Hope others agree that this important topic deserves it's own thread.
I know it's under active re-consideration as we speak. It really is important to get this one right.
Having away fans take up the whole North Stand has been crazy. So, yes, something has to change, especially given Acun's aim to significantly improve attendances. I'm sure he also wants to see a better atmosphere too; meaning 'hostile' but in a positive way.
IMO, moving away fans to the NE corner would be a HUGE mistake. It will definitely annoy a raft of our support, it's been tried before & it didn't really work, it splits the more 'hostile' support, etc.
Moving away fans to take say half of the West Upper is unfortunately not a viable option; the stadium design simply does not support that as an option.
Surely the best option by far is to firstly restrict the away support to nearer the minimum allowed (is it 10% which would be c; 2-2.5k, which is more than enough for most games anyway) then to move them to the NW corner. This would give the home support something like 3/4 (or minimum 2/3's) of the North Stand running around without a break into the East Stand. This whole run of North & East Stand is then the '(positively) hostile' support, SS remains family focussed, WS remains 'best' stand.
It would surely only take relatively minor structural and match day segregation changes to allow this move, and the issue would be finally solved once and for all. There would need to be moving / installation of a gate(s) and maybe a wall, behind North Stand to segregate from home support, and likely installation of additional away support facilities on the concourse - all relatively minor. Inside there would be only a few rows of segregation between away support and West / North Stand home support, properly stewarded / policed as they do at most other grounds.
Surely this is the obvious and best answer.
The club has to get it right this time.
I know it's under active re-consideration as we speak. It really is important to get this one right.
Having away fans take up the whole North Stand has been crazy. So, yes, something has to change, especially given Acun's aim to significantly improve attendances. I'm sure he also wants to see a better atmosphere too; meaning 'hostile' but in a positive way.
IMO, moving away fans to the NE corner would be a HUGE mistake. It will definitely annoy a raft of our support, it's been tried before & it didn't really work, it splits the more 'hostile' support, etc.
Moving away fans to take say half of the West Upper is unfortunately not a viable option; the stadium design simply does not support that as an option.
Surely the best option by far is to firstly restrict the away support to nearer the minimum allowed (is it 10% which would be c; 2-2.5k, which is more than enough for most games anyway) then to move them to the NW corner. This would give the home support something like 3/4 (or minimum 2/3's) of the North Stand running around without a break into the East Stand. This whole run of North & East Stand is then the '(positively) hostile' support, SS remains family focussed, WS remains 'best' stand.
It would surely only take relatively minor structural and match day segregation changes to allow this move, and the issue would be finally solved once and for all. There would need to be moving / installation of a gate(s) and maybe a wall, behind North Stand to segregate from home support, and likely installation of additional away support facilities on the concourse - all relatively minor. Inside there would be only a few rows of segregation between away support and West / North Stand home support, properly stewarded / policed as they do at most other grounds.
Surely this is the obvious and best answer.
The club has to get it right this time.
