Standing in the North Stand

[m20gull]

As a persistent stander, not in the back 4 rows, of the North Stand I do understand what the issue is and what is allowed or tolerated. What the club need to do is be intelligent and understanding rather than heavy-handed or belligerent.

Standing is not unsafe. If it was then the no-standing regulation would be enforced everywhere in every ground, which it simply is not. The reason clubs choose to enforce it only in the home stands is because they can. They can take your season ticket away or ban you, which they will not do for the away fans. That is simply bullying, picking on someone becuase you have more power than they do. That is never going to feel good when you are the one being bullied and that is why it turns in to a contest.

Fans in front of me stand, fans behind me stand and I have not so far been asked to sit down. When I am asked I sit down when I go to away games and am not going to be less reasonable at the Amex.

 

[Jack Daniels]

Some people walk into schools and shoot all the pupils. Does that make it ok then? Because some people do it?

Very very poor. This should be deleted. Can't believe you could post this as a comparison.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Very very poor. This should be deleted. Can't believe you could post this as a comparison.

Yes, very crass, a stupid comparison. However, to be fair to him, I believe that this post was made before the dreadful events in Conneticut.

 

[Eurobound]

For a number of reasons, I''m pretty sure that standing in the North Stand will be a subject of discussion after tomorrow's game again, so please...

- Don't do anything that will jeopardise your ability to carry on supporting the Albion. You may want to stand up all the time, but I bet you want to be able to come to every Albion game more.

- Respect the stewards should they speak to you. They are just doing a job. They may or may not like aspects of their job any more than you do.

- Don't look to agitate. "Stand up if you hate Palace" every time stewards are asking people to be seated isn't particularly big, clever or funny.

(You may think I'm a twat for writing this but, primarily, I don't want people getting chucked out and/or missing games if it can be avoided.)

You get kicked out and Banned even if you dont start an anti standing song, and even if you dont swear at stewards

Wonder how many more ejections and bans tomorrow

Anyone know history- fascist dictatorships and stormtroopers come to mind!

FOREVER SEAGULLS!!!

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

Tomorrow i will be doing what i usually do as i havent been asked to sit by a steward at all, however, now the club has FINALLY cleared it up, if im asked to sit - i will do so providing the people in front of me do. I dont fancy being thrown out and banned.

Happy its about time the club communicated with its fans/customers about something.

 

[Jeep]

Maybe just me, but I love sitting in my seat.

 

[TheMajor]

Maybe just me, but I love sitting in my seat.

I'm with you on that. Seems like double entertainment tomorrow - on & off the pitch. Who needs Gullys Girls?

 

[JBizzleBeard]

Maybe just me, but I love sitting in my seat.

Not just you. I also love sitting on my arse watching the footie at the Amex.

 

[Garage_Doors]

So how do the club define the word "Persistant" then ?
Twenty seconds ? One minute ? During the singing of GOSBTS Perhaps when the team first comes out ?
When we celebrate a goal at our end for a couple of minutes ??

Do you celebrate a goal for 2 minutes

 

[beorhthelm]

Fair point, however the club need to tell the supporters what their policy is now... agreed?

i imagine their policy is to observe the law so as to avoid sanctions such as reduced capacity or playing behind closed doors (i believe thats a possiblity). i dont understand why fans see this as a war with the stewards/club, instead accept the fact they have to be seen to do something, then go back to the regular turn a blind eye procedure.

 

[chrissyboy01]

i imagine their policy is to observe the law so as to avoid sanctions such as reduced capacity or playing behind closed doors (i believe thats a possiblity). i dont understand why fans see this as a war with the stewards/club, instead accept the fact they have to be seen to do something, then go back to the regular turn a blind eye procedure.

Believe it or not, tolerance on standing in the NS will be decided by the weather tomorrow.

 

[Hyperion]

Believe it or not, tolerance on standing in the NS will be decided by the weather tomorrow.

Utter drivel

 

[chrissyboy01]

Utter drivel

Not so, according to a certain rotund steward that has graced the NS of late, standing during the Bolton game was tolerated due to the rain = wet seats. No joke

 

[drew]

The nub of the issue is the undeniable fact that you are allowed to stand for ninety minutes despite the existence of regulations saying you can't. That is the de facto situation. I don't really want to get into a semantic argument as to whether the stewards 'allow' it or 'tolerate' it, I quite accept that it is against the arcane regulations.


You 'hate to break it to me' because you're wrong, I'm not using the same reasoning. You're applying a Reductio ad absurdum argument and I'm not.

You are not allowed to stand for 90 minutes. It might not be in breach of a criminal law but you are in breach of ground regulations which form part of the contract between you and the club when you purchased your ticket. The club have the right to eject you. In hindsight, the club would have been better off not suggesting there would be a more tolerant approach when the original presentations took place.

As a persistent stander, not in the back 4 rows, of the North Stand I do understand what the issue is and what is allowed or tolerated. What the club need to do is be intelligent and understanding rather than heavy-handed or belligerent. what about the supporters being intelligent and understanding. Fact is there are fans who won't compromise, they just want to stand for 90 minutes.

Standing is not unsafe. If it was then the no-standing regulation would be enforced everywhere in every ground, which it simply is not. The reason clubs choose to enforce it only in the home stands is because they can. They can take your season ticket away or ban you, which they will not do for the away fans. That is simply bullying, picking on someone becuase you have more power than they do. That is never going to feel good when you are the one being bullied and that is why it turns in to a contest.

Fans in front of me stand, fans behind me stand and I have not so far been asked to sit down. When I am asked I sit down when I go to away games and am not going to be less reasonable at the Amex.

For those of you that want to stand, do you think the legislation is more likely to change with protests or dialogue?

 

[Chicken Runner61]

Sitting down at football matches has very little to do with safety - its so a face can be traced to the name on the seat. Standing makes that difficult to monitor, people are more likely to stand in a seat position that isn't theirs; having people sit makes them more likely to use their real seat.

Tracking people is easy in full grounds as again it forces people into their right seats, Empty seats and stands, low crowds mean that people will sit anywhere and that means they are harder to trace and thats why they don't force lower divisions to sit because, well with no one in the stand you will sit where you want!

And thats also why they don't force away fans to sit, no information on those fans so if they sit or stand it makes no difference.

 

[Lurker]

Sitting down at football matches has very little to do with safety - its so a face can be traced to the name on the seat. Standing makes that difficult to monitor, people are more likely to stand in a seat position that isn't theirs; having people sit makes them more likely to use their real seat.

Tracking people is easy in full grounds as again it forces people into their right seats, Empty seats and stands, low crowds mean that people will sit anywhere and that means they are harder to trace and thats why they don't force lower divisions to sit because, well with no one in the stand you will sit where you want!

And thats also why they don't force away fans to sit, no information on those fans so if they sit or stand it makes no difference.

There is some tough competition within this thread, but you win the prize for the most ridiculous post so far.

Sitting down at football is enforced for the principal reason of enabling easy identification via CCTV for the authorities?

Absolute bollocks.

That might be a fortunate by-product for the powers that be, but to suggest it's the main driver behind the imposition of all seater stadia is absurd and suggests you have a very very short memory.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

i imagine their policy is to observe the law so as to avoid sanctions such as reduced capacity or playing behind closed doors (i believe thats a possiblity). i dont understand why fans see this as a war with the stewards/club, instead accept the fact they have to be seen to do something, then go back to the regular turn a blind eye procedure.

I live in the WSU so it doesn't really affect me. I get out of my seat when Will Buckley gives me reason to, I'd do it for this Vicente bloke to I think. From reading various threads and posts I don't believe it is against the law to stand up, like you can't end up in court for standing at footy... I may be wrong. I don't really care if they can sit or stand, I really don't... what worries me is the lack of communication between the club and it's 'cash cows' ... I think they should tell us?

 

[m20gull]

Tough one. Protest is valid but only when reasonable dialogue fails. The safe standing campaign will succeed because there is no logic. If standing is unsafe then it's as unsafe at Portsmouth v Swindon as Brighton v Forest. Or Dortmund v Schalke. And surely it is more unsafe to tolerate standing during periods of excitement than during the long boring bits of a game. I am happy for the club to say it is all about keeping revenue up by maintaining the safety certificate, that is being honest. But do it everywhere - back four rows of the North included.

 

[Lethargic]

I live in the WSU so it doesn't really affect me. I get out of my seat when Will Buckley gives me reason to, I'd do it for this Vicente bloke to I think. From reading various threads and posts I don't believe it is against the law to stand up, like you can't end up in court for standing at footy... I may be wrong. I don't really care if they can sit or stand, I really don't... what worries me is the lack of communication between the club and it's 'cash cows' ... I think they should tell us?

I am no lawyer but its my belief that its against the law for you not to use a seat that has been provided therefore standing is not directly the offence but it is a consequence of the law. I think it is the club that is responsible for enforcing this and therefore legally liable and as a consequence the club will enforce bans, expulsions, etc to get you to comply. Rightly or wrongly the law is there and the club have to follow or lose money (there's a theme these days) but I do agree that this should be equally enforced across all grounds for home and away.