Wallsendmag

We were up in block A of the Milburn Stand L7 for the Southampton Semi Final. Absolutely horrific and genuinely I'd rather not go to the match than have to sit there again.

Moving some of our most loyal (and definitely loudest) fans out of the Milburn Stand Leazes Wing to make way for the Platinum Club still is to this day an absolute disgrace. Fletcher/Shepherd/Hall couldn't give a shite about the atmosphere, it was always about the coin up front which is why we had over 33k season ticket holders in a 36.5k stadium which locked 1000s out of ever seeing NUFC at home and ruined the atmosphere and it's never recovered.

I'd be pushing for the entire Gallowgate. I was at Stamford Bridge last night and got to say the atmosphere there was brilliant. Really took me by surprise and a large % of the crowd being stood up definitely helped. You had the lower section of the Matthew Harding stand (around 6k) stood the entire match (that is a safe standing area) and the entire Shed End which is also a safe standing area and holds around 6.5k was also stood the entire match although around 2.5k of those in that area were Dortmund fans. So that's well over 12k safe standing places they've made available, which is roughly the same as the capacity of the Gallowgate End. We were in the West Stand and many in there were also stood for a lot of the match despite it being a seated area. One thing I noticed was that they seem to have a younger fanbase than we do. Ours seems to be either old men or young families but not much in between and many at Chelsea were in the 20-40 age group which clearly helped with the atmosphere as it had a really vibrant feel about it and also explains why a large proportion of tbe crowd stood. Standing definitely helps when it comes to atmosphere. After last night I'm more convinced than ever that standing massively improves atmosphere. We need to go all out to make sure we get as many safe standing places as possible at SJP. Hope it all goes well for you tonight and that it's very productive@TheGuv

They are well known for doing this as well as adults going in on concession season cards. This is just Sunderland trying to cut that out. Can't blame them really. It's what happens when your fanbase is made up of the dregs of society.

Aye they have an even more limited songbook than we do! Expecting most of the noise to come from the German contingent.

Long story but I'm at Stamford Bridge tomorrow for Chelsea v Dortmund. They have safe standing behind both goals (probably 10k+ safe standing places). I'll report back

Agree with that. Man Utd are decent (when they're winning), Leeds are OK (although never that loud up here) and that's about it. I was in the next block along from the Liverpool fans at SJP the other week and they were terrible considering they had the game wrapped up early in.

Aways preferred the Scoreboard when I started going with my school mates in the late 80s until we got season tickets in the seats in '91. Think the corner was a bit too wild for me!

I'm not one of these who thinks SJP is sacred and we 100% should never leave it, as it's completely unrecognisable from when I started going there 40 years ago. It sits on the same patch of land and that's it. However some flat-pack put of town stadium is definitely not the way to go. If we can't get castle Leazes or the Arena site a new stadium is a no go as far as I'm concerned. As I said further up, extending the Gallowgate in line with Leazes and Milburn would give SJP an identical design and capacity to Celtic Park and they have no issues in generating an atmosphere when need be. Ultimately it's about getting as many like minded people as is physically possible all in the same area and in theory everything should fit into place after that.

I like it!

Ideally they could go in the corner just under the Sky Studios as that is the biggest corner by far as it also has a Level 4 whereas the other 3 corners are are only Level 2. Think it holds around 3k. I remember Arsenal fans were put there for a League Cup game about 12/13 years ago and they had 3,500 fans there with a small overspill into the Leazes End. Having home fans either side of them as well as above them would be canny as well I reckon. I've never been keen on having away fans above us and as we improve and become more disliked it could well cause more problems. I assume everyone seen the disgraceful scenes the other week at the Etihad where several home fans, including a young girl, were badly injured by Liverpool fans throwing objects (including a pint glass filled with 1p and 2p coins) down onto home fans below. Clearly the problem with that though is that the Platinum Club fans would kick up a fuss paying £1k a season to have away fans abusing them every week so it's a non starter really.

You mean the bit where it goes, "full of shit, full of puffs, full of wankers? Tbf I can see where you're coming from there. Don't think it would go down at all well these days.

If you mean L7 it's too far away from the pitch to have a decent impact. I used to have a season ticket up there when it was the old singing corner. I loved it and the atmosphere up there was brilliant! However when you spoke to people in other parts of the ground they would all say they couldn't really hear us and there was over 3k of us in that section. Same applies with the current away section. If you are in the Gallowgate Upper for example you wouldn't really know there's any away fans in the ground for the most part.

Another couple of points regarding the design of SJP and the demographic of the fanbase. Firstly nobody can deny that we have a far older crowd than we had 30 years ago. Average age in the East Stand must be about 60 and it must be in the 40s for the 3 other stands, other than Level 7. It's just human nature that as people get older they become less excitable. All ticket crowds and ticket prices have meant that groups of young lads (those who traditionally made the most noise) no longer go along in the same numbers as they once did as they either can't afford it of can't sit together. A large safe standing area would solve one of those problems however which is the ultimate goal. Secondly the design of our stadium, I'm sorry to say is shite. The Gallowgate sounds loud when it's in full flow, as long as you are in it, as the low roof amplifies and concentrates the noise into that Stand. However if you are in the Leazes they aren't really audible. The Leazes End has 3k away fans above them who can easily drown them out and the high stands of there and the Milburn means a lot of sound just escapes out of the ground. Extending the Gallowgate to the same height as the Leazes/Milburn should in theory solve some part of the acoustics problem. It would give us an almost identical design and capacity as Celtic Park and that place can make a racket when need be.

Never stopped them at the other 4 Wembley appearances I've seen us at, or Cardiff for that matter. Cardiff was absolutely deafening, clearly helped by the design of the stadium which pisses all over Wembley.

Visually we were fantastic, nobody can argue otherwise, but vocally it was terrible. I shared the story about the young lass kicking off at HT because nobody would sing and she had a point. We were in block 136 which was in the lower level just to the left of the goal as you looked at the pitch. I'd heard 133-136 were where most the usual away travellers were going (obviously they were in group 1 so could pick their seats) which is why we went there but it really was awful. Most my mates ended up in Level 5 and their experience was the same as mine. Just small pockets of people singing, which is never any good in a stadium that size, but with the added bonus of loads of people arguing about sitting down/standing up. At least everyone in the lower level stood for 90 mins so we didn't have all that hassle cos that would have been the icing on the cake for me!

They didn't do it first though. We did exactly the same in 98 and 99. I was there both times.

Hard to judge simply by watching on TV. Many a time I've been at the match and thought the atmosphere was canny only to watch it back over on TV and for it to come over flat as a fart.

Aye it's wrong. It was 52,271.

That's what used to happen before the days of all seater stadia and all ticket sell out crowds. You always had sections at SJP where the young daft lads would go and areas where the older fans would go. The Gallowgate M section was always known as "the old man's corner" for example. Disagree with everything else in your post as well but you're entitled to your opinion.

Very good post and on a subject that is so important. I think most of us would agree that the atmosphere has been pretty poor this season after the initial takeover hype died down and to carry the flat SJP atmosphere all the way down to Wembley was something that really disappointed/shocked me. For me safe standing is a must and on a large scale similar to Chelsea, Spurs, Wolves and a couple of others. When I say a large scale I mean a full end and the ideal end is of course the Gallowgate End. It already has the highest number of "standers" in the corner and also towards the back of the Upper tier. Also noticed that those in the front tier are also more inclined to stand when we are attacking or winning a corner which isn't the case as much down at the Leazes. Your problem is the middle tier. It is seen as the best view from the Gallowgate and as such is mainly long standing season ticket holders (my 71 year old dad has sat in the same seat there since it was built). Most of them would need relocated as they'd have no interest in standing which I'd expect to cause a bit of a fuss. Tbf to my dad he wouldn't be interested in standing but he'd be happy to relocate to allow it to happen but I'm not sure if he'd be in the minority there. Maybe the club could offer some sort of sweetener (free cup tickets or something like that). There's no point in doing it on a small scale like a corner as it would have minimal effect. It needs to be a full end and it's something that they need to start planning for ASAP to get it in place for next season because as things stand the atmosphere is only going one way.

Germany is similar. Been to a few Bundesliga games and at every one there has been a home end behind one of the goals who are just going at it for 90 mins and it's pretty much none stop noise. The rest of the stadium is pretty passive and they'll only join in sporadically but it just seems to work.

I've been going since 1984. Remember the late 80s and very early 90s the crowds weren't great and the atmosphere was pretty rubbish really. The 90/91 season was particularly poor when loads of crowds didn't even hit 15k. You had the lads in the corner and scoreboard trying their best and also those in the Leazes next to the away fans but because there was no roof over either end back then the noise was just lost. Remember when they built the Milburn Stand and the section nearest the Leazes was filled with some absolute lunatics and with them having the advantage of a roof that was definitely the noisiest part of the ground. The back end of the 91/92 season was class as Keegan came in and the fans rallied to cheer us to safety and then the 92/93 season was the best ever for atmosphere. It then started to die off once we got into the Premier League. 93/94 was pretty good but it started to tail off soon after and then it was only really the big games when it would get loud. One thing that was always a constant was that in any neutral venue, and I've seen NUFC play 6 games in Neutral Venues (Wembley x5 plus Millennium Stadium) we were always guaranteed to completely drown out the opposition. Never in my life did I think we'd be outsung by Man Utd with a 50/50 ticket split like we were on Sunday.

I was in block 136 as well. Row 28. It was eerily silent in there almost all the way through. Seen a lass probably in her 20s, at half time going absolutely mental about how bad our support was. A couple of blokes having to calm her down.

We lost 1000s of fans during the Ashley years. We had 2 moments where a lot chucked it at the same time (Keegan leaving and Rafa leaving/Bruce replacing him) plus loads of others who gradually drifted away, yet attendances remained fairly constant as they were replaced by other fans, many of whom I feel don't have quite the same levels of passion for the club as those who they replaced.