Should the South Stand be our Kop?

[queens park pete]

Back row of sw is AC. Size is not the issue!

Main advantage in terms of atmosphere potential is the proximity to vocal away fans- as used to happen with the NE pen at the Goldstone?
Other benefit- when it is windy, usually from the SW, the north stand sound is blown away from the south end- thus spreading away sound around the stadium and making it harder for the North songs to carry.
From my spot in the SW, I thought AFC B were very quiet, maybe the wind made them sound louder to the other parts of the ground.

Either way I am not moving from AB!

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Is the North Stand even big enough to accomodate the away numbers we are duty bound to make available for some games?

 

[Bold Seagull]

My concern is that you'd just get all these 'I want to sit where the atmosphere is but I am not prepared to do anything to get involved in it' types relocating to the South, which is the main problem with the North in the first place. Perhaps the singers could pull off some kind of massive double bluff, relocating all the non singers to the South under the premise of a new 'atmosphere' stand, and then at the last minute staying in the North themselves.

Them and the "I'm going to sing, but only with my lot here...I'm not joining in with the songs started by that lot over there..."

I felt this reached new heights on Saturday. The North Stand currently appears to be crippled by what is cool, or not cool to sing. I'm actually in there on Saturday, so I'm going to sort this nonsense out!

 

[brightonmark1234]

i would move the away fans to half of the east stand lower and give south stand to home fans

 

[Titanic]

Them and the "I'm going to sing, but only with my lot here...I'm not joining in with the songs started by that lot over there..."

I felt this reached new heights on Saturday. The North Stand currently appears to be crippled by what is cool, or not cool to sing. I'm actually in there on Saturday, so I'm going to sort this nonsense out!

This is entirely the point. There are 2500 people in the North Stand and only two pockets of 20-50 could be called 'singers'.

Moving anywhere else would make little or no difference... apart from being completely impractical.

 

[Hungry Joe]

This is entirely the point. There are 2500 people in the North Stand and only two pockets of 20-50 could be called 'singers'.

Moving anywhere else would make little or no difference... apart from being completely impractical.

Well I still think it would be an improvement and worth a try, for several reasons already stated. It certainly isn't completely impractical as you suggest.

 

[The Sock of Poskett]

I think so. But it would need to be made clear that it would be a singing stand, and that people who don't want to do this are not welcome!

That's the key. I have no perpetual attraction to being in a stand that has the word 'North' in it – I'd just like to be in a genuine singing section where EVERYONE wants to belt their lungs out to get behind the team. Apart from competing clusters of song-starters, the other main issue with the North Stand as currently set up is we've got lots of people who wanted the cheapest season tickets but AREN'T bothered about singing. Hence the patchy noise generated.

Mind you, I STILL think the West Stand should pull its collective finger out. When it (rarely) gets roused, the sheer numbers can create a wall of sound. Maybe once or twice a season.

 

[ATFC Seagull]

I'm sure someone can pull me up on this, but I can't think of any modern stadiums (ie new builds as opposed to ones improved over time) that have a clearly recognisable "singing section" as opposed to pockets around the ground. But it doesn't mean that they don't sometimes sing together and generate a good atmosphere.

I think the issue is that it requires other parts of the ground/people to get involved, and we have quite a unique situation (whether people want to admit it or not) where huge chunks of the Amex are populated by people who hadn't considered watching the Albion 3 years ago.

Personally I think this thread smacks of people who didn't get tickets in the north and want to start their own little "club".

 

[Zukey Seagull]

I'm sure someone can pull me up on this, but I can't think of any modern stadiums (ie new builds as opposed to ones improved over time) that have a clearly recognisable "singing section" as opposed to pockets around the ground. But it doesn't mean that they don't sometimes sing together and generate a good atmosphere.

I think the issue is that it requires other parts of the ground/people to get involved, and we have quite a unique situation (whether people want to admit it or not) where huge chunks of the Amex are populated by people who hadn't considered watching the Albion 3 years ago.

Personally I think this thread smacks of people who didn't get tickets in the north and want to start their own little "club".

This is my first season as a season ticket holder and I'm in the north and I knew where I was going to be sitting. I wanted to be part of the singing and I love watching the albion. I get excited every game I go to. Only wish more people around me would sing.

 

[ATFC Seagull]

This is my first season as a season ticket holder and I'm in the north and I knew where I was going to be sitting. I wanted to be part of the singing and I love watching the albion. I get excited every game I go to. Only wish more people around me would sing.

I don't know exactly where you are but I agree more noise could be made. I am bang on the dividing line between the 2 groups of singers and it is a bit frustrating when you hear the 2 songs going at the same time.

But I just can't see creating an artificial singing section as solving the problem in any way apart from sucking the atmosphere into one small corner.

 

[ozseagull]

May have been mentioned but away fans in the north would mean they were at the front of the train q. That would annoy me

 

[Billy the Fish]

It doesn't matter which point of the compass it is, re main problem is BHA are short of rowdy bleed blue and white types. And that's partly because we're an affluent country casuals part of the country. But mainly the former. I mean when we hit rock bottom, just how many fans stuck it out (3k?) and of these how many are gobby singing types (10%?). Scatter these through the ground and yes, that's what we have currently. A few pockets that easily get drowned out by a collective groan when someone makes a short pass or something. And that will still happen if, impossibly, you were somehow able to get every person who wants to sing for 90mins in the same stand and adjacent at that.

Logistically it's too late - only a good dose in the lower leagues causing a dip in STHs to create spare seats that enable a general move to eg north or south. But even then it would require some organisation and agreement from incumbent seat holders. The reason it doesn't work currently is because it would never work - our fans are too fickle, seater stadiums kill atmosphere for all the reasons stated elsewhere and footballs every spiralling costs mean average age is 41 not 18. And by then, most (most!) people have had enough life experience to realise, well, it's just a game and not worth attracting the attention of the authorities monitoring you with cameras and Rambo wannabe stewards.

It's a good subject for discussion on NSC but it just won't happen I'm afraid. Odds are absolutely stacked against us. It was impossible to get the seats next to me for 2 friends when they became available last season. Club utterly unable to organise transfer. Do you think they could do for several hundred or thousands?! You've not had many dealings with the Albion of you think so!!

A pretty realistic post.

I'm not sure what people are having a dig at the North stand for, it is a group of people and not a single entity. There's actually a pretty mixed crowd in there, walk to my seat at the back of N1D and the first 10 or so rows are mostly populated with families and old people. IMHO this is a direct result of the initial layout of the Amex when away fans had to have the whole of the south meaning the only cheap seats were in the North. That just diluted everything.

It's too late to do anything en masse now, but if people want to move to the South and get some atmosphere going there's nothing to stop you. It might take a few seasons to build numbers up though.

 

[ants4t]

Why dont the police box group move to the South next season and try it out?

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

i would move away fans to half of the east stand lower and give south stand to home fans

I don't think that's too bad an idea Mark, especially as we don't seem to have any fans in the North half of the East Stand.

 

[Billy the Fish]

This is entirely the point. There are 2500 people in the North Stand and only two pockets of 20-50 could be called 'singers'.

That's wrong, there's way more than that. Even where I sit there's more than that who join in but unless it's a loud song from either of those two pockets it just gets lost and out of time.

 

[martin tyler]

Why dont the police box group move to the South next season and try it out?

I believe they will be attempting to move from under the police box on mass with some extra people who wish to join them although i believe they will be remaining in the North. I will be with them along with my friends if the club can organise it.

 

[The Wookiee]

i would move the away fans to half of the east stand lower and give south stand to home fans

How will that improve the atmosphere ?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

May have been mentioned but away fans in the north would mean they were at the front of the train q. That would annoy me

Away fans tend to watch the whole game and not leave on 85 minutes.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I believe they will be attempting to move from under the police box on mass with some extra people who wish to join them although i believe they will be remaining in the North. I will be with them along with my friends if the club can organise it.

They should try the centre of the north. May have a chance of uniting the whole north then. I couldn't hear them on Wednesday but I did hear and see the efforts of those nearer the east.

I think people need to chill out a little about the atmosphere. When the players give us something to cheer about, their noise levels will improve, to be fair we've been very hit and miss this year at home.

 

[Zukey Seagull]

I don't know exactly where you are but I agree more noise could be made. I am bang on the dividing line between the 2 groups of singers and it is a bit frustrating when you hear the 2 songs going at the same time.

But I just can't see creating an artificial singing section as solving the problem in any way apart from sucking the atmosphere into one small corner.

I am N1H row t. Nearer the north east corner. But just would like people to get involved. If everyone actually got together we could make a great noise. When I say get together, the people who already there to make a effort