Time to move the family stand

[jrb]

Whats the point your making there are hundreds of seats available in kippax corner ?

I wasn’t making a point. The discussion is about the family stand. I know there are seats available all over the ground. But seeing as you’ve mentioned it, £49-£64 for an Adult and an under 18 for a *Wednesday night* match against *Brentford* isn’t great. Saying that, I’m not saying Soriano/City should give tickets away for free. After all Soriano is still driving match day revenue, which is his remit as CEO of City.

The club would be 100% right

As they always are.(unfortunately)

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

Give the stand to 1894 group, have it as the semi-organized European "ultra" part of the ground with standing, flags, inflatables and any other experiments that the group want to try. If it doesn't work out so be it, but it can't hurt.

But it could hurt. People moved out with no equivalent seat for view, price and having to be around new people might just give up. Would you like to be turfed out of your seat that you’re happy with? If it doesn’t work how do you get those fans back.

 

[Man_City_Loyal]

But it could hurt. People moved out with no equivalent seat for view, price and having to be around new people might just give up. Would you like to be turfed out of your seat that you’re happy with? If it doesn’t work how do you get those fans back.

regardless someone’s not going to agree with potential changes..

but it’s worked at uk clubs already and others are following

 

[jrb]

But it could hurt. People moved out with no equivalent seat for view, price and having to be around new people might just give up. Would you like to be turfed out of your seat that you’re happy with? If it doesn’t work how do you get those fans back.

That’s exactly what happened when the family stand was created by the club. Older fans and families who had been sat in the North stand since the club moved from Maine Road were forced to move to other parts of the ground by the club to make way for the family stand. If I remember correctly the club gave them all an incentive to move. Can’t remember what that incentive was. Anyone?

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

But it could hurt. People moved out with no equivalent seat for view, price and having to be around new people might just give up. Would you like to be turfed out of your seat that you’re happy with? If it doesn’t work how do you get those fans back.

its a bit late for that though. Lots of people have already been turfed out of their seats. Lots of people who were in the north stand before the family stand for instance.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

But it could hurt. People moved out with no equivalent seat for view, price and having to be around new people might just give up. Would you like to be turfed out of your seat that you’re happy with? If it doesn’t work how do you get those fans back.

People would be welcome to keep their seats, of course, but if they are specifically paying for the family stand experience then they'd have to move to where the family stand is.

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

regardless someone’s not going to agree with potential changes..

but it’s worked at uk clubs already and others are following

I think the club should be enforcing the rule that only family groups with an U16 should be in the area, and try to reduce the size of it. They need to offer a season ticket price that increases gradually from kids price in the FS to full price at 25 or so, rather than a sudden jump, to ease the transition to other areas. They could try enticing people around the ground to move their seats along a row in order to reduce isolated singles and create doubles and groups of availability for these supporters to move into, e.g. by offering a free shirt or free Carabao tickets for a season, that sort of thing.

 

[JGL07]

Watching the other games in MOTD last night and there were lots of empty seats at places like the London Stadium and Carrow Road. Covid is stopping people going at the moment. It’s like that across hospitality and other leisure activities.

It was also on Boxing Day with next to no public transport. Our seats were empty because there was no way of getting a train from Edinburgh to Manchester. That seemed to affect teams all around the country.

I don’t get this obsession with complaining about empty seats. Watching the matches yesterday, it appeared that City had much lesss of a problem than the likes of Spurs, Brighton. Norwich, etc. We are in the middle of a pandemic on a day with limited or no public transport. What do you expect to happen?

 

[Invisible Man's Bandage]

That’s exactly what happened when the family stand was created by the club. Older fans and families who had been sat in the North stand since the club moved from Maine Road were forced to move to other parts of the ground by the club to make way for the family stand. If I remember correctly the club gave them all an incentive to move. Can’t remember what that incentive was. Anyone?

Initially the club graciously offered fuck all but after supporters voiced their outrage they got £50 off their next SC only from memory.

Loads gave up and never came back.

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

its a bit late for that though. Lots of people have already been turfed out of their seats. Lots of people who were in the north stand before the family stand for instance.

That’s my point though. It’s not a good look and needs to be done carefully.

 

[jrb]

From Wikipedia.(which I don’t often use)

Commencing season 2010–11, seating in the North Stand has been restricted to only supporters accompanied by children, resulting in this end of the ground now being commonly referred to as the Family Stand. Although the North Stand has never been officially renamed and is still frequently referenced that way,[69] most external ticketing offices and stadium guides,[70] in addition to the club itself,[71] now preferentially label and refer to this section of the ground as the Family Stand when discussing seating and ticket sales.

City of Manchester Stadium - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[jrb]

Initially the club graciously offered fuck all but after supporters voiced their outrage they got £50 off their next SC only from memory.

Loads gave up and never came back.

Thanks.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

People will slate me for this. It won’t happen, but the PL and the club owners need to look at the festive calender. It’s obvious people are now voting with their wallets, minds, and feet. What once was a must do thing and go to a match on Boxing Day is no longer the case. Times have changed, and so has the mindset of supporters, old and young. With the cost of everything going up, food, utilities, etc, and the added cost of Christmas and the New Year, people can longer afford to do 9 home and away matches in Decemeber. But when have the PL, club owners, and TV companies ever listened to the fans and used common sense? The relentless pursuit of money always wins out in the end.

Think this is the meta issue not just at City but everywhere. On a pound per minute ratio Premier League football is just about the worst value in Manchester for entertainment. If you're 15 you can get a copy of FIFA for 50 quid and if you're 23 you can get a ticket to the Warehouse Project, and both guarantee more entertainment than a game against Wolves, Burnley or whoever. If you've got a family you're looking at £200 before you've even got a burger. There's a serious problem coming down the pipe at some point in ten or fifteen years. As it stands regular matchgoing is something your Dad takes you to, something you go to occasionally, and then when you hit your 30s with a good job something you can afford to do. The Super League, as stupid as it was, partly understood this as a problem that needed to be addressed.

 

[Beaker]

Personally I don’t think the concept of a family stand is needed anymore. I think City could be much more accommodating of families by making it affordable for parents to take kids all around the ground rather than putting them all in one area that’s still bloody expensive but where swearing is frowned upon. We all know the areas of the stadium to avoid for those parents that want to wrap their kids in cotton wool.

 

[chaddblue]

People will slate me for this. It won’t happen, but the PL and the club owners need to look at the festive calender. It’s obvious people are now voting with their wallets, minds, and feet. What once was a must do thing and go to a match on Boxing Day is no longer the case. Times have changed, and so has the mindset of supporters, old and young. With the cost of everything going up, food, utilities, etc, and the added cost of Christmas and the New Year, people can longer afford to do 9 home and away matches in Decemeber. But when have the PL, club owners, and TV companies ever listened to the fans and used common sense? The relentless pursuit of money always wins out in the end.

For years now and probably more than ever at the moment.. match going fans come a long way down the pecking order

as long as the tv companies are getting the viewing figures and as long as the clubs are pulling in the tv Money.. they couldn’t care less

 

[Man_City_Loyal]

I think the club should be enforcing the rule that only family groups with an U16 should be in the area, and try to reduce the size of it. They need to offer a season ticket price that increases gradually from kids price in the FS to full price at 25 or so, rather than a sudden jump, to ease the transition to other areas. They could try enticing people around the ground to move their seats along a row in order to reduce isolated singles and create doubles and groups of availability for these supporters to move into, e.g. by offering a free shirt or free Carabao tickets for a season, that sort of thing.

good idea that

I was discussing this with my dad after the game.

why not in each block put season tickets together and have a section in each block just for match day tickets.

keep any mass potential empty seats together

 

[East Level 2]

That’s exactly what happened when the family stand was created by the club. Older fans and families who had been sat in the North stand since the club moved from Maine Road were forced to move to other parts of the ground by the club to make way for the family stand. If I remember correctly the club gave them all an incentive to move. Can’t remember what that incentive was. Anyone?

Regulars at the south ends of the East and CB stands level 2 were priced out as those areas were used for 93:20 and Joes.
Some in the middle of SS2 were moved for that corporate bit in the middle. This was done when the club were discussing the atmosphere with the fans but they wouldn't accept that increasing the corporate areas would kill the atmosphere. - They'd have been better putting the corporate bits at the north ends of the stands.
And finally a load of long term ST holders were shifted for the vanity project known as the Tunnel Club.
The club has always been willing to move people when they want to.

 

[zandvoort blue]

Fuck it, burn the stadium down, claim on the insurance, and start again.

 

[ninjamonkey]

These things get brought up constantly, reality is, the people who don't turn up will leave an empty seat elsewhere, the people who sit in silence will do so elsewhere, shuffling things around a bit is going to make next to no difference.

 

[Beaker]

Regulars at the south ends of the East and CB stands level 2 were priced out as those areas were used for 93:20 and Joes.
Some in the middle of SS2 were moved for that corporate bit in the middle. This was done when the club were discussing the atmosphere with the fans but they wouldn't accept that increasing the corporate areas would kill the atmosphere. - They'd have been better putting the corporate bits at the north ends of the stands.
And finally a load of long term ST holders were shifted for the vanity project known as the Tunnel Club.
The club has always been willing to move people when they want to.

This is an argument I’ve had before. When it comes to shifting people to make way for corporate areas, the club have no qualms in pressing ahead and doing it but when it comes to making changes to help the atmosphere, something the hierarchy clearly aren’t invested in then they hide behind the uproar it could potentially cause.
Somebody correct me if I’m wrong but I’m sure that a vibrant atmosphere inside the stadium would help the clubs image. Liverpool’s atmosphere in my opinion is a bit of a myth, but they don’t half market that myth. City, I believe are missing a massive trick here by being so short sighted.