Crowds - The thread of Australian whining

Yeah I'm on Windows so can't get it but my partner has an android so we'll make sure to have the app for the next home game.

Another one of us. (I know, I know, not criticising, just sad)

I really wish I had the time to be able to learn and develop an app for Windows phone :(

Having an actual name for people who don't chant (leeches) does not help dispel this YF elitist theory that some have, by the way.

For once Steve-O, you make a valid point.

For gods sake to my knowledge one person posted this yet you turn it into a YF elitist statement.

I miss the off season. 

Compared to most of last season I thought the Fever's effort yesterday was really good.

It was good to hear so many new chants. Some went better than others but that will sort itself out.

All the hard work that has gone in to this already (especially from Patrick) will definitely pay-off. It will just take a bit of time so I hope nobody is too discouraged. The worst thing that can happen is for the people who do chant to feel like it's not worth it, because then we really are going backwards.

The important thing is that the foundations are now there for people to much more easily get into the chanting.

I was going to say this more privately, but this is too good an example. 

Rightly or wrongly and whether they like it or not, some people have been held up as ambassadors and representative of the yellow fever as a whole in some people eyes. What that means is when Patrick sends a tweet or Smithy gets angry, those people don't just say "fu*k Patrick" or "Smithy is a c*nt" they say "fu*k the yellow fever (as a whole)"

It's probably annoying for certain people, but they almost have to be everyone's friend so as to not alienate or put themselves up on a pedestal (in some people's eyes). 

Most of us on the forum do know that yellow fever is a group effort and that anyone is welcome to help out or contribute. But not everyone is regularly on the forum. 

One way we can all help to overcome this is if we all be everyone's friend. Get to know more people, build the community, encourage those people to chant and help them out if they look like they don't know the chants. Ease the burden on our elitist exec. 

ballane, I didn't turn into anything, I just said it didn't help. I saw it written more than once yesterday by different people. I don't really care whether people think I (or whoever else) should sing if in fever zone, but some may object to being branded a leech for having the temerity to watch a game without singing along to every song.

On a more sobering note here's a reminder of our record at Westpac for the last two seasons:

2012/13 - P 12, W 3, D 4, L 5, F 15, A 17

2013/14 - P 10, W 2, D 3, L 5, F 11, A 16

So including yesterday's result our combined record at Westpac going back to the start of 2012/13 is:

P 23, W 5, D 7, L 11, F 27, A 35

I know that there are lots of other theories about what might be behind our poor crowds but there's no doubt for me that only winning 5 of our last 23 games at Westpac is the major factor. That's simply not what most people go to a football game to see, especially the more casual fan.

It also has a major impact on the atmosphere, chanting etc because obviously there are not that many periods of time at home games when we are ahead. If I had time to work it out I would go back and calculate the actual number of minutes that we have been leading a game out of those 23 games (approx. 2070 mins in total). I'll bet it's not more than 25-30% of that total time at the most. Which isn't much fun.

YES !

Not allowed to use " R " word , even when so obviously applicable ....

Just winding you up, sorry, couldn't help it!

Pretty much the nail on the head terminator_x. 5 wins in 23 at home is just not going to get the punters pouring in, especially when the stadium is not an attractive proposition as it is.

No probs ...its all a laugh , and Im big an ugly enough to take it ...

Absolutely this. Make the effort to introduce yoruself to people at the Backbencher, Bethel Woods, and/or at the game. Put a face to the name. People tend to divide the world into "Them" and "us" in everything they do. We all want the Phoenix to flourish. We need to make the effort to break down the them and us within the supporters groups and make all of us "Us".

I just want to chuck my 10cents out there sorry it will probably be really long winded and awfully formatted as I'm trying to type on the sly cos I should be working :)

I thought the chanting yesterday was bloody good and some of those chants are quality. The way some people we're treated not so good.

I sit in the zone all the time. Sometimes at the front some times at the back or to the side but most often just in front of the "core" group of the fever. Yesterday I sat towards the back with a different group of mates than normal and some mates that had come along for the first time , along from us were a couple of blokes  who were in on freebies and had snuck over to check out the atmos.

My regular mates and I were chanting as we always do and as the guys around us caught onto the lyrics they were slowly getting into it too which is good. BUT when someone (Smithy?) turned around and yelled out "F*cking Chant!" the two blokes beside us assumed (wrongly?) that he was yelling at them and left (pretty sure he was yelling at the dude right behind him , not us a few rows back).

 After the game I was chatting with my mate and his girlfriend who were both new to the zone and they're not particularly keen to come back after what happened as they felt that the less than nice comments from the "core" group were being directed at them and I've got to admit I can see where they are coming from. I was felling a bit flat after the game too and pretty pissed of with the F*cking chant and chant or f*ck off comments being directed in my general direction especially considering id decided to take new people way from the core so as not to "leech" the life out of the zone while my non regular mates got a feel for what YF is. The abuse of people is really not on and shouldn't be what happens in the fever zone especially when the fever has always been a more laid back  /family friendly /everybody is welcome/ come and join us active supporter zone compared to MV WSW etc. I'll be back in the zone next week with my regular mates as per always its just a shame some people wont be.

BTW please don't take my post the wrong way.I know how hard the core guys have worked in the off season and continue to work hard to try and get the zone to flourish and I can understand why you guys were getting shitty but some of my mates and a lot of new people who may have been in the zone for the first time might see it differently and decide "well if that's what its going to be like I wont bother coming back"

Maybe someone should throw this fact in front of Rob Morrison and the Welnix guys,im sure it dosnt help matters with them banging on all the time about wellington people must support it or games may go elsewhere

I thought much of the pre game marketing was better than we had seen before.Sadly i think our last 2 seasons have done more damage than some choose to admit.Dont go with the theory of some that just because it is a new season there should have been more there..

I think my take-away from looking at our home record is that maybe diverting some of that marketing budget towards a striker who can just stick it in the net would be justified.

I'm not certain the marketing was great as I can't recall seeing a single poster around town, however maybe I'm just not looking hard enough as I was always going to be there anyway? For the casual observers, we've now got a bad rep as not only a 'soccer team', but a 'bad soccer team'. Only one way to shake off that sort of tag.

There was nothing on the news about it on Saturday night either, you'd expect an update on the Phoenix preperations.

Become a rowing team?

Whilst what Smithy and Patrick said/wrote makes them sounds like complete cocks, they have a point in that the Zone is actually an area where people should be inclined to join in the chants. That was kinda the whole point of it.

Might take people a few games to get into it and learn the chants though. There are complaints that the active support isn't growing and relies on a small core. Telling people to fuck off doesn't help.

Better would have been to mention to them after the game where the chants are available. Or even better give them the printouts that were talked about during the game.

It's just bizarre to me that we can get 30,000+ for the Football United tour (which was basically justified as a marketing exercise) but then only get 7,700 of those back for the first game of the season, which should have some element of being an 'event' about it.

The lesson here seems to be that if we are going to spend money on marketing games then we should market them all as being against EPL opposition.

Slight typo in the advertising for the next game versus Newcastle Jets United?

And we play MCFC too don't we?

There's a few billboards around the city including a massive one next to the motorway leading into the city. There's a few bus backs floating around too.

Certainly not cheap or minimal advertising, although I don't think these are game specific?

 

That was me. And that is totally shit. If there's anything I can do to make it up to them I certainly will.

This issue has been chucked around a fair bit on twitter.

We have tried (for 6 years or so) the nicely nicely let's make it easy and everyone will join in. It hasn't worked. Yesterday I lost my patience for about 5 minutes and had a go at one bloke. I sort of regret it, but I also sort of don't. I wish I'd worded it a bit differently, but honestly I'm fed up with all the passengers in the Zone.

So I'm truly sorry (and a bit gutted) that I offended your friends. I would like to email them or call them or something to try to get them back. Let me know what I can do.

But on the other hand, I think everyone in here needs to have words with everyone who stands near them and tell them to get involved. Or don't, and go sit in the sun.

I used to quite like the ones in bus stops that were match specific. Couldn't say whether or not they worked though.... The Friday night game in a few weeks will be interesting. I like Friday night games but I notice a lot of the culture in Wellington is about dashing out of the office at 4pm and heading home for a lot of people. Think I'll be dashing to Bethel Wood's at 4pm that day.

Jesus, Feverish defending me...I MUST have been bad.

Honestly though, chin up. What I shouted at one guy one time was "come on, chant!!" and when he mouthed "fuck off" back to me I said "join in or fuck off mate!" but it wasn't particularly aggressive. I didn't have hurt feelings and if he did well that does suck and I wish I'd said it differently. 

However, join in or perhaps you should thoughtfully reconsider your seating choice might not have had the same impact.

People around here do love to mount the moral high ground. This wasn't my finest work but jesus, the Zone is full these days of people who "like to be near the atmosphere". 

Watching the replay, some of the new stuff came through well on the tellie. So hopfully it will just take a bit of time to move away from 47 versions of Oh Wellington.

Good to see youre trying to fix this.

Ban stick incoming (it was a joke)

Evidently, if the yellow fever is full of people "who like to be near the atmosphere" then something has gone. In comparison to 3-4 seasons ago, I reckon numerous of individuals have left the YF, and the zone itself has decreased in population. Why is this.. I cannot answer you that

I just find it fascinating that Sundays game pretty much re-iterated what I said 7 months ago. The chat on twitter has also been very interesting with many similar view points being bantered around. 

End of the day, chant, sit, stand, whatever, the yellow fever executives have absolutely no right to tell someone where they should be seated, nor tell them how to support the boys. We are all there to back the Wellington Phoenix Football Club. If someone doesn't chant, big deal, they've paid there money and they've taken the time to back the lads. That's what it is ALL about.  

Warning signs on aisles 21 & 22 maybe.

Active supporters zone. 

Chant or fuck off

IF we play well / win at the WSW game, I believe we'll see a big difference. I, for one, will have had about 6 pints by game time. Suspect a few others in the same boat. I left out the Newcastle game as I might be hungover from Pacific Beer Expo the day prior, BUT, next day is Labour Day so perhaps there will be more people with a bit of Dutch courage in them...

I love sitting over in Aisle 12, One gets to make ones self look a cock when trying to sing songs and finding out you are the only person doing so. Just a tad embarrassing but at least I give it a go. I do like the suggestion that perhaps we shall all try and make an effort to introduce ourselves to our neighbours in the stands.

The new songs sounded good over where I was but some of the people around me need to start getting a bit more positive and join in instead of moaning about how quiet the fever were especially in the second half. I thought the effort in the first half was first class, and yest it kinda died in the second half until we equalised and then it went well again..till they scored.

Still, new songs and some new fans, I hope it all comes good. Hang in there everyone, chill and enjoy the fact we have a professional football team to go and watch. Oh and that was game number 94 Home A League game within New Zealand. The record of 100% attendance is still on!

I think you are a bit precious Bobo

Someone got a bit OTT for one moment about chanting and you/your mate is offended

And it is now a YF EXEC issue ?

It is an active zone I reckon. I dont go to the zone when i go to a game because that isnt my thing

I know you are a supporter, keep turning up, but sit somewhere else

I think one or more of them pissed in his chips at some point because he seems to get a hard on whenever they do something wrong. 

He's also known to hassle and harass plenty of YF (including myself) constantly on Twitter over the stupidest things. 

So while there is no doubt a perception of elitism out there amongst some, anything bobobalde says should be taken with a grain of salt. 

There has been some very constructive discussion gone on in this thread, we should keep that up. I'm feeling positive about things moving forward despite the odd mishap. 

I'm not quite sure why the zoners want non-chanters to move? If they were taking up spaces of people who do want to chant I'd agree, but the place is hardly packed out is it? Surely if those people moved, you'd still have the same group chanting, but just more empty seats in the fever zone?