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For a lot of English football fans, Wembley Stadium is their Mecca. Supporters in their thousands make the pilgrimage to the national stadium to see their side compete in cup finals. Or, in the case of Manchester City, Southampton, Chelsea and Leeds this weekend, for the FA Cup semi-finals.
But while Championship club Southampton sold out their initial allocation of 33,350, and have now received a further 2,400 tickets for the big game, the uptake among City fans has been slow. Part of the extra 2,400 tickets for Saints fans has come from City's unsold allocation, with supporters citing a range of reasons.
"Our take-up is half from the final last month," secretary of the Castleton branch of the City supporters' club, David Sigworth, told MEN Sport. "That’s a fact. The reasons for that is a) we have been to a final and b) without being too arrogant, we probably have another final to pay for in May.
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"We have not even got enough numbers for a coach. We have not even got enough numbers for the mini bus. There are six lads in an eight-seater taxi and that is costing us £100 per head which is quite dear but is still cheaper than the train which is £120."
It is a similar story for Bredbury Blues, whose founder and travel secretary Ian 'Arnie' Arnfield has noticed a similar decline in fans wanting to go to semi-finals. "I can tell you personally, [demand] absolutely has [gone down]," he said.
"When we played the semi-final against [Manchester] United [in 2011] we had 13 coaches, this one we have got two. We could have put a third one on but you don’t want to gamble."
Saturday will be City's 31st trip to the new Wembley. This run started in 2011 and does not include the two matches City played there when Tottenham were using it as their home ground.
While Arnfield sympathises with the Wembley apathy, he partially blames "arrogance" from some sections of the fanbase who already feel a spot in next month's FA Cup final is secured. "You have got a lot of arrogance amongst our fans as well who say: ‘Oh well, I will go to the final.’ And that disgusts me a bit because they still need support.
"The arrogant ones will go to the final and they will get tickets a lot easier than some who went to the semis because they will go to season ticket holders. There is a lot of ‘Big Game Charlies’ and there will be a lot more wanting to go to this final than the League Cup."
Luke Stanley, one half of the 'mcfc lads' and a regular contributor on The Overlap, told the Manchester Evening News that it is not expectations of a win that is putting fans off Saturday's game. "It is frustrating because whenever you try to talk about this issue it is just passed off as arrogance, but it is not arrogance at all," he said.
"Every City fan wants us to be in the late stages of this competition every year, like every other football fan. We have won so much that it is frustrating because it is a 400-mile round trip for the majority of City fans.
"People try and pass it off as arrogance but, at the end of the day, if you have been somewhere 31 times in a short period of time, it is going to wear off, it is going to become a little bit boring and samey.
"I have done hundreds of away games with City, I have racked up over 700 games and it is the second-most common ground I have been to. The Etihad is first, Wembley second and you look at grounds like Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford that I have been to every season for 15-16 seasons, I am on half as many for those grounds as Wembley so it is obviously going to become boring."
Stanley explained he has friends and family who are sacrificing not going to the game on Saturday because of the costs of getting down to Wembley. They are instead saving up for a potential final.
Sigworth added: "My lad is 24, he is saving himself for the final because he is not forking out £100 on travel costs, when hopefully, fingers crossed, he will do it again [in May]."
The common theme among the City fans was boredom towards the Wembley experience. "No football fan of any team whatsoever thinks the semi-finals should be at Wembley," Arnfield explained.
"Football is the only business in the world where the customer has no say. I blame the FA for being so greedy by keeping it there. I also blame the apathy of our own fans who are arrogant and say they will go to the final, that agitates me as well, it really does, but I still go and a lot of my friends still go.
"When you have been 30-odd times, as we have, it is a different proposition. We have been there more than anybody else.
"People are fed up of it and I know people who absolutely won’t go. Some people did not go to the League Cup final that should have gone.
"You have got to remember what Wembley is: it is a rip-off. They charge you £10 for a hot dog, £10 for a really bad pint - it is just awful.
"When you finish, you are then sat on a coach park for an hour and a half. It is supposed to be the national stadium but it does not hold any warmth for people like me."
The FA Cup semi-finals have been held at Wembley since the stadium reopened. The FA believe the national stadium is the rightful home of these games because it allows as many fans as possible to attend.
In reality, many supporters feel that having semi-finals at Wembley cheapens the attraction of the cup final. Stanley hopes fans will be able to rally and change the FA's stance but fears it is a losing battle.
"In today’s market [boycotts] are difficult. For the likes of the FA, even though I thought games were dead during Covid, they maybe learnt of a world without fans," he said.
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"If 10,000 City fans did not turn up in a boycott, I do think that those tickets would find themselves in another person’s hands."
Sigworth agreed, having noticed a lot of 'tourists' during trips to Wembley for the Community Shield. "Realistically there is 500-1000, maybe 3,000 tops who are hardcore City fans who need to be at every game when they can be. If I was more political, I would boycott the semi-final, but I am not," he added.
Sigworth claimed even playing matches at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would lessen the apathy among City fans. Villa Park was also a popular choice among the trio as an alternative venue for the semi-finals.
While the shine has gone from Wembley for some City fans, that will be momentarily forgotten should the Blues book their spot in the final this weekend.
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