It's a conundrum. Imo the team look far more nervous at home than away. It might be because there has sadly been very little to cheer at home and the place has been quite toxic on several occasions since we moved there. I also think it demonstrates the obvious flaw in having a huge capacity: you need loads of people joining in to make an atmosphere. WHL was rocking even with half the stadium, which was circa 15k people. The new stadium needs twice that number. From when I've been there the south stand can't manage it on its own, atmosphere gets lost by the time it gets across to the north stand.
The problem IMHO is there are so many fans who stop making a noise when the going gets tough. That was true at WHL too. Since moving into the new stadium we've reached two European finals and won one of them. That's plenty to cheer.
I don't see the stadium as a problem. It's got everything that any football fan could want. The Citeh CL QF was one of the best atmospheres that I've ever experienced. The problem is that since we moved there, the football has largely been awful, barring very brief spells under 3 of the procession of coaches we've had since 2019. Sort that out and things will improve. Get us back to 2015-'17 levels and the place will be jumping. It shouldn't matter as much as it does, but like great pre-kick off atmospheres, the guarantee of an intimidating cauldron of noise has gone from most stadiums...OT and Anfield included.
The UI is massively different and caused a lot of the negativity more so than the usual bugs you’d expect. The main actual ‘game breaking’ bugs they fixed pretty quickly but still a few minor annoyances that hopefully get ironed out in the next week or so.
Maybe because we can watch so much football now. There was a time in my living memory when almost the only game you could see on TV was the FA Cup final. That made it very special and it also made watching your club live even more special.
Plus standing with freezing feet, and rattles. My parents had just gone through WW2 and many had the air raid warning rattles which they painted up in their clubs colours. I'm sure they were just happy to be alive and having fun. Football is much bigger now, and maybe a little further away from ordinary fans. We can see so many great players every week and take for granted the skills on display. In the past a player controlling a received pass well would be clapped, now we expect it from professionals. Many changes.
