Unreserved Seating

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Hornette_TID

Hornette_TID

Well-Known Member
Forum Moderator
Mar 8, 2011
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Somewhere near Watford
There are growing calls on Twitter, across forums and other social networking for Vicarage Road to have an area of unreserved seating for fans who want to make a lot of noise throughout matches.

Personally, i'm torn. But we definitely need more noise in the stadium and it's not going to happen the way things are at the moment so something needs to be done. Is unreserved seating the answer? I feel it is, though the safety aspects make me nervous. These days though, i believe safety in unreserved seating is achievable, and i know that i'm disappointed to hear that Posh have put seating in their away stand...so...unreserved seating, yes or no?

Your thoughts?
 
I agree with Mitch - the Vic has always been a quiet ground - there is nothing to funnel noise down - even when there is noise it evaporates into thin air
 
Something does need to be done, whether it is 'safe-standing' or unreserved seating. I often find you have two singing groups in the Rookery End, almost trying to compete with each other, and can often sing different songs at the same time! I also found this away to City, and prefer a 'normal' away game to that one

I would think that if all sat together they'd be a bit more cohesion, but then I guess some people just like to sit where they already are!

Didn' they try last season or the season before to get everyone who wanted to sing to move to one main area? Why did that not take off?

I used to enjoy standing in the Vic Road end, under the scoreboard, bouncing up and down, keeping warm and singing along!
 
The vast majority of fans at VR (home fans) would want/demand to sit down. So safe standing would be a waste of time and money for a family club like ours.
 
I would guess a lot of those would also be the ones not singing. I'm not sure how the new proposals would work, but I doubt they would take up a whole end. Maybe two blocks, at the top of the Rookery as standing, and all around them can be seated. You can then decide if you want to stand or sit, but still be in the Rookery. If you have a seat and close enough to the group, ou can still sing along as well.
 
Palace fans made noise that I clearly heard on the TV. Our fans don't seem to make noise at home. It is a shame and must affect the players.
 
Mexican Hornet said:
Palace fans made noise that I clearly heard on the TV. Our fans don't seem to make noise at home. It is a shame and must affect the players.
Click to expand...

Thats because the majority of those Palace fans would have been males between the age of 18 and 40.

In our case..................................nope, I'll leave it. Ha Ha
 
Its obvious.............the answer is of course YES! and the unreserved seating should be in the rookery or at the Vicarage Road end when we build the new stand.
 
Mexican Hornet said:
Palace fans made noise that I clearly heard on the TV. Our fans don't seem to make noise at home. It is a shame and must affect the players.
Click to expand...

That may have something to do with the positioning of the cameras - it's the same for the commentary on Watford Player, the commentary box is almost right next to the away fans & they are obviously going to be heard over the home support.

As for safe standing - I'm all for it, having never appreciated having to sit down a match. But I can't see it being allowed at the back of the Rookery - the 'Elf & Safety wallahs would have too much to say about that. At the bottom, yes - but the view isn't that good from there & the acoustics may not be the best either. Maybe if and when a new East Stand is built it could be incorporated into that - but most of the 'singers' seem to prefer being behind the goal.
 
SalisburyKev said:
Something does need to be done, whether it is 'safe-standing' or unreserved seating. I often find you have two singing groups in the Rookery End, almost trying to compete with each other, and can often sing different songs at the same time! I also found this away to City, and prefer a 'normal' away game to that one

I would think that if all sat together they'd be a bit more cohesion, but then I guess some people just like to sit where they already are!

Didn' they try last season or the season before to get everyone who wanted to sing to move to one main area? Why did that not take off?

I used to enjoy standing in the Vic Road end, under the scoreboard, bouncing up and down, keeping warm and singing along!
Click to expand...

There was one big group, but that consisted of a lot of children and young adults and some were chanting some stupid things about Deeney and so they split and the group is in tatters.
 
It is many years ago since I last visited your ground. So long ago in fact that H was just a twinkle on her dad's eye <smooth old hector>.

As far as my memory will allow, there was a very good healthy vocal atmosphere there at that time.
As for nowadays, I think in general, that the away fans always seem to make more noise. The 'choir' are normally altogether and therefore sing the same song at the same time, which helps create the atmosphere.

In the 'good old days' when seats were for the posh folks and oldies, the choirs behind the goal was the place to be.
Maybe this safe standing is the way to go. I believe it is quite successful in Germany, and doesn't affect the attendance/capacity too much.
I have no idea of the age range of Watford fans. I guess that makes quite a difference to a choir.
Personally, I think an area where singing is encouraged is a good idea. A lot will depend on the stewarding as well.
I have been to some grounds where as soon as there is any rise in the volume, the stewards come in and try to quiten the fans down, both home and away. The only reason I can think of, is that they maybe worried if it leads to a lot of standing, which with the amount of visits a club may get from the FA or whoever, is understandable as the club may get a heavy fine. Understandable I suppose, but it doesn't mean I like it.
The thing that appealed to me most of all was when there was a lot of singing behind the goals, it covered up just what a lousy voice I actually had <laugh>


Apologies if this doesn't make sense, but please believe me, it did make sense in my head.
 
SalisburyKev said:
Something does need to be done, whether it is 'safe-standing' or unreserved seating. I often find you have two singing groups in the Rookery End, almost trying to compete with each other, and can often sing different songs at the same time! I also found this away to City, and prefer a 'normal' away game to that one

I would think that if all sat together they'd be a bit more cohesion, but then I guess some people just like to sit where they already are!

Didn' they try last season or the season before to get everyone who wanted to sing to move to one main area? Why did that not take off?

I used to enjoy standing in the Vic Road end, under the scoreboard, bouncing up and down, keeping warm and singing along!
Click to expand...

They did, last season or a couple of seasons ago..it didn't take off because most of those that were there were part of 'the yellow order' and they were all kids..singing songs that nobody else knew and a lot of those were not chants that most of us would want to sing. They became a bit of a joke sadly. It was a shame, coz the idea was a good one.
 
Iv started this thread on WFC Foruns, we need an area, the ticket focus group are looking. There could be an area either vic end if in champ or east stand north east corner for unreserved seating and people can sing, chant, bang drums, play trumpets. Whatever they want.
 
Safe standing actually increases the capacity (Depending on the definition of safe - barriers preventing the kinds of crowd movements seen on for example the kop in its heyday are perfectly adequate) Borussia Dortmund's champions league capacity of 66,000 increases to 81,500 for Bundesliga matches because of safe standing. My local club of Cologne also has 8,000 more when standing is allowed. Having said that, they only pay 10 Euros in the standing area (About 8 pounds).
 
willia6691 said:
Iv started this thread on WFC Foruns, we need an area, the ticket focus group are looking. There could be an area either vic end if in champ or east stand north east corner for unreserved seating and people can sing, chant, bang drums, play trumpets. Whatever they want.
Click to expand...

If u think u could equal the Palace who, I'm sure u would agree did their team proud, then it's the Vic end for effect. Just need some decent songs!
 
Hi everyone

Can't see safe standing being introduced for a good time to come if at all so I would suggest this gets put to one side

A section of unreserved seating has to be the answer and can't see any safety issues with this at all as the vic road end was completely unreserved when the terracing before it was replaced. Ideally a section of the rookery but the home part of the vic would suffice. Junior hornets should have a section of the lower Rous... this should build up a little atmosphere in the Rous stand which would encourage those to sing around them

Am sure filling in the corners would help too.... the vic has always been crap acoustically

Also as has been said elsewhere stewarding needs to be looked at too... the match experience needs to be enhanced and the stewards don't seem to understand it is ok to stand up, cheer and sing from time to time.

I do now think our new owners are open to new ideas and it is up to us to play our part on the march into the prem
 
Try it at clubs that would need it/appreciate it (i.e not us)

And we hardly need to increase our capacity do we

I'll tell you something that our club should be putting much, much more effort into, it's not something as unrealistic as ' safe standing ' It's doing what our club used to do and actually make attempts to get some new young children interested in Watford FC. This club used to do Soccer Schools during the summer for kids in Leighton Buzzard (Bedfordshire) thats how I became a fan. There is no point in doing these type of things in North London for the obvious reason but we should try and OWN Bedfordshire (again) in terms of getting new young kids to become WFC fans.
 
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