[Football] Atmosphere in Premier League matches

[BN41Albion]

Whilst i agree with some of the op's points, i do think he/she's exaggerating somewhat. I've been to games in germany where yes it was non stop noise from the ultras, but very quiet everywhere else. Much more sedate than anywhere you'd find in an English game, even. (Bar maybe family area). Barely even standing to celebrate a goal, for example. Was also in Germany for the euro cup final in 2006. It was the same in the pub. Big contrast to the pub for England games.

It's not completely dead at English grounds by any means. Sometimes the atmosphere can be great at most prem grounds. But it certainly more circumstantial. Away fans help generate the general atmosphere, too. Burnley bringing hardly any fans and being so quiet didn't help on saturday, plus how dreadful the opening half hour was. Away fans are often still very loud though, which often boosts the home support.

As i said, id say it's just more circumstatial here. Compare, say, Anfield on a European night in contrast to a regular game v us.

Id love things to improve of course (safe standing and drinking in stands would help for one!) but i don't think it's completely dead just yet - and we are certainly bloody passionate about football on the whole here compared to many many countries, despite the atmosphere in the grounds

 

[Seasidesage]

I'd say its a combination of several things

Seating
The ground not lending itself particularly to crowd noise
Over zealous stewarding
Age of the crowd is rising
Price
Over zealous policing
Distance from the pubs to the ground
distance of various singing groups from each other

 

[Diablo]

I'd say its a combination of several things

Seating
The ground not lending itself particularly to crowd noise
Over zealous stewarding
Age of the crowd is rising
Price
Over zealous policing
Distance from the pubs to the ground
distance of various singing groups from each other

Does anyone know how the ticket price compares in real terms to the price 20/30/40/50 years ago??

 

[el punal]

Okay I will agree that I made a slight exaggeration and actually the Brighton fans seems to be among the more lively fans in the league atm, but still.. I WANT MORE.

What . . . the return of Gully’s Girls? Female mud wrestling in the centre circle at halftime? Morris dancers in leather G-strings?

Tell you what though, most Brighton fans want to watch a jolly exciting game of footie with a win at the end of it. The rest is just superfluous nonsense.

 

[Mr Putdown]

Okay I will agree that I made a slight exaggeration and actually the Brighton fans seems to be among the more lively fans in the league atm,

 

[*Gullsworth*]

Okay I will agree that I made a slight exaggeration and actually the Brighton fans seems to be among the more lively fans in the league atm, but still.. I WANT MORE.

How do we compare with Swansea?

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I don't massively agree with all of the OP, however at the West Ham game, after 47 years of watching football, a fan confronted me for 'shouting too loudly'.

I don't support bad or antisocial behaviour, but I do wonder if football is over gentrified nowadays.

 

[portlock seagull]

I don't massively agree with all of the OP, however at the West Ham game, after 47 years of watching football, a fan confronted me for 'shouting too loudly'.

I don't support bad or antisocial behaviour, but I do wonder if football is over gentrified nowadays.

I’d told him he’s a long time dead and to use his lungs like you were! Probably hungover

 

[Megazone]

Maybe football doesn't mean as much to younger generations now the world has become a bit more optional in terms of the selection of fun available. The 70's must've been pretty boring on a Saturday for a young man if you weren't either drinking or going to the football. It's not like people had the option of booking a last minute decision flight to Prague or Paris for the weekend.

Maybe younger generations have realised that a game of football isn't worth the emotional investment older generations try to drill into you? Someone shouting "I'll die for this club" would probably create mainly sniggers these days, whereas 30/40 years ago that comment probably would've been respected and even applauded.

I love football but one day the bubble will burst. People guess it'll be because of the mad money involved, others var, but I reckon, eventually, people will just get bored of it and move on. This might already slowly be happening when you take into account the less passionate atmosphere of the modern day football experience, the older crowds being the majority, expensive tickets for low earning youngsters with no guarantee of getting your money's worth, a stagnant top flight which basically has 6 teams who have anything good to play for, the rest of the league are there to fill the numbers.

Give it 20/30 years and clubs like us and the other 13 in the league will be considered Journeyman clubs for Journeyman players. Local fans won't want to be part of a club who are setup to be beat especially if its a club who represent where they'e from, but this is the direction top end football is going in all the top leagues in Europe.

Tiny attendances with digitally remastered packed out stadiums will be the future

 

[zefarelly]

What . . . the return of Gully’s Girls? Female mud wrestling in the centre circle at halftime? Morris dancers in leather G-strings?

Tell you what though, most Brighton fans want to watch a jolly exciting game of footie with a win at the end of it. The rest is just superfluous nonsense.

I was thinking more 'Flying Lizards' , Slade, and wondering whether you'd make it home without following through after a Goldstone 'roadkill bap' at half time

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I’d told him he’s a long time dead and to use his lungs like you were! Probably hungover

'You are hurting my ears', 'You are stopping my enjoyment of the football' and 'You do know he can't hear you?' were some of the gems he came out with. I replied for one that I did not care, and suggested that if he did not like me shouting then he go and talk about it with the steward who was standing 6 feet away. The thought of someone complaining about shouting at a football match goes beyond comprehension.....

 

[father_and_son]

Maybe football doesn't mean as much to younger generations now the world has become a bit more optional in terms of the selection of fun available. The 70's must've been pretty boring on a Saturday for a young man if you weren't either drinking or going to the football. It's not like people had the option of booking a last minute decision flight to Prague or Paris for the weekend.

Maybe younger generations have realised that a game of football isn't worth the emotional investment older generations try to drill into you? Someone shouting "I'll die for this club" would probably create mainly sniggers these days, whereas 30/40 years ago that comment probably would've been respected and even applauded.

I love football but one day the bubble will burst. People guess it'll be because of the mad money involved, others var, but I reckon, eventually, people will just get bored of it and move on. This might already slowly be happening when you take into account the less passionate atmosphere of the modern day football experience, the older crowds being the majority, expensive tickets for low earning youngsters with no guarantee of getting your money's worth, a stagnant top flight which basically has 6 teams who have anything good to play for, the rest of the league are there to fill the numbers.

Give it 20/30 years and clubs like us and the other 13 in the league will be considered Journeyman clubs for Journeyman players. Local fans won't want to be part of a club who are setup to be beat especially if its a club who represent where they'e from, but this is the direction top end football is going in all the top leagues in Europe.

Tiny attendances with digitally remastered packed out stadiums will be the future

With 25k+ attending our Championship matches and 30k+ in the Prem, a healthy number of kids and teens at every game (home and away), I'd say you are very wide of the mark here.

We might never have a sniff of Champions League football but we are still close to or at capacity for every home game, so being an 'also ran' is also not the kiss of death either.

I think you need to take a good hard look at the number of people in the Amex and the ages of those there and reassess your very negative prognosis for the game.

 

[BeHereNow]

'You are hurting my ears', 'You are stopping my enjoyment of the football' and 'You do know he can't hear you?' were some of the gems he came out with. I replied for one that I did not care, and suggested that if he did not like me shouting then he go and talk about it with the steward who was standing 6 feet away. The thought of someone complaining about shouting at a football match goes beyond comprehension.....

Happened to me this year. I was adjacent to the North Stand, who were very audible aswell.

I really hope there isn’t that many people there like that, but every time I try to sing in any other part of the ground, other than the North, I get odd stares.

 

[BeHereNow]

FWIW from my vantage point in the South, the North seemed to outsing the Burnley fans, which wasn’t exactly hard, but I don’t think you normally get the home fans singing more than the away fans. As for the rest of the ground, well, I think the West sang one chant of Albion while we were winning.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the West sing a lot more and a lot more loudly in the first couple of Amex seasons? That’s how I remember it. What’s happened to that lot?

I think loud, continuous singing is generally created by young, and probably, working class men. We don’t really have many of them because of the prices and if they were to go to a game and sit in the South, they would probably be told off by a steward for singing and standing too much. The whole thing really doesn’t encourage a vocal support.

Atleast in H Block at Withdean you could feel as if the away fans knew you were passionate and you got behind your team. Can’t do that now because the main singing bit is at the other end of the ground and can’t really be heard much from the away end and there really isn’t any chance of getting a singing bit in the South.

At the end of the day, I want to go to matches where the atmosphere is rocking, the crowd have played their part and the away fans know we’ve made it difficult for them like the Sheffield Wednesday game. The fact we had that atmosphere for that game shows we can do it, which makes it even more frustrating. We know it won’t be like it for most, if not all games, but we should be aiming for atleast 50% of that, and at the moment, it’s nowhere near that.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

FWIW from my vantage point in the South, the North seemed to outsing the Burnley fans, which wasn’t exactly hard, but I don’t think you normally get the home fans singing more than the away fans. As for the rest of the ground, well, I think the West sang one chant of Albion while we were winning.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the West sing a lot more and a lot more loudly in the first couple of Amex seasons? That’s how I remember it. What’s happened to that lot?

I think loud, continuous singing is generally created by young, and probably, working class men. We don’t really have many of them because of the prices and if they were to go to a game and sit in the South, they would probably be told off by a steward for singing and standing too much. The whole thing really doesn’t encourage a vocal support.

Atleast in H Block at Withdean you could feel as if the away fans knew you were passionate and you got behind your team. Can’t do that now because the main singing bit is at the other end of the ground and can’t really be heard much from the away end and there really isn’t any chance of getting a singing bit in the South.

At the end of the day, I want to go to matches where the atmosphere is rocking, the crowd have played their part and the away fans know we’ve made it difficult for them like the Sheffield Wednesday game. The fact we had that atmosphere for that game shows we can do it, which makes it even more frustrating. We know it won’t be like it for most, if not all games, but we should be aiming for atleast 50% of that, and at the moment, it’s nowhere near that.

Day trippers, two teamers ,young bored kids and women = no atmosphere
Regards
DF

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Day trippers, two teamers ,young bored kids and women = no atmosphere
Regards
DF

Probably the closest you get to a real life woman though; fill yer boots.

 

[herecomesaregular]

Been to the Nou Camp and Levante's stadium when Real Madrid visited - no atmosphere created at all, zilch. Much worse than any English game I've been to.

Comparing apples and pears with Germany, Sweden, Turkey, Greece - our game moved forcibly to outprice the working classes some years back after Hillsborough, aswell as a move to get much greater numbers of kids and women. (successfully).

If you want atmosphere you need the male rough working classes (and I don't mean the England Away contingent).

However, I like English crowds as they are now, still reactive to what's on the pitch and humourous. Hate a drum, hate a "conductor" at the front. But then I have tinnitus ;- )

The only problem with the Amex is the North often singing two different songs at the same time or the same song out of sync.

 

[Weststander]

Sitting in the NS block D on Saturday I loudly joined in with all the Racist Rodriguez chants, at full throttle. But standing next to me were a father and adult daughter who were silent throughout. No problem to me, but our contrasting behaviour/decibels did feel a bit surreal. Wonder if they think I’m a lout?

 

[schmunk]

Day trippers, two teamers ,young bored kids and women = no atmosphere
Regards
DF

How many "day trippers" do people really think we have? There are 23,000 STH and 3,000 away fans, meaning only 4,000 left for anyone else, with MyAlbion+ members getting first dibs.

 

[Gritt23]

I think people have either become used to it, or we have "lost" the people who wanted a more raucous atmosphere.

When I've traveled away to the big grounds, they are pretty silent. I get that we are not a big game for them, so that does play into the atmosphere, but I think the OP is referring to PL football in general, and once upon a time, going to football didn't matter whether you were big opposition for these clubs. it was just a rocking atmosphere, regardless. It's not now, for whatever reason, and I think the experience is lesser for it.

In many ways, I think we are so used to it now, that it takes a game where the atmosphere is really good, that reminds you of what we've lost. Chelsea away last season was superb .... from us. Singing throughout, didn't matter we were going down to a limp 3-0 defeat, the FA Cup SF was coming up and the atmosphere in the away end was brilliant. But for the Chelsea fans, it was just a regular home win, against low end rubbish, and they barely raised a murmur, even when they scored.

In the summer, I went to AS Roma vs Real Madrid, a pre-season friendly, and the atmosphere was incredible throughout. Huge flags, and endless singing may not be your thing, but the passion was incredible, and made for a very different experience.

Like it or not, the atmosphere at Premier League games is generally pretty quiet. Too quiet for me? Meh, I'm getting older, I'm not the screaming and shouting youth I was 30 years, ago, so sitting down, and being able to chat to my mates has it's advantages. Maybe that's the root of it, that we price out the passionate youths who would congregate at games, and generate a lot of the atmosphere, and as the average age of the crowd goes up, there are an increasing % of people of my age, and without a lot of encouragement from an atmosphere that is already going on around me, I'm not going to be joining in a great deal.

In short, the atmosphere seems to be aging with me, and I think that's connected to the aging of the crowd.