I've been thinking...

Or give them a joint of meat, some vegetables and a bag of potatoes.

 

14. Get a decent pitch side announcer who involves the fans.
Bellowing, "Get behind 'em and make some noise, come on" two minutes before kick-off is just not good enough.
I've been abroad to games where the bloke at pitch-side gets the crowd really involved prior to games, Mexican waves, chants, arm waves etc. Best is at Braga where he gets the fans behind the goal to shout BRAAAA-GA whilst pointing at the main stand and then the main stand chants back BRAAAA-GA whilst pointing to the stand behind the goal. Once it takes off you don't even need the MC there to start it off any more. If we had an MC who got all the Ponty doing it prior to the match, have a bit of banter and say it's crap, you can do better etc and then get the East Stand to respond, get a bit of a competition going to who's loudest, I'm sure it would soon take off. Once its established, only needs a few fans to get it going at every game.

 

Absolutely! That's the wavelength I was trying to get at and I was laid in bed last night thinking the exact same thing about the MC. It's a vital role and the ideas that I've been 'fondling' with are to that exact end. Boost the experience, increase the feeling of pride and belonging. EVERY home match should feel like an EVENT that the people of the town can come and be a part of.

I don't think it's difficult at all to make those sort of changes. I don't know why The Don and the club struggle to drive change in the holistic experience of attending games at Oakwell.

 

The opening post is quality.

Brighton already do a lot of the things Mike Lowry suggested, and you get a really good feeling in their stadium.

The stadium is clad with photos of their old players, they play classic match highlights on the big screen; they have their own song with the word Brighton in it. Stuff like that can't fail to build an atmosphere.

I wish, wish, wish we had something similar.