You’re missing the point. If my company has a contract with a supplier, and they are struggling due to industry-wide issues, you help and support them. Very much akin to the current uPVC Window & Door industry is now. All suppliers are on long lead times and it’s a pain, but generally everyone is in the same boat. The facts are, Stewards are generally local people - as it’s not really a job to travel for as it not worth it. So you’re stuck with the local Labour pool. Yes you can go further afield, but costs will increase. You or I are not privy to the contractual detail, but suffice to say, it’ll have protection in for both parties. Sheffield, Huddersfield, Leeds & Bradford have large Labour pools of local students who fill in the roles - it’s an ideal source of income on an adhoc basis. I’ve had mates at Uni do it years ago. Barnsley doesn’t have that. Rotherham and Doncaster don’t either - however their away ends hold significantly less than ours. My final point on this, is that the away end is traditionally secured with more experienced stewards, not young students. And this is where the problem lies. These folk have found work elsewhere, and don’t have the desire to deal with 5,000 drunk away fans for little in return now and again. I don’t blame them! So as per my previous post, the wages will have to go up and therefore ticket prices will too. But it’ll be next season.
The nature of an industry: The 2 Sheffield clubs could share the same stewards as they never play on the same day. The remaining 3 clubs have a similar arrangement as only 2 of the 3 would ever need stewards on the same day. So with only a small amount of co operation between the local clubs we can increase the available stewards significantly. BTW this isn’t pie in the sky, I used to work with the wife of a local printer, he had contracts for both the Rotherham and Donny football programmes, smoothed out his work schedule and earnings.
I've three mates who steward at Old Trafford, and they enjoy the game whilst stewarding no probs. And one of them has the record for most ejections in a single game lol
Fair idea. But that is dependent on the stewards wishing to travel and add time to their day. Which invariably adds costs. Extra hours for travelling and transport costs. Like I say - I think things will change, they’ll have to, but due to the costs, it’ll be probably next season. With circa. 6,000 away fans capacity, we have one of the largest away areas in English football. It’s a great cash-cow, but requires correct stewarding.
The nature of S Yorks and the Dearne Valley triangle means that unless you’re travelling from the furthest reaches of NE Donny or the furthest West of Barnsley, the 3 towns aren’t far apart (be better if Donny-Barnsley had a Trainline).
Yeah true, but folk have other commitments and also some won’t want to leave their town. It comes down to financial incentives again. Remember, if they were that keen to do stewarding each weekend, they’d already be doing it across our 6/7 local clubs as it’s totally do-able if you so wish. But they don’t.
