Oh dear. About 1500 people caught up in absolute gridock at the usual pinchpoint. Factor in some dozy splitarse trying to drive through everyone (and getting dog's abuse), mouthbreathing inept stewards looking on, lots of angry shouting, a cameraman filming it all from the embankment and you get a recipe for angry chaos. How many years will it be before someone at the council realises it needs widening round there? This is not Top 10 city stuff at all.
It was just the driver causing the problem. Some posh bitch thinking the peasants should wait for her to get her car out. I would have wrote Indian too but someone would call that racist. Oops. God knows what the stewards thought they were doing, and why some bloke was filming it all on his iPad is beyond me. It doesn't need widening it iust needs cars to stop driving around the pedestrian area.
It was a proper camera, resting on the shoulder of an 'official' cameraman- was he Sky, BBC, ITV? The fact that our stupid cowardly police commander insists on an obstructing fence at the NE corner, forcing thousands of people to walk in the direction they don't want to go, doesn't of course help.
Coppers all the way from Cod down Anlaby Road to the KC pre-match chatting on OT with nowt to do, chaos outside the stadium after the game, handicapped people scared, women panicing, no coppers in sight, we pay their wages, when is someone going to sort out safe and efficient egress from the stadium?
1) Scrap "Cooper's Folly" fence behind NE corner 2) Re-landscape car park and embankments to gain extra 5 yards at least all round the ground. 3) Widen stairs and footbridge by 100 % over Hull-Scarbro line behind E Stand. You're welcome.
You're right Stuart, there is much for the owners of the stadium to do to bring it up to Premier League safety, hopefully todays debacle outside the SW corner will force it on to someones agenda. The stadium is too antiquated for holding matches like today's.
Antiquated? Isn't it (off the top of my head) the 3rd newest EPL stadium? You might argue it needs adapting and improving to match our current status, but it's not antiquated. I'm guessing its about 80 years younger than Anfield.
Anfield is over 100 years old. It needs some humility on behalf of the Corporation to admit their planning dept ****ed up the access. And to challenge the clowns at Humbs Police about that fence.
the fence is one of the biggest afronts to local civil rights at a football match for some time. just remember we pay!
Yes antiquated and no longer fit for purpose to hold Boxing Day Premier League football matches with Manchester United. How many more tickets could have been sold today, 10,000? and why compare it to the Anfield ****hole? Yes it was built just 11 years ago but for a 4th division sleeping giant by people with a Rugby Town mentality that thought 25,000 capacity was more than enough. We've outgrown it inside and outside.
We've only sold out two games this calendar year, that's not outgrowing a ground. Man City and Arsenal have outgrown their grounds, we most certainly haven't. Your right, we could have sold a further 10,000 tickets yesterday but we'd also have 10,000 empty seats at the game tomorrow, just because a few non-city fans want to watch us play the big teams doesn't mean we're too big for the KC anymore.
Outa curiosity, have these grievances, and suggestions of a solution been sent to the HCC, SMC or HPolice? If not, why not?
The debate about capacity is really seperate to this thread but all needs looking at along with such issues as safe standing. My point about the stadium being antiquated also relates to the surrounding egress into West Park, we've developed as a club as rapidly as mobile phone technology since 2002 and you would agree a Nokia 3310 is now antiquated? well so are the walkways around the whole ground and whilst the ownership of the KC remains with the council they have a duty to provide safe modern egress, what are their immediate improvement plans to ensure yesterdays crush isn't repeated ending in a Hillsborough/Runcorn situation?
We would get 32,000 plus every game if we did a quid a ticket offer what FC Gateshead do. The KC is to big for the little rugby team as it is so FC fans don't want it any bigger.
I hardly think what happened at Runcorn is in any way comparable to Hillsborough. There was no overcrowding for a start. Just a flimsy wall that couldn't cope with a few hundred fans pushing forward to celebrate.
Have a look at the number of Police in and around the Stadium on matchday. Have a look at what they're actually doing. Next time you get burgled or read about a shortage of resources, think about the man hours used on a football day that can't be used to fight crime. It wouldn't be as bad if they used them efficiently, but they just clutter up the narrow exits and walkways stood next to Stewards. . It's ironic that many football fans consider the main groups looking for trouble and therefore to avoid are the Police.
