Well, from the start of next season at least... For some time now, the HF have been working with the club to move to the centre of the Holmesdale stand (from their current corner position) to create a central 'singing' section across 3+ blocks, as opposed to their current one. Naturally this has caused some upset amongst current central season ticket holders, who will ultimately have to move, albeit not far. The club initially put a stop to the idea, but following huge online support they've now announced it's going ahead from the start of next season. For @FranniesTache and all the other haters, this basically means you'll be seeing a black-cladded, flag-waving wall of noise right behind the goal as opposed to a smaller group of gesticulating rudeboyz by the corner flag. As a long term season ticket holder in Block G (two blocks along from the middle) I have sympathy with those in Block E, but I do think it will benefit the overall atmosphere hugely in the long run. Love them or hate them, the HF have done a massive amount for the atmosphere at Selhurst Park, Wembley and the PL since our promotion in 2013. It's hard to argue they look like bellends (and some of them are), but unlike many modern day fans, they don't rely on the club to supply them with clappy sticks or tacky plastic flags on a matchday. They pay for and create all their own displays and get behind the team non-stop for 90 minutes. They were also big campaigners in lowering Premier League ticket prices. Give me all that over a sterile, silent bowl full of tourists any day of the week.
Come on Frannie. I've called them black-cladded, flag-waving, rudeboy bellends and you pick out that part? Poor
Its refreshing to see this kind of carnival atmosphere in English football. After watching the Boca Juniors documentary a few months back, I've had a bit of a hunger to go to a game with a mad colourful atmosphere like that. Top stuff, kudos for funding it themselves as well. Hopefully the club/team pay them back somehow with a meet and greet etc.
They're already in with the players. There's even a HF award at the end of the season People will always mock groups like this, but I reckon 90% of Premier League season ticket holders would love to have a section who put so much passion and effort into supporting the team on a matchday (and subsequently improving the atmosphere tenfold). The fact the likes of Watford and Huddersfield have tried copying them (with some success) proves that. One thing's for sure, our atmosphere has been utter dogshit without them rallying the rest of the crowd this season, so it's very welcome news.
Very true, people who mock this sort of thing are either a) Boring as **** or b) clearly lying/jealous. It's nice to see, and gives the players that little bit of encouragement to play that bit harder, knowing the fans are behind them. I noticed the Watford the other day, quite liked that. Only need to look at teams like Hull City to know that having a fanbase who sit in silence doesn't really rally you to win.
I'm not jealous in the slightest (or lying) i find it sad that our terrace culture is being given up for a bunch of kids to play fancy dress at a club that had no atmosphere in the first place. Personally i'd rather see proper fan/terrace culture resurface in our game instead of people pretending they're italian ultras (with the same songs as every other ultra group, and the same f*cking drumbeat for every song)
That comment wasn't an personal attack at you btw, better just clarify that. I understand the terrace culture, however, things move on and when a league like the PL has such a stage to show on, the lower clubs need to do all they can to look interesting both on and off the pitch. This is the fans turning up, making an effort to show their love for the club and get behind the team. I personally like it, and would love to be involved in something like that. But, I'm a festival/hipster cnut kind of guy so thats why it probably appeals to me haha.
Don't bother trying to change Frannie's mind @screescree. He'll never turn My counter argument would be that while some of them look like absolute tools (I would never deny that), there's a lot more to them than just 'little kids in fancy dress'. The majority are long-term supporters who've been brought by their dads (and their grandparents before that) who have had enough of sitting in silent stadiums around the country. They're not modern glory supporters (they follow Palace FFS), and they just want to give the team the loudest support possible. Opposition fans, players, managers and TV commentators all regularly mention Selhurst as being one of the 'toughest places to go' because of the crowd noise. I know that hurts Frannie but it's true. You're right, traditionally Selhurst was always relatively quiet unless it was a big match, but I don't see the problem in trying to change that (which they've undoubtedly done). A lot of the HF's songs are unique, not the same old crap churned out up and down the country week-in, week-out ('We sing on our owwwwn etc. zzzzzzzzzzz). They also still sing a lot of traditional Palace songs.There's not a lot they can do about the drum beat TBF. Drums don't tend to have many settings other than 'bang bang bang bang'. Fair enough if it's not your cup of tea, but I don't mind it. I love traditional terrace culture, but let's be honest it's all but died out in England, especially since the all seater stadiums came in.
Oh I'd never change his mind, we've span the yarn more than enough to get that impression But I agree with you on this one, it's an absolute bore to go sit in silence with the small group of elite fans sat in a group chanting a song every 15 mins, and pay for the privilege. One of the things that comes with going to a match is the atmosphere. It's slowly started putting me off the KCOM recently, as it's dire there. Found myself having conversations with people sat 3 rows down before, cos there's about 13,000 of you sat there quietly waiting for a goal... If the KCOM got a bit of colour about it, that'd be a huge boost to it...
The thing i don't get, and never have got, is that if they're capable of making a bit more noise (and lets not go crazy it's not actually that great) than they used to as a group why go down the Ultras/fancy dress route in the first place. I'd have massively more respect if they did the same thing but left out the dressing black, the cringeworthy posturing, the banners with skulls on (you're f*cking Palace not Leiga Warsaw ffs) and just made some noise in the old fashioned way. Also the drum beat i'm talking about is this one every single f*cking "ultra's" across the world uses the same drum beat and it's boring as hell, it's no different from every single group of supporters in England singing the same slop john b song. The whole thing feels about as plastic and modern football as possible to me and is just another sign of how the game turned to shit.
Yeah I agree with that part. You'd never catch me dressing/acting like that, even when I was 18, but I suppose they think it's mildly intimidating, which in fairness it probably is to some woosy multi-millionaire footballers.
Think its more to show your allegiance to the club isn't it? I used to work in a bike shop, and some people would spend more on a bike because it was their team colour, and the bike that suited them and their budget was in their rival colour, so therefore they COULDN'T BUY IT.
They're good for atmosphere and add life to the ground but it doesn't sit easy the way they've thrown the toys out the pram and flounced so they can move to another block and displace long-term season ticket holders.
Yeah I don't understand their reluctance to return to their old seats for the time being. There's really no need for that, although I suppose they'll say it was necessary to force the club's hand. What a lot of people won't have seen is their (very well put together) proposal to the club, which rewards the longest-standing season ticket holders in the stand with the best choice of seats, then everyone else follows suit in different tiers. You can choose whether to sit in/around the main singing section (which will be a lot, lot bigger than the current one) or you can choose seats for yourself (and several friends if you wish) elsewhere. You can't please everyone, but they've clearly thought about it in depth and done their very best to accommodate the most 'loyal' fans rather than just demanding they all give up their seats for their own group. TBF the club are useless at organising stuff like this (as they've shown in this process), so it needed the HF to take hold of it and put together a reasonable proposal that the whole fanbase could get behind. It's gone down surprisingly well, so much so that the club have confirmed it's definitely happening.
Isn’t one of the founding members (not sure what else to call them ) an ex season ticket holder at Spurs?
I have no idea mate, I don't hang around with them, but I find it hard to believe any fan would dump a season ticket at a top four club in favour of Palace
They're about as intimidating as a bunch of five year olds dressed as teletubies To be honest i just think they're an utter joke.
