Do agree to the sentiment above to a large extent, that said, when at home it is a bit of a 2 way street between players and fans. The arena has felt a bit flat for a few months now, even when winning. I move around the stadium a lot, and outside of block 13 and their neighbours its often really quiet. Yes it's on the players to get up and deliver for the fans to have something to cheer about but I'm sure we've all been to games previously where the atmosphere from the go feels like it's elevating everyone on the ice, encouraging those 50/50 wins and hard hits. Having an arena the size of the Vindico should be a good thing for the noise to carry but not feeling it a lot this year
I take your point regarding the perceived lack of atmosphere at games compared with dare I say it, pre-covid times.
As a discussion point may I offer a couple of possible factors.
It is evident that the Club has actively sought out the "Saturday Night Out" supporters and the casual "walk ups" of which there seems to be a significant amount, there even seems to be more youngsters than in, here I go again, pre-covid times.
Now whilst we need to fill the arena and sell merchandise more than ever before maybe the downside is that the "casual walk ups and Saturday Night" revellers don’t have the "buy in" and in many cases don’t see a game against Fife as any different to a game against Belfast for instance and a visit to the Devils is for them, much the same as as a visit to the cinema.
Another reason maybe that we used to be renowned as a team that came out of the blocks quickly with a heavy relentless forecheck and quite often would be 3 up on the likes of Sheffield in the opening period and therefore maintained the crowd level of interaction.
The last couple of seasons we have been just as likely to have the tables turned on us and been 2 or 3 goals down in the 1st period thus killing off any positivity in the crowd.
Like many things in life it’s probably a combination of a number of factors but the best way to get the crowd involved and to keep them involved is to give them something to shout and scream about early doors!
There’s an old saying in sport that as an away team you "take the crowd out of the game early" and you get an easier ride!