A group of supporters have spent four years attempting to improve the atmosphere at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but the club has consistently been half-hearted in helping them.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is one of the world’s finest sporting arenas, but many who gather there on a matchday see it as nothing more than a soulless bowl used to host events so Daniel Levy can line his pockets. It has even been compared to a morgue, which is not at all flattering.
While White Hart Lane did not especially have a reputation for a fierce atmosphere, it was a traditional ground where like-minded supporters gathered to watch the team they had spent their lives supporting, but the Spurs Stadium does not have the same feel.
The lack of atmosphere at home matches has been a talking point since not long after the stadium opened. Although many will sing along to Freed from Desire after a win, some joked that the minute of silence on the last home game before remembrance weekend was followed by an additional 90 minutes of silence.
And Sunday was a new low for the ground as Fulham supporters sang “Is this the Emirates?” which was followed by shushing noises which could be heard on television coverage of the match. Although if truth be told, if they were at Arsenal’s stadium there would have probably been more noise coming from the home end.
While in times past songs were started and made their way around the stadium, often now there are specific sections used to generate atmospheres, with the singing sometimes contained to that section, with many housing ultras groups.
One set of supporters have attempted to create a section, dubbed the Return of the Shelf, to ‘recreate the atmosphere the Shelf and Park Lane corner generated,’ as well as the culture and sense of community those areas of the stadium brought about, but despite their commendable efforts, they have seen little success in their cause.
Despite working with the club since the year the stadium opened, the ROTS project has only been given 53 seats for Premier League matches, which is not enough to make a difference.
Their allocation is higher for cup matches though and they were encouraging supporters to join the section for Tottenham’s Europa League clash against Roma, where they were reportedly supposed to have a section of over 1000 people who signed up.
But instead, it became a free-for-all as anyone could buy a ticket in the South Stand blocks the group were allocated. So other than a nice collection of flags being waved before the match thanks to THFC Flags, there was no noticeable improvement in the atmosphere.
While the ideal scenario would be for all matchgoers to be more vocal, lecturing supporters, who have paid for their ticket, on how they should behave never goes down well. The way forward is to group supporters together who want to stand and sing throughout the match.
Tottenham’s away support usually make a decent amount of noise and this can be replicated if the club do their part in allocating more seats to the ROTS initiative. But if they do nothing more than mention there is a singing section in an email, without limiting ticket sales to those on board with the group, the atmosphere will not improve.
The club may only be interested in filling seats, but noisy crowds spur teams on and can positively affect how motivated the players are. In order to create a cauldron of noise, the Tottenham board need to fully commit to backing both the ROTS campaign and THFC Flags, otherwise, nothing will change.
Nobody talks about flashy pre-match light shows once a game has started, but great atmospheres on special days live long in the memory. The club must act now to give Ange Postecoglou and his players the vocal backing they need.
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