What are the Tier Two Commandos? Just had an e mail from Jools who is a bit evaisve on the subject.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Answers

Tier Two Commandos Douggie are a group of fans, recently formed, who are actively working on improving the atmosphere within Old Trafford. I'm one of them........stood at the top of Tier Two (Stretford Upper) last week handing out leaflets to EVERYONE describing what we are doing and why. Basically asking the ones that wish to sing, clap, cheer, stamp and shout to join us and the ones that don't to get out of The Stretford. We are accumulating information on every person / seat within the Stretford End and we are catergorizing them into (1) TTC's...(2) Active fans who want to sing....(3)fans who will join in now and again....(4)fans who can't be arsed and (5)total muppets that just want to be entertained. We have a "plan" of the seats and aisles in the Stretford and all TTC's can log onto the web site and update the plan so we have a picture to produce to the club before ST's are renewed. Our plan is to get all the active supporters TOGETHER.....toghethe UNITED in in OUR End....The Stretford End.

We also paid for and produced those banners that hang from Curva Stretford :-)

Wanna join?

lol

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Good on yers

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

There'd be no point in doing that at SJP since opinion is divided between whether the real home end is the Leazes or the Gallowgate and the club have said that they won't move people for atmopshere purposes because they'd no doubt have to upset some bondholders to do so :o(.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Not if it was organised in the same way that LR's little gang is doing it surely? by questioning people as they go to their seats you could also ask whether they'd be prepared to move to make way for this section....if they really are against singing then they might just do it....

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Douggie......it's not really about being back home in The Stretford. When we...the fans..went to the club via IMUSA and other avenues two seasons ago with this embryo idea they welcomed it (un-fuckin- believably) and asked ALL season ticket holders and new LMTB holders- to-be if theye were prepared to go into the new "singing-end". Many did but a lot stayed in K and in the Scorebard. Anyway...although we got what we wanted we didn't ask for thousands of muppets too, and there are too many muppets who cause grief in the Stretford which alienates singers and stops people joining in. This season we are REALLY getting our fuckin' act together...T-Shirt Jon of infamous "coin throwing at Beckham" incident has built an on-line plane of the Stretty....all TTC's are asked to look around them at the game and take note of actives' and non-actives....regular seats and changing seats etc etc etc and to update said plan. It's looking bloody good right now and we have identified hundreds of active singers. This is all it takes in one or two blocks to kick off the whole Tier, which in turn gets the Stretford Lower started which in turn fires up K stand.

The Plazzie and Prawn jibes hurt!!

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

http://www.emaillists.org/ttc/

There's a link bottom right of the page to view the plan of the Stretford so far. May take a while to fully load.

Don't take the piss ;-)

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Take the P, LR? I for one think it's bloody brilliant.
If you want to change things - pissing & moaning achieves zilch - yer gotta get off yer @rse and do something positive about it.

For the sake of the game we love, all real footy fans will be watching this initiative and hoping it is a massive success.

Good luck to the Two-tier Commandos, and do us a favour Andy - keep us on here up-to-date with how it goes.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

LR, I am interested in this idea but don't fully understand it. The plan of the seats is for the whole stand?, and the idea is to get all the singers in the top tier by rearanging them accoprding to classfcation?

I'm not 100% sure wether or not it's moraly correct to classify people in such a way. If the people making the survey(?) classed me as a muppet because they didn't like me and wanted to try and get me moved I wouldn't be too happy.

Another thing that i'm wondering about is the limited standing on terracing debate? Have you any info on this one.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Cheers Clarky.....

Rik...get in contact with T-Shirt Jon for all advice about terracing.

Ok..here's how it should work....The Club has designated Tier Two as the "fanzone"..or "singing area"..and many re-located there this season and it's rocking up there. However...it isn't as rocking as it should or could be. We all moaned that because we are up in the heavens we can't be heard but West Ham fans pished all over that argument a couple of weeks ago (they were located in the East Stand Upper), but we are too spread out in such a big stand to "get it together" most of the time. The club want this to work as much as us so we are providing them with information that identifies the fans that deffo want to sing, and the fans that would almost certainly sing and shout if they were with like-minded supporters. To do this we have started the TTC's...and we are handing out leaflets and flyers prior to the games and asking people to fill in their seat number details and what kind of "fan" they see themselves to be. Once we have a list of those that want to and those that can not be arsed, the club can then do something about it. It's a new stand and contains mostly fans that want to have a go. The stand is only one 3/4's of a season old so seat re-location should not cause any problems for those twats that just want to come and be part of the Manchester United thing. The manager AND club captain have publically slated us this season so WE'VE decided to do summat about it and give the club NO excuse for not helping.

We don't have seat bonds or any of that crap to get in the way. This can only work.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

OK, I'm with it now, I hadn't realised that this area had been designated a singing area by the club and from a Newcastle point of view getting the club to designate an area as a singing end would be a bit of a problem. The way around it for NUFC is for this new fans commitee to come up with the proposal rather than the club, then go from there.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Oh hell yeah it's deffo a club thing too. We had Peter Kenyon, our chief executive or chairman whatever he is....come visit us at the back of the Stretty at half time a gfew weeks ago. He sat in "civvies" in the Stretford...undercover to get a feel of what's going on and he came and had a chat at half-time. Red Issue were on the ball and had Mystic Jules there ready with the questions.

Kenyon's ok...he turns up at IMUSA meetings and actually listens. Fartin Edwards would NEVER do that.

I think that if Kenyon and the club see that the fans are actually getting of their arses too, then they will try and match what we are doing. They came up trumps with the banners...even allowing the utter piss-take banners directed at City and Liverpool. lol.....U should see what we've planned for Arsenal.....nealy all TTC have bunged in a tenner for it :-)

I'm sure NUFC fans can get it together and at least recapture a "popular" end.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

LR, the club want banners back at SJP but the local fire people have banned them (despite the fact that smoking is now banned on the seating areas).... Generally, we could do some tentative e mailing - I'll do LondonMags - to see what the feeling is? Is everyone happy for me to do some initial research?

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

>"I'm sure NUFC fans can get it together and at least recapture a "popular" end"

I thought the popular was a side not an end ....

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Great initiative LR. Well done. One question: Why's the questionnaire only in English? Surely half the folks won't understand it. (;-)

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Spotted your seat bonnie lad! Will be watching fer ye on the telly next time.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Great plan and well organized. Perhaps if it works at one club, others might be more willing to listen and try something similar. Would be a bit more difficult at NUFC, but if it were tried with the extension, might be workable. Similar story there....folks really haven't been up there long enough to make another shuffle too big a deal. Just might need to avoid the sections where the bondholders were moved.

Course if there were any serious effort in the Leazes, there's definitely a few singers around me, though often seem to be more in the "I'll sing if a few more around me do" variety.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

There is no earthly reason why it wouldn't work at SJP - only excuses.

Personally, I'd like to see both ends designated singing areas, and get back to the tradition of the Leazes and Gallowgate ends making all the

NOISE

.

The Milburn and Popular sides were never very effusive at the best of times.

BTW, if we wait for the FLC to organise this it'll be way too late for many, if not most of us.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

"the club want banners back at SJP but the local fire people have banned them (despite the fact that smoking is now banned on the seating areas)"

So the local fire people are "banners"

;-7

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Clarky

If you had the chance to move from your seat in the popular side to a singing section high up in level seven leazers, would you take it?

I'm in the middle, just in front of the family enclosure and although I want to sing with others I'm not so sure If I would want to move to the upper tier for the privilige.

I wouldn't mind moving to any other area of the ground except level seven and I think thousands of others would think the same way.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Douggie....ya have to get proper banner manufacturers' to make them. That way they get a fire saftey ticket. Ours have. But they ain't cheap....Stretford End - One Love was a few hundred quid alone!

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

You make a very good point Rik - and the answer is no I wouldn't.

I have an excellent seat, and sing when I feel like it anyway. just not very loudly!

s you correctly point out, the problem at SJP now is that the top level seats are distinctly inferior, and I think you'd have real difficulty getting people to agree to locating there for that reason - singing section or not. However, people sitting in older Gallowgate and Leazes sections that don't want to "bawl 'n shoot" would perhaps be interested in swapping for a Library Section seat in the East Stand.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

In which case, Lanky, I shall write to the club and Tyne and Wear Fire Department asking whether I can get a fireproof one made. I sit bang in front of the railing at the top of the lower tier of the Gallowgate, just in front of the Newcastle Brwon hoardings - the perfect place for a flag. So, what shall I go for? No offence but I thought a lot of the suggestions the Stretford Ultras (ahem) came up with last season were pure cheddar. "MUFC - One Love" indeed..

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2001

It's not the fire proofing that's the problem. The T&W fire brigade reckoned it would be dangerous to escape from a fire if you're under the middle of a massive flag.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2001

Geordie...are we talking the same thing here? Big banners and big flags are smothing completely different. We have BANNERS spreading across the front facia of tier two. The club left this space free of advertising for the very reason. I can understand the clubs not allowing in those big FLAGS that get passed around over people's heads.

Douggie.....cheesy it may be to outsiders, but we like it. When has anything we've done ever been liked or accepted :-)

I thought the half time reversal of the Liverpool banner at the scouse game was pure comedy, and the "ROLLING NUMBERS" on the City 24years banner is even better.

You lot have made us into what we are ...piss takers. Can you believe that the Silver Jubilee party has SOLD OUT!!!

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2001

I suppose they could also whinge about having to check each banner for a fire certificate? Maybe a guy at the turnstile could try to set light to them as you go in ;-))

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2001

Dougal how about

www.acegadgets.co.uk supports N.u.f.c

I'll give you a stack of freebies if you go with my sugestion.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2001

of course it would have to be spelt right.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2001