Or the club could make an effort now, the E club and 23 year club move 2 blocks to the side next season and we keep and create something really precious. More precious than someone’s view that’ll be very good anyway with the pick 5,000+ seats.

COYP

I very rarely post as I prefer to lurk & read others opinions but this is one subject I feel passionately enough about to bother to join in. I'm 57 and have been going to SP since I was a young lad living in Beulah Hill, so I've seen 50 years worth of ups & downs at Palace.

We've always had a mixed fan base with the middle classes from the Surrey suburbs complemented by the rougher tougher London lads & it seems the arguments pretty much are defined by which tribe you come from

I'm actually normally thought of as middle class, but when it comes to football, I don't want to sit there clapping politely, I want to get involved in the whole matchday atmosphere (like it was in the 70's for example). This isn't Rugby or cricket, this is football & that should mean showing some bloody passion !!

To use a musical analogy we have one group wanting it to be like Glyndbourne & the others wanting it to be like going to a Prodigy Gig........and I'm a big Prodigy fan so you can see which appeals to me

To my mind there's plenty of places to sit quietly and appreciate a good bit of play with a smattering of applause but traditionally behind the goal on the Holmesdale terrace (or at the back of the Arfur) were the places to make some noise

I just cannot see why people would want Palace to go back to the bad old days before the HF got involved. We have recently got a reputation for being the loudest home support in the PL & that made me bloody proud of my club & my fellow fans

Back in the seventies when we were all packed onto the terraces it was relatively easy to get a chant going as we just moved to the most vocal area behind the goal, but now with seating it's so much harder. I mainly stand at the back of the Arfur with the other older lads and at least there we can make some noise, but in more open Holmesdale it's much much harder to get the songs going without a singing section being organised.

I can see why the HF want it to be allocated centrally as that would get people joining in from both sides & hopefully from the upper tier too.

Is it really that big a deal for some people to shuffle along a bit if they really just want to sit and "support" their club silently ?

Surely even those that don't want to sing and chant miss the passion that that engenders ?

God help us if we end up like most of the other London clubs with their sterile stadia & lack of noise

I for one am embarrassed at how bad the atmosphere has been this season & how others now see us as a set of supporters who without the HF are as quiet as the rest

It's not just the HF that want to inject some passion to supporting our beloved club, there's thousands of others like me I'm sure but until safe standing is introduced we've got to do something to make it easier for those of us who want to make plenty of noise & getting a central singing section has to be the answer

and i first went to Palace in the 1980's, as a schoolboy. I remember how scary it was when Palace scored in the Holmesdale, as the crowd surge swept you off your feet like a tsunami, and carried you over the advertising hoardings onto the playing area.

the fact is we have a mixed bag of supporters, and football is slightly different to the days of the 70's and 80's.

Safe standing is obviously not far off, according to Spurs. can't we all just take a step back and sort things properly for when SS is introduced ? It really would be a fck of a lot easier

I disengage, I turn the page.

Easier when the new stand is done, yes. When’s that? 5 years?

It is possible, next season, it’s just hard work.

Those long term season ticket holders will be able to just shuffle along or choose a great view because they’ll have 95% of the lower tier to choose from.

COYP

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1,900 signatures. You signature won’t be in a small irrelevant number.

COYP

Leftfield - good post , fully agree. Same age roughly, 60 now, and I haven't supported Palace for 52 years purely to watch the beautiful football, delicate skills and tactical brilliance of CPFC through the ages.
Its that something else...when you meet another Palace fan miles away and jump up and down excitedly hugging each other! Passion. These guys should be respected for their enormous passion - who else will arrive hours before kick off to put out the red and blue?