I woke up this morning at four am having gone to bed too early and no one was around so boredom set in and I had a quick look at the Manchester City Official Club Site. The new City badge (left) is impressive, I love the logo underneath. This City site does make me laugh and cheers me up no end. How happy are they right now, it's their once annually "sell out," the game with Manchester United has SOLD OUT! They have dedicated a whole page to tell the world the 47,000 tickets are now all gone, unless you want to shell out an arm and a leg to sit in the "Council House" or "Wastelands" (as United fans affectionately know Eastlands by) Hospitality Area.
I quote: The Club's Box Office has confirmed that Sunday's Barclays Premier League clash with Manchester United at the City of Manchester Stadium has now sold out.
The only chance for those without tickets to see the eagerly awaited fixture against our near neighbours is to take advantage of the few remaining hospitality places left—click here for more details.
- B/R Ticket Guide
The Box Office has advised everyone attending the derby on Sunday that on the day the Club DO NOT:
• Upgrade tickets • Duplicate tickets for home or away supporters • Reprint Season/City/L4C/Accesscards if lost, stolen or forgotten. • Open Box Office South • Open Box Office post match.
Hurrah for Al-City, the massive club. This is the annual "sell-out" the only time they ever run out of tickets so
we should all be impressed with them. Of course it could happen again, I know this, I'm not too naive to acknowledge it...they might draw United in the FA Cup you see.
I won't mention the fact that Manchester United sell 76,000 tickets week in week out every season as that would seem like I am boasting. Ooooops I said it.
The Hospitality suites are a treat to saviour at Wastelands, here we see one of the waitresses having a smoke break, they have them regularly so they can run down and feed their kids and change their nappies whenever they get a minute to spare.
Most work cash-in-hand and any tips will be gratefully received. It is advisable to tip them as they have been known to wrestle customers to the floor in their pursuit of suitable tipping.
It is also advisable to try the traditional "Wastelands" menu, reflecting the meals th
ese people have been eating for years. It's quite cheap, reasonably well presented and very, very nourishing. A particular favourite being the 'Rat Kebab' served on a bed of crispy Iceburg lettuce with a selection of dips and chutneys. Chips are optional.
Watch out for those rat teeth, they can chip your own teeth and cause havoc with your bowel movements.
Once you have washed your meal down with a nice tin of Carlsberg Special Brew you are taken out and dragged off to see the game. It's a bit nerve racking as you are dragged feet first to the edge of the roof but once you are strapped into place by your beautiful hostess it gets easier to watch the match from up there. The added bonus of course is the half time entertainment. From up on high you can piss on the City fans below which is fun, fun, fun. Roll on Derby Day, I can't wait...More City Bashing Here!
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about 1 month ago
Yawn.
from about 1 month ago
I went to read your articles of which there were none. I went to read your bio, which was blank. I went to read about you which was also blank. Sounds like City, loads of noise but no content, lmao. YAWN !!!
about 1 month ago
I think you will find if you look at the facts that the Yoo-ni-did game was not the highest attendance at the City of Manchester Stadium last season. No there were at least 4 clubs who attracted a higher 'gate'. Also this season we have had sell-out games so your propaganda is totally unfounded.
Manchester City are actually from the City of Manchester, and has been the only club there since 1910 when Yoo-ni-did moved to that place in Old Trafford.
You will also find that Manchester City hold the English club record of over 84,000 for a game at Maine Road, Manchester. Yoo-ni-did have never got a crowd this big and it remains a record until this day.
It really is a great shock indeed that you started supporting Yoo-ni-did around 14 years ago. Oh, when was that, lets see, oh yes thats right just around the time they had just won there first league championship for 27 years and started winning lots of trophies. For the life of me i really could not understand why you did not support Accrington Stanley, Swindon Town, or Southampton!? No, there's not a great deal of reflected glory following these teams from afar from places like Romania, America or China - but at least you might feel like you are making a difference and are part of your club hey.
Manchester City were getting bigger average attendances/crowds than half the Premier League even when they were relegated to the third tier of english football for the first time in their history in 1999, and are getting bigger average crowds now than Yoo-ni-did did before they won the league in 1993, despite not winning a major trophy for 32 years - thats true loyal support, so do not ever question the faith of Manchester City supporters. Why do you think Yoo-ni-did get 76,000 fans each week? Yes you worked it out, because they have won everything in sight for the last 17 years, not because there fans have undying loyalty. Yoo-ni-did got crowds like 26,000 in the nineteen eighties nad early nineteen nineties, even though they had won a few FA Cups in the 1980's and a euro cup winners' cup in 1991.
Also if you knew anything about the history of football you would realise that if it were not for Manchester City allowing Yoo-ni-did to use their Maine Road, Manchester ground for several seasons after Old Trafford was bombed in WW11 that they would either have gone out of business altogether, or would have had to play at an out post like Oldham Athletic and play in front of very very low crowds. Yes so a bit of humility from a supporter, as ever, from afar, would not go amiss.
And please do not insult the good, hardworking Manchester people by putting up pictures in order to have a cheap jibe at them. These are the people who do all the work so football can take place each week along with the grounds people etc, not people from other parts of the world who profess to "love" a club but in fact know little or nothing about Manchester and its rich football heritage.
"Oh Man City: The only football team to come from Manchester..."
from about 1 month ago
http://www.red11.org/mufc/stats/attendances.htm
26,000 in the early nineties/late eighties? as you can see from the link above that is a blatant lie. In fact the last time United got an attendance lower than the 21,000 you got the other week against FC Twente was 1933! keep fooling yourself mate.
about 1 month ago
Oh you lame old lame old rags. Go back to London and Salford- you are so incredibly jealous of the mighty blues and we havent won anything for 32 years. Imagine whats going to happen soon if City start to win stuff.
How big is that debt of yours? Last I heard it was at least 666 million pounds. Enjoy going down the gutter you filthy rags when the banks start to foreclose on those idiot Glazers loans! Remember every time you fill your car up... your contributing indirectly to city's transfer budget :)
Hark now hear, Man city sing, United ran away, and we will fight for everymore because of derby day!!!
Hope you enjoy your defeat on Sunday- I know I sure will!
about 1 month ago
26,000/29,000 whatever who cares, my point is that City are averaging higher average attendances than what united did pre 93 despite winning several cups. We haven't won a trophy for 32 years as you quite well know. Yes unlike United we thankfully don't have compulsory purchase for cup games and in times of recession and when the game is on terrestrial/Digi box for free of course people will cut out any extra expense. We don't have millions of fans like United and many of our fans struggle to afford season tickets never mind extra games especially with Manchester having one of, if not the, highest unemployment record in England. Also your source appears very reliable!
It is well known how many fans united gathered on the back of the Munich Air Tragedy in 1958, as well as 16 years of dominance and 2 Champions Leagues in the Sky age of football that began in 1992.
It is just a shame that for over 50 years now, United have unashamedly made many millions of pounds from the Munich Air Disaster, but have all but abandond its survivors and their Manchester families. That's what would really stick in my throat if I was a united fan. But hey, i suppose dominance and so-called displays of Rememberance cleanses the soul, brainwashes the mind and supports the myth.
from about 1 month ago
One minute they're struggling to survive pre-93 the next minute they're raking it in from the memory of dead players. Make your mind up. United having glory hunters doesn't mean much to me I probably grew up closer to Maine Rd and Old Trafford than you did so I've heard all these bitter blue stuff time and time again. Enjoy the game on Sunday. Make sure you find a nice pub in Stockport to watch it in.
about 1 month ago
Here are Manchester United attendances up to 1999 - bad move going any further as we get 76,000.
1980-81 57,049
1981-82 57,830
1982-83 57,397
1983-84 56,121
1984-85 56,638
1985-86 54,575
1986-87 54,103
1987-88 48,087
1988-89 46,377
1989-90 47,245
1990-91 43,242
1991-92 44,985
1992-93* 45,428
1993-94 44,751
1994-95 43,868
1995-96* 53,926
1996-97 54,178
1997-98 55,306
1998-99 55,316
Where are the 26,000 crowds ?
Here are Al-Cities attendances in the past 5 years.
2003-04 46,834
2004-05 45,193
2005-06 42,856
2006-07 39,997
2007-08 42,190
Seems in your last 5 years your not quite right about your facts, as in the 5 years leading up to us winning the league we averaged 45,988.
Whereas in the last 5 years Al-City are averaging 43,414........so you got that wrong.
You said we had crowds of 26,000 in the late eighties/early nineties. Would you care to point them out to me as I'll be damned if I can see them. Seems you got that wrong too.
Having said: ".........from other parts of the world who profess to "love" a club but in fact know little or nothing about Manchester and its rich football heritage."
It would appear that I know more than you and that must be a bit embarassing for you, but hey, I wont laugh.........................for too long.
32 years since a trophy and how ironic that one was only a League Cup too.
about 1 month ago
Yuppie from South Manchester who now lives in London. What a surprise! Let me guess you left for a better life, for your 'personal growth' as an individual, a journey to really 'find' yourself, good career etc etc. Yeah, yeah whatever, cheap digs each way, my dad’s bigger than your dad etc. But please don't ever call me bitter as I am not and never have been. However I'm not the only one to notice that in the last 10 years at OT whenever Utd do sing a song, you can bet at least half of them are about little old Manchester City - the team and club they always arrogantly claim to not be bothered about. And this in years when City have gone through abject failure and the worst period in their history and United have enjoyed the most successful period in their history. Yet you have the temerity to call City bitter!? Yes that makes loads of sense! - success clearly didn't bring Utd any humility, however you seem to expect it from a team who has been overshadowed for the best part of half a century!? How bizarre - however just like war, the dominant, the winners, they write history, and only there version counts.
So if or when you have children, there will be even more of the seemingly millions of utd fans who's father's all miraculously came from Manchester. I've lived in Manchester all my life and was actually born at St Mary's Hospital a mile or so from the city centre, within walking distance of Maine Road.
Unlike City, Utd left Manchester around 1920, and only returned to play at Maine Road Manchester which City kindly allowed them to use for several seasons after WW11; and of course you enter Manchester for the derby at our ground once a season.
Until City do win a league then the significance of our crowds now and in the last 5 years cannot be compared to the Utd's ones of '93 conclusively, but I'm willing so say they'll be very comparable especially in light of the fact Utd won several trophies before the league in 93.
City haven't won a trophy in 32 years. Utd won trophies intermitently even in those "barren years." I actually said utd got crowds "r Carly", i.e 29,000 v Wimbledon, not average crowds for a season, which are distinctly different. The average attendances will not include games in the Cup against the likes of Port Vale, only the mean of League games. Whilst City's attendances have to be viewed in the context of many barren years and their closest rival's immersion in silverware and global publicity, utd's have to be viewed in the context of Munich, unprecedented success in the Premier League, the Sky age and the post Euro '96 frenzy.
Is there any point to call us Al-City, or even worse Al-Cities!? It’s neither funny after the first time of hearing/seeing it, original nor accurate and in light of the fact that Utd haven’t been in English hands for several years now… comes across as strangely xenophobic from a follower of the most multi-cultural football club in the world!
Anyway I digress, where was I…
I did not once say utd were struggling to survive pre '93, post Munich. However I did mention earlier than utd would have been struggling in the 1940's but for Manchester City letting them use Maine Road, over 10 years before Munich. I'm sure you'll agree, there is an ever so slight difference.
I don't think I have ever heard a gracious representative of Manchester United or one of their legions ever thank City for this, or even refer to it as a critical point in their history, not even when the club's were the furthest apart in the history of both clubs - when City were plying their trade in the third tier of English Football for the first time in the 100 + years of the club in 1998-1999, the same season utd had their greatest, winning the treble in Barcelona. Had City gone out of business that year, which according to then Chairman David Bersntein was a real possibility, I doubt there would have been a helping hand from the world's richest club, even though we helped you at arguably the nadir of the United history. As sad as it is to say, the fact remains that the Munich Air Disaster in 1958 is the most significant and famous day in Manchester United's history and is the chief reason why their support has always been superior to other clubs, even more succesful clubs such as Liverpool, post the 1958 tragedy. This is the what separates utd from seemingly every other club in England and the world. When Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, City etc have won trophies utd could rely on usually at least 30-45,000 of their millions of followers to still turn up.
When you take all City's trophyless years and then look what utd have done in that time, the faith of the City fans is pretty remarkable. Despite 32 years of winning nothing, we are still consistently in the top4/5 best supported teams in England. We still regularly get crowds of over 45,000 even though it's been 32 years and thats more than Chelsea and Liverpool. Nobody else shares a City with the most famous, and for the last 16 years, most successful club in England and the world.
You should note also that the League Cup was a major trophy in 1976 and was pretty much up to when the Champions League started circa '92. In fact the League Cup is still technically a major trophy now. Even though it is last on most big clubs priority list, if you consult the finalists and winners, it is still usually won by one of the top 4. There is little or nothing ironic about it being the last trophy that City won. Back in 1976 when city won that trophy they were one of the most successful clubs ever in English football. Even today after 32 years, there is probably only 10 teams who have won more. In 1993 just before utd won there first league in 27 years, it was Manchester City Football Club who were the last Champions of Manchester in 1968. City were also the first football club in england to win a domestic trophy and a European trophy in the same season. Furthermore when City won the league in 1968 every single member of the team was from England. There was not, remarkably, even a Welsh, Irish or Scottish player in the squad. This feat will never be achieved again, unless there is a nuclear war and Blackpool is the only place left in the world!
If your article hadn't contained flagrant inaccuracies in the first place, there would have been no reason for me to respond to it.
The point I was making about the crowds was that utd have not always sold out, and to assume that they have or sneeringly pass judgement on City's is hypocrisy. It is very easy for you to make snide jibes about City from a position on high, perhaps you should consider what it would be like to 'wear the shoe on the other foot' for once. If you had to compare the clubs in status and power terms, United are the equivalent of the United States of America and City the hapless El Salvador. Things could perhaps change in the next 50-100 years as football relatively speaking isn't an old game especially if you discount pre WW11. However Utd are so established in a position of dominance it is extremely unlikely, if not impossible, to see the two clubs ever truly having parity or City ever being "bigger" again.
You can witter on about record after record re crowds but there is one that you will seemingly never break. Please do come back when you get an English record of over 84,569 for a game, and then have a discussion.
Fortunately for you, I'll probably be long since dead and burried in Moston cemetary by then. You have my permission to write the attendance on my grave stone boys and girls. One fewer "bitter" for you to contend with then, hey?
from about 1 month ago
My kids will be brought up in Manchester and if not they'll support Fulham. you don't have to worry about that one. I don't really understand why getting a "good career" is sometype of putdown. Perhaps I'd have more credibility in your eyes if I'd have stayed in the council house I grew up in. As for the rest you've written Its time to let it go. I've grown up listening to this nonsense. You've got a chance of winning something again right now. Let that bitterness slip away!
about 1 month ago
Ha ha ha thanks to Murphy's I'm not bitter 'r kid. I understand, that in order to create the future, you must forgive the past and all that; but perhaps you might want to convey that message to the parishioners at OT who obsessively sing about Manchester City...afterall it is not 1968, you have won everything in sight for the last 18 years, not us!
about 1 month ago
Don't worry. With the new owners' resources and stated goals, it's only a matter of time until City lose its soul to big-time football and have a fan base composed almost entirely of glory-hunting foreigners who travel to Manchester to pack an oversized stadium and take photos throughout the match. You know, just like United.
from about 1 month ago
That's very true actually, a good point!
"The Truth" said Manchester United would not have helped City if they had gone into administration but I would like to think they would have done something, in fact I'm even sure they would have. They have helped several clubs out down the years. They got new floodlights fitted and gave away the old ones, even fitting them for the new club whose name I cant recall right now but I can find out.
When Exeter City drew Manchester United at Old Trafford in the FA Cup and came to Manchester and got a 0-0 draw, there is no way on God's earth United tried to win that game. They then went to Exeter and just strolled past Exeter like they didn't exist and in both games used reserve players. The upshot of those two games was the fact that Exter cleared every debt they had!
Dorchester opened a new stadium and were short of cash, Manchester United sent a team down to open the stadium in a friendly match, Dorchester became solvent again.
Newport County, where I live went bust many years ago and had a new team set up in the Blue Sqaure league and had just built a very small and mediocre stadium. United again sent a team to do what they did for Dorchester, and they also signed Newport up as a feeder club, injecting much needed cash into this club which has seen them promoted twice.
I very much doubt they would stand by and watch Manchester City go under. I'd be very disappointed if they did.
Rivalry or no rivalry, you take care of your neighbours when they are in need.
Great comment too by "The Truth"........you should turn it into an article and get others to read it, I enjoyed it ;-)
about 1 month ago
thanks Carlyluvsunited. Good article.
http://manutd24.wordpress.com
24 days ago
I was wondering why any United fan would have to post anything on the City board, could it be that said United fan has no real interst in football but likes to get on other peoples tits?
As they never get to a game due to the limited availabiity at their massive stadium, they have to console themsleves in getting involved with banter on our turf.
I personally have no problem with United fans throwing stats around, be they related to attendances, trophies or turnover, after all we are a smaller club in many ways - indeed we have won very little in comparison.
The one stat that is undeniable however is that there IS only ONE club in Manchester and forever will it remain.
;-)
from 19 days ago
Errmmmm........ the 'City' board?
It's not a forum here. The Bleacher Report is where we write about differing subjects and attach tags to the articles so people can find what they are looking for.
It's a bit narcisistic to think that a tag for 'Manchester City' means it's 'your board', lol.
from 19 days ago
You have deliberately picked the City 'community' as a pi$$ weak attempt to rile real football fans.
So dont be so silly as to claim not to understand what you have done.
The images you have posted with your article are offensive to a lot of Manchester people, not just City fans.
I have flagged it as offensive.
I hope you wouldnt treat a racial group or religion in such a manner.
But then again you are from a part of the world renowned for its intollerance, bigotry and insularity.
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