Crazy news from Middlesbrough. It appears the club are getting irked by people standing up and banging empty seats to try and create a bit of atmosphere. Cue this laughable letter from the ‘Club Safety Officer’.
My season ticket is located at the top of the Hammersmith End these days we have our fair share of standing supporters. Thankfully, the problems with the stewards seem to have been a lot less commonplace these days. We even had one orange-shirted chap standing in the gangway laughing and joking with the fans towards the end of yesterday’s game.
What is football coming to if club’s have to tell their fans to sit down and be quiet? Who’s been complaining about the atmosphere? Since Middlesbrough struggle to fill their ground and are in need of vocal support given their league position, you’d think the club would be thinking twice about alienating loyal supporters.
Welcome to the hell that is American sports. No, seriously, unless its big teams in big games everyone is sitting and being quiet.
Makes sense, sorta, for quiet at the big clubs: no one who really cares can afford the tickets.
At Boro though? Wow.
I’ve heard a similar story from a lot of people about American sport.
But what worries me is that there seems to be a concerted effort to remove atmosphere from games. If there’s a serious health and safety concern then maybe it’s just about justifiable but if people are complaining about the noise, that’s just not on. It’s not like they’ve gone to read a copy of Proust in the library, is it?