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The Safety of Fans in the North Stand


Chewit said:
Again you are missing the real issue here, your observations are merely organisational challenges.
Just to deal with your point, how do you think Everton and the like in old stadiums have managed to cater for away fans when there is clearly all the issues you point out there.
Why do Newcastle not have a problem with missiles?
Why are we talking about all this for only two clubs. Ban the bastards for 5 years as a club from our ground. It only takes the police and local authorities to insist on it for the FA to have to accept it
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yes, each ground has its own unique logistical problems for that particular club to deal with. i won't argue with that.

but we are only talking about SAFC here. so the repeated demands of 'move the away fans downstairs' needs to be weighed up against what we currently have, and what we could end up with. and like i said, moving them downstairs solves one problem, kind of, but introduces a whole host of other problems. it needs to be addressed with bigger picture in mind.

totally agree, my first response by the club would be today, release a statement saying that due to the conentry fans behaviour they will not be allocated any tickets for away fans next time we play each other, unless the culprit is named. its a positive move and something that can be done today. it will encourage the coventry fans to grass him up, and also serve as a warning to any other fans that this is what will happen

obvoiously, it will cost safc money when it comes to us playing them again (2000x ticket money and food+drink spends) but that is a cost that SAFC are going to have to soak up. or, they put a net up, get better cctv, employ more security etc.. all of which comes with costs. but they are going to have to do something

moving the fans downstairs should be the last resort. if the club do it, it proves to me that the people in charge are thick as fuck. it will create an never ending cycle of other problems.

they've been upstairs for over 10 years, and other than coventry, i can only think of one or two other times that things have been chucked over. other than that, the away end is ideally situated. there is rarely any trouble outside the ground compared to when the away fans were in the south stand
 
tunstallhill said:
well, that is absolute bollocks and a myth that gets repeated over and over till it becomes true. it wasn't the case back then and it never will be the case

we had the SWC, about 2000 sunderland fans maximum making any noise, and regularly away fans of over 3000 in numbers outsinging the entire SOL. people just think that 'any chanting' equals atmosphere. not really the case when the chanting is coming from leeds fans or man united fans, completely outsinging 40,000 sunderland fans. that is what actaully happened regularly . i had a ST in the swc the entire time.

its 100x better now
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The atmosphere yesterday was dire.

Think like most people have said the display seemed to take the wind out of everyone’s sails but apart from after the goal there was nowt.

We should use the north stand & north stand upper as the singing section this solves both the away fan issue and reclocating the ST holders in the south stand
 
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riffraff said:
“Every single person” isn’t employed by the club to sort problems out.
When Shorts regime moved them upstairs the dangers were pointed out on here immediately. It’s still going on. If someone wants to own a football club they need to be prepared to make decisions and spend money. We are now three regimes into this move and there’s still a shocking reluctance to face up to responsibilities by each of them. The council have given a safety licence to the SOL all the way through this move and the various ownership changes.
As usual SAFC take the cheap option and the council keep their heeds down.Theres not just the Cov idiots coming out of this badly.
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yeah, and neither am i employed to sort these things out, but i'm not stamping my feet demanding that the away end is moved downstairs without first thinking it through. no one else is thinking it through. no one can come up with suitable solution that involves moving them downstairs. it creates more problems than it solves, thats all i'm saying. i've already listed 4 or 5 things that the club could do right now, for this season, that would pretty much put an end to this missile throwing, without having to move the away end or inconvenience safc fans.

i'm still waiting for anyone to come up with a suitable suggestion for where we put a 3000-5000 seat block in the lower bowl for away fans?
Superkenwynejones said:
The atmosphere yesterday was dire.

Think like most people have said the display seemed to take the wind out of everyone’s sails but apart from after the goal there was nowt
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it was quiet. its been dire on many many occasions over the past 7 years, mostly becuase we've spent the past 7 years being utter shite. no idea why it was poor yesterday but it had fuck all to do with not having an away end close by to point at and goad
 
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Hank Scorpio said:
Unless fan groups act, the club will do nothing. The club couldn’t even be arsed to make a statement after the match ffs

We have to be the worst club in Britain for not speaking up on behalf of our own fan base. It’s almost like they don’t want to acknowledge the problem as they will then have to deal with it
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Sadly I think that when an issue is fan-related and difficult or controversial the club tend to shy away from acting on it (or at least, they shy away from telling the fans they're acting on it).

It's one thing to sit in fans liaison meetings and promise better ticketing policies or a planned change in beer suppliers but it's something else to get on the phone to the EFL and another club and tell them you won't accept your fans being put in danger by unacceptable behaviour from others.

For our part, we need to start making more noise about it generally and not just accept bland platitudes that aren't then followed up.
 
Just had a reply to the email I sent in hopefully gets addressed like he’s stated…….


Thank you for your e-mail.

Firstly, my sincere apologies for the experience you and your two young children endured yesterday.

We had put in place an enhanced security operation yesterday which clearly was not good enough. I am particularly disappointed at the response of stewards in the north lower stand which was not in accordance with their training and briefings. These are issues which I will be addressing in advance of our next home match.

I will be meeting with both senior management and supporter representatives to review other options available to better protect our supporters.

Once again, my personal apologies to you and your family. I am happy to discuss over the phone if you wish to do so.

Regards
Steve
 
tunstallhill said:
yeah, and neither am i employed to sort these things out, but i'm not stamping my feet demanding that the away end is moved downstairs without first thinking it through. no one else is thinking it through. no one can come up with suitable solution that involves moving them downstairs. it creates more problems than it solves, thats all i'm saying. i've already listed 4 or 5 things that the club could do right now, for this season, that would pretty much put an end to this missile throwing, without having to move the away end or inconvenience safc fans.

i'm still waiting for anyone to come up with a suitable suggestion for where we put a 3000-5000 seat block in the lower bowl for away fans?


it was quiet. its been dire on many many occasions over the past 7 years, mostly becuase we've spent the past 7 years being utter shite. no idea why it was poor yesterday but it had fuck all to do with not having an away end close by to point at and goad
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you no idea why it was poor yesterday, 12 noon kick off too many people with not enough beer down their neck.
 
Chewit said:
After the missile incident I watched hundreds of people looking up there whole day ruined. I saw families fleeing for the exit so not to expose their kids to exactly the thought you had
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Yep. After the smoke bomb everyone was looking up and you could see folk were pissed off that it happened again.

I personally witnessed at least two other objects that were thrown from the away in addition to the smoke bomb and glass bottle
 
the sleeping giant said:
Sadly I think that when an issue is fan-related and difficult or controversial the club tend to shy away from acting on it (or at least, they shy away from telling the fans they're acting on it).

It's one thing to sit in fans liaison meetings and promise better ticketing policies or a planned change in beer suppliers but it's something else to get on the phone to the EFL and another club and tell them you won't accept your fans being put in danger by unacceptable behaviour from others.

For our part, we need to start making more noise about it generally and not just accept bland platitudes that aren't then followed up.
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agree, the fans groups need to be pushing this and brining it up all the time (along with the ticket office debacle) but we need to be careful what we wish for. going to the club complaining about something is one thing, but if we go to them with solutions to the problem, it has much more chance of getting listened to.

the club know if they move the away end downstairs they are creating a shitstorm for themselves, and they'll avoid it at all costs. however, they need to be doing something about coventry fans hoying glass bottles down. so ban coventry fans for the next game. release a press statement encouraging them to hand in the culprit. put up better CCTV and employ people to monitor them properly. employ more security guards, not just stewards, to properly search people on the way in. a proper search shouldn't allow a smoke bomb or a glass bottle to be smuggled in. employ more stewards and coppers. theres loads of things that they can do, immediately, to start sorting this out. put a giant net up for one

i don't think they club actually employ people at upper management level who are smart enough to work this out
Superkenwynejones said:
Just had a reply to the email I sent in hopefully gets addressed like he’s stated…….


Thank you for your e-mail.

Firstly, my sincere apologies for the experience you and your two young children endured yesterday.

We had put in place an enhanced security operation yesterday which clearly was not good enough. I am particularly disappointed at the response of stewards in the north lower stand which was not in accordance with their training and briefings. These are issues which I will be addressing in advance of our next home match.

I will be meeting with both senior management and supporter representatives to review other options available to better protect our supporters.

Once again, my personal apologies to you and your family. I am happy to discuss over the phone if you wish to do so.

Regards
Steve
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not really sure what the stewards in the north stand lower have got to do with it? are they expected to catch the bottles or catch them on the volley and return them to the away end?

its the security arrangements in the away end that is the problem
Hmmmmmm returns said:
Move the away fans back to the lower bowl. It’s quite simple. Will improve safety and the atmosphere.
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where to in the lower bowl? do you think being in a lower bowl makes a dickhead who will throw a glass bottle into a crowd turn into a dickhead that won't throw a glass bottle into a crowd?
 
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CovLad7 said:
Not all of us are *****,it’s embarrassing that some of our fans find that okay. Takes away from what was an alright game of football
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If you were there did you notify your clubs stewards that such stuff was going on? Pointed them out?
 
tunstallhill said:
not really sure what the stewards in the north stand lower have got to do with it? are they expected to catch the bottles or catch them on the volley and return them to the away end?

its the security arrangements in the away end that is the problem
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:lol:

This. It's the upper tiee stewards need to get their fingers out of arses and start doing their job.
 
tunstallhill said:
yes, each ground has its own unique logistical problems for that particular club to deal with. i won't argue with that.

but we are only talking about SAFC here. so the repeated demands of 'move the away fans downstairs' needs to be weighed up against what we currently have, and what we could end up with. and like i said, moving them downstairs solves one problem, kind of, but introduces a whole host of other problems. it needs to be addressed with bigger picture in mind.

totally agree, my first response by the club would be today, release a statement saying that due to the conentry fans behaviour they will not be allocated any tickets for away fans next time we play each other, unless the culprit is named. its a positive move and something that can be done today. it will encourage the coventry fans to grass him up, and also serve as a warning to any other fans that this is what will happen

obvoiously, it will cost safc money when it comes to us playing them again (2000x ticket money and food+drink spends) but that is a cost that SAFC are going to have to soak up. or, they put a net up, get better cctv, employ more security etc.. all of which comes with costs. but they are going to have to do something

moving the fans downstairs should be the last resort. if the club do it, it proves to me that the people in charge are thick as fuck. it will create an never ending cycle of other problems.

they've been upstairs for over 10 years, and other than coventry, i can only think of one or two other times that things have been chucked over. other than that, the away end is ideally situated. there is rarely any trouble outside the ground compared to when the away fans were in the south stand
Click to expand...

The true consequential cost will come in lost Sunderland fans
 
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