I've just emailed the club complaining about the latest Saftey Message, which says that we can't take rucksacks to games any more. I regularly travel to games from visiting family or friends elsewhere - I live in the north west so often combine a trip to Oakwell with a family visit. I almost always have a bag with me. What am I meant to do with it? This rule makes it very much more awkward to go to games. I'm a season ticket holder, but each thing they introduce that makes games less convenient makes it less likely that I'll renew for another year. Is anyone else really annoyed about this? If so, send them a message about it. Club is an absolute f####ng s###show. Sick of it.
I fully empathise with your situation. I travel a long distance to home games. If I travel by train I have a ruck sack. I am sure this is something the club is obliged to do as a result of the current "threat level". They did not search bags at the last home game before the level was increased.
I was thinking the same thing when I read it. As one of many long distance travellers, for the past 50 years in fact, I have ALWAYS had a small rucksack with me when attending home or away. They’re welcome to do a half-hearted search of my bag if they really must but I’m not going to start stuffing my pockets with everything I need. In my experience the random bag searching has always been a waste of time anyway. Token gesture, nothing more. Like “what’s in that packet, sir?”. My answer “a cheese sandwich”. “Oh, ok, thank you”. Pointless?
The cashless Oakwell gets me instead of offering more ways to pay to accommodate fans they are making it harder for some (yes maybe not loads) but some all the same to get services on offer. Seems to me as though there is a lack of trust in anyone who handles cash on behalf of the football club. I would hope the Supporters Trust would raise an objection to this.
Laura's mother was once pulled by police at Christmas. They asked her if she'd been drinking. She replied that she'd had a cup of tea before she set off. The Policeman wasn't amused.
Standard practice at Headingley for example but, as I said above, it’s a half-baked operation. They’re not trained to do it properly so why do it at all? You could argue that it’s just for show, that terrorists would see the operation and be put off risking it. A really big number of cricket fans go in with bags for all the day’s needs and even cold bags full of food and drink. Are we going to stop that? What I’d really like to see is proper searches of people carrying flares/smoke bombs into football grounds. They don’t seem to be able to stop that do they?
They've started searching bags at Pontefract Racecourse now. It's all to do with money. Me and Laura went with George. You're only allowed to consume their alcohol. The only way to get round it is to go in the Family Enclosure with someone who is driving because they don't search cars. Like I said earlier it's money making masquerading through current affairs.
This rule is ridiculous how do they expect me to bring all my pyrotechnics and class As into oakwell now
Problem is they dont want to search it they are banning you from taking in rucksacks full stop and only allowing bags the size of a medium size handbag in. Its really not very helpful to anyone travelling a distance on Public transport I really dont quite understand why a small rucksack say 20 litres or less is banned
For some reason BFC seem to be using the sledgehammer to crack a nut approach as their standard at the moment. Not sure why, presume it's just easiest.