Forest away and our away end

[HD8 Blades]

I noticed that Forest away tickets have just gone on sale and was disappointed to see that we've only been allocated 2000. At a ground where, given our current form it wouldn't be unreasonable to think we could easily sell 4000. That got me thinking...are they not losing revenue and more importantly are we not?

Forest have averaged 27,013 this season with a capacity of around 30,500
I'm not sure what if any segregation issues they have at the city ground, perhaps an increased away following isn't feasible?
United have averaged 24,546 with a capacity of 32,702 or 8156 empty seats.

The visit of Hull last weekend was embarrassing from a team just over an hour away and clearly it wouldn't work for away followings like that. However given that Derby, Forest, Rotherham, Villa, Stoke, WBA and others could have or would fill both tiers giving us extra revenue. (Not Wednesday as we'd obviously fill it with our own). In addition the flat atmosphere will always improve with a decent away following.

Initially I thought giving Blades fans the BLUT was a great idea, no pillars and arguably the best view in the the ground. I know there was a well meaning campaign on here to get people in there and making some noise but in fairness that doesn't appear to have worked. I know people have season tickets for that part of the ground and I'm not suggesting for a minute we throw them out but longer term are we losing an opportunity to average closer to 30k, improve atmosphere and all round match day experience?

 

[WORKSOPBLADE]

Being getting 2k at Forest for last few visits so not unexpected unfortunately.

 

[BladeInIreland]

What you say makes a lot of sense, if dealing purely with numbers.

I think it’s all down to restrictions placed on the club. And I’d imagine it’s the same for forest.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Just take their kop

 

[CarlMcBlade]

I noticed that Forest away tickets have just gone on sale and was disappointed to see that we've only been allocated 2000. At a ground where, given our current form it wouldn't be unreasonable to think we could easily sell 4000. That got me thinking...are they not losing revenue and more importantly are we not?

Forest have averaged 27,013 this season with a capacity of around 30,500
I'm not sure what if any segregation issues they have at the city ground, perhaps an increased away following isn't feasible?
United have averaged 24,546 with a capacity of 32,702 or 8156 empty seats.

The visit of Hull last weekend was embarrassing from a team just over an hour away and clearly it wouldn't work for away followings like that. However given that Derby, Forest, Rotherham, Villa, Stoke, WBA and others could have or would fill both tiers giving us extra revenue. (Not Wednesday as we'd obviously fill it with our own). In addition the flat atmosphere will always improve with a decent away following.

Initially I thought giving Blades fans the BLUT was a great idea, no pillars and arguably the best view in the the ground. I know there was a well meaning campaign on here to get people in there and making some noise but in fairness that doesn't appear to have worked. I know people have season tickets for that part of the ground and I'm not suggesting for a minute we throw them out but longer term are we losing an opportunity to average closer to 30k, improve atmosphere and all round match day experience?

I’d sooner give em half the Kop than give up my seat the Westfield corner right next to BLUT. The huge gaps on the Kop are mainly because it is wank. You always give your best seats to the regulars not the visitors. When and only when the Kop is improved I would suggest giving away the whole of the Bramall Lane end.

 

[metalblade]

Giving all the Lane end to away fans would mean they have 7-8000 cheering them on and not a lot of spare room for home fans in the rest of the ground so I'm afraid it is a definite no to that idea.

 

[Birdwell Blade]

Absolutely spot on. Not sure of the ins and outs, but well said. I think we should give all big away following both tiers (including the pigs, who may then reciprocate - they give Leeds about 6000 tickets).

For all of us that were lucky enough to see the Bouncing Day victory in person, how many were desperate to get in and could have if we’d done better ticketing wise?

 

[metalblade]

Absolutely spot on. Not sure of the ins and outs, but well said. I think we should give all big away following both tiers (including the pigs, who may then reciprocate - they give Leeds about 6000 tickets).

For all of us that were lucky enough to see the Bouncing Day victory in person, how many were desperate to get in and could have if we’d done better ticketing wise?

So you would rather let away fans in for some games while Unitedites cant get tickets ?

 

[Birdwell Blade]

Yeh. Which games are you referring to? The only ones that will sell out will be v Pigs and Leeds.

 

[INTAKE BLADE]

When Cloughie managed his last game we had fans at both ends of the ground, a day I enjoyed, and I don't mean Hooters

 

[Birdwell Blade]

So you would rather let away fans in for some games while Unitedites cant get tickets ?

I posted too soon without adding my reasoning. My reasoning is, that I’d rather see those desperate extra couple of thousand true Blades get their tickets for Hillsborough/Elland Road, than the ‘season ticket holder brings a mate or two’ to the derby at ours (which happens).

 

[Ricky]

Might as well give away fans BLUT.

Who the fuck cares.

We'd just have to accept they'd be much louder up there because, you know, it's the best place in the ground for that.

 

[metalblade]

I posted too soon without adding my reasoning. My reasoning is, that I’d rather see those desperate extra couple of thousand true Blades get their tickets for Hillsborough/Elland Road, than the ‘season ticket holder brings a mate or two’ to the derby at ours (which happens).

It's a case of you look after your own first not pigs or scum, you can bet your life we will get the minimum at bellend rd and the sty whatever we do. Id rather fill it with cheap student give away's than do those cunts in s6 any favours not that we would need to mind.

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

For games where we aren't going to sell out and the away team is likely to sell more than just the lower tier (ie Forest, Derby, Boro, WBA, Stoke, Toytowners perhaps) it would make sense to split the BL upper tier.

 

[HighfieldBlade]

Just take their kop

Those Were The Days, My Friend...

 

[HD8 Blades]

So you would rather let away fans in for some games while Unitedites cant get tickets ?

Definitely not. Blades fans would always have to be put first.

If we can sell 3 and half sides to Blades which we can and will V Weds & Leeds then that's the perfect scenario. But when BLUT is a third to a half full and away fans are queuing up with £28 to spend then it's worth consideration

 

[CarlMcBlade]

I posted too soon without adding my reasoning. My reasoning is, that I’d rather see those desperate extra couple of thousand true Blades get their tickets for Hillsborough/Elland Road, than the ‘season ticket holder brings a mate or two’ to the derby at ours (which happens).

Both Hillsboro and Elland Road have a bigger capacity than BDTBL. The reasons for Wendy’s not giving us more tickets is purely pigheadedness.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Is it not beyond the wit of man to segregate BLUT like every other club in the land does...............with a bit o netting.
With a bit of knocking about you could easily put a door through from the Westfield to BLUT and with a series of other doors, divide the stand up according to the opposition.
But we’ve got to start selling the whole 3K in the lower tier first

 

[Sheffsteel]

I’ve mentioned this before.

When the BLUT was built McCabe said how great and flexible the new arrangement was for away fans.

All away fans got the bottom tier 2,990 and due to partition doors in the upper tier we could give away fans a flexible number of tickets in the upper tier. In our first game in the PL we gave Liverpool an addition 1,500 seats in the upper tier. Loads of our fans complained that they coudlmt get tickets, so we never game away fans any tickets in the upper tier after that.

My view is that for some matches this season why don’t we give away clubs 2200 tickets in lower as normal plus 1,500 in the upper corner with netting across in the upper.. 3,800 max tickets to away fans is plenty and will improve the atmosphere.

 

[Sheffsteel]

For games where we aren't going to sell out and the away team is likely to sell more than just the lower tier (ie Forest, Derby, Boro, WBA, Stoke, Toytowners perhaps) it would make sense to split the BL upper tier.

Double post:

Agree.... the weird thing is that when the BLUT was built McCabe explained that the concourse areas in the upper tier had several partition doors which meant we could be really flexible regards the additional number of tickets we give away fans in the upper tier.

In the 1st match of the PL we gave Liverpool 1,500 tickets in the upper tier reducing capacity to 31,700 due to the netting.
The lower tier has been reduced to 2,200, so we could give away fans 3,700 tickets and still have enough for home fans.

 

[Captain Obvious]

Or we could just leave it as it is and let our home support sit there. Is a couple of thousand on the attendance more important to you than maximising home advantage?

It confuses me why anyone on here would want to allow away teams to have more support. Why don't we be super generous and give them a 0-1 head start too.

 

[mattbianco1]

So you would rather let away fans in for some games while Unitedites cant get tickets ?

In reality though. It's only the Pigs game and potentially Leeds when we will fully sell out. Maybe one of the festive games. I'm all for giving away fans bottom tier and maybe half/three quarters of the top. Leaving the corner for home fans.

The home demand for 28k tickets isn't there for 95% of games, so why not.

After all , a noisy away end brings the best from the home end too

 

[Bill Johnson]

With respect to the op it's the last thing we should even be discussing. We should make the away experience as unpleasant as possible especially by battering them on the pitch. Give them no encouragement and maintain the great initiative of looking after our own. The board get pelters for plenty. Keeping the BLUT for Blades is something they deserve great credit for. If we get promoted we'll fill it with our own anyway.
In short FUCK AWAY FANS.
I bet Tufty is squirming at the very idea of giving the bastards the slightest encouragement. Equivalent to shooting yourself in the foot. As someone above said, why not give them a 1 goal lead as well and how about a travel rug and cosy slippers.

 

[LS16Blade]

Just take their kop

Like when we took the Trent End in 1971...and they still haven't got over it, hence the continuing antipathy towards us.

 

[LS16Blade]

Many comments on this thread are premised on there being a number of clubs in the division who have the potential to bring an away following substantially in excess of 2,200 to the Lane. That premise is wrong.

The only club that would I would definitely expect to sell out both tiers of the Bramall Lane end is dirty Leeds. Villa may have done but the novelty is wearing off a little for them now that they've been down for 3 seasons. The notion that the likes of WBA, Stoke, Forest, Derby, Boro or Rotherham (!) would sell out both tiers if given the tickets is fanciful...unless they were coming for the last match of the season to clinch promotion.

Frankly, it's fine as it is. I've said before that putting away fans on both tiers restricts home tickets to 23-24,000 meaning that our fans are forced into restricted view/ poor seats in other areas of the ground. If we keep up our form, more and more floating fans will become convinced and we'll need the upper tier for our fans. There was a good 1,000-1,500 increase in home support for the Hull game (even at Category A prices) and that will continue to build.

 

[nopigfansintown]

It seems counter intuitive to effectively price 2,000 of our fans out by increasing matchday prices, whilst only giving our opposition 2,000 tickets. Bigger away attendances could subsidise matchday prices.If we can't sell the tickets we may as well have somebody paying to sit in them.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Many comments on this thread are premised on there being a number of clubs in the division who have the potential to bring an away following substantially in excess of 2,200 to the Lane. That premise is wrong.

The only club that would I would definitely expect to sell out both tiers of the Bramall Lane end is dirty Leeds. Villa may have done but the novelty is wearing off a little for them now that they've been down for 3 seasons. The notion that the likes of WBA, Stoke, Forest, Derby, Boro or Rotherham (!) would sell out both tiers if given the tickets is fanciful...unless they were coming for the last match of the season to clinch promotion.

Frankly, it's fine as it is. I've said before that putting away fans on both tiers restricts home tickets to 23-24,000 meaning that our fans are forced into restricted view/ poor seats in other areas of the ground. If we keep up our form, more and more floating fans will become convinced and we'll need the upper tier for our fans. There was a good 1,000-1,500 increase in home support for the Hull game (even at Category A prices) and that will continue to build.

Yeah maybe when we expand our ground to the size of Bellend Road and Swilsborough we can give away more tickets to away fans.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Putting away fans in BLUT has been done to death.

South Stand is generally a sell out for the bigger games or clubs that attract some of our floating fans and neutrals.

John Street is a lock out to normal fans.

The KOP is fucking useless for anyone over 6 foot tall. (and just going off on a tangent - seats at Blackburn seemed less room than our KOP which says something)

The BLUT is therefore needed for OUR fans.

For the first time ever the club appears to have a better working model for controlling end of game scenarios on Bramall Lane - a problem that all our fans should realise has been an issue for many years now.

As for other clubs - the trend is to have less away fans so as to reduce stewarding costs.

UTB

 

[Dkc]

How many seats are in the BLUT lower? A lot of them seem to be covered by netting. What we need to do is find out what action we need to take to get rid of the nets.

It would also be great to be able to give the BL upper and lower tiers to away fans - not so much now but certainly if we ever get to the PL, as this will generate more income for the club. Is it true that Blades fans can't go on the Westfield if away fans are in the BLUT? If this is the case they should investigate potential methods of segregation like additional stewarding, a small fence and seperate entrances

Bramall Lane's capacity is currently over 32,700 but I'm starting to think that I'll never see it full again in my lifetime. We need those who insist on lowering the capacity to enter into a public debate.

 

[I should coco]

Is it not beyond the wit of man to segregate BLUT like every other club in the land does...............with a bit o netting.

In the 1st match of the PL we gave Liverpool 1,500 tickets in the upper tier reducing capacity to 31,700 due to the netting.

Liverpool was ancient history in 2006. Since then SYP and SAG rule the roost.

As other's have said, it has been done to death but apparently netting doesn't work in Sheffield due to 'climatic conditions' or something similar. The Manchester derby can take place at the Council House with just a row of stewards and minimal netting, but in Sheffield we'd need to buy another steel wall for inside the ground. Also Durham Constabulary officers don't like heights (it's a flatter county) so that's another no-no.

Actually the fact that this has even been suggested has probably just knocked another 1,500 off our capacity on the important safety grounds of 'just in case'.