I was there last night in MHL and I haven't seen that many empty seats since Stamford Bridge was redeveloped. It didn't mean a lot to most fans but then if we get Spurs in the next round or get to the final then tickets will be gone in a flash. There are some people (although not everyone) just using Benitez as an excuse not to bother going to less glamorous games yet will quite happily go to the final even when he is still in charge. To be fair some people are very firmly against Benitez and just wouldn't have gone regardless but there are others who will sneak into games against Man U and Spurs. To be fair the Europa League isn't that bad a tournament, a lot of people just get put off it by constant taunting about 'Thursday nights, Channel 5' and so on. We took the piss out of Man U and Man City about it last season. It is the fans in this country that make it seem unattractive whereas in lots of countries they take it reasonably seriously. Right, onto atmosphere. The atmosphere at Stamford Bridge isn't great but I don't think it is awful either. There are times when it is like a graveyard but you get that in just about every stadium. A lot of people want to try to compare it to the atmosphere of other big clubs. These include Liverpool and Man United, both of whom actually have very poor atmospheres that are made out to be better by the pro-northern media and also in Man United's case having a bigger stadium than us. Bare in mind that our stadium capacity is only 41,000 (38,000 for European games) with tickets that are very expensive compared to other parts of Europe (particularly Germany) and you will realize that it isn't really possible to create an atmosphere like at Borussia Dortmund (80,000), Bayern Munich (67,000), Barcelona (98,000) (where they use speakers to make it seem louder), Ce**ic (60,000). I'm not saying a bigger stadium would make for a better atmosphere though. Just look at Old Toilet or the Bernabeu, both of which can be like libraries. The solution is cheaper ticket prices like what they have in Germany (about £10 for an adult) to bring back our passionate support from the 70's and 80's but this obviously isn't financially viable because we can usually sell out with high ticket prices anyway. Therefore we are left in an awkward situation. Make more money or have louder fans. As we and many other large clubs these days are all about business, it is easy to see that in the interest of finance, more expensive ticket prices are the way forward. Drogzola, coincidentally use of guys with speakers was suggested at a fans forum meeting with the club about 2 years ago. It was discussed but it never went any further than that. In terms of being outsung by away fans, people comparing England with other countries should note that this is simply part of English football. We went to Old Toilet on Sunday and outsung their 65,000 or so fans and they will come down (or in most of their cases take a short tube journey) to Stamford Bridge next month and more than likely outsing us. Like only place to be said, we sing 'your support is shit' at an away game to home fans and they come to Stamford Bridge and do the same thing. Why is it like that? I really don't know. It has been that way for a while though. Maybe it is because you generally only get around 2000-3000 away tickets and mainly loyal and thus in most cases the most vocal will go. The most loyal who get up to get on a train somewhere up north in the early hours etc. (Btw I'm not saying people who go to away games are better fans than those who go to home games only) You make a day or sometimes a weekend of an away day. You sometimes find yourself pissed by 10AM because there is nothing else to do on a coach/train, you want to show the opposition fans that you are better than them and encourage the team by being louder despite there being far less of you (unless you are at Wigan where your own sanity is your worst enemy with all the bright red and blue empty seats). You are building yourself up for hours beforehand on a train/in a pub etc. on an away day so it is natural that you want to give it your all and shout as loud as you can for the 90 minutes you have to encourage your team. Whereas as a home fan it is the same place you go every other week. There is not as much sense of adventure like there is on an away day. For a lot of the regular fans the ground is no more than 2 hours away. You can go out after lunch and be home in time for dinner. It doesn't feel as special because in some cases you are surrounded by people who don't care as much. They will cheer when we score in the last minute but on an away day you end up in some sort of bundle hugging someone you have never seen in your life because they care as much as you. This is sometimes but not always the case at a home game and it applies right across England IMO.
