Sell All Their Tickets, City Couldn't Sell All Their Tickets...

Manchester City are due to play in their first semi-final for 28 years this month, under the guidance of new manager Roberto Mancini.

The population of Manchester is 460,000. City fans say all “proper Mancs” are blue. So why couldn’t they sell all their tickets for the biggest game they’ve played in for almost three decades?

The official City website has put more tickets on sale yesterday, offering “Seasoncard” and “Citycard” (membership) holders the opportunity to purchase an additional two tickets each.

Tickets went on sale to season ticket holders during the first week of December, then to Citycard holders on December 22nd. Then on December 31st, almost four weeks after the tickets became available, there were tickets left, despite the game being less than a week away.

The council owned stadium seats 47,000, with a chunk of those seats filled by reds after taking up our full allocation as usual (I was one of the many unsuccessful fans turned down for a ticket). If City are such a massive club, with great fans, then why are there still tickets available a month after they went on sale? I don’t understand, it just doesn’t match up with the claim City fans make which is perpetuated by the media.

I know that United have a lot of fans outside of Manchester, but I don’t understand why that makes people think there aren’t a lot of United fans inside Manchester. As if all Mancunians shunned United to support City and this tradition has continued for decades, despite the fact we’ve had higher attendances than them for decades (long before Munich). It doesn’t make sense. Liverpool FC has a lot of fans outside Liverpool, yet Evertonians aren’t deluded enough to spread a lie that everyone from Merseyside is blue, so why do our bitter neighbours do it? I just don’t get it. If they live in Manchester, they will know loads of reds, whether they drink with them, work with them or for them, are married to them, or are related to them. So why the lies? And why can’t they sell their tickets for their biggest game in 28 years?

Tickets are still available for the Old Trafford leg which will take place in three weeks time but have already sold well over City’s ground capacity. Given that 74,000 attended our League Cup semi-final against Derby last season, I can’t imagine we’ll still be trying to flog tickets two days before kick-off like City were.

For all City’s criticisms of us, where we are is what they’re aspiring to. That is why they went to Thailand opening club shops and trying to generate interest there (it failed) and why they will continue to do pre-season tours abroad. They want to win trophies, they want success, and a massive global fanbase comes with that. I assume they just don’t get the hypocrisy of it all…

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MANCHESTER IS RED

edit 1. Ooops. Looks like we’ve upset them. Three whole pages and counting of them claiming they don’t care what United fans think about their inability to sell out. Hmmm.

edit 2. January 11th 2010, over three weeks after going on sale, City haven’t sold out their away allocation!