aidan88

Another Man City fan here, with another long rant. I echo what most other City fans have said. We won the lottery when HRH took control of our club. It remains 'our club' despite the fact so much has changed. Although I enjoyed going to the likes of Bristol Rovers and Wycombe Wanderers and seeing us get beat 15 years ago, this season alone I have been to the Czech Republic, Germany (again), and Russia. Barcelona is booked for March. It is much better than it used to be. I could not have dreamt of this growing up and the only 'negative' of supporting a successful team is that it costs a fortune as there are so many games. We've had 3 games a week for about 12 weeks now. I think we've won 16 and drawn 2 of our last 18 games which is frankly ridiculous. Despite that I'm still uncomfortable going to a game and believing we have a good chance of 3 points. Justifying to every new person you meet that you're not a glory supporter becomes tiring too. This is obviously a different scenario to when we were taken over and there are understandably some concerns. I am uneasy with the idea of forcing our name and colours upon another exisiting team that has already created its own identity. You dont seem to be overly resistant to the name change, which is good though. The colour the team plays in is obviously the major sticking point at the moment. All I would say at this stage is that no one has said definitively that it will change. My understanding is that the word City is the brand, not necessarily the colour. Nothing has been released for the New York Club, but as that will most likely be sponsored by Adidas, it's not like they will be playing in a replica of a Manchester City Kit anyway. This is not Red Bull. Whilst pure speculation, I could imagine something similar to the Olympic Rings representing The City Football Group in each continent, and a way of immediately distinguishing each club within it. Ultimately this will be a great thing for your club and Australian football in general. The greatest benefit to your club is that you will have the best academy, probably anywhere outside of Europe. This is unlikely to produce solely Australian talent, but maybe an overwhelming majority. More importantly, the highest quality Australian talent will emerge from it due to what it will be able to offer them. Perhaps long term they may head to Europe, just as the rest of the best talent in the world does - but they are more likely to stay in Australia for longer now. There will be greater interest in the A-League now, and with that means a wider audience, which brings higher levels of investment for all teams to benefit from. The end product of that is higher paid (and hopefully higher quality) footballers providing higher quality football to watch (exceptions to this include Bolton, Stoke, West Ham). The Australian national team will benefit too, but if you're like us you won't care too much about that. Aside from watching better quality football and being able to gloat to the 'Victards' (your words not mine ), the best benefit as a supporter will be how much the club tries to involve you. I think that Season ticket holders can expect to receive a survey by email asking their opinions on how to go forward. These are very important to the club and hugely influences the decisions they make. Social Media is very important to City and perhaps speaks volumes that New York City FC has over 40,000 followers over 12 months before it plays its first game. The City website is multi award winning. The pre/post match facillities on offer at the stadium to the match going supporter is unrivalled by any sport in the UK, and possibly Europe. We have the cheapest seaon tickets in the league and I think there are teams in the Conference (4 divisions below) charging more. They aren't all that cheap it should be pointed out, but comparatively we fans fare very well, especially taking into account the players on display. All thats left to say is enjoy the transformation. Express your opinion about the importance of the shirt colour when you get the opportunity, but don't worry too much about it for now. Begin to dream my friends.