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Peter Simpson

The road from the Addis Ababa Stadium to Hull City for Southampton's away fixture last weekend proved a game too far.
So instead an opportunity to watch Arsenal at the Emirates against Burnley was greedily snapped up.

	The £65 (HK$803) cushioned seat with a wonder view on the upper tier in the Gunners' state-of-the-art arena was a far cry from the dusty concrete pew the Saturday before in Ethiopia's capital
The £65 (HK$803) cushioned seat with a wonder view on the upper tier in the Gunners' state-of-the-art arena was a far cry from the dusty concrete pew the Saturday before in Ethiopia's capital.
From the lofty perch you could look straight into the eyes of Alex Sanchez and Oxlade-Chamberlain. "Marvellous talents, architects," you mutter.
Yet there is a huge flaw in modern football's design ... The deafening quiet.
So hushed was the home crowd you could hear wallets squeaking from the price paid to sit in such hallowed silence.
"It's like being at the opera," observed a friend, an Ipswich supporter, who was handed the season tickets by his absent Gooner brother. A couple of sopranos would have livened the place up.
The cheers and half-hearted chants from the 60,012 that greeted the three goals failed to budge the pigeons from their roosts, let alone stand neck hairs to attention.
No Clock End roar here. And was the timepiece the same one from the old Highbury you could hear ticking for much of the '90s? A year ago thousands of Arsenal supporters voiced their support for changes to generate a more vibrant and hostile match-day atmosphere.
More than half of those polled agreed the ambience was "poor" and 6 per cent thought the match-day atmosphere at the Emirates was "good".
More specially assigned singing spaces were needed, agreed 96 per cent.
"We believe that a quiet, sanitised stadium atmosphere is not what football is all about. The game is about passion, it's about excitement, it's about the feeling of unity and family among supporters. It's a state of mind," said fans group Black Scarf Movement spokesman David O'Leary (not the former Arsenal defender).
A year on, little has changed and the volume control remains untouched.
It's not just the Emirates where silence reigns. The loss of atmosphere at some of the biggest stadiums has once more been in the headlines this week.
Jose Mourinho had a pop at Chelsea's fans after last week's game against QPR, saying Stamford Bridge was like "an empty stadium".
That struck a nerve with those who fear they are being priced out of games and discouraged from properly getting behind the team by the club's no-standing policy.
Mourinho has a point. Across London - Tottenham's White Hart Lane is often a hush zone - stadiums are falling quiet as the demographic of football fans change; television money has gentrified the terraces, cost rises have priced out young working-class males, who have been replaced by middle-class types.

The northern English football cathedrals are more suited to hibernating bats, while Old Trafford has long been seen as a perfect setting for reading War and Peace than a night of raucous theatre cheering on a football dream.
The micromanagement and corporate control of fans has affected their emotions, it seems. Along with other changing demographics, the silencing grip is becoming tighter.
"A number of things seem to be going on here," says Sports sociologist John Williams from Leicester University.
He told us crowds are getting older, with the average age of adult regulars aged over 40.
"While the social background of new fans is also changing, and they are more affluent, more individualistic, less committed perhaps. They're expecting to be entertained rather than having a deep emotional investment in a club," said Williams, a Liverpool season ticket holder.
This is likely accentuated by the "TalkSport-esque induced culture of complaint" generated around watching football today.
The all-seated "configurations of EPL stadiums and ticket selling" also make it harder for old-style self-segregation in the stadium, such as by age or by preferred companions, to take place.
"So those younger fans who might want to be together and sing can no longer self-select their space in a way which was possible with standing areas," says Williams.
"People are stewarded in a very intensive way. There's no 'ultra' style fans in the UK who control and manage stadium space like they still can do abroad. Hence the talk about the introduction of 'atmospheric' safe-standing areas."
Children go to matches with parents and they watch from "family" areas, observes Williams. But once the price concession is over it seems harder to hold on to younger fans.
"Price is excluding many at the highest level," adds Williams.
Finally, he says, for those younger men who do not want or cannot afford to watch matches "live" in the new high cost, micro-regulatory "sit down, shut up" family regimes of today, there are the "new seductions" - the collective watching of live matches in bars or at home.
"Here you can have the best seat in the house, drink, get rowdy, stand up, shout and generally transgress without too much fear of ejection - or having your season ticket confiscated," he notes.
Ironically, the stadium is often the least atmospheric of all places to watch football. The cheap seats and sing-a-long old school terracing in Addis Ababa seem even farther off.


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Home and Away: Premier League stadiums echo with the sound of silence

Arsenal fans fell silent after the Gunners were held to a 3-3 draw by Anderlecht in the Champions League. Photos: AFP

Chelsea's Jose Mourinho took a swipe at Chelsea's fans after last week's game against QPR, saying Stamford Bridge was like "an empty stadium". 

Sport

With Premier League ticket costs pricing out young working-class males, the roars from the stands are these days just a whimper


Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Home and Away: Premier League stadiums echo with the sound of silence

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With Premier League ticket costs pricing out young working-class males, the roars from the stands are these days just a whimper

With Premier League ticket costs pricing out young working-class males, the roars from the stands are these days just a whimper