The Shed Campaign - An Update!

A final update, for this season, for the Shed Singing campaign we`ve been proud to give our support to.

RETURN TO THE SHED CAMPAIGN UPDATE

Since the campaign kicked off in mid February v Middlesbrough, amazingly we have only had 2 further league games + 2 Champions League ties to build on the good start we made.

If nothing else, this campaign has got many Chelsea fans talking about the atmosphere at the Bridge and many are thinking of new ideas for next season. We have come a long way, but there is so much more to do and coordinate with the club wherever possible.

I keep banging on about how poor atmosphere had become pre-Christmas, but although the Bridge is not yet a cauldron of noise and colour (for league games anyway), we're certainly heading in the right direction, where most other clubs are not.

The Bolton Wanderers match sees the start of the 'Shed 50'. This is a trial to get like-minded members to sit together and make some noise/bring some colour to the game in one group, rather than smaller pockets. We're trying to make it as natural and 'unstaged' as possible, but we also know that we have to give fans a push, especially at this still early stage in the campaign.

We wouldn`t need this trial if the club's ticketing system allowed us to basically 'pick our seat'. Whilst this scenario remains in place, we have to try things like the 'Shed 50'. If nothing changes for next season, then we have to try to turn this into a Shed 100, then a Shed 200 and so on, until the whole of the upper tier is rocking. That, in turn, will surely rub off on fans in the rest of the ground. Please take a look at what happens at the Bolton game and ask yourselves if you can/want to get involved next season.

The advent of Shed end season tickets could either improve atmosphere or even make it deteriorate. We just don't know until the club confirms how many and where the ST holders will be, and we as fans turn up next season to see if they actually join in and get behind the team. The hope is that the club takes into account the work done in the campaign and elsewhere and uses this as an opportunity to improve things further.

There are loads of ideas to take into next season. Things like finding ways to get the MH end singing more in unison, getting a similar version of the Shed 50 into the West Stand, what we do with FA Cup matches, how we get more colour into the ground, improving the pre match atmosphere, getting fans in different stands to interact. etc. The list is almost endless, but we have to prioritise and progress the most effective ideas, given the resources we have. The atmosphere working group (set up from the fans forum) has a plan to do this and will be taking this into the new season.

We're now at the business end of the season and the use of loyalty points for ticket sales means we should have more committed fans in the ground from here on in. Let's ALL get behind the team and this campaign.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.