I have been to watch football matches from a very early age. My father started taking me to watch my favourite team Birmingham City from the age of six. In this article I write about how in my opinion, all seater stadiums have taken the atmosphere out of football grounds.
I remember as a young child feeling quite intimidated by the crowd at Birmingham City's home ground, called St Andrews. The noise and singing of the supporters was even quite frightening at times.
The football team itself, always seemed to struggle each season and we seemed to lose more games than we would win. I still however could not wait for the next match to arrive and had a dream that I myself would one day wear the blue and white strip and play for Birmingham myself. Football you see was my passion at the time.
The supporters had quite a number of songs which they would sing and each season would add a couple of new songs, normally criticising the rival team Aston Villa.
The songs and shouted comments were always full of humour and even when the team was losing, the supporters would continue to sing.
At certain periods in my teenage years the crowds dropped to under ten thousand per home match, however the atmosphere was still there and you could feel it at every match. These were the true supporters now watching the team losing frequently.
A few years ago, all seater stadiums were introduced for a number of reasons. I rarely go to watch the football as the atmosphere is no longer there and the humour has all but gone. I still love the game however am disappointed at the change that has occured.
My team themselves have reached the premier league and every home match is a sell out with nearly thirty thousand people turning up to each home match. In my opinion though compared to the past, even with this many people inside the ground, it feels like a morgue, with very little noise and the same three or four songs been blasted out. That is when people can be bothered to sing.
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