I have just spoken with the club as I and two friends will be moving from E3 to the North stand. We can choose from N1, N2, N3 and N4 only. N5 and N6 will still be for away fans. As someone who has never seen the concourse under the North Stand, how are the home and away fans segragated now underneath the stand, is it a retractable/folding/hinged gate??? or a line of stewards???? I am assuming this could be "stowed away" to allow us to have the entire North stand when visiting teams only bring a small away following and are housed entirely in E1-E3 ????
That's exactly what I expect will happen, though it would be a bit handy if the club would actually confirm it. I've now idea how the segregation will work, but I'd assume it will be gated, rather than just having a line of stewards.
Since you've started a thread of north stand questions I'll ask one too. Will the team now run out to the north side of the pitch and attack the north stand second half, towards the vociferous end? I hope so, even though it doesn't directly affect me being in west stand.
If I manage to move over there I hope so too. If not they can keep it hew ya it bloody well is. I doubt it though.
I'm still slightly confused by the idea of 'walk-ups' being between the away fans and the former E1 lot. How is that a good idea?
I'm not clear on that either. I've tweeted the club to see if they'll clarify the situation in N6-N7 and which way the players will run out.
Away fans last year were allocated N4, N5, N6 and N7. Now they're only losing N4 but gaining E1, E2 and E3? I don't follow.
It is to be hoped the walk ups will not be delicate little things concerned by things like that but people who will be vociferous and get behind the team.
So, the big clubs will have fans in the North Stand as well as East Stand for the games we really want a good atmosphere and for the lesser clubs we will have walk ups? You really couldn't make this up.
That's probably why the walk-up's for the lesser games are only £16. And to be fair, even with the larger allocation they only get 1 1/2 blocks in the North, they're still in the corner.
It's all fine and well having the option - but I get the idea that walk-ups are often families/kids (even given away to schools/football teams etc.)? Experiencing atmosphere can be great - but being wedged between horrible people threatening each other, sometimes throwing things at each other etc... isn't particularly a nice experience for most people, never mind kids.
That is in line with what they showed me yesterday, thank fook as i thought i might have misread it given the comments on here
I also think it will mean away fans will get a lot more noise coming at them from both sides. I sit in E4 and there are still plenty of shouters, chanters and noise makes E4 to E7. Over time, the atmosphere should improve and it is much better having the away fans in the corner bits rather than taking up the whole of the North stand.
They use a solid metal gate to segregate the fans. People tend to bang on it and shout abuse at one another.
