Interesting. Had a text chat earlier with someone who'd seen me message on 606. I'd guess they're involved with PR at the club and were digging for something. Anyway, after a long conversation with the lad it would appear that only two things seem inevitable ... ... the stadium is being extended and the away fans won't be moved. I'm sure that will upset a few but the ramifications of shifting them are much greater than the ease of leaving them be. I get that tbh, making arrangements to rehome them would be more trouble than it's worth.
For me it is definitely inevitable, it’s clear the club want to invite extra revenue with events (rugby World Cup) we need to compete with the nearest stadiums for capacity for the big events
Fine with the away fans staying up there, over to us to create an atmosphere if they extend the east stand we can get a back and forth going atleast, need to north to get involved too, give it from all angles
Wasnt there a snippet in the youtube video Xhakas management team put out where the guy says something to 54?
There's all kinds of chatter around this now, David Bruce seems to be a prime mover with the 'stadium extension' plans. I agree with what seems to have been suggested regarding the away fans, I've now changed my mind on that. The club have obviously asked supporter's groups, etc, what their feelings are and done feasibility studies. That's not to say things will never change but the club would seem to prefer to leave the away fans where they are. If home games sell out that means we're turning away home fans and away fans ... ... only having a few thousand matchday tickets available doesn't allow much growth in support. A new generation of supporters needs to be included in my opinion.
Yeah I have always been for moving the away fans but there seems to be a lot more to it to make it worth it Probably need to look at it from a different angle and how we get the atmosphere bouncing in all the areas of the ground and bring the noise closer to the away fans
I thought Premier League rules meant that away fans had to have some at the side of the pitch, well apart from our neighbour's who appear to have a permanent, temporary, exemption. If the extension went ahead perhaps we could move away fans into the north east corner, lower tier for smaller allocations and include the upper tier for cup games etc. The upper NE corner could then be used for match to match tickets freeing the rest of the stadium for season tickets. My personal preference would be to put away fans in the South East corner and develop a bit of atmosphere. The North stand could then be gentrified for our more discerning supporters. I acknowledge that this would have implications where larger allocations were required. Anyway something to think about, I'm sure better minds than mine are looking at the options.
'Bringing the noise closer' to the away fans will never happen except for very rare 'special' occasions like the play-off game, thanks to someone's idiocy in moving them there in the first place. Feasibility studies will always be biased towards leaving them 'upstairs' 'cos the vast majority of fans aren't close enough to them to realise how much it spoils the atmosphere . . . . where they can't hear them, but our fans below them can only hear them in the main, and there's nobody 'side by side' to encourage 'back & forth' banter that always helps the atmosphere. Saying that it would take some effort to rehouse them is the same as saying the same when it happened when they were rehoused in the first place . . . . not insurmountable, it just needs planning. I've said it many times . . . . the atmosphere will never be as good as it was whilst the away fans are above the home section where we can't even see them to 'retaliate' vociferously as we should be able to do. The ideal place for away fans would be in the South East corner, away from corporate and next to our fans, where the atmosphere would improve significantly/greatly. We used to be known for The Roker Roar, but other fans (and a lot of our fans) now only mention how bad the atmosphere is at home games, which is sad & embarrassing, especially for us who remember that roar Rant over
I totally get your point and that is what I thought also but.. As we know they arent going to be moved we need to try and help improve the atmosphere - Although I dont think we will have any issues against West Ham I think itll be rocking
Absolute tosh. It’s much better having them upstairs I’d rather have no atmosphere than just using the away fans to create some noise and ending up giving the away team an advantage But our home support can make noise of their own accord, it just needs the right methods - ie more safe standing, better operations to put like minded lads together, reducing over the top stewarding and keeping the family types away from that section. Tifos etc also help. But as always the most important thing is getting everyone full of beer.
Would love to see the east stand extended so we could increase corporate, which is where the money is, but mainly so that we can extend concessionary seating for kids. Would help massively to regain lost support from outlying areas for years to come.
There was a chap from the club talking about this at the barbecue in portugal, he said moving season ticket holders caused too many issues. He also mentioned that we only had 4k tickets for sale per match. I didn’t get his name but he was bald 50 to 60ish and about 5 10 and wore bins.
I think people who want the away fans back down in the lower bowl have really short memories.. I've sat in the 'crazy corner' since opening (as a child, then teenager and now full time blokie) and it was crap with the away fans next to us... Constantly half empty away ends, and paying more attention to what they were doing / singing than what was actually going on, on the pitch. When we moved them up into the upper post 2013-ish, the atmosphere was electric because you could only hear Sunlun fans. It's up to the fans to make it bouncing and intimidating, we should need away fans pitch side for that
I sit in one of the areas that was mooted for the away fans to move into and I'd be gutted to have to shift. I love my current match day and my seat is a big part of that. We have loads around us who have sat in the same seats since we moved there in 2004. Its good crack.
I agree with above, before fans were moved was pretty **** at times. It's more about what's happening on the pitch than the away fan location.
Good crack with the different points of view. I wonder what Coventry fans thought about the play-off semi atmosphere, in the north upper. Would the game and atmosphere have been the same with them in the original south stand or one of the corners? The lower bowl is prime real estate so I like the home fans being there, from that point of view.
@safcfansofaraway was in Portugal, you probably bumped into him, and he was saying he was given quite a lot of info. Hopefully this post will prompt him to mention it on here.
