without wanting to sound awful but this is why i much prefer going to away games. yeah, you lose more but the people are more into it if you get me. i've left early once because i was in the away end at the dell and some guys had picked up on it and i didnt want a kicking!!!
I am guessing you are also a young(ish) fan. As I said above somewhere, I used to arrive at the ground at 11.00am. After the match, we used to gather and hundreds would parade into town. I think the reasoning was that we were looking for away fans, to me it was just a laugh. Was I a better fan then than now just because I spent longer at it. Of course not. I could equally argue that I am a better fan than you because I have been supporting Saints for over 50 years but that would be equally stupid. The whole concept of someone being a "better" fan than someone else is a load of old crock anyway. It is such a bizarre concept. When Pompey scored that equalizing goal last year I felt it as if someone had punched me in the stomach. That is what it is like to be a true fan. There is no other test.
Why....? Do we not have equal rights to them. We could argue that we don't pay good money to have people constantly getting in front of us because they want to save a few minutes. You are of course right they have every right to leave early should they feel they need to. Just as we have every right to our feelings to being disturbed or because we feel it is disrespectful to the team. It works both ways, although accepted name calling is not needed.
Now that I can agree with. For example there are a couple in my row who always arrive late which I find annoying. I don't rate them as lesser fans though and that is my point. They are just, annoying.
Me? youngish?! You flatterer. Deeply Middleaged mush. I appreciate the days of queueing to get into a ground from midday etc are long gone and with seats allocated, there is little need to get in too early, although I still enjoy being in my place at least 15 mins before kickoff. For me, it adds to the build up and I used to hate waiting for mates to finish their drinks or goading away fans whilst I was looking at my watch wanting to get into the ground. Probably the half dozen or so times I have missed kick off (out of more than a 1000 saints games) the rest of the game just didn't feel right because I had missed kickoff. For me, you are there at the start of the game, you are there at the end of the game. To go back to the original point, if fans want to nearly always leave early, its up the them, but I will never understand it and think its bloody stupid because you are literally missing out. Plus I think the numbers going early are getting greater and greater and some now see it as the "norm".
I have never left early home or away! and it to really annoys me I watch the same person leave 5mins before HT and 5mins before FT in total missing 10mins per game assuming he goes to every home EPL game thats 190mins of football missed over 2 games!!! usually nothing happens at FT and we normally concede at HT but you never know plus you can show your support at the game. and if you walk at a good pace you can normally overtake these people who leave early anyway! It is one thing I hate to see.
Some people like to leave early so that they can quickly get to their car and turn on the radio so that they can hear Dave Merrington tell them what they missed by leaving early.
It wasn't meant as flattery Can we harrangue those who arrive late for a bit as I find that more annoying. At least there is a purpose to leaving early, I can see none in arriving late.
I also wonder if these people are equally annoying in the theatre or cinema. It's a longer wait until the intermission during a play than the 45 min of a football match, so they must presumably have to disturb the audience even more. Something tells me that they don't!!...so stop it.
There's a guy in the row behind who always needs to go to the loo during the game (not his fault). However, he always waits until there is a break in play. On the way back he'll sit on the steps until there is a break. Easily done burt top marks to him.
Shall we sum up that early leavers & late arrivers are probably annoying people in all aspects of their life. The blacklist starts right here, right now. I want block, row & seat numbers, then the hunt begins...
