Atmosphere at Vicarage Road

Seriously worried about you. Why would you put up a picture of someones little girl & even have images like this. Should be reported.

 

Yep, you're about 12.

 

The atmosphere at Vicarage Road is largely ****. But it's our largely **** atmosphere, and that's why it's the best.

 

What has this world come to!

We have got one forum member with 27,000 posts posting pictures of little girls & then we have you justifying why there is a **** atmosphere at VR.

& I'm the one that gets lambasted for trying to do something to improve the situation?!

 

I'm glad we haven't got a stadium full of wacky-funster banter merchants like crystal palace. It's no bad thing. Our place is perfect.

 

Going Down; See you didn't reply here, but making what looks like a few snide comments on the Salami thread.

How about spending some time away from your computer. No malice is intended but 27,000 comments on this, or any other internet forum is not healthy.

Let me explain, I want a better atmosphere in the ground on match days, disagree if you want. I was angling at seeing if this view is shared on the forum, it may or may not. I suggested the likes as a way of indicating if we could use the vote facility here & then based on that outcome maybe suggest that viewpoint to the club as a way of possibly improving the situation, but you say it's because I had a bad childhood.

 

I really wouldn't analyse it too much and certainly wouldn't rise to it. It's just GD being GD. He does it to lots of posts and occasionally it makes me chuckle!

 

You're probably best off doing a poll on twitter because 90% of the people on this forum are Moog. The other 10% are you, me and the Luton fans pretending to be fans of clubs over-seas.

 

I am Spartacus Moog

 

10 likes and I reply to this post.

 

Is this an age old problem then? Or have the first generation to grow up with all-seater stadia created a new one?

I wasn't around in the terraced days at the Vic but always got the impression from tales on here that people knew the best place to go in the ground to match their own taste and level of participation? Yet now we seem to have an ever ageing and less active group of fans occupying prime atmosphere-raising (and cheaper) seats in the middle of Rookery with every intent of clinging on to them until they literally expire. They're their seats, next to their friends and they've earned them by occupying them for 20 years. Doesn't seem right to me.

It's like a small world version of the housing market!

 

If only there was a group of like minded fans recognised by the club and lead by a fellow forum member. Would be even better if they had their own website and Facebook group in which you can discuss Zed-Cars and Yell-oh by yawnmongers all day long.

 

10 likes = 1 prayer

10 prayers = watford_Anne joins the forum

 

I think it is a post all-seater problem. When we had majority terracing you were of course easily able to move to the area you wanted to be in. Too rowdy/too quiet.. move. Didnt like the bloke stood next to you.. move.

Ive never really understood why people are so determined to always be in the same place tbh. Personally i like to watch games with differing experiences, stands etc. There again ive never been a season ticket holder so maybe i would think differently if id have invested that sort of money in the club. Should we really dictate where any season ticket holder should sit when they are the ones putting the most financially into the club?
They probably pick their spot for many reasons.. view, price, who's around them.. and they might well be miffed to be moved because the atmosphere isnt as good as it could be.


My response to you was really to highlight that so often people criticise the older generation of supporter for not joining in with the singing, while forgetting that a lot of those people were the ones doing precisely that in the past.. while doubt criticising the older fans of their time!

 

Do they contribute the most financially to the club? Yeah they help the club's summer cash flow by paying money where otherwise there would be no gate receipts. But that's surely the only certain thing that can be said. It's £36 a game to sit in the Rookery. £403 was the loyalty renewal price for an ST there. So 12 matches in a game by game attendee has paid more than them.

I'm sure they would be miffed at being moved, yes. The club should communicate with them, try to convince them with reason first and maybe even bribe them to a small extent. But arguably if Watford were ever going to do it now is the time, while TV money reduces the influence and reliance upon what is really a small proportion of our season ticket holding base.

I won't criticise anyone who joins in or at least makes more than a token effort while sat in the types of places where a noisy atmosphere should be generated. I do critcise anyone, of any age or experience watching the club, who thinks they're entitled to sit in those seats while doing sod all themselves.

 

What if those long standing season ticket holders are moved and the people who take the seats decide that actually they cant be arsed to sing afterall? Should the seats be policed by stewards to ensure everyone is singing?

When the current bubble bursts and our club is back on its arse again (and that WILL happen), it will be the loyal fans who keep the club alive. Again.

The fact is, watford will never ever be one of those clubs who are very noisy at home. Best just to accept it rather than trying to impose some Israeli-esque resettlement scheme.

Away it's a completely different matter of course.

 

Ok Season ticket holders havent paid the most if someone is daft enough to attend more than 12 homes having not bought a season ticket.
But yes season ticket money is steady income for the club.. albeit not as important as it once was given other income streams these days. Either way its still best to look after them isnt it?


IMO Anyone buying a season ticket is entitled to sit anywhere they want to. If that affects the atmosphere then i think other ways of improving it need to be looked at.
Moving people en mass is a bit like evicting old folk from their (paid for) homes because they are bringing down the neighborhood for the incoming upwardly mobile!

 

You do know that there was an issue when they moved us all to the new software meaning all post counts were doubled?

 

what's wrong with being paid to post here anyway?

 

Nailed it, it's exactly as above.

Back in the day our group used to know where to go, home and away, to get the best of, and to add to the atmosphere. You could move and that was the key. For a while there were groups in both the Rookery and under the scoreboard that were similar to the 1881 and it was a good time to be a teenager at the Vic. One of our group had a relative who was a chief steward, (or whatever they were called back then), and we used to start the match in the Rookery then get this steward to walk us up to the Vic Road end where we'd join the group under the scoreboard. Night games however it was Rookery or nothing.

 

Not all "older" fans in the middle of the Rookery don't want to sing...I, and others around me, regularly try to join in. The problem is that the existence of small "lacunae of silence" between the 1881 & the middle/right of the rest of the Rookery makes it almost impossible to get any sort of concerted momentum into any chants. They are often so "phased" they sound more like a song-in-the-round than a chant. At times, some traditional old chants even start spontaneously in the middle; eg "Come on U Orns" when we get a corner at the Rookery End...but then this tends not to be latched onto by the 1881, so it ends up not lasting long.
In the old days of terracing, you had to get into the ground at least 15-20 minutes before kick off to have any chance of getting behind the goal in the chanting areas...teenage/early 20s fans were more likely to do that & were also more likely to chant. Allocated seating has definitely impacted on that dynamic.

 

The 1881 scatter gun approach that someone else mentioned is ideal because then no one needs to move seats, so on paper it seems the perfect solution. The club just allocate a small section,say 50 odd seats in each stand for an 1881 crowd, which they would allocate from normal match day non ST seating.

This small group in each stand gets that momentum going in each stand, if that works then before you know it you've got 3 sides of the ground getting behind the team.

At the moment SEJ & GT stands are akin to a mortuary.

No likes if you agree.

 

Do any clubs have ground where all stands sing regularly? Why are you so desperate for the side stands to get involved? Surely the poor output of the rookery is the starting point for your perceived problems. 1881 need to up their game before you start trying to inspire the older sections to get involved.

 

The thing is though, you'll need to convince people in the 1881 to move into different stands as well. Easier said than done. Very difficult to organise aswell

 

Is there another ground that even has a stand that sings regularly? Even the much mentioned Crystal Palace have a section of their end for their singing group, the other stands from experience are very similar to our own.

Do we even want a raucous atmosphere every single game? Most of the memorable games of the last few years that have resulted in a loud atmosphere have been a natural thing - the Leicester and Huddersfield games spring to mind. Attempting to artificially recreate these moments is impossible, as the 1881 is finding out.

 

What I don't understand is the justification of the atmosphere from lots of posters, making excuses for ideas not working before they have even been given a chance.

& yes I do want a raucous atmosphere. We are a PL club now & want to represent for the team.

 

Tie a rope around small sections and drag them to where they are needed.. bit like they used to do with the Top of Pops audience (Well according to Jasper Carrot anyway)

Failing that you can have a sort of One man and his Dog type sheep trials.. possibly for half time entertainment?

 

We could just kidnap some proper 'Ultras' from Argentina and shove em in the SEJ, like we did with Holebas, Richarlison and Pereyra

 

By putting a small 1881 section in the corner of SEJ where it meets Rookery you are covering both bases. You are getting that side of the Rookery going as well as SEJ. I'm sure 50 or so of the 1881 could trial it for say 4 successive home games.

 

Owning up time.......I have a great seat right behind the goal in the Rookery. Row R. Had it since 1999 when the seats were made compulsory (previously it had been turn up and grab whichever seat you fancy in both the Rookery and the Vic Road end) . And I am 'old'; my posting name gives that away. I reckon half the people around us have grown older in exactly the same seats. Some now bring their young kids as I have done myself a couple of times. This does dilute the atmosphere somewhat.

So the 'engine room' of those starting the singing has moved from us to the 1881 to some extent. I stress the 'to some extent'.

When it got going on Saturday the whole stand was loud and in unison. Singing starts from around us, it also starts from those at the rear on the right of the stand and of course its starts from the area of the 1881. I am sure other areas as well. Don't hear much from the boys at the front anymore though ;-)

I will not criticise the 1881. They start some great songs but also, in my view, some not so great songs at times (there's one that starts with the sound like the monks walking in a monty python sketch which I just can't fathom the point of). So I don't join in as much as I used to. I also start less than I used to because I don't hear the 1881 picking up on songs started elsewhere as Since63 explains above. Again not a criticism but start a song in the middle when the 1881 are starting a different one, especially with the drum going, just doesn't work. Thus I am more a follower than the engine room these days; but I am still highly vocal and most around me are too.

Diamond's post highlights the facts perfectly. As long as there are specific seats we have to stick to then the optimal positioning of singing fans and quieter fans will not be possible. Relocating seats, moving the 1881, will not fix this issue.

However if anyone wants my seat I am happy to have a 'sing off' with them if that is the criteria for being able to sit in the middle. You won't win.

 

Is Boring4Ever a new troll?

 

I remember this happening a few times last season and on Saturday too. Its abit odd for those of us between the 2 groups as people dont know which one to follow or end up singing a different song to the row in front etc.

People in the lower gt stand often join in. The middle/right rookery can be quite vocal. I dont think the 1881 need to move but rather better coordination all round and easier songs to join in with would be a better route.