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The Safety of Fans in the North Stand


6inarow said:
I think the echo must be on a gagging order by the club...'60 pictures of the crowd in the fantastic 2-1 win' was the headline I think
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The Echo is no more than a Comic, it might as well be renamed the Beano.
Johnson Pressed ruined a fantastic local paper when they closed the Echo Office and the Printing Press, then moved production down to Sheffield.
Hi fives and cigars all round for the department head who came up with that idea.
It is no more than the Sheffield Echo now with next to no links to the town.
 
Durhamish said:
Not really… follow the flare and work back?

Easy
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And what if the offender's face is obscured by the person in front of them? Or to the side of them? Especially at the time of a goal scored as people will be jumping around and arms in the air.

Or the camera was not covering the right area at the time.
 
tunstallhill said:
Thing is , the reality of the situation is that the away fans aren't being moved until at least the 24/25 season... It's not going to happen for next season... So we have the rest of this season plus all of next season, and it's 99% certain to happen again, several times , between now and the end of next season.

It can't possibly go on without eventually seriously hurting someone

What are the club hoping to achieve? They could have a net up by the start of next season at least it's something
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Spot-on
 
Haven't read all the thread so unsure if this has been posted..

from the Stoke forum.

Apr 12, 2023 at 10:18pm
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Post by Malcolm Clarke on Apr 12, 2023 at 10:18pm​

Many apologies for the delay in updating the Board about this matter. At their request I had a zoom meeting with the Sunderland Safety Officer and the Supporters Liaison Officer. The measures were introduced following problems with some clubs. Most significantly a child was injured by a vape thrown from the Burnley supporters. I was not given specific examples of injuries caused by coins or mobile phone chargers. I made all the points I have made in this thread, and those included in the emails. I said that I didn't think confiscation of vapes is a significant issue because they are not allowed in the ground anyway and are returned to their owners after the match. I was mainly concerned about the confiscation of coins.

When I asked about Fulham it emerged that the measures were not applied to Fulham and Luton because they are based on 'intelligence' about the visiting club. This means that the initial statement that they applied to all visiting clubs is incorrect, as is the statement that to take these items in is against the ground regulations - which it isn't. If it was, it would mean that there are different ground regulations for home and away fans.

Just over £200 in colins was taken from Stokies, and given to the Stoke City Community Trust. They will not be locating away fans anywhere else for various reasons, including predicted crowd flows when a new bridge over the river is built. It's difficult without detailed knowledge of the local geography to make an assessment about that, or how much it is really due to an unwillingness to spend the money it would cost, but it does mean that along with Newcastle, they will remain the only club to put all away fans above home fans.

Since the meeting further questions have arisen which I have put in the email below. I am due to meet them again when all the information I have asked for is to hand. I'm not giving up on this and may still take it to the Football Ombudsman.


Evening Chris

Are you still on track to provide the further information I requested ? After which we can meet again, as you suggested. I have two further questions.

1. In the Club statement it said that there had been "extensive consultation with local authorities". I therefore submitted a Freedom of Information request to Sunderland City Council to enable me to examine the information they hold about coin throwing by visiting supporters. They provided three sets of SAG minutes, the most recent of which was in 2020. It would therefore appear that the SAG has not discussed the measures introduced this season, which seems surprising. Was the "extensive consultation" with the City Council entirely verbal and outside the SAG meetings ? With whom was that consultation held ?

2. Steve (Neill) stated that the decision on which clubs to apply these measures to was based on intelligence ( he cited Luton and Fulham as two clubs which had not had the measures applied, which incidentally meant that the Club statement that they had been applied to "all visiting clubs" was incorrect) . I asked Stoke City whether they are aware of Stoke City away supporters throwing objects. They responded that there have been problems of fans throwing beer on away concourses but they are not aware of the throwing of coins or other objects from the seating deck itself. I would therefore be interested to have further details of the specific intelligence about Stoke City and who provided it.

Best regards

Malcolm
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tunstallhill said:
Thing is , the reality of the situation is that the away fans aren't being moved until at least the 24/25 season... It's not going to happen for next season... So we have the rest of this season plus all of next season, and it's 99% certain to happen again, several times , between now and the end of next season.

It can't possibly go on without eventually seriously hurting someone

What are the club hoping to achieve? They could have a net up by the start of next season at least it's something
Click to expand...

I think the club are genuinely concerned that if they put a net up, other clubs/supporters will complain and it will attract a huge amount of negative publicity. Eventually if the publicity is so bad, they will be forced to move the aways and will have to commit to spending £1m+ on sorting out the NEC.

It also wouldn’t surprise me that they are concerned that putting up a net would mean the away enclosure has a restricted view and therefore they will need to reduce the ticket price. Therefore rather than charging £29 a ticket, they have to charge £25 or something
 
Hank Scorpio said:
I think the club are genuinely concerned that if they put a net up, other clubs/supporters will complain and it will attract a huge amount of negative publicity. Eventually if the publicity is so bad, they will be forced to move the aways and will have to commit to spending £1m+ on sorting out the NEC.

It also wouldn’t surprise me that they are concerned that putting up a net would mean the away enclosure has a restricted view and therefore they will need to reduce the ticket price. Therefore rather than charging £29 a ticket, they have to charge £25 or something
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Would a gid big rectractable canopy above the back half of the North Stand lower not work?
 
Hank Scorpio said:
I think the club are genuinely concerned that if they put a net up, other clubs/supporters will complain and it will attract a huge amount of negative publicity. Eventually if the publicity is so bad, they will be forced to move the aways and will have to commit to spending £1m+ on sorting out the NEC.

It also wouldn’t surprise me that they are concerned that putting up a net would mean the away enclosure has a restricted view and therefore they will need to reduce the ticket price. Therefore rather than charging £29 a ticket, they have to charge £25 or something
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negative publicity doesn't over-ride not getting a safety certificate from the council and the coppers though

regardless of negative publicity, the club simply replies to it with evidence of the countless sets of fans that have basically risked killing someone with the things they've thrown. the club says they didn't want to do it but they have been forced in to it. can't move them cos of other concerns so a net is the only option. grow a set of balls. i couldn't give two fucks about negative publicity, almost every single decent human being would completely understand. or are they going to say 'booohooo my view has been slightly infringed, its not fair, take down the nets and let kids risk death'

totally agree with the point about the ticket price. but fuck them. we must not lose sight of the fact thats its (a minority) of away fans that have forced the clubs hand
 
tunstallhill said:
negative publicity doesn't over-ride not getting a safety certificate from the council and the coppers though

regardless of negative publicity, the club simply replies to it with evidence of the countless sets of fans that have basically risked killing someone with the things they've thrown. the club says they didn't want to do it but they have been forced in to it. can't move them cos of other concerns so a net is the only option. grow a set of balls. i couldn't give two fucks about negative publicity, almost every single decent human being would completely understand. or are they going to say 'booohooo my view has been slightly infringed, its not fair, take down the nets and let kids risk death'

totally agree with the point about the ticket price. but fuck them. we must not lose sight of the fact thats its (a minority) of away fans that have forced the clubs hand
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Don’t disagree. In fact I’d love to know what the safety committee will say tomorrow.

If something comes down on Tuesday, there will be hell on mind. A lot of folk near me are f***ing sick of it.
Father Jack Hackett said:
That far down? I didn't know that mate. Aye, not feasible then
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I’m sure something was posted on here that the club undertook a test to see how far objects could land if chucked from the north upper. Even from the back of the upper, they were landing in the lower bit of the north stand. Think some even made the pitch
 
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Hank Scorpio said:
Don’t disagree. In fact I’d love to know what the safety committee will say tomorrow.

If something comes down on Tuesday, there will be hell on mind. A lot of folk near me are f***ing sick of it.


I’m sure something was posted on here that the club undertook a test to see how far objects could land if chucked from the north upper. Even from the back of the upper, they were landing in the lower bit of the north stand. Think some even made the pitch
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Jesus. Imagine how much pace they'll gather coming down, if they're thrown with that force.
 
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