Why is coming to Barnsley Football Club now so unenjoyable?

My personal situation ... I travel 50 miles, I park on Pontefract Road, I walk to Beevor Court, I can't get through, the gates are shut, I climb (ha!) the muddy slimy bank through the detritus of years, through a gap in a metal fence which probably should have been repaired years ago, go through the turnstile into the depressing East Stand concourse, go for a wee, watch the match, half time coffee, come out depressed at the end, told I can't go down Beevor Court (I and many others did so recently without any fuss at all), slide my way back down Muddy Bank in the dark and back on to Pontefract Road.
The entire experience is so, so depressing. I now do not look forward to it, in fact I hate it, but I keep returning.
When is BFC going to realise that it is this sort of thing that drives people away. You would not expect this in modern times at an entertainment venue.
We are now treated as customers, not fans or supporters. My last 50-odd years has gone into following this lot and I'd like better please.
Or am I being too picky and should just accept the scraps being offered to me?

 

The fact is, fans are prepared to put up with all this crap. I don't know what the attendance was yesterday but the East Stand looked pretty full going by the Sky Sports reports. Whilever everyone is prepared to accept this treatment there will be no impetus on the part of the club or the Council to put it right. It's one of two things that has stopped me attending.

 

I blame the Cryne era. It didn't take them long to see what they could get away with. The club was then run according to that mantra.

 

Beevor Court is an emergency response point, I think this was done after the report into the Manchester Arena bombing and was included in the supporter information comms from the club yesterday:
https://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk/news/20232/january/access-bolton/

This isn't new, here is the comms from August 2021:
https://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk/news/2021/august/parking-at-oakwell-this-weekend/

Hope this helps.

 

I’m sure mr badger has seen that about Beevor Court - that hasn’t changed since last season - but until yesterday the gates have been open for pedestrian access all season. Every match.

Stewards after the previous two games said the gate had been closed so we couldn’t leave that way. They were lying. The gates were open.

However yesterday they were closed before the game and I assume after. Though there was an ambulance come through on blue lights a little after the game, came out as I got to Beevor court having walked down the car park and back up ponte rd after the game. I wasn’t trying to slide down the grass banking and get out through the fence as many going that way did, I fancied I’d fall over and do myself some damage, so had to go the long way round.

I understand they need to allocate a rendezvous point so I don’t blame the club for this but it does seem a bit odd to make everyone walk all way round, especially as they no longer leave the gates closed to cars exiting the south stand car park for five minutes after full time, meaning pedestrians and cars exiting to turn left are together down one narrow strip in front of the burger van. Seems an accident waiting to happen, especially in the dark.

I’m sure there are other football stadiums with little choice as to where to put an emergency response zone, which doesn’t restrict the use of a perfectly viable exit.

If it’s at police insistence then ok but surely they could find a way to allow exit that way as well, a re-jig of the layout maybe? They flattened a load of land at the back not so long ago and I’ve zero clue why as they’ve done nothing since.

 

From the August statement:

The Beevor Court entrance is now a designated emergency rendezvous point, meaning it closed on home matchday to all supporters, vehicles and pedestrians.

Until yesterday, the large double gate has been opened to allow pedestrian access at all times.

From the January statement:

The Beevor Court entrance is a designated emergency rendezvous point, meaning it closed on home matchdays to all supporters, vehicles and pedestrians. There is vehicle access for executive east stand car park pass holders up to 90 minutes before kick off and from 30 minutes after the final whistle only.

This is the first time the gates have been locked for pedestrians. I think the real reason is because some the executive car park holders have been leaving early and been allowed by the stewards to drive out of beever court, it has been left to the discretion of the stewards as to what time they can leave. I have witnessed drivers kicking off and driving around the barriers when the stewards have refused to allow them out.

However, as the gates consist of large double gates on the road and a single gate at the side for pedestrians - Why is this single gate not being used? Lock the double ones, problem solved.

Pedestrians can also still access that side of the stadium via the "mud slide" from Beevor Court and also from the fields which lead towards Monk Bretton.

It makes no sense whatsoever.

 

The club as been On a downward spiral since the charlatans bought the club . The only positive aspect I find is the reds in the community and the ticket office girls . Even though we are doing ok ish at the minute I’m always expecting something to go t1ts up

 

Don't close the Muddy Bank!!

 

Just make sure you stay away from the grassy knoll

 

It’s just crap. When my dads knee was knackered. We asked about using the lift as he was in pain going up the stairs & was told he couldn’t use it & to sit in the lower tier instead.

We can’t really park in the car park as for family reasons I have to get straight off after the match & can’t be sat waiting to get out ages.

I made it back in time with 2 minutes to spare yesterday but can’t really be chancing that every game. Might be an ifollow job next season.

I’ve never known a single issue with pedestrians using the Beevor Court exit. Like another poster has said just open the small gate on the foot path & people get through no problem.

I bet there’s the best part of a thousand who come via Hoyle Mill & barring a few weeks at the start & end of each season it’s not good walking over the fields

 

I dont know why they dont cone off the side of the road next to the offices use the car parks to Beevor Court 1 and 2 as Emergency vehicle meeting points and let the other side be access for pedestrians and East Stand car park . If there’s an emergency involving evacuation of fans from Oakwell surely they’d use Beevor Court to get fans away from the ground

 

Eager for some beaver.

 

Granted i do'nt come to Oakwell often, i'm more for the away day's, i agree it's like i've fallen out of love with Oakwell, i do attend but i choose the games, ie the ones that i think there'll be an atmosphere.

 

You shouldn't have to settle for what's on offer, and whilst the 'match day experience' could certainly be improved, I think you need to question whether you've got the fire for it any more. This isn't a dig or anything, but the day I find going to the football a chore, rather than the highlight of my week, that's the day I stop going. Even last season, I couldn't wait for Saturday. Going into town for a pint before, having a butty from the Sarnie shop at the bottom of Grove Street, walking to the ground with thousands of others, listening to the radio for reaction on the way home. I live for it all.

I understand how people have become disillusioned by it all. That's when you've to make the decision. I've said this before, the only time I've not enjoyed going to Oakwell was under Mark Robins, and had he not left, eventually I reckon I might have stopped going. That's the only time the fire started to go out for me weirdly. It coincided with a difficult time in my life too, but still, I found going to Oakwell a struggle.

 

The Mark Robins era was my most enjoyable as a paying supporter. I thought getting rid of him was a massive dropped bo lloc k and I've been proven right on several occasions.

 

I felt very little connection to the squad that we had under Robins. I found the football to be dire, and often thought Robins was lauded as a genius despite barely getting more points than Davey previously had, and actually fewer than Flicker did a couple of years later. He had more of a budget than any other manager from around that time, and threw his dummy out when he couldn't get more. I just found it a depressing time to be a fan. There was no excitement.

 

It is somewhat sinister that the Beevor Court gate has gone from being officially closed to all to now being open to the exec customers and their cars. So - it’s an emergency rendezvous point meaning we can’t use the gate due to safety - but executive patrons can now … as long as they go in before 1:30 and leave after about 5:30. Yeah ok. There’s no way they don’t allow them in after 1:30 if running late.

And there is no way they consistently made them wait thirty minutes either as cars had been filing past me and the boy a few times this season. And that was before they re clarified the rules officially. I was confused as I thought all vehicles in the east car park had to leave through the barrier via the south stand car park. I get it now. The folk in the dear seats moaned about not getting away quick enough so they relented.

Pedestrians and cars exited the east stand car park together for years - I used to have an east stand car park season ticket years ago when those were still a thing, wasn’t the cheapest but made getting in and away so much quicker and easier. If the south stand car park wasn’t such an absolute pain in the arse to get away from I’d use that now. As it is I park somewhere further down ponte road or occasionally in the disabled riding school.

There is an issue of inconveniencing normal fans pretending it’s for one reason when it isn’t really - but they are also costing themselves money.

People just won’t come, the op attests to this, and the wasted land in and around the east stand car park could be readily utilised for parking but people won’t use it if they have to exit via the south.

I’m sure it isn’t beyond the realms of all possibility to be able to utilise all the land as parking, let the back gate via Beevor court be used and let people walk in and out that way as well. They might well need an emergency rendezvous point - but they could do something. There is no will though - as the assumption is we will just suck it up, have a whinge but still come next game anyway.

The op mentions we are being treated as customers, not fans or supporters. I differ here. Businesses at least look after their customers, and act to attract them. They don’t proactively put barriers and inconveniences in place to make their product less attractive overall.

We aren’t treated as customers, we are treated as a commodity - almost like we are an income source that they can afford to take advantage of. There seems to be very little done with the supporters at the front of the priority queue. It isn’t just a drop to league one that leads to under 10k home supporters.

All this said, any funds which might have been allocated to supporter experience will likely be spent on club fines for the behaviour of the neanderthalic minority so we can’t be too surprised.

 

We certainly got the excitement under Hill and Flitcroft, then subsequent relegation under Wilson in 2014.

 

I agree it would be great to rendezvous round the back for some beaver.