OH IT'S ALL GONE QUIET

I don't know if I am the correct person to be writing this article but I want to say my piece about how much the all seated stadiums have killed off the atmosphere at games.

When it became obvious that the Taylor Report was to be implemented and that anybody playing Premier League football regularly would be expected to have an all seated stadium by the end of the century, I was a little bit worried that the support would become cardboard cut-outs. It is difficult to get yourself psyched up for a home game against Raith Rovers (as an example), but I seem to remember that no matter who we played, when the Shed was there, we always sang some songs in the corner of the shed. Often it was only a group of 200-300 people, most of them teenagers, but occasionally their chorus caused a ripple effect, and became a rousing song involving several thousand souls. It all helped to contribute to the atmosphere and sense of occasion and it must have had an effect on our own players, not to mention the opposition players.

Sadly at Tynecastle these days, there is rarely a song. I watched Hearts play Aberdeen and actually take the lead, yet there was only one half-hearted attempt at "Hearts Hearts glonous Hearts". I'm not saying that Tynecastle is not intimidating, but there isn't a focal point for young fans to congregate and perform their masculine rituals anymore. Teenage football fans hunt in packs - not necessarily a menacing gang roaming the streets, but they are bonded by their habits, one of which is a liking for being near to their own types on a Saturday and singing at games. These people used to congregate together in the corner of the shed. If you wanted to sing, you went there, if you didn't want to sing, you stood somewhere else. Consequently, you had a-group of a few hundred teenagers who prided themselves on the number of songs they had started that day and it was a kind of macho thing. Of course some of the songs that were sung were unsavoury, but it didn't stop thousands joining in when we played Celtic especially. Essentially you had a few hundred lads competing with each other as to who was the loudest etc. and the big match atmosphere was almost guaranteed no matter how shite the opposition were.

Sadly, in the now all-seated environment all that is gone. Where are the few hundred young guys when we need them? They are split up all over the place and don't have the camaraderie anymore. Sure, they meet in the pubs but the whole point of the meeting place called the Shed was that boys from all over the country congregated there on a Saturday. Nowadays, there is NO PLACE FOR THEM TO CONGREGATE. It is nigh on impossible for a group of 400 people to descend on the Wheatfield Stand, demand tickets sitting together. Before I got a season ticket, I must have sat in 20 different seats, often beside complete strangers,ranging from 15 to 50.

I must say that I have never been asked to sit down by anybody, but I think that is because I have developed a "complex". I am among long-time season ticket holders which include a mixture of men, women, girls, boys, normal folk, arseholes and anoraks. I look around and I see a real cosmopolitan crowd, I can't help but feel that my civil liberty (singing songs) has been taken away. I don't want to impair the person's view who sits behind me, and I don't want to offend the girl sitting next to me. I don't want to wake up the guy in the row in front, and I don't want to interfere with all the radio-listening anoraks. I don't want to upset the Stewards either. Now I'm not the worlds best singer, and I must admit I only join in sometimes but it is very clear that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE and SOON. Singers must be able to sing without being asked to either sit down, shut up or stop swearing. Singing is a way of life for most of us, and as a singer myself, it worries me that I have been "reformed" against my will, but I don't seem to have the power to do anything about it. Is atmosphere important in a game? Of course it is. Yet, how many Hearts home matches have we watched this season where there has not even been one song. Sure, the School End has supplied the occasional chant courtesy of the "wee ones", but can we really hold our heads up and say that we "sung our hearts out for the team today". I know we have been subjected to the occasional piss-poor performance, but when the shed was there, we still chanted "Jam Tarts", or "Away up in Gorgie". Nowadays .....nothing .

To solve the problem of the atmosphere at games, we must designate a section of seating which is identified ahead of time as a "noisy" area. Until the Gorgie Road Stand is completed, this would have to be a section of the Wheatfield Stand (A or B presurnably). This would not interfere too much with season ticket holders, who are in the minority up that end. It would take a couple of games to sort out, but quite quickly, those people who wished a quiet life would move along to section F or G. along with those who'se enjoyment comes from listening to the radio. I firmly believe if we can get the "singers" together, then there will be no problem starting the songs, and, given that most people will join in once the song is going, I'm willing to bet that the atmosphere for most games improves dramatically.

In the long term, Hearts fans will have to decide what happens when the Gorgie Road Stand goes up. Traditionally (ie if you are over 40) that end belongs to Hearts fans and you are quite likely to get a high proportion of older guys "going back to their roots". This poses an interesting problem (and one which will need to be addressed before the start of next season).

Where will the singing section go when the new stand goes up? Ideally, all three new stands will contain HOME fans only, but some of Hearts performances have not been exactly "ideal". There will surely be occasions when we will have to give up the School end stand for away fans. For this reason, I don't think Hearts can sell season tickets for that end - so where are all the ankle biters and wnnkleys going to go? Will they take the season tickets in the Gorgie Road Stand? Will there be a specialised "family" stand? To get closest to the away fans, will the singers have to congregate in Section F and G of the wheatfield stand? This being the case, should we start using section F and G as singing areas now? There are more season ticket holders there than in A and B. but those who don't fancy staying there could move to Section B or C.

Let's get the discussion going. In season 1997/98, Tynecastle will be a magnificent stadium, wouldn't it be nice if we had arranged the atmosphere to be intimidating ahead of time?

Let's hear the views before the stand goes up.

Craig Young - Ed

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