[Albion] what to do about the home atmosphere?

[Bryanw42]

Thank you and welcome to NSC

Thanks

 

[sydney]

Good job extracting the innuendo. Good job wading through my waffle.

sorry mate ....you'll learn.... danish wife ...?? ooooh stop it...we aint all ...:safeway:

 

[rippleman]

One thing that I don’t know and someone here does I’m sure. The suggestions made – such as joining up the singing groups up – or moving the away fans. These to me sound like sensible/practical measures that may give the boost needed to lift the atmosphere across the board. Who actually represents the fans in talks with the club? Have these suggestions been put forward formally before. If so what has been the response from the club?*

Good post. Interesting to have a different perspective.

As you might expect, the issue of ground atmosphere in general, and the NS in particular, has been discussed on here many times.

We need to remember that a starting point was Barber saying that "the club will never associate itself with the Safe Standing campaign". He appears to have changed his tune of late as bigger clubs have signed up for it but until very recently, safe standing was not an option. I think it's too late to change it now as we have NS ST holders who would need to be moved if we moved to a safe standing singing section. We aren't Palace; we don't have black clad thugs who can bully their chairman into giving them whatever they want.

I have given this much thought over the years and really can't think of a way to bring all the singers together without causing upset or disruption to fellow fans. It was something to think about when the ground first opened; too late ten years down the line.

Clearly the acoustics in the stadium aren't what they should be but that is a design problem that can't now be rectified.

The suggestion of moving away fans nearer the NS has also been suggested previously but, again, this would involve moving our own fans and I'm no fan of that idea.

IMO the demographic of our fans has also changed. When Barber first arrived, he refered to us as "customers". Not "fans" or "supporters" but "customers". Viewing us as "customers" shows how little Barber understands football fans, and Brighton fans in particular. A customer has a choice. I am a customer of Tesco but if Tesco don't supply the goods I want at a price I want to pay, I will quickly stop being a customer of Tesco and become a customer of Aldi or Sainsburys. I have supported the club when we were really shit. Not once did I think "I'm not putting up watching this shit, I'm going to support palace or pompey or chelsea". NEVER!

A "customer" has a choice. A "fan" doesn't.

Barber would rather have football tourists sitting silently at the Amex than us old time fans/supporters of the club. Why? Because he can earn more money from them. Simple as that. The ridiculous £25 charge if you want to pass your ST to a friend/family member is also driving down the crowd. If I couldn't go, I would regularly pass my ST on. It meant someone was in my seat, supporting the team and probably spending money on food/drink/club shop. I'm sure there are many like me who won't pay the Barber tax.

Then you have all the petty nonsense Barber has come out with:-

1) One week fine for the old timers to take their flasks of Bovril in. The next week they are banned. No reason or explanation.
2) One week fine to have a lid on your soft drink bottle. The next game they are banned. No reason or explanation.
3) You can no longer take a bag into the ground. No reason or explanation. I don't drive and every game I have been to since the AMEX opened i have taken my rucksack. Always opened it and been happy to have it searched. Never a problem until Barber decided there was one.


The shambolic transport will doubtless have put some off, moreso since covid. Certainly since we were promoted to the PL the club seems to have made no effort to ensure that there are sufficient services with sufficient carriages to get fans to and from the ground. The idea was that nobody should be driving to matches, we were all to travel by public transport. All well and good but you have to get the transport infrastructure in place. And we still haven't.

But perhaps, most importantly, is how I feel. For decades I felt part of the club. It's a difficult thing to try to explain but hopefully some of you will understand! I now feel like an outsider with dozens of pages of rules, regulations, conditions to follow. It just isn't fun like it used to be.

 

[Wozza]

I want to offer an alternative perspective and no doubt will be labelled a plastic day tripper or whatever the combination of labels might be. But whatever..*

My parents dragged me to every Brighton home and away game from about the age of 6. I hated it. The drinking, swearing, noise, crush (and often I was seriously compressed gasping for breath in a solid block of swaying 80’s fan flesh and mullets probably), my mum being groped, my dad seemingly powerless to do anything about it, the violence, being kettled away from away grounds by a cavalry of police horses. In summary, the whole football fan package was anathema to this quiet, book loving kid. The 1983 cup final (and replay) at the age of 9, certainly seared itself into my brain but as soon as I was old enough to stay at home alone, I did.*

From the age of 11 to now 47, I had little interest in football other than the World Cup’s and Euro’s that went by. That is until me and my boys became gripped by the Euro’s this summer and my Danish wife got hold of some tickets to the semi- final. Mind blowing that was.*
[SNIP]

Nice story. Welcome. Welcome back!

As an aside, I love Denmark. Just come back from third trip there.

 

[Wozza]

Clearly the acoustics in the stadium aren't what they should be but that is a design problem that can't now be rectified.

Hmmm... it was pretty loud for the Man City match in May, with just 8000 hardcore supporters (and no away fans).

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

Clearly the acoustics in the stadium aren't what they should be but that is a design problem that can't now be rectified.

I'm pretty sure you could retrofit some acoustic panelling or false ceilings or whatever to do pretty much anything you want with the acoustics. Whether it would be in any way affordable is another matter entirely of course.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Hmmm... it was pretty loud for the Man City match in May, with just 8000 hardcore supporters (and no away fans).

This is it.

I don't buy that the problem is to do with stadium design or people not being sat in the right place. When we want to make a noise we can.

The solution is nothing more complicated that you and I and everyone else on this thread taking a bit of responsibility and singing louder (and for longer and more often) rather than standing around moaning about the atmosphere.

 

[Springal]

A big element is the fans surely - the fact we barely have any songs for players, or if we do they are the same rehashed songs with different words says it all.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I'm pretty sure you could retrofit some acoustic panelling or false ceilings or whatever to do pretty much whatever you want with the acoustics. Whether it would be in any way affordable is another matter entirely of course.

Dear Tony

I'm too much of a plastic fan to do any singing.

With that in mind please could you write out another cheque for x million to put a false ceiling on the amex stands so I can hear the ones who do a bit better?

Yours sincerely .... Nobby

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

Dear Tony

I'm too much of a plastic fan to do any singing.

With that in mind please could you write out another cheque for x million to put a false ceiling on the amex stands so I can hear the ones who do a bit better?

Yours sincerely .... Nobby

Well quite. Of course, you could extend that logic to pretty much any stadium improvements if you were so inclined.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

It is noticeable at games the demographic of our support has changed significantly in the Amex era which is probably a sign of the higher price point for football these days making it less accessible for those on lower incomes. Working class crowds were always more vociferous. Not unique to the Albion just part of continued erosion of the soul of football as it becomes something targeted at corporate and middle class fans who pump more into the clubs

You're right about the demographics, there is an issue to do with the changing "class" of our fans, but more than that it's about age I think

We lack young fans. That 16 to 25 demographic, that are pretty stella / testosterone fuelled. They make a noise, but with that comes an edge.

We have a few but broadly we're much more aiming for the middle age sit and clap politely types

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Fans feed off the players. Players feed off the fans. Players dick around at the back for a dozen passes and they get exactly the atmosphere they deserve

 

[Happy Exile]

Moving the away fans so they take up less space (without reducing allocation) feels like a great idea until the fact it'd turf out some longstanding season ticket holders which I'm sure we gave Palace a lot of grief about doing. I do think how the away fans seem to visually take up most of an entire side of the stadium while also being closer to the pitch than a large number of home fans maybe affects the atmosphere though - from parts of the West, East and South stand I'm sure it can feel like the away support is a more dominant number than it actually is. Feeling like it's a stadium full of home fans with the away fans tucked into a corner is a very different feeling from a stadium where one long side is given away.

So how about an extra tier on the South stand with away fans split into two levels pushed into the corner next to the East?

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Well at least the next fans forum has something of interest to discuss, unless of course Peter from Eastbourne has since done his UEFA B and A licenses

 

[Questions]

I know, but plucky Bournemouth doesn't sound as good as the mighty Aston Villa...

Now Ted Mac, now there was a goal scorer of his day!

Scored 9 against Margate when Bmuff won 11-0 in the cup.

 

[drew]

Fans feed off the players. Players feed off the fans. Players dick around at the back for a dozen passes and they get exactly the atmosphere they deserve

Afraid this is the correct answer. At the start of pretty much every game the crowd start off well but if the play on the pitch, whilst effective, is not exciting then that will affect the atmosphere.

 

[Questions]

An upper tier above the away fans in the south west corner I say with fans able to throw bottles of urine onto the ********.
You could do all that at The Goldstone.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Afraid this is the correct answer. At the start of pretty much every game the crowd start off well but if the play on the pitch, whilst effective, is not exciting then that will affect the atmosphere.

Funny how this doesn’t apply to a club like Palace. We’re watching arguably one of the most elite squads ever to have turned out for Brighton playing top half Premier League football, more competitive than we’ve ever been in arguably the best football league in the world, and yet, to paraphrase Maximus from Gladiator, ‘We are not entertained.’ It’s a pretty poor show, no matter how people try dressing it up..

 

[BBassic]

Moving the away fans so they take up less space (without reducing allocation) feels like a great idea until the fact it'd turf out some longstanding season ticket holders which I'm sure we gave Palace a lot of grief about doing. I do think how the away fans seem to visually take up most of an entire side of the stadium while also being closer to the pitch than a large number of home fans maybe affects the atmosphere though - from parts of the West, East and South stand I'm sure it can feel like the away support is a more dominant number than it actually is. Feeling like it's a stadium full of home fans with the away fans tucked into a corner is a very different feeling from a stadium where one long side is given away.

So how about an extra tier on the South stand with away fans split into two levels pushed into the corner next to the East?

In fairness, they turfed out some of their own fans to satisfy another group of their own fans.

 

[drew]

Funny how this doesn’t apply to a club like Palace. We’re watching arguably one of the most elite squads ever to have turned out for Brighton playing top half Premier League football, more competitive than we’ve ever been in arguably the best football league in the world, and yet, to paraphrase Maximus from Gladiator, ‘We are not entertained.’ It’s a pretty poor show, no matter how people try dressing it up..

In that case tell those that want to sing in the North stand to get a drum and wear black hoodies.