Demo now on at the club, and on Sky Sports news. Link to BBC here http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26141427
Notice that the dignitaries who are attending the event won't be the ones using these rail seats How many football fans will be/have been invited
It is the ones you call "dignitaries" that will be responsible for the changes in legislation to allow standing at football in the top two tiers of English football. So it is logical that they come to see it! The current law is an "ASS" simply because at a football match, it is currently forbidden to stand, yet at a rugby union match in the same stadium with the same number of spectators, standing is permitted. The major obstacle to overcome is that fact: that the legislators in Britain perceive that standing is a hazardous thing to do at football but not at rugby or any other spectator sport!
Fair enough,but the builders will be building the two new stands and Bristol City fans were invited to the consultation
Why are football focus asking footballers about safe standing? what do they know? I used to like Dion Dublin but what an Arse!! when was the last time he stood up in a seated area of a football ground or didn't sit in "executive seating"? surely the same number of fans as could be seated would only be allowed into the standing areas so will not get more people in the ground. Hillsborough, Heysel, Ibrox were different circumstances. Where overcrowding/violence were part of the causes, those issues have been dealt with. Peopel are standing in areas where standing is not supposed to happen and clubs do bugger all about it. So rail seating would make it safer! Just my opinion.
We bash our club about lots of things, but for once this makes our club look like a progressive, forward thinking organisation that's willing to evolve. I'm proud that we are at the forefront of this initiative.
Its due to Bristol Sport and the rugby. Martin Giffiths of Bristol Sport and the rugby club wanted rugby fans to be given the option of standing. The rails seats will be just that for football - Seats. If Ashton Gate was to be solely a football stadium it would not be happening.
Do they still have the nonsense where you can have a beer in your seat at the rugby but not at the football?
No. Bristol Sport wanted rail seats in the front of the re-developed Dolman and Wedlock front so rugby fans would be close to the pitch. The City supporters trust intervened and asked quite reasonably to move the rail seating area to the rear of the Wedlock design as it was inevitable fans would stand at the rear and it made more sense. The head of Bristol Sport Martin Griffith agreed to this change. The Atyeo rail seats are a demo and will disappear at sonme point.. Note ...The Head of Bristol Sport may now have altered since the above.
Do you know if the new East end will be like the current one? that being we can sit/stand where we like?
I think a lot of you are missing the point here. 1, it is only compulsory to have an all seater stadium in the Premiership and Championship 2. This is the start of a progress that could take a year to 18 months to become allowed in the Premiership and Championship. We are not in the PREMIERSHIP or CHAMPIONSHIP and unless every team above us forfeits the chance of promotion won't be next season with the season after being the earliest to get into the Championship. So a year to 18 months. The newly built Wedlock won't be ready until the season after next so a year to 18 months. The seats being the last thing to be put into place so in 18 months time we might be in the Championship where it's a legal requirement but in 18 months it might not be.
Sorry no. That is not quite correct. Promoted sides have to adhere to that rule but also clubs like City who have spent three seasons in the championship prior to relegation. Once relegated City still had to have an officially all seater stadium, otherwise the seats in the Eastend could have come out seasons ago. If Yeovil are relegated after a season or two they can retain their terraces. If they remain in the Championship for three seasons they will have to become all seater, and remain so when relegated. Football improvement grants also are slanted towards to all seater stadiums. Silly, but rules they are.
As someone old enough to have stood on every terrace at AG over the years and as a regular visitor to the awesome Westfalen stadion, I welcome rail seating. For all the 'terrace' years I never had an accident at City but have broken my ribs in the all seated version when I fell over the seat in front (no, I was NOT pissed) only to land on the metal barrier at the front of the Dolman. Standing in seated areas is dangerous IMHO and (while I sympathise with the Hillsobrough victims families) I find the Liverpool attitude to rail seating rather contradictory. They don't want safe standing yet the whole Kop stand for every game in a seated area which is more dangerous! Am I missing something?
I have been giving safe standing my vocal support for a long while. Time to give back supporters a choice. Well done Bristol City. http://www.thisisanfield.com/2014/01/safe-standing--backing-standing-ban-harms-fight-justice/ It's not standing that is dangerous but the authorities and yellow jacket brigade who consistently lack common sense and the ability to think. I noted for the Fulham v Liverpool game yesterday, it was reported via twitter there was heavy crowd congestion outside the ground before kickoff and after kickoff. Looking at the pictures from last night, no lessons have been learned outside stadiums, while some will still wrongly focus inside the stadiums and standing as the problem. One day the truth will come out and the authorities not the supporters for once will be held to account. If it's safe for rugby why not football?
Choice is exactly the right word here. Obviously we would never go back to the days of open terracing, but this gives a sensible and safe alternative for those who want to stand
