The atmosphere at WHL

[Navin R Johnson]

this kind of shows the problem. So-called 'supporters' are consumers first and supporters. I don't care about the industry, the politics or the profit making nature of the club. I care about the team doing well, I will show support for that team because I wish to will them to do better. I do it because I care, if someone were to say, pay me for it I'd be deeply offended and will not accept that. I don't make noise at football games to make money or to help the team make money I make noise as it is my duty towards the team as a supporter.

Also I reckon if no one went to WHL for football games the TV wouldn't really care. If no one made any noise they would care even less. In fact it might be better as they would not have to worry about swearwords etc. The TV doesn't accurately portray noise at a game anyway, I doubt they would care. For example in Italy Juventus used to get really poor attendances for football games. There average attendence in 2005-06 (a season they won before it was taken away) was under 26,000 making the stadium about 1/3rd full. In one game in 2001-02 only 237 fans turned up. Juventus still, however would always get the best TV deals and been shown more often than most other clubs.

Thanks for going easy, I expected a harder time. I go because I care, I bought my ST when we were poop and there was no waiting list so it's not so much that I have high expectations or a sense of entitlement it's just that I think we as fans sometimes undervalue our importance to the club. They don't need our ticket money, it's useful but they don't need it, what they do need though is the right backdrop and we're the ones who provide that, I just don't think we're always given enough credit for it.

Far from being offended if anyone offered to pay me to attend WHL I'd be delighted but obviously it won't ever happen, my point was really about our importance to the club that it seems to pass many people by. However, it is a fact* that with the latest TV deal every PL club can afford to knock £53 off the price off each and every ticket and be no worse off than they were last season. That's colossal.


*I read it on GG.

 

[DogsOfWar]

The crowd at WHL at the moment are a disgrace.
Supporting a football team should be like supporting your kids, it's unconditional.

Shit games, good games, unlucky games, players you don't like, the reaction should always be the same, you're there to support them.
If you don't enjoy it, and I'm fairly sure the majority at WHL don't anymore, let your season ticket go to someone new and younger who'll appreciate it.

Or get your arse down to a lower league club and learn what a 'true' supporter goes through week in and week out. One who will never see total football, or a decent stadium, or experience Europe, or lift a trophy but who does understand the passion of supporting 'their' team unconditionally.
They know the irony of singing 'we're by far the greatest team the world has ever seen' but, to them, they are and they are proud of it.
So a fan of a team with our history, success, and current crop of players really has no excuse.

 

[RickyVilla]

It is a bit disconcerting when trying to start a song you are looked at like a leper by the twat in front of you who has been playing on his phone for the first 20 minutes. I was glad we scored as that gave me the opportunity to give him a sly dig .

 

[riggi]

its all a fucking joke and its making me say no to tickets.

 

[beats1]

its all a fucking joke and its making me say no to tickets.

Its true and I think with stub hub its created a joke in prices. Sitting in the North Stand is nearly half the price of getting a ticket in the South stand if not more

 

[tttcowan]

It's not we don't have the right fans, it's just the wrong ones have the season tickets... And fuck knows how to address that problem.

 

[riggi]

away games, derbies and Europe games.

 

[RickyVilla]

It's not we don't have the right fans, it's just the wrong ones have the season tickets... And fuck knows how to address that problem.

What is it with people blaming season ticket holders? I have a couple of mates with season tickets and they make a shit load of noise. Is it out of jealousy that people are having a dig?

 

[Spurger King]

It is a bit disconcerting when trying to start a song you are looked at like a leper by the twat in front of you who has been playing on his phone for the first 20 minutes. I was glad we scored as that gave me the opportunity to give him a sly dig .

To be fair to him, I've heard you sing!

 

[tttcowan]

What is it with people blaming season ticket holders? I have a couple of mates with season tickets and they make a shit load of noise. Is it out of jealousy that people are having a dig?

Sorry for the sweeping statement... I'm just trying to find reasons for it. I mean, we used to be really loud not so long ago.

Maybe its just people need seats moving then... If you somehow put all the noisy people together in one area it should transfer to the rest of the ground.

 

[dimiSpur]

The atmosphere yesterday really was a complete non-entity.

However this is an ongoing problem and I don't think Spurs fans are bad fans overnight. Once upon a time we were proud to say WHL was one of the most atmospheric venues in the PL. There are unerlying reasons behind the poor atmosphere.

I think its possible that fans have become disillusioned with Tottenham as a club. Even though we're higher in the league than we were, there are times we're all baffled as fans. These things take their toll. Support isn't something you turn on and off. I think its unfair to just criticize fans for poor atmosphere.

Support is always there. Home or away fans turn up in their thousands, and they always will. It's a lot harder to get passionate about a side that started the season as title contenders and 6 months on have a new manager with completely different ideologies.

This "support blindly" is bollocks to me. Fans aren't sheep. You can't sell Gareth Bale, promising a vast re-investment and selling a huge plan for the future and within 6 months just say "naah scrap that lets start again".

I totally agree that its nice to have an atmospheric ground. I agree it makes it much more enjoyable, partly why I much prefer away games to home games. But at the same time its not an easy task to get 36,000 fans singing, at home to Palace, with a completely different team to that which we thought we'd have in September.

I'm not defending the bad atmosphere, I'm just saying these things don't happen overnight.

 

[Tottenham_God]

I agree with this really, though I can understand why some people don't sing. For a start, the vast majority of our chants are pathetic (the Soldado/Vertonghen chants being the worst), secondly, there's not much about our football these days to inspire the fans, and lastly as many have mentioned, a growing sense of expectation that has replaced the underdog spirit we had for years.

Being based out of London I rarely get a chance to go to games, but usually try to get to at least 3 or 4 per season. For me it's still a special experience every single time. I've witnessed the best of our fans (the 5-0 v Newcastle), and the worst (Fulham loss last season). For the latter I was sat in the Park Lane lower. I deliberately got a ticket there for the atmosphere, but on that day it was just grim.

I guess a lot of people who go regularly just become complacent, and don't think of seeing Spurs as a privilege that many people across the world (such as yourself) would love to experience.

I spose I can understand, just a frustrating notion to hear that it's not as enjoyable a experience as it once was.

Plus my West Ham supporting mate who was a season ticket holder for 15 years always drilling into me that we are a bunch of skirts and that Upton Park is the true place of dreams to watch a game of football doesn't help.

I just hope something changes or I happen to catch one of the good days when I'm over.

 

[Navin R Johnson]

The crowd at WHL at the moment are a disgrace.
Supporting a football team should be like supporting your kids, it's unconditional.

You never scold your kids or tell them they're wrong?

 

[Nocando]

You never scold your kids or tell them they're wrong?

I suppose if you were you'd do it in private. What you wouldn't do is stand up in the middle of a school nativity performance and shout that he's the shittest Joseph you've ever seen and that performance was a disgrace to his School and to your family.

Well, perhaps you might.

 

[PT]

Too many season tickets as a percentage of a crowd.
Of those holders that don't go, there's no control over who does go with that ticket.
Stub Hub prices are a joke mostly and mean youngsters won't or cant afford to go.
The season ticket holders age profile is something the club should look at. Those of a certain age should be shepherded in to one area and then served with cups of tea and given the paper to read. They should also leave their phones sat the entrance.
A younger profile should be brought in to South and East stands to lead the singing.

I'm a ST holder aged 51 and sit in the North Lower along with supposedly kids in the family stand. Actually it's mostly middle aged men with no interest in what's happening on the park, rather bantering between thmeselves and leaving on 70 mins to get the train.
The drummer or, a drummer should be brought back.
the 1882 movement needs to grow with official bakcing and marketing. It could prove to be the way forward. Even for old people who are intent on singing and not texting on phone.

 

[Navin R Johnson]

I suppose if you were you'd do it in private. What you wouldn't do is stand up in the middle of a school nativity performance and shout that he's the shittest Joseph you've ever seen and that performance was a disgrace to his School and to your family.

Well, perhaps you might.

Well I wouldn't because apparently at 54 I'd be too engrossed in the crossword to take any notice of what's going on in front of me.

I think people like me who sit in the North Stand should be shot. All I've ever done is buy two seasons tickets a year for many years, one for me and one for my son, paying full price for both for three seasons now he's grown up (though not grown up enough to pay for his own), get him hooked on Spurs (he'll do that to his kids in turn), encourage his mates to come whenever I get spares, moves tickets on for those around me who cannot always make it, nearly cause a ruck when I took on a proper (for proper read loud) supporter and his mates who insisted on calling Gallas a gooner **** despite the fact he was wearing the shirt for us. Nope, I can't be a proper supporter because I don't get properly beered up before the game and wiggle me fingers when I sing "Oh When The Spurs" for the fiftieth time.

And there's the point, we laugh at Liverpool and West Ham but we only have one song too, I don't know the answer to to that, I'm not exactly Bernie Taupin but I'm sure more people would join in if there was some variation.

 

[jyoshinmonchris]

Not criticising anyone as I don't know what's required to get tickets or what's needed to get chants going, but reading through this thread it sounds to me like a lot of people are waiting for others to fix it for you? The club needs to do this, fans need to do that, these need to go... etc.

On a community as large as SC, is there anything we can do ourselves to address this? 1882 have worked to get help from the club, but can SC and other Spurs forums do something similar without the clubs help to force what we want to happen?
When booking tickets, can you choose where you sit? If so, can we try and get as many similar minded people to book in the same area each and every time?
Do we need to make an organised effort to come up with some new songs?
Do some fans not know the songs and need to be educated in some way?

Like I said, I'm really not criticising as I can't go to any games, I'm just interested if there's something we can do. With so many people saying the same things over and over again, surely it's possible?

 

[southlondonyiddo]

Well I wouldn't because apparently at 54 I'd be too engrossed in the crossword to take any notice of what's going on in front of me.

I think people like me who sit in the North Stand should be shot. All I've ever done is buy two seasons tickets a year for many years, one for me and one for my son, paying full price for both for three seasons now he's grown up (though not grown up enough to pay for his own), get him hooked on Spurs (he'll do that to his kids in turn), encourage his mates to come whenever I get spares, moves tickets on for those around me who cannot always make it, nearly cause a ruck when I took on a proper (for proper read loud) supporter and his mates who insisted on calling Gallas a gooner **** despite the fact he was wearing the shirt for us. Nope, I can't be a proper supporter because I don't get properly beered up before the game and wiggle me fingers when I sing "Oh When The Spurs" for the fiftieth time.

And there's the point, we laugh at Liverpool and West Ham but we only have one song too, I don't know the answer to to that, I'm not exactly Bernie Taupin but I'm sure more people would join in if there was some variation.

Bernie who??

 

[worcestersauce]

Not siure if this is appropo of anything but I used to get pissed off with posts complaining about the atmosphere now I just think meh, blah blah blah.

 

[JollyHappy]

I don't know how practical this is but if we all agree that our away support is good (which it is) then there must be a way of getting those people into one section of the ground. If that means relocating other supporters then so be it.

TBH at the moment for the type of WBA and Palace games, our crowd are more like a 12th man for the opposition.