MadStad steward watch 09/10

[Terminal Boardom]

To be fair to Reading FC and the thorny subject of standing visiting supporters, they did announce a few seasons back that the worst offending clubs ticket allocations would reduce year on year as some sort of punishment against said offending clubs.

[FLTLR]

Well I went to Peterborough, didn't have a ticket, paid cash on Turnstile (no ticket stub issued, clearly a potential Tax Dodge there by the 'Posh), and got into the match. Just got a rubbish 'pat-down' from the Stewards on the Turnstiles which would have found nothing. No ID shown, no questions asked.

Then got caught up in the crowd surges in the first half, hey that was SO scary!!! So in conclusion all terraces should be banned and match tickets should only be sold to known individuals in advance to avoid any such re-occurence of quite agreeable and a well run terrace. Obvious really. FLTLR has spoken.

[Row Z Royal]

FLTLR FLTLRRRRRRRRR
Wears specs and speaks sense
FLTLR

[handbags_harris]

So here's another solution. Tell visiting clubs whose supporters have caused problems in the past that they will now have to provide stewards and enforce the no standing rules themselves. They will then have similar effective sanctions to our own stewards i.e. the ability to deny the offenders entry to future home games at their own stadium. What's more, as the tickets are sold through the visiting club, they will also be able to track back through their own records after the game to identify offenders who they might not want to tackle there and then. Failure of visiting clubs to comply will result in tickets being refused for future fixtures.
.

How would that work ?

There isn't (as far as I am aware) any requirement for ticket sales to only be made to named individuals.

I don;t think you can expect the visiting club to have any records that identify exactly who bought every ticket, much less who used every ticket or who sat in which seat.

It's an unworkable suggestion, which doesn;t address the perceived problem.

Why not? Do RFC not have a system in place whereby, in the first instance, a ticket bought by an individual through the club is recorded onto their member card? It is merely an extension of that, and is not beyond the realms of possibility that the FA compulsarily include all 92 PL and FL clubs in a similar interconnected scheme. RFC introduced the Royalty Point system in 2004 with no major teething problems, and they introduced the smartcard system in 1999, again with very few teething problems. This extension wouldn't be a problem in my eyes as the infrastructure is already there in a lot of cases. As an initial rollout, maybe Premier League and Championship clubs would be a good place to start.

I would also like to point out that the Dutch have no problems with their system which is almost exactly what RoyalBlue describes.

[Sun Tzu]

AFAIK you can still buy a paper ticket for cash without having your name recorded.

You seem to be advocating a membership scheme. Which caused huge concern amongst fans when Thatcher tried to do it. I wouldnlt have thought you would be in favour of making every game in the entire league member only.

[Dirk Gently]

All you're actually recording is who bought a ticket for each seat (notwithstanding paper tickets).

So as well as getting stewards to enforce the unenforcable with standing, do you really also want them to be made to enforce the regulation that everyone sits in the exact seat they have a ticket for?

Why not get rid of the unenforcable rules and let the stewards concentrate on what they ought to be there for, which is ensuring safety.

[Jerry St Clair]

Why not get rid of the unenforcable rules and let the stewards concentrate on what they ought to be there for, which is ensuring safety.

Don't be silly, Dirk!

[Jerry St Clair]

A friend of mine has gone to Ipswich v Newcastle today. She is in the Bobby Robson lower tier which is only open to adult ticket holders who are allowed to stand during the game. This is absolutely the right way to do it. Give people choice.

[DelBoyRodders]

Pedantic steward in East Stand today.

An old bloke sat near my mum had a bottle of water under his seat today and took a swig out of it during the game. Steward spotted him and came over and confiscated the bottle top saying "You are not allowed to have bottle with tops on in here."

The said Steward then trotted off feeling pleased with himself, put the top in his pocket and made note of the incident in his little note book.

This is the same football club that then thought it acceptable and allowed for 2 giants footballs to be tossed into the East Stand crowd before the game so people could leap over each other to punch them in the air, knocking people over, giant balls then landing on people when they didn't expect it, people having their glasses broke.

[handbags_harris]

But you're not going to throw big footballs at the away fans are you

This post was brought to you in conjunction with the Devil's Advocate.

[Dirk Gently]

A friend of mine has gone to Ipswich v Newcastle today. She is in the Bobby Robson lower tier which is only open to adult ticket holders who are allowed to stand during the game. This is absolutely the right way to do it. Give people choice.

Agreed. but I bet the FLA don't know about that. Similar local "understandings" (e.g. at Leicester and Cardiff) have been jumped on once the FLA found out about them.

[RoyalBlue]

Pedantic steward in East Stand today.

An old bloke sat near my mum had a bottle of water under his seat today and took a swig out of it during the game. Steward spotted him and came over and confiscated the bottle top saying "You are not allowed to have bottle with tops on in here."

The said Steward then trotted off feeling pleased with himself, put the top in his pocket and made note of the incident in his little note book.

This is the same football club that then thought it acceptable and allowed for 2 giants footballs to be tossed into the East Stand crowd before the game so people could leap over each other to punch them in the air, knocking people over, giant balls then landing on people when they didn't expect it, people having their glasses broke.

We should have done what the stewards do when we bring our own inflatables - nicked them and let them down.

Also, I wonder what would have happened had any home supporters over-enthusiastically celebrated our goal by rushing towards the perimiter fence and, in doing so, breaking through the escape panel onto what is regarded as the playing area? For an accidental incursion it seemed to take a lot of tangoes and time to get the Watford supporters back to their seats.

[Jerry St Clair]

A friend of mine has gone to Ipswich v Newcastle today. She is in the Bobby Robson lower tier which is only open to adult ticket holders who are allowed to stand during the game. This is absolutely the right way to do it. Give people choice.

Agreed. but I bet the FLA don't know about that. Similar local "understandings" (e.g. at Leicester and Cardiff) have been jumped on once the FLA found out about them.

Do you mean a local understanding about, er, standing or selling tickets to adults only?

[Jerry St Clair]

As a matter of interest, are they still playing Tom Hark after goals?

[Big Foot]

Think the idiots around me were doing it as if natural yesterday

[Gordons Cumming]

As a matter of interest, are they still playing Tom Hark after goals?

Can't remember.

[Dirk Gently]

As a matter of interest, are they still playing Tom Hark after goals?

Yes, but a year ago local residents complained to the council about hearing it too often, so from Jan 2009 there's a limit to the number ot times it can be played - no more than once a match or 3 times from every 6 matches.

[Sarah Star]

"We don't need no health and safety,
We don't need no ground control,
We're just here to support the Boro
....Hey, stewards, leave our fans alone!"
To the tune of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall, sung at Boro-Reading as fans at the front were told to sit down. (Philip Gibbons, England).

from BBC's Sports Quotes of the Week

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/funny_o ... 290593.stm

[RoyalBlue]

Unless things start to improve on the pitch pretty soon, it's probably worth making a stand (pun intended).

Afterall, being banned from attending games at the Mad Stad could almost be viewed as a reward for defying the 'no standing' rule!

We haven't even been able to use the 'times of excitement' exemption since January this year.

[Matt de K]

I vote that we have a steward day. everyone buy a high vis vest, write "reading fc steward" on the back. buy a pen and pad and become a jobsworth for the day