Standing

[QPR_Matt]

I have noticed more and more clubs have massive standing sections at their grounds now. Forest have it by the away fans, so a good half a stand of standing. Ipswich have it behind their goal, to the left as you look out from the camera. Leeds stand at both ends behind the goals, and so on.

I know there has been a lot of talk about safe standing and that coming in, but that is years away so a bit irrelevant.

At QPR, our stewards are bastards, and they throw you out if you are standing, other than in one section and even then they try to chuck us out every game. Yet, they let the away fans stand all game.

How does your club tackle the standing issue? Do they say "if you purchase tickets here then you will be standing" or anything alone those lines?

We have recently started saying "If you want to be in the liveliest section the get tickets in blocks Q upper, Q lower and R block".

 

[Bully306]

The South Bank at Molineux stands every game, everyone knows this is the end you go if you like to stand and sing so the club don't need to make a point of it.

They went through a stage a few years back of trying to tackle it after pressure from the council but they were never serious about it and gave up in the end.

If there was ever to be 'safe standing' at Molineux I'm sure this is the area it would be implemented.

 

[MagpieBee]

I do love having a terrace...

I would imagine that once we move to a new stadium, while the club can't condone "standing" in seating areas, they will suggest something along the lines of "those who used to have tickets in the Ealing Road Terrace would be advised to get their new tickets in X area", and that'll become our default standing area!

 

[KevinMcallister]

leeds don't have standing sections persay, the stewards just can't get them to sit down

 

[Another Walkley Owl]

Sadly, but for obvious reasons, don't think we will ever have a standing area again. People do stand on both the kop and north stand but rumour has it the club are about to try and clamp down on fans that stand up. Sad as I love terraces but if were to have them and have anything happen on them the repercussions would be never ending.

 

[Ossie]

The South stand at Derby is commonly known as the standing section. Some towards the front will sit, but the majority stand and the club are relaxed about it. We used to stand in the south east corner before they moved the away fans into there and the stewards used to walk up and down asking people to sit, but people would laugh at them and they never tried to seriously enforce the rules.

 

[mnb089mnb]

Sadly, but for obvious reasons, don't think we will ever have a standing area again.

The obvious reason is "money" more than anything. If clubs spent £ on installing standing areas fans would expect cheaper tickets. That wouldn't happen.

 

[Ciderup]

I do love having a terrace...

I would imagine that once we move to a new stadium, while the club can't condone "standing" in seating areas, they will suggest something along the lines of "those who used to have tickets in the Ealing Road Terrace would be advised to get their new tickets in X area", and that'll become our default standing area!

I'm not sure you'll be able to do that MB. Our new stands do NOT allow standing due to the rake of the stands. The only stand at our place where standing is condoned, rather than allowed, is the old Atyeo stand (built 1994) which has a lower rake. I would imagine your new stands will be similar in angle to our new ones where standing is still illegal. Our fans have asked to change this but the football safety group (FSG) are adamant it's too steep to stand and force the club to enforce that.

 

[MagpieBee]

I'm not sure you'll be able to do that MB. Our new stands do NOT allow standing due to the rake of the stands. The only stand at our place where standing is condoned, rather than allowed, is the old Atyeo stand (built 1994) which has a lower rake. I would imagine your new stands will be similar in angle to our new ones where standing is still illegal. Our fans have asked to change this but the football safety group (FSG) are adamant it's too steep to stand and force the club to enforce that.

Well, maybe not. The club have said that the stadium is being designed with certain areas in mind for fans to be able to do safe standing in. I'm guessing if there are seats in those areas it'll be at a pretty low rake.

I guess there's more incentive for our club to do it given a lot of the fans stand already.

 

[Ciderup]

Well, maybe not. The club have said that the stadium is being designed with certain areas in mind for fans to be able to do safe standing in. I'm guessing if there are seats in those areas it'll be at a pretty low rake.

I guess there's more incentive for our club to do it given a lot of the fans stand already.

Parts of ours has been built with safe standing in mind as well but safe standing and standing in seated areas are, obviously, totally different. I don't understand why it's not already here as standing in seated areas can be plain dangerous as my ribs can verify when I fell over a seat (huge bloke next to me when we scored and I bounced over a row of seats on to a metal post) years ago.
The problem with building with less of a rake is that the view is crap if you stay sat down. It's a no win situation at the moment unless safe standing is allowed.
We applied to use it during our rebuild but were turned down, I have no doubt you will / already have done the same. All you can do, legally, as we did, is to build with the intention of replacing seats with safe standing rails. What a waste of money that is!
After many trips to Germany, i can tell you that safe standing is totally safe unless you're about 11 feet tall, you cannot fall over the rail.
It's a stupid law, made for the right reasons which have now been disproven. Just bring it in.

 

[Another Walkley Owl]

The obvious reason is "money" more than anything. If clubs spent £ on installing standing areas fans would expect cheaper tickets. That wouldn't happen.

At Hillsborough that's not the obvious reason. It is a valid point though, too much of football is about money nowadays, not sure many clubs really care about the fans who turn up every week. Most would be happy to play in an empty stadium as long as they received revenue from Tv, sponsors etc.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Our current Dean Court is 13 years old now. For the first few years or so, there was a big effort to enforce sitting in all areas with much aggro resulting. Moving to all seater from mostly standing, the club felt the need to 're-educate' for a period. As time has gone on, the unspoken rule has arisen that in certain sections of the North Stand behind the goal, where it's all season tickets anyway so the same people every week, standing is fine. Elsewhere you sit.

Away games is where it gets interesting, as the club sells tickets in the allocation fairly randomly and you'll always get people who want to stand with allocated seat towards the front and older chaps who want to sit with an allocated seat towards the back. Chaos normally ensues. Some people just don't comprehend the idea of using the ticket to get in and then just going in the area of the stand that best suits you and finding a space. There's always a few who stubbornly want to use the allocated seat towards the top but want to sit down.

 

[SMH]

The block directly next to the away fans and the top five or so rows of the block next to it is basically safe standing in all but name down at our gaff. I've never encountered any stewards ever asking anyone to sit down in that section. The club also advertise those blocks as the place to "get behind the lads".

Away from home it's pretty much the unwritten rule within away fans that applies to us. Ignore your allocated seat, if you want to sit down find somewhere at the front, if you want to stand go towards the back.

 

[QPR_Matt]

Our current Dean Court is 13 years old now. For the first few years or so, there was a big effort to enforce sitting in all areas with much aggro resulting. Moving to all seater from mostly standing, the club felt the need to 're-educate' for a period. As time has gone on, the unspoken rule has arisen that in certain sections of the North Stand behind the goal, where it's all season tickets anyway so the same people every week, standing is fine. Elsewhere you sit.

Away games is where it gets interesting, as the club sells tickets in the allocation fairly randomly and you'll always get people who want to stand with allocated seat towards the front and older chaps who want to sit with an allocated seat towards the back. Chaos normally ensues. Some people just don't comprehend the idea of using the ticket to get in and then just going in the area of the stand that best suits you and finding a space. There's always a few who stubbornly want to use the allocated seat towards the top but want to sit down.

What normally happens? At QPR, it seems that the sitting minority win, unless you are drunk enough to tell them where to go.

I remember Fulham coming to QPR and there were 2 people that were sat down, about midway up the top tier, and they kept arguing with the bloke in front to sit down. I could see that this bloke was pointing to the empty seats to go sit there, as everyone else is standing - the standing men won that one.

 

[Ciderup]

What normally happens? At QPR, it seems that the sitting minority win, unless you are drunk enough to tell them where to go.

I remember Fulham coming to QPR and there were 2 people that were sat down, about midway up the top tier, and they kept arguing with the bloke in front to sit down. I could see that this bloke was pointing to the empty seats to go sit there, as everyone else is standing - the standing men won that one.

Some people just like being bloody awkward Matt.
I didn't know my Mrs supported Fulham.