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Deleted member 58678
Guest
I've been going to City for 25 years and we've never really been a set of fans who've had a good atmosphere at home in all that time. We've had our moments but, like dozens of other clubs' fans, when it comes to atmosphere we are really nothing special. My Dad said the late 1960s were better than modern atmopsheres, my Grandad who is still alive said the 1950s were better than modern atmospheres and my Grandad who died years ago used to tell my Dad that the 1930s was frightening how good and loud atmospheres could be at City.
2010-11 was the best i've ever known it. With us looking like we were going to be a top three side, really pushing into the elite in this country for the first time in decades, it was getting exciting. Poznań and Aris showed us what an atmosphere is and we got a few decent songs from them. The Poznań we adopted became something that really made us enjoy ourselves in the stands and off that came some decent atmospheres and the cup run really got us going. Beating United at Wembley and then going back to win the FA Cup in the final created a buzz about us as a set of fans.
Within no time that excitement of being an elite side diminished and it all became about expectation. We expected to go and win because of what good players we had/have and how much money we've spent. When that starts to become a set of fans way of thinking there is a lack of desperation in the atmosphere. Goals are met with pleasant and subdued cheers for a few seconds and then applause, wins are met with short "YAY"s and applause. And getting behind the team just doesn't happen so much because people think "well, we'll score soon so i'll have a bit of a sing then" so don't drive the team on from the stands.
The atmosphere isn't helped by the price of the tickets (in England full stop, not just City). Grounds are not filled with boisterous, pissed up working class lads anymore. There are still a number that do go but they are not the majority anymore.
The stadium doesn't help neither...at all! The Etihad really isn't built for atmosphere; small tiers, a bowl shape and an open roof really make it difficult for noise to be made by enough people at once to be carried around the stadium and not lost into the sky. Then with that we really don't make the best of the poor stadium we have for atmosphere, in fact, we probably couldn't have a worse set-up for it if we tried to make it worse. The away fans have been in the wrong place since Portsmouth came back in August 2003 and it hasn't changed, our vocal areas are pathetically minute and are split in two by the away fans who make more noise than both of the vocal areas we have, the Family Stand is bigger than our vocal areas and we have two main stand type stands that make up the bulk of the attendances.
I had a look a little while ago at all the clubs who i know or roughly know how big their vocal sections are at their home grounds and came up with this list and posted this in a post: It's absolutely pathetic the amount of spaces we have available for our vocal and standing fans. We have the fifth biggest stadium and the fourth best attendance yet the following clubs all have bigger (and in some cases much MUCH bigger) vocal sections than we do:
Arsenal
Chelsea
Liverpool
Everton
Tottenham
The Rags
Newcastle
Southampton
Hull
Villa
Stoke
Swansea
West Brom
Norwich
Cardiff
Sunderland
Leicester
Burnley
Derby
Forest
Brighton
Reading
Blackburn
Ipswich
Wigan
Leeds
Huddersfield
Boro
Watford
Birmingham
Wednesday
Charlton
Millwall
Barnsley
Orient
Wolves
Preston
Swindon
Vale
MK Dons
Cov did at the Ricoh
Bradford
Gillingham
Oldham
Carlisle
Shrewsbury
SheffUtd
Tranmere
Notts Co.
Bristol C
Chesterfield
Plymouth
Portsmouth
Bristol Rovers
Torquay
and even Stockport County
Many of the ones I've missed off are because I don't know how many their vocal section holds and can't be arsed looking.
We have about 1800 one side of the away fans in the South Stand and about 1500 the other side in the East corner. It's pitiful. The stadium holds nearly 48000 people and we have about 3300 available as a vocal section.
Christ, Villa's Holt End holds 14500...SheffUtd's Kop holds 13000...Liverpool's Kop holds 12000...Plymouth's Davenport End holds 3500...Bristol Rovers' new "UWE Stadium"s vocal section will dwarf ours and they might not even be in the football league!
And how many of those vocal sections around he country have to move when they have a home cup game?
This is the worst thing (and one of the only bad things to be fair) about our club.
The away fans need fucking off up into the third tier of the developed South Stand and we need to create a proper vocal section (it would still be very small in comparison to many many other clubs in this country) on Levels 1 and 2 of the South Stand. That would give us a 5800 vocal section. Very small still, we'd probably only get rid of just a half of that^list of clubs, but at least we'd unite the two sections we do have and could really push for a proper vocal end. Unfortunately this is highly unlikely to happen as the club have looked into a different direction and the away fans will continue to be stuck in the wrong place in our stadium for many years to come. This means we will always have obstacles when it comes to atmosphere because of the stadium and it's set-up, also because of the fact we're just not an atmospheric set of fans, the type of fans going to the footy isn't going to be changing and we will continue to be an elite club and that desperation in the atmosphere will get less and less.
We need to keep on trying to improve the atmosphere though, because even if we just improve a little bit, it will still be an improvement. But please NO DRUM!
2010-11 was the best i've ever known it. With us looking like we were going to be a top three side, really pushing into the elite in this country for the first time in decades, it was getting exciting. Poznań and Aris showed us what an atmosphere is and we got a few decent songs from them. The Poznań we adopted became something that really made us enjoy ourselves in the stands and off that came some decent atmospheres and the cup run really got us going. Beating United at Wembley and then going back to win the FA Cup in the final created a buzz about us as a set of fans.
Within no time that excitement of being an elite side diminished and it all became about expectation. We expected to go and win because of what good players we had/have and how much money we've spent. When that starts to become a set of fans way of thinking there is a lack of desperation in the atmosphere. Goals are met with pleasant and subdued cheers for a few seconds and then applause, wins are met with short "YAY"s and applause. And getting behind the team just doesn't happen so much because people think "well, we'll score soon so i'll have a bit of a sing then" so don't drive the team on from the stands.
The atmosphere isn't helped by the price of the tickets (in England full stop, not just City). Grounds are not filled with boisterous, pissed up working class lads anymore. There are still a number that do go but they are not the majority anymore.
The stadium doesn't help neither...at all! The Etihad really isn't built for atmosphere; small tiers, a bowl shape and an open roof really make it difficult for noise to be made by enough people at once to be carried around the stadium and not lost into the sky. Then with that we really don't make the best of the poor stadium we have for atmosphere, in fact, we probably couldn't have a worse set-up for it if we tried to make it worse. The away fans have been in the wrong place since Portsmouth came back in August 2003 and it hasn't changed, our vocal areas are pathetically minute and are split in two by the away fans who make more noise than both of the vocal areas we have, the Family Stand is bigger than our vocal areas and we have two main stand type stands that make up the bulk of the attendances.
I had a look a little while ago at all the clubs who i know or roughly know how big their vocal sections are at their home grounds and came up with this list and posted this in a post: It's absolutely pathetic the amount of spaces we have available for our vocal and standing fans. We have the fifth biggest stadium and the fourth best attendance yet the following clubs all have bigger (and in some cases much MUCH bigger) vocal sections than we do:
Arsenal
Chelsea
Liverpool
Everton
Tottenham
The Rags
Newcastle
Southampton
Hull
Villa
Stoke
Swansea
West Brom
Norwich
Cardiff
Sunderland
Leicester
Burnley
Derby
Forest
Brighton
Reading
Blackburn
Ipswich
Wigan
Leeds
Huddersfield
Boro
Watford
Birmingham
Wednesday
Charlton
Millwall
Barnsley
Orient
Wolves
Preston
Swindon
Vale
MK Dons
Cov did at the Ricoh
Bradford
Gillingham
Oldham
Carlisle
Shrewsbury
SheffUtd
Tranmere
Notts Co.
Bristol C
Chesterfield
Plymouth
Portsmouth
Bristol Rovers
Torquay
and even Stockport County
Many of the ones I've missed off are because I don't know how many their vocal section holds and can't be arsed looking.
We have about 1800 one side of the away fans in the South Stand and about 1500 the other side in the East corner. It's pitiful. The stadium holds nearly 48000 people and we have about 3300 available as a vocal section.
Christ, Villa's Holt End holds 14500...SheffUtd's Kop holds 13000...Liverpool's Kop holds 12000...Plymouth's Davenport End holds 3500...Bristol Rovers' new "UWE Stadium"s vocal section will dwarf ours and they might not even be in the football league!
And how many of those vocal sections around he country have to move when they have a home cup game?
This is the worst thing (and one of the only bad things to be fair) about our club.
The away fans need fucking off up into the third tier of the developed South Stand and we need to create a proper vocal section (it would still be very small in comparison to many many other clubs in this country) on Levels 1 and 2 of the South Stand. That would give us a 5800 vocal section. Very small still, we'd probably only get rid of just a half of that^list of clubs, but at least we'd unite the two sections we do have and could really push for a proper vocal end. Unfortunately this is highly unlikely to happen as the club have looked into a different direction and the away fans will continue to be stuck in the wrong place in our stadium for many years to come. This means we will always have obstacles when it comes to atmosphere because of the stadium and it's set-up, also because of the fact we're just not an atmospheric set of fans, the type of fans going to the footy isn't going to be changing and we will continue to be an elite club and that desperation in the atmosphere will get less and less.
We need to keep on trying to improve the atmosphere though, because even if we just improve a little bit, it will still be an improvement. But please NO DRUM!