Safe standing

Neil Dawson said:
Interesting debate… albeit it would have been nice not to read Del every other post for nine pages but he has to have the last word so sadly inevitable.

Firstly, safe standing is great. Good news.

It’s in the correct stand.

I don’t believe it’s because we’ve been told to do it as every ground has the same issue. We just wanted to do it.

Six days not enough. This needed to be a summer thing and people have time to work to sit together in their groups again as this is when people relinquish season tickets.

If they make the new free standing tickets available to new people that won’t necessarily improve the atmosphere.

In short a great move badly handled by a poor exec team.
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I was on tenterhooks right until the end waiting with baited breath to see who will get the blame. What a twist!
 
OK, moved enough by this to post (an essay unfortunately)..... safe standing is a good idea but to run roughshod over people who have sat in this area for donkeys years stinks of football s#itting on its customers as usual. Captive market aren't we, I mean who us going to down tools and stop going, and who gives a stuff if they do. Hey, there's a ready made replacement to snap up tickets that become free, if they've never seen a Wade Elliott top corner curler then all the better, they must be young enough to get excited, as we all know it's impossible to make a noise once your hair goes grey.

I sit with an older gentleman, although I'm hopefully still considered early middle aged. I'm know he's fit for his age but expecting a octogenarian to stand is taking the p!ss. If we're split up my enjoyment will be much lower, if I get stuck right low down I will be pi$$Ed off beyond belief. Well why not just stay in the same seat and sit down?.... not going to happen, the peer pressure to stand will likely be overwhelming, the view will be of a load of backsides, row J stands you all stand. And your decision is final say the powers that be, massive gamble.

Plan it, give people time to soak it up ready for next season, no issue with that. Start afresh with people having some kind of choice where they end up. Sounds like I will only get a decent seat back with a new stadium. Frankly massively cheesed off by the speed and 'just do it and lump it' attitude that's coming across on the email on first reading.

I don't really buy the club has to act straight away. So does every other club have safe standing or putting in safe standing over the next few weeks or does no other club really have persistent standers (genuine question really)? The speed of all this absolutely stinks. Solved by the persistent standers sitting for 8 games until next season rather than p1ssing off all the poor sods who will have 5 days to move. That's the counter argument to 'it's only 8 games and will happen anyway'.

I am way to the edge of the stand and that's never been the vocal part of the ground even in the south end, so perhaps I didn't see this coming. Right along the back isn't the vocal part, it was always behind the goal probably off to the right a bit, and fanning out from there. Grrrrr!
 
DevizesRed said:
In fairness the areas that are going to be classed as safe standing are where fans stand already. Happy to be corrected if I’m wrong.

I’m a more mature person myself and happy with this.
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Yep you are wrong....no one stands anywhere near me in row L or in front or behind.
Not necessarily anti the idea but no fans consultation and timing mid season with only a few days to request an alternative (possibly crappie seat) is really poor and quite frankly amateur way to do things! I can stand for 90 mins but some who I have near for years who are affected definitely cannot.

Announcing this now to plan for next season implementation would make so much more sense.

Or indeed if we are building a new stadium in 2 - 3 years wait as no reason to spend ££ as will not increase capacity/give opportunity for more people to see the team!?
 
I just hope that all ST holders in the section have been notified directly with plenty of time to decipher and decide, or else this will come as quite a shock.
 
DJ said:
Whilst it’s been alluded to on social media. Why wasn’t this stated categorically by the club in the announcement?

Explain the situation clearly and supporters (as is evident in this thread) will want to support the club. The club has worked with the regulator and to avoid the threat of partial stand closures, the club have opted to install safe standing etc. Then install it for whole left side block from top to bottom and a few rows across the back of the rest of the north stand… ie the areas that have caused the issue with persistent standing.

This would have been a universal winner and everyone could have been excited about the installation. A positive news story and the club comes out a winner.

Better still, give longer than 6 days to request moves. There’s no way this process hasn’t been ongoing for some time. So it’s most likely the clubs timetable to avoid the match tickets going on sale and messing up the “on sale” dates to points holders. That hasn’t been set in stone by the regulator. A deadline maybe, I don’t know how the process works, but say this has been going on for a month or so, then the process spans 3 months.

It does look like this has been forced upon the club, but you can still spin it into a positive.

Consultation with the trust and other groups also do look positive and personally chasing some supporters effected is also excellent.

It’s not the own goal of the summer, but it’s still hugely unfortunate for those affected which is obviously sad.
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Given that this is being spun as a safety issue (although things moved away from that a long time ago) it does seem strange that the SGSA are demanding a rushed implementation.
 
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Gutted by this personally. Have sat in the same seat around the same people for over a decade. Thanks to a recent knee op there’s no way I’m going to be able to stand for this long for a good few months. Guess we won’t all find seats together so feels like a real blow
 
I have emailed the club to ask why the rush. This could be achieved after end of season. A lot of people around me in North Stand will not be able to or wish to stand for 2 hours. Many also have formed important "support groups"
I have asked the club whether such groups can be moved together.
 
Of course the other question is...if we move from our seats, who will take them- existing fans, younger upwardly mobile fans (joking) or tourists/away fans or hospitality fans
 
nd9cherry said:
Of course the other question is...if we move from our seats, who will take them- existing fans, younger upwardly mobile fans (joking) or tourists/away fans or hospitality fans
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If as at present they aren't planning to move ST holders from other parts into the safe standing section, it will have the handy side effect for Bill and Jim of adding more adhoc ticket sales. Something they've clearly been keen to encourage with their various schemes to get new people onto and up the points ladder. Which might be a noble aim for younger AFCB fans.

Risk is as you say, what we saw early this season with the NS getting visibly infiltrated by away fans every home game.
 
I've got no horse in this race but I do have sympathy for those who have purchased a season ticket with the understanding that the seat number stated on their tickets was theirs for that season. The club should have waited until the end of the season then the season ticket holder can make a decision if they want to renew or not. I'm not buying that guff that it was a decision made by the 'safe standing whoever'. Make those stewards do their jobs and make those standing sit, alternatively bomb them out! On entry into the ground they are all quite happy to give it the un, confiscating flasks, etc but do sweet F.A when confronted with numbers! Fuking jobsworths.
I'm all for safe standing, but with all things, timing is everything.
 
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