Safe Standing - fans survey

[Nelson1889]

Why spend the money when there is no financial return or benefit? I don’t buy into the atmosphere improvement as you’re just going to have the same people stood at the back of the Kop with a rail seat instead of now where they stand up with the existing seats.

The Kop is probably the worst stand in the Championship, so we shouldn’t be wasting money on. Just keep it in a safe condition and knock the whole thing down at some point.

Nail on the head this. Back 10 rows at least of the kop are stood up for majority if not all the match anyway so no point wasting money putting a few rails in.

Should only be worried about this when we finally level the fucking thing to the ground and actually rebuild it properly and not just chuck some concrete over the old stand like we did the last time it was done.

We're a 21st century club with 20th century facilities. And mid 20th century at that!

 

[metalblade]

The criteria for the early adopter pilots is that this be 1:1, so each standard seat replaced with a rail seat for the pilot period at least. Based on how this goes, clubs may be able to expand to say 1:1.5

Where the Kop is concerned, having spoken to some rail seating folk with direct experience of installing this, safe standing as a means to expand the capacity in existing seated areas won't be possible on the Kop - it's just a non-starter based on the existing design.

We also wouldn't, on the Kop at least, be able to simply install barriers next to the existing seats - some clubs, like Wolves, have been able to do that for example and call it rail seating, as they've been able to work that into their design without compromising on space requirements or sight lines.

So what are we saying here the rake is too shallow and the barriers would be in the sight line if seated or is it the step is not wide enough we all know the kop is a bit cramped for leg room?
All the more reason to demolish the kop and start again with it, standing on the South and John st stands would be just plain ridiculous

 

[Stand United]

So what are we saying here the rake is too shallow and the barriers would be in the sight line if seated or is it the step is not wide enough we all know the kop is a bit cramped for leg room?
All the more reason to demolish the kop and start again with it, standing on the South and John st stands would be just plain ridiculous

There are minimum clearway requirements for stands that restrict the options on the Kop (it’s very narrow by modern standards), but they aren’t so restrictive that there aren’t any options at all. For rail seating or safe standing to happen on the Kop, it would require installing a proper rail seat, thinner than the old style seats there currently, to meet the minimum requirements (ie reduce the amount the seat sticks out when tipped up = more room = ok for rail seating). This is to accommodate the same capacity per row as exists now.

I think we all know and recognise that the Kop has limitations, and if it were built today would be done differently. And if the club were to turn round and say “Look mate, we’d absolutely love to do this on the Kop. But we’ve got big big plans to redo the whole thing, top to bottom, full bells & whistles, the lot”, but I think that’s far less likely than the alternatives (based on what information we can glean from the club currently at least). I personally think it would be a missed opportunity to hold out for a full rebuild to see rail seating be installed – mainly because I don’t think we’ll see a full rebuild in my lifetime!

 

[Rodley]

There are minimum clearway requirements for stands that restrict the options on the Kop (it’s very narrow by modern standards), but they aren’t so restrictive that there aren’t any options at all. For rail seating or safe standing to happen on the Kop, it would require installing a proper rail seat, thinner than the old style seats there currently, to meet the minimum requirements (ie reduce the amount the seat sticks out when tipped up = more room = ok for rail seating). This is to accommodate the same capacity per row as exists now.

I think we all know and recognise that the Kop has limitations, and if it were built today would be done differently. And if the club were to turn round and say “Look mate, we’d absolutely love to do this on the Kop. But we’ve got big big plans to redo the whole thing, top to bottom, full bells & whistles, the lot”, but I think that’s far less likely than the alternatives (based on what information we can glean from the club currently at least). I personally think it would be a missed opportunity to hold out for a full rebuild to see rail seating be installed – mainly because I don’t think we’ll see a full rebuild in my lifetime!

Gerremin Gerremrailsallin!

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

I can remember seeing the slimy twat at just about every cup final and presentation of the Premier league title in the nineties.

You are absolutely right about the choice of Hillsborough for cup semi-finals, Euros (and, yes - the World Cup in '66 too) - disgraceful and, but for the obvious links between Wednesday and the FA etc, it would be baffling that it went on for so long.
As a kid I went with my mates to both grounds week in week out and that notorious gate on Leppings Lane was always a bloody nightmare, and Hillsborough was an accident waiting to happen.
My Owls mates used to go on about the Lane being a 3-sided ground, and I always countered with the response: "Better that than a 2-sided ground!". They never really understood my argument that you could only approach from either end of the ground, being bound on one side by the river and the other side by housing, and crowd control and crushing would always be a potential hazard.

 

[shorehamview]

Will installing rail seats to enable safe standing mean that the kind of person who wants to stand will get one of these tickets, or won’t bother where their ticket is actually for and will just barge their way in and tell anyone objecting to fuck off?

 

[Stand United]

Will installing rail seats to enable safe standing mean that the kind of person who wants to stand will get one of these tickets, or won’t bother where their ticket is actually for and will just barge their way in and tell anyone objecting to fuck off?

I guess there's nothing stopping someone from barging in behind me when I stand at kickoff tomorrow, and then refusing to move when I point out I've paid for that seat.

(Please do not do this)

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

I asked Elton John for his opinion and he said..........I'm Still Standing.

Filled the questionaire in for you as positively as i could even tho i would not be using them.

 

[Grey Blade]

I guess there's nothing stopping someone from barging in behind me when I stand at kickoff tomorrow, and then refusing to move when I point out I've paid for that seat.

(Please do not do this)

This was the very thing that happened to me at Hull last Saturday and I suspect groups of the younger element would use safe standing as an opportunity to just pile in together.

Incidentally I thought safe standing would mean all standing for some games - not a mixture of sitting and standing. I don't see how mixing sitting and standing could possibly work unless the terracing was 2+ feet high

 

[Stand United]

Thanks to everyone that’s taken part in or shared the survey so far! If you’re yet to do so, please consider giving us a response bit.ly/safestandingsufc

Also, if anyone is down to attend the fans forum at the club next week (only just spotted on twitter it is happening), and would be up for asking a question on safe standing, this would be hugely appreciated. While applications to be one of the clubs trialling licensed safe standing areas closes on October 6th, installation of rail seating can still of course be done irrespective of this, so worth keeping this on the club’s radar.

 

[Stand United]

Apologies for bumping this, but just wanted to encourage any that haven't done so to reply to our fans survey on safe standing - we cover where you might want to see rail seats included at the Lane, if any how many, and a few other things linked to this! bit.ly/safestandingsufc.

One thing to clarify on the 'where' - we've only included current areas where home fans can get tickets. I know for a time the home/away bits of the Bramall Lane Stand were switched (though can't for the life of me remember exactly when that was), but by all means include the lower tier as an 'other' choice on that particular question if that's something you'd like to see.

The deadline is this week for clubs to apply to be early adopters of safe standing, though I suspect there's only a handful of clubs that will be in a position to apply - some recent rail seat installers like Liverpool have said publicly they won't be doing so at this moment in time - but regardless of this deadline, clubs can continue to go ahead and install rail seating. That's certainly going to be where we'll be throwing our efforts towards in the next few months.

One question: is anyone one here going to the Fans Forum apparently happening at the Lane on Thursday? The only place I've seen it advertised is via the Official Supporters Club as above (who I've not managed to succeessfully contact yet...), and I wondered whether anyone on here that's lucky enough to attend might want to raise the issue of rail seating with the club?

UTB

 

[Snowflake]

Nail on the head this. Back 10 rows at least of the kop are stood up for majority if not all the match anyway so no point wasting money putting a few rails in.

Should only be worried about this when we finally level the fucking thing to the ground and actually rebuild it properly and not just chuck some concrete over the old stand like we did the last time it was done.

We're a 21st century club with 20th century facilities. And mid 20th century at that!

Mid 20th century would be c1940 to 1960. To suggest that our current stadium belongs in that era is unreal.

 

[Nelson1889]

Mid 20th century would be c1940 to 1960. To suggest that our current stadium belongs in that era is unreal.

From the history I can find the original Shoreham street stand was built in 1897. It had a roof added in 1935 and was renovated after the war due to bomb damage.

It was then made all seater in 91 but this was basically concrete poured over the old structure and a new roof.

Apart from a few new toilet blocks what's really been done on it? The facilities for fans were a joke in the mid 90s, now they're just downright laughable compared to the majority of stands, certainly in the top 2 divisions