bigger games.

Stand leaders will not make any difference to our home atmosphere against Fulham.

Something I will maintain was a massive mistake by City was the North Stand level 1 move. Garry Cook had this great idea where each stand had it's own identity. South for noise, North for families.

There are those that had to leave the North Stand level 1 because they didn't go to the match with an under 16. so they moved to the South Stand because it was similarly priced to the North Stand. These people might only join in to a few songs a match, which would have sounded great in the North Stand as a chant filters round the ground, but in the South Stand they're seen as a "waste" because they don't join in with everything.

YOu know your stuff Liam. If you believed what you read on here day in day out we are the least loyal, quietest, shittest, moaniest earliest leavers in the entire sport.

The other enormous mistake City made - the biggest of the lot - was putting the North Stand singers where they are. On one side they have the old man stand. On the other they have the away fans. So no song started in the South Stand ever spreads around. And eventually they south stand gives up.

Until all the singers sit together and are twice as loud, giving the rest of the voice something to follow, the problem won't go away.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

What is responsible for this is the biggest City myth.
Maine Road was bursting with atmosphere and noise every game, when nothing could be further from the truth

How true your post is mate
It was fucking awful most of the time.

Agree with both of you, although "awful most of the time" might be a bit OTT. It was certainly flat plenty of times in a season.

 

[I'm no cynic but...]

This isn't about stand leaders as such, but is a warning as to the type of person the idea may attract.

Back in the 60s, when following City with Joe and Big Mal in charge following years in the doldrums, it became easy to open up new branches of the official supporters club, and one of these was at Moston. It went OK for the first two or three meetings, but a match got rearranged at short notice for an evening that clashed with the club meeting. I'm not sure if it was a cup replay that was being played at Maine Road, but naturally enough, most of us went to the game. Anyway, the upshot of it was that because the meeting wasn't called off, a handful of dopes attended the meeting while the rest of us were at the game. It may astound some that the following meeting was held under a bit of a storm cloud and the Branch Secretary was giving the attendees a right old bollocking for attending the game and not the meeting. Needless to say, I dropped out and I think almost the rest did too.

And this is the warning. You won't be seeing some loud mouth trying to get the noise up and running at each game, you'll instead see a bunch of upstarts with a bit of a title who somehow think they are important and a part of the management structure, and if they don't like you or they see you as rocking the boat, they'll have you out and banned forever.

 

[Blue Coop]

I can see it now, "your stand leader, your stand leader, your stand leader's fucking shite, your stand leader's fucking shite. SHHHHHHH"

I've already got my coat.

 

[bernabias home shirt]

What is responsible for this is the biggest City myth.
Maine Road was bursting with atmosphere and noise every game, when nothing could be further from the truth

How true your post is mate
It was fucking awful most of the time.

Agree with both of you, although "awful most of the time" might be a bit OTT. It was certainly flat plenty of times in a season.

Your right gdm
Got carried away with that part,we can go with your plenty of times.
I know it's been bad for a while
But it really hit home with me when we were smashing spurs
They had a little pocket of fans taking the piss out of us being quiet.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

How true your post is mate
It was fucking awful most of the time.

Agree with both of you, although "awful most of the time" might be a bit OTT. It was certainly flat plenty of times in a season.

Your right gdm
Got carried away with that part,we can go with your plenty of times.
I know it's been bad for a while
But it really hit home with me when we were smashing spurs
They had a little pocket of fans taking the piss out of us being quiet.

I thought the Spurs atmosphere was ok as it happens. Away fans have always taken the piss out of their opposite numbers' lack of vocal support. We always used to do it at Highbury, for example .
'
It does need improving and there's no silver bullet. Hopefully a number of minor initiatives/changes can all have a compound effect, but this ain't one that's going to do anything other than invite ridicule imo.

 

[SPIDERBOY]

Would it not be better to put the away fans in a small section in level 3.....I heard there was a waiting list for people wanting to move to south stand...surely this would improve the atmosphere?..especially when it goes to 3 levels.

 

[tidyman]

Is that big, fat baldy **** still alive, who used to start off the, "Everywhere we go..." song in the Kippax?

He was a proper stand leader.

 

[JJCMCFC]

Teams like Munich have them and they have an awesome atmosphere. What's the problem (other than the current problem of being too British and not wanting to join/start chants)

 

[The Pink Panther]

What is responsible for this is the biggest City myth.
Maine Road was bursting with atmosphere and noise every game, when nothing could be further from the truth

How true your post is mate
It was fucking awful most of the time.

Agree with both of you, although "awful most of the time" might be a bit OTT. It was certainly flat plenty of times in a season.

The other thing is the age dynamic of your matchday supporter has changed from 30 years ago
Wasn't there a survey out recently that said the average age of a matchday fan now was 40 something, compared to 20 something back in the 80's
That has a huge influence IMO

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

Our players get scared when we make lots of noise, thats the real reason we always lose away when we sing non-stop for 90 minutes. Our darlings love the serene atmosphere at the Etihad. Shame on the club for trying to make the ground louder.

 

[greasedupdeafguy]

Teams like Munich have them and they have an awesome atmosphere. What's the problem (other than the current problem of being too British and not wanting to join/start chants)

Its totally different, most foreign clubs all have their own ultra groups with Capos but that type of thing just won't work at here as the mentality just isn't the same. I certainly wouldn't be against a few hundred city fans getting themselves organised and setting up a smiler group to what Palace have but this stand leader idea is just cringey as it gets. I can just imagine that bellend Ferris announcing before the game for all the stand leaders to start singing and bouncing while another dreadful live rendition of bluemoon is played on the pitch.

 

[LoveCity]

Can we at least agree it might be worth a go in the Family Stand? That is the designated 'cheese' area anyway, and there can be no harm in getting our next generation of fans to sing. I saw kids on iPads at weekend, not even paying attention to the match... made me wonder what atmosphere will be like in 20 years at football matches.

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

Teams like Munich have them and they have an awesome atmosphere. What's the problem (other than the current problem of being too British and not wanting to join/start chants)

Its totally different, most foreign clubs all have their own ultra groups with Capos but that type of thing just won't work at here as the mentality just isn't the same. I certainly wouldn't be against a few hundred city fans getting themselves organised and setting up a smiler group to what Palace has but this stand leader idea is just cringey as it gets. I can just imagine that bellend Ferris announcing before the game for all the stand leaders to start singing and bouncing while another dreadful live rendition of bluemoon is played on the pitch.

Bayern Munich are shit fans. We want to be like Palace, what bayern do is the equivalent of us all singing COME ON CITY for 90 minutes regardless of what the fuck is going on on the pitch.

 

[OxBlue]

I'm going to apply to be stand leader in the 2nd tier of the family stand.

I'll sit there quietly, eating my Jamie Burger while young un eats his Jamie Hotdog and generally just watch the game with little or no fuss, hopefully everyone will follow my lead...its going to be great.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

Not got a chance. It will improve the atmos for a couple of games as whoever does it is going to get the shit ripped out of them.

We've a guy in 117 in about row H who has been on a one man trial over the last couple of games. Entertaining as he is with his bottle of water to keep him m going its just not going to happen.

Songs need to be spontaneous not part of a pretty planned match day experience.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Can we at least agree it might be worth a go in the Family Stand? That is the designated 'cheese' area anyway, and there can be no harm in getting our next generation of fans to sing. I saw kids on iPads at weekend, not even paying attention to the match... made me wonder what atmosphere will be like in 20 years at football matches.

No, the total opposite in fact. They should have stand leaders in the stand where people like to sing and create an atmosphere. The people in the family stand are obviously happy sat with their kids watching the game, they don't need some tri-hard doing his/her best to get the crowd 'going'.

A stand leader would be less noticeable in the south stand or the singing section which is a bit more ideal.

PLAYERS READDDDDDYYYYY
STAND LEADDDDERRRRSSS READDDDDDDDYYYYYYY
3
2
1
*whistle blows*

Embarrassing.