Safe Standing

Interesting read . Editors note at the bottom sums things up nicely .

In my opinion, the re-introduction of terraced areas will go a long way to handing the game back to proper supporters – offering affordable, atmospheric areas to modern-day football. The sport will become more accessible again to people of all ages and incomes.

Recent research has shown that the average age of a Premier League fan (that attends matches) is 43, so more needs to be done to get the younger generations through the turnstiles.

The issue of safe standing is not going to go away overnight and supporters’ groups will not rest until a suitable conclusion has been reached. The football authorities should give fans a choice and let them vote with their feet before English football loses its fan culture for good.

http://footballawaydays.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/the-safe-standing-debate/

 

I would like to see safe standing.

The downsides (other than any increase in 'elf and safety risk) are that clubs can't charge as much for standing as sitting and would have to pay for the redevelopment cost.

Could this be offset by an increased capacity or does a safe terrace have the same capacity as seating in the same area.

 

thats what ive always wondered, surely you can fit more into a standing area, but what classifies safe standing? german clubs do it dont they? but then again they dont have as many idiot as we seem to have associated with english football, i miss standing though. The hull stewards dont make it any better though telling everyone to sit down all the time, you see other clubs constantly standing.

 

The seating/standing safety thing's a bit of a red herring as far as Hillsborough's concerned as I don't think the report blamed terracing. What I think it did was fit with a desire to change football from a predominantly male domain by trying to break up groups and mix women and children in with them as they felt this would calm the group down as well as making identification and control easier.

Any attempts to get standing areas is doomed if it's looked at in simple seats v terrace terms. As it is at the moment, standing is sometimes tolerated in seating areas, which is surely the worst of all worlds from the simple argument perspective, but it deosn't seem to be a mjaor issue.

 

Not as many idiots as associated with English football? Have you actually been to any German games?

 

The largest standing area is at Borussia Dortmund's stadium, just under 25,000 or equivalent to a KC capacity less the segregation the useless police insist on. It is quite an expensive thing to install, as there is a barrier on each row which stops any surges and for an all seater game the barrier goes down to form the back of the seats and the seats which are tilted upright and attached to it come down. They also manage to come around and sell beer from mobile dispensers and allow smoking. all of which, apart from lower prices, explain why they have the highest average crowds in Europe.
For a game where standing is allowed (and the opposite end has a lower capacity) the capacity is 80,700, where it is all seater it is reduced to 65,700 approx. So they get 22% more for games where standing is allowed. It wouldn't really make a lot of difference to us and thus make recovering costs a long job, as an equivalent increase behind the goal would be about 880 or 1,350 for the East Stand.
Interesting to see the lack of stewards and police on the photo, where there is as many people in the stand as the whole of the KC for an average game compared to how many are at the KC for a similar amount of people.

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