cornerdon26 wrote:
After 30 odd threads, a few days and however many tweets I have to say I'm still unsure how I feel about the decision
On one hand I get the intention of Winky. He's trying to push for a better atmosphere at the stadium, the idea of condensing fans should help achieve that and for the last decade many fans on every platform have suggested that closing the corners can achieve that.
However, as my name suggests, I sit in the corner. I no longer attend games as I left England however I truly don't believe anyone who has sat around me for the last decade will significantly contribute to a better atmosphere. I like my view, I like the people I sit with and fuck it, whilst I love falling over in crazy celebrations on away games I actually quite like the peacefulness of where I sit at home games. Sorry, maybe I'm a happy clappy. But over a decade sitting there, many emails and online posts pushing no to close the corner (with some success) shows there's more of us.
I just feel Winky is now in a position of 'damned if he does, damned if he doesn't'. So many of our fan base are desperate to call him out for anything and everything these days - and to an extent some of it is justified.
I understand why he wants to do something to improve the atmosphere. I understand why he has closed the corners as so many fans have been desperate for it to happen for years. However I feel this wasn't well thought out, it will piss people off, and my 60 year old parents who prefer the view will not make any more noise by being sat behind the goal than they do now because they will still rather enjoy their soup from a thermos than stand up chanting anthems.
Yup, this is the thing. No one who is a club red regular or even east stand regular is suddenly going to become a vocal supporter. I sit in East Wing and the most I do is clap. I'm not a vocal supporter in terms of singing, it's not something I enjoy. I really enjoy it when the Cowshed are loud though and that would have been the case without these unnecessary changes.
I recall the Wycombe semi-final home game being a fantastic atmosphere, despite going into the game 2-0 down. It's almost as if PW is blaming the fans for not being supportive enough during that match and the reason we couldn't find a second goal.
Which brings me on to another point. The gate money is collected together and split between the other clubs in the play offs. Now, why in gods green earth would us want to fund more money to Crawley? Even if they packed their ground they would only get 6K. Even Donny and Crewe are only 10K capacity. We get 6k on a bad day and I expect much more than our average Saturday gate (especially if we do have one foot in Wembley). We have more attending is great for the cameras and the so called atmosphere, but it is also great for the other three clubs in the play offs who reap the rewards of us being capable to have 30k people in our ground. I know it is a slight point and if we have loads in the ground then brilliant, but this whole splitting the money thing narks me a little. But it could be a hidden reason as to why he has closed where he has closed. If you are not getting all the money why turn the lights on in certain parts of the ground and why hire staff for club red etc.