West Ham match postponed - confirmed

[SpecialK]

Likely date for West Ham at home ? Weds 1st April I’d guess ? Any views on this

 

[cibaman]

The Met Office should place more confidence in their own forecasts and provide football clubs and transport companies with more precise data. Their forecasts were absoitely on the money. I posted them at 10 am, and they forecast the weather would pass at midday and improve thereafter and it was 100% spot on. The yellow and amber warnings persisted thereafter though and were irrelevant but they create a problem for safety officers who have to be mindful of a litigious public. We have become a risk averse society despite better and better information and it is somewhat contradictory. We should be able to make better and better decisions.

I don’t think the game was called off because of the weather forecast for the Etihad for 4.30 pm. The bigger factor was the effect the storm was having, or likely to have, on the road and rail network in and around the city. The sheer difficulty of getting to the stadium and the possibility that fans would endanger or seriously inconvenience themselves and others in their determination to get there. Something which is a much bigger factor now that so many of our fans travel long distances to support City.

As a non Mancunian it does seem to me that the city’s transport network is a bit more fragile than others. A bit of flooding on the M60, a few branches on the tramlines, everything grinds to a halt. An over reliance on certain routes, without too many alternatives? But it’s not the 60s or 70s when 90% of fans could make their way to Maine Rd almost irrespective of road conditions.

I was critical of the late postponements for the Sunderland and BMG games so I’m sympathetic to the club for feeling that an early decision had to be made, even if it proved premature. Fortunately for me the postponement was announced just before I was about to set off to the game!

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

There were 2 trains from London yesterday that would have arrived in time for kick off. One left at 0920 and one at 1019 and both took well over FIVE hours to get there.
As for me, I do a 300 mile round trip and I drove up on Saturday. Once the game was called off I drove home and I’m well pleased that that was the case. Standing water everywhere with some ‘small lakes’ in evidence. Difficult enough when you can see them but a nightmare in the dark. I’m sorry a few of you missed out on seeing the game but I’m more than happy they called it off.

 

[TheRemainsOfTheDave]

It seems obvious that there is a separation between "East Manchester at 4.30" and "much of south and west England at all times up to 4.30"

By the first, it's probably playable, but the club will not have made the decision solely based on the window for the match itself. If that can't be comprehended, it's probably not worth engaging.

Aye possibly. I haven't been following the thread since yesterday morning but thought I'd try to add in how integrated the fans are with the game now. Our money is crucial to making a profit and it isn't cheap to go to the game now. If we were paying 2 shillings on the gate I'm sure there'd be no issue, but we're not, we have to be considered. Saying we're just being soft or it was better back in the day doesn't really compare any more.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Aye possibly. I haven't been following the thread since yesterday morning but thought I'd try to add in how integrated the fans are with the game now. Our money is crucial to making a profit and it isn't cheap to go to the game now. If we were paying 2 shillings on the gate I'm sure there'd be no issue, but we're not, we have to be considered. Saying we're just being soft or it was better back in the day doesn't really compare any more.

I agree that comparing now with decades ago is almost entirely meaningless, and generally with what you wrote.

Clearly any decision of postponement is going to inconvenience some fans, but how many weather-related injuries would be acceptable to take the risk of playing/travelling? It's a tough thing to do, and I'm sure they based it on the info they had, just as train companies cancel trains rather than have them stuck. Ignoring the risks to travelling fans is plain stupid.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

The storm was long gone by KO as per the forecasts. All we had were the odd isolated squall which at worst would have seen the players go off for 10 minutes.

I'm eleven miles away from The Etihad and it was whipping up here so I assumed it would have been much the same in Beswick!

 

[cptaidan88]

Likely date for West Ham at home ? Weds 1st April I’d guess ? Any views on this

International break, so no unfortunately.

I think we have the following available dates (assuming we progress in all competitions)

10th/11 March. This is a Champions League night, but not when we're due to play - so we might have to kick off at 6pm I think (not allowed to play at the same time)
21st/22nd April. I'm confident we will have a game here, probably Arsenal
12th/13th May

I suspect we might end up having to play 4 games in a week somewhere (eg Friday, Monday, Thursday Sunday)

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

What this thread ultimately proved is that City has an alarming number of 'followers' who are more aligned with drinking alcohol than actually watching football!!

Football is just a convenient excuse to drink outside of the house or the pub. Subsequently, they don't know what to do with themselves (aside from drink) when a game is called off.

 

[mancityvstoke]

What this thread ultimately proved is that City has an alarming number of 'followers' who are more aligned with drinking alcohol than actually watching football!!

Football is just a convenient excuse to drink outside of the house or the pub. Subsequently, they don't know what to do with themselves (aside from drink) when a game is called off.

We never win at home and........

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

I don’t think the game was called off because of the weather forecast for the Etihad for 4.30 pm. The bigger factor was the effect the storm was having, or likely to have, on the road and rail network in and around the city. The sheer difficulty of getting to the stadium and the possibility that fans would endanger or seriously inconvenience themselves and others in their determination to get there. Something which is a much bigger factor now that so many of our fans travel long distances to support City.

As a non Mancunian it does seem to me that the city’s transport network is a bit more fragile than others. A bit of flooding on the M60, a few branches on the tramlines, everything grinds to a halt. An over reliance on certain routes, without too many alternatives? But it’s not the 60s or 70s when 90% of fans could make their way to Maine Rd almost irrespective of road conditions.

I was critical of the late postponements for the Sunderland and BMG games so I’m sympathetic to the club for feeling that an early decision had to be made, even if it proved premature. Fortunately for me the postponement was announced just before I was about to set off to the game!

Spot-on. We do not have a resilient infrastructure in the North West after decades of under-investment. At one point yesterday afternoon the M61, M60 and M6 were all shut because of various issues and no trains were running on the North side of Manchester. There was flooding where I live in the same places that always flood in areas which have never been given adequate flood defences. The rain wasn't even that heavy though the winds were very high.
The poor transport infrastructure is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) challenge our club faces as it tries to expand. It was clearly dangerous to travel for a hell of a lot of fans so I back the decision to postpone the match but transport is the major issue moving forward.