Man City - the new bitters?

[dockers_strike]

So has the actual attendance for last night been published anywhere? Im not talking official attendance because as we know most clubs include ticket sales and no shows, even us.

 

I dont think people stayed away for any other reason than they know they arent winning the title this year. And fickle fans are known for not turning out when there's nothing to play for, the oppos are shite no marks like west ham so the win is a given, it's a midweek fixture, the weather's a bit shit and the game is live on tv too.

[andyj]

5 minutes ago, M_B said:

Officially they have had consistantly greater attendances than us this season.

 

.....officially.......

 

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/liverpool/attendances

 

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/liverpool/attendances

 

https://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/eng-premier-league-2019-2020/1/

 

(Last season)

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268576/clubs-of-the-english-premier-league-by-average-attendance/

must have been doping those figures aswell 

[M_B]

8 minutes ago, andyj said:

must have been doping those figures aswell 

As dockers_strike points out, the clubs base their figures on tickets sold. I would guess they sell a lot of tickets to folks in the UAE who can't always make it to the game.

 

[manwiththestick]

It was a game rearranged to a Wednesday, the original match day was a Saturday so its probable that lots of out of towners couldn't then make the midweek game.

 

I'm trying to be reasonable there when I really want to say fuck the glory hunting, cheating, financially juiced up league one, free stadium no-marks.

[Josef Svejk]

I once attended a Handsome Family gig. By which I mean I had a ticket for it. I didn't actually go.

 

The abuse of language is a wonderful thing...

[Babb'sBurstNad]

I really like The Handsome Family.

 

That is all.

[Anubis]

58 minutes ago, M_B said:

As dockers_strike points out, the clubs base their figures on tickets sold. I would guess they sell a lot of tickets to folks in the UAE who can't always make it to the game.

 

Is like to see the list of tickets sold and compare it empty seats. I bet you’d find a lot of repeat offenders.

[diamondjoe]

28 minutes ago, Babb'sBurstNad said:

I really like The Handsome Family.

 

That is all.

Great band. Saw them live a few times. Had a chat with Brett about how I was estranged from my da. Don't think he expected that.

[Bruce Spanner]

19 minutes ago, Anubis said:

Is like to see the list of tickets sold and compare it empty seats. I bet you’d find a lot of repeat offenders.

You mean touts?

 

The Emirates had a similar problem of touts buying season tickets and then not being able to shift them during the fall of Wenger leading to half empty stadiums and tannoy announcements of full houses.
 

Maybe some speculative touts bought some up for City, but doubt they would keep them if they were always having a problem shifting them for nearly every game, though I s’pose a one, or two, off payday could cover for the year and make it financially viable.

 

I just don’t see it though.

[dave u]

I remember reading an article somewhere that said the Sheikh buys any unsold tickets, so that's how come they sell out every game. Over the course of a season that's a good wedge of income towards FFP. 

 

Just one of countless ways they're cheating.

[Guest Alex_K]

2 hours ago, The Guest said:

I honestly don’t think it’s about support size.  They’ve filled the ground for big games plenty of times.  It obviously has an impact but not enough to warrant the sheer number of empty seats at games like last night.  I think it’s about boredom.  They’ve been rich for a while now and won a lot of trophies.  There’s no enjoyment in turning up to watch a formality which is what the vast majority of their fixtures are.  Add this to the fact they’ve now all but lost the league.  Why would they go?  What are they getting out of it?

Of course its about supporter size. Bradford vs Millwall League 1 2017 final (just to pluck an example from thin air) drew 55,000 to Wembley. Those 2 clubs average 15k a season -- max. It is the preserve of tin-pot clubs to raise attendances in one-off games and fall back in the majority. United won 13 league titles in what, 20 seasons? That absolutely dwarfs Citys success over a number of decades .. but attendances at Old Trafford kept going up and up. Can you imagine our fans not going to Anfield because they are bored of winning? Its unthinkable. Some clubs have it in their DNA and some clubs don't -- City's "smallness" is exactly why they were in Division 1 & 2 at the turn of the 21st C.. They were simply never a big club. The novelty of having this success is such that it will bring the masses out from 'time-to-time', sure, but it will never ever sustain large engagement because its utterly superficial. Hence games like last night. And the 'time-to-time' is becoming less and less by the year. They are a definitively small, provincial football club. They're running radio ads, Facebook ads, print ads to sell tickets -- they clearly have a massive problem with it whatever the clubs party line is.

[Numero Veinticinco]

24 minutes ago, dave u said:

I remember reading an article somewhere that said the Sheikh buys any unsold tickets, so that's how come they sell out every game. Over the course of a season that's a good wedge of income towards FFP. 

 

Just one of countless ways they're cheating.

Another one in on the conspiracy. Poor City. Traffic’s a nightmare. 

[El Rojo]

1 hour ago, Josef Svejk said:

I once attended a Handsome Family gig. By which I mean I had a ticket for it. I didn't actually go.

 

The abuse of language is a wonderful thing...

Any excuse. Talk about a song perfectly fitting a TV series.

 

 

[Stickman]

4 hours ago, manwiththestick said:

The BBC are great aren't they? Not had a comments section on any City articles since the news broke last week, today there is an article about how the fans turned up in full support for the team with chants and banners about UEFA etc, etc.

 

No mention of the fact that the ground was FUCKING EMPTY.

 

 

Was it empty though???

 

[index1000]

2 hours ago, M_B said:

As dockers_strike points out, the clubs base their figures on tickets sold. I would guess they sell a lot of tickets to folks in the UAE who can't always make it to the game.

 

Yes i imagine there are a lot of residents in the UAE scratching their heads looking at ticket that has just arrived in the post and trying to recall when they ordered it.

[The Guest]

1 hour ago, Alex_K said:

Of course its about supporter size. Bradford vs Millwall League 1 2017 final (just to pluck an example from thin air) drew 55,000 to Wembley. Those 2 clubs average 15k a season -- max. It is the preserve of tin-pot clubs to raise attendances in one-off games and fall back in the majority. United won 13 league titles in what, 20 seasons? That absolutely dwarfs Citys success over a number of decades .. but attendances at Old Trafford kept going up and up. Can you imagine our fans not going to Anfield because they are bored of winning? Its unthinkable. Some clubs have it in their DNA and some clubs don't -- City's "smallness" is exactly why they were in Division 1 & 2 at the turn of the 21st C.. They were simply never a big club. The novelty of having this success is such that it will bring the masses out from 'time-to-time', sure, but it will never ever sustain large engagement because its utterly superficial. Hence games like last night. And the 'time-to-time' is becoming less and less by the year. They are a definitively small, provincial football club. They're running radio ads, Facebook ads, print ads to sell tickets -- they clearly have a massive problem with it whatever the clubs party line is.

None of those United league titles were an obvious inevitably or a procession like City’s have been. They weren’t winning game after game by cricket scores because they were so far ahead of their opponents.  There was a sport spirit to it all and they were chasing our record.

 

City has been transactional.  Like turning a cheat code on.  They paid a load of money for players to get them in the champions league and then did it again to win the league.  They never went through agonising near misses to appreciate the success.  Winning the league and FA cups in the manner they have hasn’t just bored the rest of the league it’s bored their own fans.  It’s not just West Ham on a weekday they can’t sell out the league cup final either.  Obviously if they had a bigger fan base it would cover it up but that’s not the root of the problem.

[The Guest]

.

[dockers_strike]

47 minutes ago, The Guest said:

None of those United league titles were an obvious inevitably or a procession like City’s have been. They weren’t winning game after game by cricket scores because they were so far ahead of their opponents.  There was a sport spirit to it all and they were chasing our record.

 

City has been transactional.  Like turning a cheat code on.  They paid a load of money for players to get them in the champions league and then did it again to win the league.  They never went through agonising near misses to appreciate the success.  Winning the league and FA cups in the manner they have hasn’t just bored the rest of the league it’s bored their own fans.  It’s not just West Ham on a weekday they can’t sell out the league cup final either.  Obviously if they had a bigger fan base it would cover it up but that’s not the root of the problem.

Well they did lose the cup final to Wigan. But I agree with the general premise. They're a club that just switched on to success because of the huge sums spent on them by the owner. Similarly, their fans are 'on board' like a load of tv viewers who've started watching a tv series that grows in popularity and is suddenly the must watch programme.

 

But after a number of seasons, the plot lines get weak and viewing figures start to drop off then the show is canned. Similarly, although city had some success in the late 60s early 70s, the vast majority of their fans today are the instant success social media types who tend to get bored quickly and look to something else to poke their interest.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

The City criteria for a League Cup Final ticket is having been to one game.

[manwiththestick]

15 minutes ago, VERBAL DIARRHEA said:

The City criteria for a League Cup Final ticket is having been to one game.

Is that ever? Does it even have to be a City game?

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

20 minutes ago, manwiththestick said:

Is that ever? Does it even have to be a City game?

Haha probably not.

[Bjornebye]

A history of winning trophies eh....

 

Hung

Joined:

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Messages:

588

Location:

Bouncing a bomb at the Beaver Dam

I can see why people might decide not to attend etc, but it is an affliction that doesn’t seem to affect Liverpool Utd, or Chelsea. I accept that Chelsea have a much smaller stadium, but those clubs that, like us, have a history of regular trophies, would not in my opinion suffer from the type of piss poor turnout that City endured last night.

 

 

[Bad Red Bull]

He's not a blue, he called us Liverpool

[General Dryness]

5 hours ago, Baltar said:

From Bluemoon:
"We just have to accept City's support as we knew it has gone. The passion in the main has evaporated destroyed by the incessant bile and negativity directed at the club and supporter base, apathy now prevails and Soriano and Co have a lot to answer for turning the Etihad into the 'Theatre of Cheese', we have arguably the oldest supporter base in the division and fans have had enough quite obviously, there is little or no fight left sadly."

 

Err, since when did City have a large support in the first place? Maine Road had 35000 seats and they never bothered expanding it because there never was the demand. City have always had a small fan base compared to the big clubs, or even one city clubs like Newcastle. That's exactly why the Etihad has so many empty seats. Not because fans are staying away for whatever 'moral' reasons, it's because they don't have enough fans to fill the place! 

They need to downsize the Etihad to around 40,000 if they want to have a packed stadium for each home game.

Incessant bile and negativity?

 

We've had it worse than anyone over the years, doesn't seem to have affected our passion.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

I feel for them. You can just hear the passion can’t you. It’s soul destroying what has happened.