The American experience.
It was there for all to see last night. All that was missing was the oversize foam hands, an organ and some popcorn.
Its not a football ground, its not even a stadium. Its an Arena. One night Arsenal, the next night Sheryl Crow.
The outside is like Bluewater, and the inside felt like i had been transported into the crowd of a computer game. Nothing seemed real, everything is false. There is no soul, no atmosphere, no character.
If that is what the Premiership is going to be about, £3.20 a drink and sittting in theatre seats, then i'm more than happy to be dropping out this league, because going to football has got a lot bigger than a simple football game now. Its a corporate sham, with as many extras as possible clipped onto your 'matchday experience' to eek another couple of quid out.
Give me the tin pot shed at Layer Road, give me the intimidation of Ninian Park, give me the pies at Burnley, and the dripping roof of the Arthur Waite.
And give me the soul of The Valley, something Arsenal will never have again.
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So many good away games next season and mainly Southern as well.
New builds can be good, the City Of Manchester stadium is one of the best grounds in the country and the rebuild of Old Trafford has kept it as the best in the country.
The Emirates sums up Arsenal, Soulless, middle class, and showy
The Valley can be as souless and quiet as the rest of the new grounds.
£4 for a pie, who cares? Who buys the food/drink at The Valley anyway? (You have to leave your seat 15 mins before the end of the 1st half to get served for half time)
Some of you act as though The Valley atmosphere is like the old Den!
Clapping along to CAFC! CAFC! CAFC! & Red Army....
Anybody seen my foam hand?
The thing that struck me was just how many home fans to our right instinctively kept looking around for replays on the big screen above us, as if they were more used to watching on TV.
The lack of Bovril but ready availability of lattes was also a feature...
Disagree, not really the point i was making.
Not arguing at all that the Valley can be quiet or anything like that, but its a football ground. It looks like one, it feels like one and it smells like one. That last night was for the baseball, or basketball. It just didn't feel true.
how much do you reckon they want the traditional football fan there ???
How much was the fish?
it was free in the corporate boxes and plenty of it , very nice too, it's the future , prawn sandwiches ...lovely
'How much was the fish?'
http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=7360
rightio!
how much do you reckon they want the traditional football fan there ???[/quote]
I take your point but serious question, what is the traditional football fan?
The days of a working guy going to the game with his son is long gone in the Premiership.
We sounded quite loud on the radio
there was a slight chant of "pardew whats the score" but most of the time that was 1 bloke near where brown and the other geezer were doing the commentry from.
here here! I could not agree with you more.
Palace last 1 season visit to the premiership.....left me cold, not because of the results but because of the lack of identity, in so many of the new premier league grounds. Let's face it if you have been to the Riverside, then you can also count st. Marys as they are more or less the same.
When people slag off selhurst (and many do) I point out that we have a proper old school football ground with 4 stands that dont match! But it's not just the grounds, it's the people too. When 400 away fans of some obscure northern club are going ballastic because they have just slapped in a last minute winner against us... they are not going nuts cos there on a freebie or that it's cool to go football (to see the best teams in the land),they are doing it because they love that team and frankly could not give a monkeys wether the toilets are nice or not.
Without a shadow of a doubt we had much more atmosphere in the ground for championship matches with Ipswich, wolves, sheff utd, Norwich, cardiff, Millwall, watford, west ham, Luton than any of the premiership games.
If the City of manchester stadium is the future, give me the Kippax any day!
I will through gritted teacth say this though, that the Valley has been redeveloped very well in that you can still it is Charlton's home and not some poxy of the peg football ground.
I'm not going to come back with some quip! Far from it actually, as I am pretty confident I have seen considerably more Championship football than your goodself in recent years, I think i am in a pretty good position to judge the atmosphere in general and not on just one game.
It was a pretty turgid atmosphere on new years day, Norwich were very quiet and we were not a lot better. But as i say that is just one game and most Palace V Norwich matches in recent years have been extremely lively.
Obviously every game is not played in an electric atmosphere, but the fact grounds are less developed and the league is more competitive than the Prem does seem to make a better atmosphere, but hey it's just an opinion.
All these new arenas seem to be exactly the same with little or no soul, identity or anything to distinguish them from each other baring the colour of the seats. In fact I'm sure that if you know where the loos are at the Riverside I'm sure you'd be able to work out where they were at the Emirates.
The life and passion is being drained from top flight football cos its just so f*ucking expensive meaning that the most loyal / passionate tend to have to pick and choose a few away games per season.
I don't mind saying that one of the reasons I hardly go away outside of London these days is the cost. £30-45 for a ticket, travel £20-40, beers and food £40..... £100 for a days football! Sod that.... But then when we do have a London game you can struggle to get a ticket cos all the Valley Gold holders etc steam in first. Would they travel to Newcastle for a midweek match? Like fuk they would..........
It all seems arse about face to me where a clubs most loyal fans are being discarded in favour of the richer newer post Euro 96 fans.
As AFKA implied football is just about bottom line these days. Something needs to change .... Bring back cheap safe standing areas perhaps? But would the clubs agree as this would mean a drop in matchday revenue....?
Safe standing would definitely help, if Arsenal had standing in the lower tiers behind both goals I am sure the atmosphere would improve.
If the Germans can have it why cant we?