[Football] My first time at Amex Stadium attending Brighton Home match ❤️

[fiki]

Hey guys! If anyone is still following this. Could I ask if they let me in with a backpack? Let's say the ordinary to school kinda backpack. I'm reading on the website that bag can't be bigger than A4 paper. Which seems kinda small. How strict are they? I'm not gonna have a big backpack but it might be slightly bigger than A4. Thanks fellas! So excited about tomorrow!

 

[RandyWanger]

Hey guys! If anyone is still following this. Could I ask if they let me in with a backpack? Let's say the ordinary to school kinda backpack. I'm reading on the website that bag can't be bigger than A4 paper. Which seems kinda small. How strict are they? I'm not gonna have a big backpack but it might be slightly bigger than A4. Thanks fellas! So excited about tomorrow!

you can’t have a cap on your bottle, they’re very strict

 

[Professor Plum]

Hey guys! If anyone is still following this. Could I ask if they let me in with a backpack? Let's say the ordinary to school kinda backpack. I'm reading on the website that bag can't be bigger than A4 paper. Which seems kinda small. How strict are they? I'm not gonna have a big backpack but it might be slightly bigger than A4. Thanks fellas! So excited about tomorrow!

They’re a bit inconsistent about this but if they won’t let you in with your pack there’s a kiosk where you can deposit your bag close to where the South and East Stands meet. I think it’s near the bottom of the stairs leading up to the coach park.

 

[fiki]

They’re a bit inconsistent about this but if they won’t let you in with your pack there’s a kiosk where you can deposit your bag close to where the South and East Stands meet. I think it’s near the bottom of the stairs leading up to the coach park.

Great, thanks! Can I pay with card there?

 

[essbee1]

Great, thanks! Can I pay with card there?

The whole stadium is cashless fiki.

As a sidenote, personally, I fundamentally disagree with any charges for simply
storing things (it's 100% taking the piss) and penalises people who probably travel
from a distance and who have already shelled out loads. But have a great game.

 

[Flounce]

Have a fabulous day FIki, I hope you are blown away from the moment you see the stadium in all it’s glory and that the atmosphere and result go the same way. Exciting for you I’m sure.

I hope you enjoy the chanting and that you won’t be hearing the opposition singing “2-0 and you f***ed it up” again

 

[Wes Tupper]

Fiki, I don’t know what time you’ll be arriving in Brighton, but I’d suggest you start by wandering around the city centre and seafront. Then drift back towards the main train station for some pre-match beers. I’d join the train queues around 6.00pm and hope to get to the stadium about 6.30pm. Time for a lap of the stadium and a visit to the club shop. Enjoy the day my friend!

 

[RandyWanger]

What part of the stadium are you in?

 

[Boroseagull]

So I just wanted to ask if you could recommend me any pub/club around Amex where I can sit before the match and have a pint and meet some local fans? My tickets are to West upper D if anyone's around by any chance.

 

[fiki]

Yesss! Already on it! I had a walk to the seafront and city centre and now I'm heading to train station again.

Fiki, I don’t know what time you’ll be arriving in Brighton, but I’d suggest you start by wandering around the city centre and seafront. Then drift back towards the main train station for some pre-match beers. I’d join the train queues around 6.00pm and hope to get to the stadium about 6.30pm. Time for a lap of the stadium and a visit to the club shop. Enjoy the day my friend!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

So @fiki, how was your matchday experience?

 

[fiki]

So @fiki, how was your matchday experience?

Well. I'm still kinda salty and bitter about the result. I chose this match as I thought it has a potential to be up and down with a lot of goals which didn't really happened. But that's football.

I loved the atmosphere infront of the Stadium. That disco from the minivan is super cool. Stadium itself is very beautiful. Atmosphere during the match was so-so for me, it had ups and downs. But I see it mainly because of the match, I bet if there was a goal or more attacking approach it would be different. There was several moments where Brentford fans were louder than we.

There are many differences in cheering for your team here in Czech and in England (at least from my small experience from Tottenham stadium and Amex) and I have to say, that czechs do it a lot better - especially teams like Slavia Prague, Sparta Prague, Viktoria Plzeň or Baník Ostrava - rest of the teams are not so good but that's because there's very poor attendance at their stadium.

I see a big potential and ways how to get the atmosphere much better but I bet I can't be the only one and it probably has reasons why is it like this and maybe it was different before.

1) cheering in Czech is organized - there is one guy with a speaker who is starting the chants, he's not watching what's on the field but is more interactive with the crowd - he starts with the first words and the rest will join him - or he's shouting the words and the rest is repeating them. And also someone commented here before that you should not bring drums. Is that because it's not allowed? Cuz that's the only reason for me why you wouldn't do that. With this one main guy there are also usually 2 drummers who are almost constantly drumming during the whole match, it's great for the tempo and rhythm and I feel there's much better possibility for less active fans to join them if not with singing then at least with clapping.

I can see this is not happening maybe because of the violent past of rowdies etc so some things had to be changed and maybe that's why this isn't working in UK. And to be clear I would still prefer safety above better atmosphere. But I do feel that this can be done safely and non violently.

There are also cool chants where the main cheering crowd (there's always one main crowd with one speaker and drummers, rest of the stadium kind of follows them) starts some chants - let's say to put it as easy as can be - main crowd shouts "blue" and rest of the stadium shouts "white" and it's like a dialogue and is super cool hearing loud shouts speaking to each other from two different parts of the stadium.

2) also the emcees or moderators - the one who is reading squads and goals etc is much more interactive with the crowd. Even before the match reading first eleven - they will just put the first name of the player and crowd will shout their surname - that's also a great experience and the whole stadium will join. And it's of course much more louder after a goal. I could hear this at Etihad that they're doing that and can't really see why I cannot hear that at other stadium. It's the bare minimum really....during the reading of the first eleven after hearing the whole name and you just do "heeeey" is kinda not working for me.

I'm sorry it might seem that my answer is very much a criticism but it's mostly suggestions or more asking whats the reason behind that it's not like that? Cuz I bet I'm not the first one. But all in all it was a great and positive experience for me and the atmosphere was great too! I just can see so much potential of being much much much more better and unforgettable.

 

[fiki]

And of course I have in plan to come back! I would like to do this at least once per season. If I would be in better financial situation I would gladly do this every other month or so.

And just to be clear regarding my previous post - I'm not an active fan at the stadium, I'm not a member of any ultras or the main cheering crowd when I'm attending a match in Prague. I'm semi active in a way that I need people around me to be active and then I'll join - so these suggestions are mostly based on my view what could help me be better and louder and as I would assume also thousands of other people at the stadium "who needs a bit of help". But yeah, this match was definitely my most active one regarding shouting, singing or clapping or yelling how shite it is

So what I wanted to say is, assuming that most of the people here are the ones who are making that atmosphere, chanting and all, and that you make a hell of a job and much much much more than I ever did as a football. So you're great and keep going and thank you! I really don't want this to sound like it was bad or something and that I know better. I don't.

 

[fiki]

And of course I have in plan to come back! I would like to do this at least once per season. If I would be in better financial situation I would gladly do this every other month or so.

And just to be clear regarding my previous post - I'm not an active fan at the stadium, I'm not a member of any ultras or the main cheering crowd when I'm attending a match in Prague. I'm semi active in a way that I need people around me to be active and then I'll join - so these suggestions are mostly based on my view what could help me be better and louder and as I would assume also thousands of other people at the stadium "who needs a bit of help". But yeah, this match was definitely my most active one regarding shouting, singing or clapping or yelling how shite it is

So what I wanted to say is, assuming that most of the people here are the ones who are making that atmosphere, chanting and all, and that you make a hell of a job and much much much more than I ever did as a football. So you're great and keep going and thank you! I really don't want this to sound like it was bad or something and that I know better. I don't.

And one last question. Why are there no flags waving at the north stand or anywhere? at least before the start or after a goal or something that's also a lost opportunity I think

 

[Han Solo]

Well. I'm still kinda salty and bitter about the result. I chose this match as I thought it has a potential to be up and down with a lot of goals which didn't really happened. But that's football.

I loved the atmosphere infront of the Stadium. That disco from the minivan is super cool. Stadium itself is very beautiful. Atmosphere during the match was so-so for me, it had ups and downs. But I see it mainly because of the match, I bet if there was a goal or more attacking approach it would be different. There was several moments where Brentford fans were louder than we.

There are many differences in cheering for your team here in Czech and in England (at least from my small experience from Tottenham stadium and Amex) and I have to say, that czechs do it a lot better - especially teams like Slavia Prague, Sparta Prague, Viktoria Plzeň or Baník Ostrava - rest of the teams are not so good but that's because there's very poor attendance at their stadium.

I see a big potential and ways how to get the atmosphere much better but I bet I can't be the only one and it probably has reasons why is it like this and maybe it was different before.

1) cheering in Czech is organized - there is one guy with a speaker who is starting the chants, he's not watching what's on the field but is more interactive with the crowd - he starts with the first words and the rest will join him - or he's shouting the words and the rest is repeating them. And also someone commented here before that you should not bring drums. Is that because it's not allowed? Cuz that's the only reason for me why you wouldn't do that. With this one main guy there are also usually 2 drummers who are almost constantly drumming during the whole match, it's great for the tempo and rhythm and I feel there's much better possibility for less active fans to join them if not with singing then at least with clapping.

I can see this is not happening maybe because of the violent past of rowdies etc so some things had to be changed and maybe that's why this isn't working in UK. And to be clear I would still prefer safety above better atmosphere. But I do feel that this can be done safely and non violently.

There are also cool chants where the main cheering crowd (there's always one main crowd with one speaker and drummers, rest of the stadium kind of follows them) starts some chants - let's say to put it as easy as can be - main crowd shouts "blue" and rest of the stadium shouts "white" and it's like a dialogue and is super cool hearing loud shouts speaking to each other from two different parts of the stadium.

2) also the emcees or moderators - the one who is reading squads and goals etc is much more interactive with the crowd. Even before the match reading first eleven - they will just put the first name of the player and crowd will shout their surname - that's also a great experience and the whole stadium will join. And it's of course much more louder after a goal. I could hear this at Etihad that they're doing that and can't really see why I cannot hear that at other stadium. It's the bare minimum really....during the reading of the first eleven after hearing the whole name and you just do "heeeey" is kinda not working for me.

I'm sorry it might seem that my answer is very much a criticism but it's mostly suggestions or more asking whats the reason behind that it's not like that? Cuz I bet I'm not the first one. But all in all it was a great and positive experience for me and the atmosphere was great too! I just can see so much potential of being much much much more better and unforgettable.

Supporter culture in Europe and from everything I've heard/seen/read (a LOT) about English football culture - I'm a Swede and haven't actually been there - are significantly different. I'm going to try to explain my thoughts to you without stepping on too many toes out there...

1. No Italian influence in English supporter culture
Drums, pyros, etc. in football originates from Italian football culture, which has had a lot of influence on the rest of Europe. The smaller country, the more influence from "football superpowers". So Italian ultras culture has had a lot of impact in a lot of countries, but not England as it is a football superpower of its own. The main spread of the Italian ultras culture also started happening in the 80s and early 90s, when England were banned from European football and as such didn't play Italian teams... meaning it had no real chance of being a source of inspiration.

2. Safety and security
In England, football has caused or at least been the arena for severe societal problems in the 70s and 80s. If you read old British papers from the 70s, football often both gets the blame and to be symbolisation of the collapsing industrial society and the consequences that came from it (lots of alcoholism, unemployment, violent and whatnot). After the Hillsborough and Heysel incidents along with lots of crowd violence, the Bradford City stadium fire and whatnot... English football had to be sanitised. Not just to the point of "not dirty/dangerous" but to the point of "clean and safe".

Whereas football in countries like yours and mine has been allowed to slowly break down all sorts of safety-think, this development has not and will not be allowed in England. Like, the recent trend in the Ultras world of firing fireworks towards the pitch... if that happened in the Premier League I have no clue what the consequences would be, because its so very unthinkable. But I'm guessing the club and its fans would get in a lot more trouble than here or rest of Europe.

Neither English football nor English society wants football violence, bangers, uncontrolled pyro etc.

3. Demographics
The Premier League crowds are quite old compared to how it looks in most parts of Europe, likely as a result of costs and the high demand that keeps people in their seats for a looong time. And while older fans can be very passionate they're just less likely to go batshit crazy. Unlike in the rest of Europe, people also often bring their families, which also calms thing down. In most European leagues there are games where you really shouldn't bring children but thats not the case in the PL it seems.

4. Tradition
British people appear to have a larger than usual thing for tradition; change is scary everywhere but perhaps a bit more in England than in many other places. If for example you turn up with a drum, people will look funny at you - not because there's necessarily something wrong with the drum; it has just never been there and so they don't want it. Post-Hillsborough football in England quickly created a football culture that is essentially just a bit low key; its not "supposed" or desired that it takes the form of chaos, because the way its working has been working well for 35 years; the football is fun, the stadiums are comfy and everyone comes home alive.

A lot of what is common football culture in Europe will be considered "foreign & weird", "tacky" or "tinpot". Take the concept of a capo for instance... the English rather sing three different songs at the same time than having some maniac with a megaphone directing stuff.

5. Owner-supporter power spectra
Clubs in England became professional VERY early while in almost every other European country (with some exceptions), football was strictly amateur driven until the 1950s-1980s (depending on where you look). Not paying someone to do stuff requires a higher level of organisation among fans and members. As far as I know, the in Europe very common concept of a few hundred ultras meeting up every week to paint banners, sewing gigantic flags and pictures together and whatnot... to my knowledge it doesn't exist in England.

The early professionalisation of English football gave club owners more power to run things, but also more responsibility of making sure everything is provided and not needing to be created. People go to football to enjoy the game, the club, their friends, the beer, the food... not so much "doing all we can with very little" like was the case under a very long time in the rest of Europe.

These are some reasons... and then there's the more culturally complex stuff that is too sensitive to discuss.

Basically, European football culture won't be a thing in England because a) they don't want it and are quite happy as they are, b) most things going on when watching Slavia or AIK or Feyenoord or Galatasaray or Lech Poznan etc are just omega-illegal/socially unacceptable in England, c) European football is activism-oriented whereas in England the clubs are expected (and handsomely paid) to bring that to the people.

TLDR:

- They don't want European football culture and you're not going to change it.
- They can't have European football culture and there's little indicating any deteroiation of safety norms.
- They don't know how to create European football culture because they never had the need.

While I understand you and your well meaning intentions exactly, you're kind of stepping on their souls now...

I'm going to England at one point or another to watch a game myself and from hanging around NSC etc. for many years, I have understood that to fully appreciate it, I have to ignore my experiences and find the other, different values that exist in the English football culture. If I go there to be bombarded with bangers and firework, I will be disappointed, so I'll go empty handed in that regard and just explore it like a newborn. I do think this is the approach you need to have rather than "this is nice, but lets change it".

 

[Professor Plum]

Supporter culture in Europe and from everything I've heard/seen/read (a LOT) about English football culture - I'm a Swede and haven't actually been there - are significantly different. I'm going to try to explain my thoughts to you without stepping on too many toes out there...

1. No Italian influence in English supporter culture
Drums, pyros, etc. in football originates from Italian football culture, which has had a lot of influence on the rest of Europe. The smaller country, the more influence from "football superpowers". So Italian ultras culture has had a lot of impact in a lot of countries, but not England as it is a football superpower of its own. The main spread of the Italian ultras culture also started happening in the 80s and early 90s, when England were banned from European football and as such didn't play Italian teams... meaning it had no real chance of being a source of inspiration.

2. Safety and security
In England, football has caused or at least been the arena for severe societal problems in the 70s and 80s. If you read old British papers from the 70s, football often both gets the blame and to be symbolisation of the collapsing industrial society and the consequences that came from it (lots of alcoholism, unemployment, violent and whatnot). After the Hillsborough and Heysel incidents along with lots of crowd violence, the Bradford City stadium fire and whatnot... English football had to be sanitised. Not just to the point of "not dirty/dangerous" but to the point of "clean and safe".

Whereas football in countries like yours and mine has been allowed to slowly break down all sorts of safety-think, this development has not and will not be allowed in England. Like, the recent trend in the Ultras world of firing fireworks towards the pitch... if that happened in the Premier League I have no clue what the consequences would be, because its so very unthinkable. But I'm guessing the club and its fans would get in a lot more trouble than here or rest of Europe.

Neither English football nor English society wants football violence, bangers, uncontrolled pyro etc.

3. Demographics
The Premier League crowds are quite old compared to how it looks in most parts of Europe, likely as a result of costs and the high demand that keeps people in their seats for a looong time. And while older fans can be very passionate they're just less likely to go batshit crazy. Unlike in the rest of Europe, people also often bring their families, which also calms thing down. In most European leagues there are games where you really shouldn't bring children but thats not the case in the PL it seems.

4. Tradition
British people appear to have a larger than usual thing for tradition; change is scary everywhere but perhaps a bit more in England than in many other places. If for example you turn up with a drum, people will look funny at you - not because there's necessarily something wrong with the drum; it has just never been there and so they don't want it. Post-Hillsborough football in England quickly created a football culture that is essentially just a bit low key; its not "supposed" or desired that it takes the form of chaos, because the way its working has been working well for 35 years; the football is fun, the stadiums are comfy and everyone comes home alive.

A lot of what is common football culture in Europe will be considered "foreign & weird", "tacky" or "tinpot". Take the concept of a capo for instance... the English rather sing three different songs at the same time than having some maniac with a megaphone directing stuff.

5. Owner-supporter power spectra
Clubs in England became professional VERY early while in almost every other European country (with some exceptions), football was strictly amateur driven until the 1950s-1980s (depending on where you look). Not paying someone to do stuff requires a higher level of organisation among fans and members. As far as I know, the in Europe very common concept of a few hundred ultras meeting up every week to paint banners, sewing gigantic flags and pictures together and whatnot... to my knowledge it doesn't exist in England.

The early professionalisation of English football gave club owners more power to run things, but also more responsibility of making sure everything is provided and not needing to be created. People go to football to enjoy the game, the club, their friends, the beer, the food... not so much "doing all we can with very little" like was the case under a very long time in the rest of Europe.

These are some reasons... and then there's the more culturally complex stuff that is too sensitive to discuss.

Basically, European football culture won't be a thing in England because a) they don't want it and are quite happy as they are, b) most things going on when watching Slavia or AIK or Feyenoord or Galatasaray or Lech Poznan etc are just omega-illegal/socially unacceptable in England, c) European football is activism-oriented whereas in England the clubs are expected (and handsomely paid) to bring that to the people.

TLDR:

- They don't want European football culture and you're not going to change it.
- They can't have European football culture and there's little indicating any deteroiation of safety norms.
- They don't know how to create European football culture because they never had the need.

While I understand you and your well meaning intentions exactly, you're kind of stepping on their souls now...

I'm going to England at one point or another to watch a game myself and from hanging around NSC etc. for many years, I have understood that to fully appreciate it, I have to ignore my experiences and find the other, different values that exist in the English football culture. If I go there to be bombarded with bangers and firework, I will be disappointed, so I'll go empty handed in that regard and just explore it like a newborn. I do think this is the approach you need to have rather than "this is nice, but lets change it".

That’s a pretty extraordinary post. Not sure if was driven by ChatGPT or pharmaceuticals, or both, but it’s actually a very comprehensive assessment of how and why things are different here.

@fiki - Glad you made the trip, and hope the match wasn’t too disappointing. The stuff about capos etc has been discussed many times and people here are generally against too much of that sort of contrived, over-organised direction.

I attended German Bundesliga, Swiss and Austrian football regularly over 15 years or so when I lived in those parts, and am very familiar with how it works there. There are pros and cons. The biggest benefit is a general raising of noisy encouragement. But the big downside is that it becomes a bit tedious. It’s like a long permanent droning noise that isn’t driven by what’s happening on the pitch. The flag waving and robotic chanting is all a bit North Korea for English tastes. That said, there are many English grounds where you’ll get louder, more engaged crowds than at the Amex. We’re a bit genteel down here.

I hope you’ll come again, perhaps for an early or late-season Saturday afternoon game when the weather's warmer and the crowd a bit more energetic.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

And one last question. Why are there no flags waving at the north stand or anywhere? at least before the start or after a goal or something that's also a lost opportunity I think

Cheers for your feedback @fiki, and insights into Czech stadium atmosphere. Hope you enjoyed the Prince Albert (if you ended up going there) and the free transport - tho 'enjoy' is a word we don't usually associate with the trains

As for flags, we do sporadically have giant(ish) flags that pass along the North Stand before games. The last one I remember was in honour of RDZ, tho I think there may have been one or two since that get passed about halfway along the North Stand in a half-arsed kind of way.

Oh and did you manage to get your packpack stored safely or did they let you in with it?

 

[Han Solo]

That’s a pretty extraordinary post. Not sure if was driven by ChatGPT or pharmaceuticals, or both, but it’s actually a very comprehensive assessment of how and why things are different here.

@fiki - Glad you made the trip, and hope the match wasn’t too disappointing. The stuff about capos etc has been discussed many times and people here are generally against too much of that sort of contrived, over-organised direction.

I attended German Bundesliga, Swiss and Austrian football regularly over 15 years or so when I lived in those parts, and am very familiar with how it works there. There are pros and cons. The biggest benefit is a general raising of noisy encouragement. But the big downside is that it becomes a bit tedious. It’s like a long permanent droning noise that isn’t driven by what’s happening on the pitch. The flag waving and robotic chanting is all a bit North Korea for English tastes. That said, there are many English grounds where you’ll get louder, more engaged crowds than at the Amex. We’re a bit genteel down here.

I hope you’ll come again, perhaps for an early or late-season Saturday afternoon game when the weather's warmer and the crowd a bit more energetic.

Hehe, well, I said he'd be stepping on peoples souls... I'll play.

The droning "robotic" noice is people singing and chanting in languages you don't understand, mr Rhodes.
As for driven by what happens on the pitch, you can hear the volume and excitement increase several times in this clip of Brighton & Hove Albion players shitting themselves :



It is true though that people keep making noise if their team is behind.

As for the flags being "all a bit North Korea", I can assure you most of the messages and words on these flags are strongly anti-authoritian, anti-government, anti-FIFA, anti-UEFA, anti-FA. They are often political and violent in nature, and would be confiscated on sight by any PL club. Those using pyros and firework will in the Premier League likely be banned through the use of totally non-North Korean use of AI face recognition from the surveillence cameras covering every millimeter of the ground. Something like this would in the UK lead to A LOT of bans:


...whereas in our North Korean societies, the authorities has no chance of controlling what goes on in the stands, despite vain attempts. In short, it is anarchism and not possible in countries where they have bombastic ceremonies for royals or great leaders or other kinds of authority-worshipping. Such as North Korea and others..

So yeah. I'd say both you and OP are the type of people who go to Mallorca and then go home moaning about the big yellow thing in the sky that you're not quite used to. I struggle to see point of travelling anywhere with the attitude that "if things aren't as back home, then they're worse". Seems like a waste of money when you could just stay home in your respective countries and appreciate the perfection and familiarity?

For those who want to go abroad with an open-minded attitude of trying to understand and appreciate what is happening rather than being confused and wanting things to be identical to home, I suggest watching any of the several football tourism-youtubers capable of travelling all through the world visiting all kind of venues, atmospheres and surroundings with the mind of an explorer rather than an engineer. This way no one has to be disappointed that London Stadium isn't De Kuip in Rotterdam or that people in Poland sing in a language you don't understand and therefore perceive as "droning".

For the non-explorer, its also quite possible to research your next travel destination. If you have a problem with people singing in a foreign language for 90 minutes, don't go to Turkey and watch Galatasaray. If you have a problem with a more mellow, talkative and friendly environment rather than all sorts of hostility, don't go to London Stadium. If you don't like sand, don't go to Sahara. If you don't like water and beaches then don't go to the Canary Islands. Thats my lesson for OP and @Professor Plum.

 

[Brian Munich]

Well. I'm still kinda salty and bitter about the result. I chose this match as I thought it has a potential to be up and down with a lot of goals which didn't really happened. But that's football.

I loved the atmosphere infront of the Stadium. That disco from the minivan is super cool. Stadium itself is very beautiful. Atmosphere during the match was so-so for me, it had ups and downs. But I see it mainly because of the match, I bet if there was a goal or more attacking approach it would be different. There was several moments where Brentford fans were louder than we.

There are many differences in cheering for your team here in Czech and in England (at least from my small experience from Tottenham stadium and Amex) and I have to say, that czechs do it a lot better - especially teams like Slavia Prague, Sparta Prague, Viktoria Plzeň or Baník Ostrava - rest of the teams are not so good but that's because there's very poor attendance at their stadium.

I see a big potential and ways how to get the atmosphere much better but I bet I can't be the only one and it probably has reasons why is it like this and maybe it was different before.

1) cheering in Czech is organized - there is one guy with a speaker who is starting the chants, he's not watching what's on the field but is more interactive with the crowd - he starts with the first words and the rest will join him - or he's shouting the words and the rest is repeating them. And also someone commented here before that you should not bring drums. Is that because it's not allowed? Cuz that's the only reason for me why you wouldn't do that. With this one main guy there are also usually 2 drummers who are almost constantly drumming during the whole match, it's great for the tempo and rhythm and I feel there's much better possibility for less active fans to join them if not with singing then at least with clapping.

I can see this is not happening maybe because of the violent past of rowdies etc so some things had to be changed and maybe that's why this isn't working in UK. And to be clear I would still prefer safety above better atmosphere. But I do feel that this can be done safely and non violently.

There are also cool chants where the main cheering crowd (there's always one main crowd with one speaker and drummers, rest of the stadium kind of follows them) starts some chants - let's say to put it as easy as can be - main crowd shouts "blue" and rest of the stadium shouts "white" and it's like a dialogue and is super cool hearing loud shouts speaking to each other from two different parts of the stadium.

2) also the emcees or moderators - the one who is reading squads and goals etc is much more interactive with the crowd. Even before the match reading first eleven - they will just put the first name of the player and crowd will shout their surname - that's also a great experience and the whole stadium will join. And it's of course much more louder after a goal. I could hear this at Etihad that they're doing that and can't really see why I cannot hear that at other stadium. It's the bare minimum really....during the reading of the first eleven after hearing the whole name and you just do "heeeey" is kinda not working for me.

I'm sorry it might seem that my answer is very much a criticism but it's mostly suggestions or more asking whats the reason behind that it's not like that? Cuz I bet I'm not the first one. But all in all it was a great and positive experience for me and the atmosphere was great too! I just can see so much potential of being much much much more better and unforgettable.

Point 1 is an interesting observation, and something that has been debated a fair deal on this forum over the years.

There are a number of purists who believe it should always be organic. Quite a few lose their shit over having the words to Good Old Sussex by the Sea shown on the screens or ad boards, so getting a drum etc in the ground is going to face resistance.

That’s not to say there haven’t been games over the years where action on or off the pitch has really got the crowd going. There definitely have, but it’s be nice if this could become more regular, so I’m definitely someone in favour of the more European style of having some sort of direction in the stands to get things going and help the team.

 

[Professor Plum]

Hehe, well, I said he'd be stepping on peoples souls... I'll play.

The droning "robotic" noice is people singing and chanting in languages you don't understand, mr Rhodes.
As for driven by what happens on the pitch, you can hear the volume and excitement increase several times in this clip of Brighton & Hove Albion players shitting themselves :



It is true though that people keep making noise if their team is behind.

As for the flags being "all a bit North Korea", I can assure you most of the messages and words on these flags are strongly anti-authoritian, anti-government, anti-FIFA, anti-UEFA, anti-FA. They are often political and violent in nature, and would be confiscated on sight by any PL club. Those using pyros and firework will in the Premier League likely be banned through the use of totally non-North Korean use of AI face recognition from the surveillence cameras covering every millimeter of the ground. Something like this would in the UK lead to A LOT of bans:


...whereas in our North Korean societies, the authorities has no chance of controlling what goes on in the stands, despite vain attempts. In short, it is anarchism and not possible in countries where they have bombastic ceremonies for royals or great leaders or other kinds of authority-worshipping. Such as North Korea and others..

So yeah. I'd say both you and OP are the type of people who go to Mallorca and then go home moaning about the big yellow thing in the sky that you're not quite used to. I struggle to see point of travelling anywhere with the attitude that "if things aren't as back home, then they're worse". Seems like a waste of money when you could just stay home in your respective countries and appreciate the perfection and familiarity?

For those who want to go abroad with an open-minded attitude of trying to understand and appreciate what is happening rather than being confused and wanting things to be identical to home, I suggest watching any of the several football tourism-youtubers capable of travelling all through the world visiting all kind of venues, atmospheres and surroundings with the mind of an explorer rather than an engineer. This way no one has to be disappointed that London Stadium isn't De Kuip in Rotterdam or that people in Poland sing in a language you don't understand and therefore perceive as "droning".

For the non-explorer, its also quite possible to research your next travel destination. If you have a problem with people singing in a foreign language for 90 minutes, don't go to Turkey and watch Galatasaray. If you have a problem with a more mellow, talkative and friendly environment rather than all sorts of hostility, don't go to London Stadium. If you don't like sand, don't go to Sahara. If you don't like water and beaches then don't go to the Canary Islands. Thats my lesson for OP and @Professor Plum.

FFS. Am I misunderstanding this the same way you’ve misunderstood me? So that’s the sort of abuse you dish out when I try to pay you a compliment?

How f***ing dare you accuse me of small-minded xenophobia. I’ve spent more of my adult life living and working overseas than I have in the UK. I absolutely loved the Bundesliga experience and was a STH at my nearest club for a couple of seasons. The atmosphere and flag-waving on the terraces was amazing but there are cultural reasons why this wouldn’t work in England, some of which you so admirably and comprehensively detailed in your impressive post.

I’m annoyed.