Stop have history of saying "the final decision wasn't ours" after putting immense pressure on clubs to change kick offs. "You can play on Saturday but it will cost you 200,000 pound in police resources. Or you can play at 6am Sunday morning for free. Of course the final decision is yours though"
If we are unable to split the north stand when we are the only match in England then south Yorkshire police, the safety advisory group and the club should all hang their heads in shame and they should have the ******** to come out and explain exactly WHY they are unable to do so and who these decision makes are and what their input was. Quit with the pathetic cloak and daggers, vague statement **** and actually say something for once.
East Stand Tifo - it's simple, hold it above your ******* heads. That one in the Ponty read R E D seen as one end couldn't be arsed.
SYP I’d say. But, tbf, there has to be reasonable demand to open up that half too. With the EFL taking 50% of gate receipts, there is the absolute chance, that segregating could cost the club thousands. If they were guaranteed a minimum 2,000 fans, it might be worth it. But historically, we’ve not needed it, so they’re probably being cautious. Frustrating, but makes sense. You can lose maybe a few grand, but when if it goes into 5 figures, then questions have to be asked whether it’s worth it.
Id sooner have 6000 Bolton fans and a full stadium if we can't house home supporters there. For the life of me I can't understand the problem though, every other stadium in the country doesn't seem to have the same restrictions .
Other teams in the country don’t have to deal with South Yorkshire police. We haven’t been able to put the full 6000 in that stand for years due to perceived lack of concourse space - it’s a lot bloody bigger than some of the things you (at least used to) see at Anfield, Goodson Park etc. Wednesday, who obviously do share syp, have had a reduced away capacity this season. Though that does seem right.
It doesn't matter if it costs the club what is to be fair a relatively small amount of money in the short term if it gets new fans hooked. For example my neighbour isn't really a Barnsley fan but he usually asks about how we are doing etc. He was going to go on Friday with his wife and two young kids but by the time he'd decided there weren't four seats together anywhere and obviously he doesn't want to have his kids sat on their own. If they had gone and been hooked it was potentially 70 or 80 years of support.
South Yorkshire police allow Rotherham, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday to have much less segregation than us. I believe the main problem lies closer to home than that. Barnsley's safety advisory group, the group who have decided that a fan sitting in an aisle seat of the away end is a safety risk for disorder and so have banned it.
One difference to this game compared to the Portsmouth one (when the split stand was successful) it’s whats ridding on the game, either side winning would see wild celebrations that could spill over any barriers at the final whistle. Just guessing that’s the reason as it doesn’t make sense. If the police have the final say and there is no incentive for the police to say yes then we seem to be at the mercy of a few people who may not have Barnsley’s best interests but their own. It’s bonkers when you see packed Prem games having just an aisle of stewards separating fans in the capitol when multiple major events are taking place at the same time and there’s no local event going on around here. Im sure the club are disappointed, no business is happy losing money, I’ve been refreshing that seating map constantly for days, the demand was there for seats placed together, I’m not saying thousands none of us will ever know exactly how many, but once there was only a few seats together in each stand (Sunday night/Monday morning) the north stand opening a block would have been very popular. At that point in the sales loads of people would have given up and chosen to watch on TV rather than be sat apart, they’ll have missed those last tiny blocks opening in the upper West and lower east.
…on a more positive note it is fantastic that we’ve sold this many and the plans the club have for the night sound great. I believe the clubs done a great job and me and my family can’t wait for Friday, it’s just a shame others have missed out on what could be a memorable night.
We just won’t have enough staff - or even a realistic amount of time to get some and train them either. When we did it earlier in the season the east stand staff were available to man the north. Stewards, turnstiles, catering. It really isn’t that simple to get people in. If the fan base had actually backed the club and committed to tickets before waiting to see the result of the first game (the number of unsold season ticket seats was a disgrace), and we had got to this position of having no seats left last week with a full week to react, it may have been different. I have very little sympathy with anyone who hasn’t got a ticket for Friday who wanted one. The last few hundred hardly sold quickly over the last couple of days. Those waiting on the north stand opening made an assumption based on very little suggestion it would happen.
It was said at the football club meeting. SYP said it could be managed from their aspect. So that leaves chief safety officer, take up of demand in the timescale (looking at the map before saturday. Take up of seats looked poor to say the least with even season ticket holders holding off. Understandable imo. Especially given what happened to wendy. 4-0 down I dont think we'd have sold another ticket ) and/or finance. Or a combination of all 3. The reason to give 2k was based on trying to make Oakwell a cauldron. And intimidating for the away club. Without the guarantee of opening the North stand based on the above. I'm as disappointed as anyone that they have come to the decision not to open it. Let's see what what transpires in the aftermath.
300 per season ticket holder I'm told. à la liverpool fiasco. first to get served. those with a colchester stub.
Don’t know much about eticketing, how easy would it be for a Bolton fan to purchase tickets in the home end?
That makes sense, it’s a real shame isn’t it. The few hundred tickets your on about where mostly single seats, if your not planning to go alone then most people wouldn’t entertain it, I agree people could have committed before Saturday but there was also the fantastic marketing push by everyone associated with the club and town which will have reached fans who otherwise might not have considered going, this poster marketing didn’t start until after Saturdays game (I think?), so I am sure there were fans who looked for the first time at tickets at the point we’d only got mostly singles left. It feels like a huge missed opportunity which is why everyone’s up in arms about it, we all want the club to succeed and see more bums in seats at Oakwell. Either way it’s a fantastic turn out and will be a brilliant atmosphere, I don’t doubt that one bit.