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KeelansGlove

Ok then the campaign starts here

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Firstly may I point out that these days I sit in the River end lower rather than the Barclay, and whilst I was almost arrested and ejected from the ground (thanks Mr Chase) for standing in the back row of the newly seated Barclay against Chelsea all those years ago I am now a good boy and only stand when the ball is in the opposition penalty area.

But football has never been the same since the old Barclay stand went, I remember the last game against Arsenal when we had a sit in, a silent peaceful protest at the demise of our beloved stand (our way of life) . The Arsenal supporters came and sat with us after the were let out.

Obviously being a Norwich supporter (With a good friend who was partially paralyzed at Hillsborough for 6 months, who is thankfully fully fit these days) I understand the issues surrounding Hillsborough I remember being at Villa park and wondering what on earth was going on, and being at an FA cup semi final on the same day makes you think of the possibilities.

Sadly I think the Lessons we have learnt from the Hillsborough disaster we completely the wrong ones. Terracing can be safe if organized correctly and limited to specific numbers (I for one would be more than happy to pay more for a terrace season ticket than a seated one) Whilst I understand the days of the Kops are long gone to take say the first ten rows of seats out of a stand dig a hole so people seated behind can still see and only allow a fixed number of season ticket holders to stand would probably be safer than seating. The Taylor report focused on a number of issues very few of them specific to the fact that millions had stood at football games for 100 years with very limited casualties.

To make all FA cup semi finals all seater may have been a realistic conclusion but to make all Top flight games all seater without first looking at the issues of safe terracing shows that the major consideration had little to do with safety and more to do with changing the demographic of football to a primarily middle class game and pricing out the backbone of football clubs traditional support in the hope that this along with the ability to use more cctv would eradicate football violence.

Ok so in 2004 for the most part violence actually in the vicinity of a football group has been reduced to a few alcohol induced situations that are not enough to worry the powers that be. Even those intent on violence are intelligent enough to understand that with the huge amounts of CCTV in operation anything happening in or near the ground would in all likelihood come back to haunt them.

When I was a boy my nextdoor neighbour used to take me and his son to Carrow Rd, from the age of 6 I sat on the bars at the front of the barclay. Football has lost part of its soul with all seater stadia. Safety at all costs but lets look with open eyes, to have a couple of thousand amongst 25 or 30,000 standing and roaring the team on would improve the atmosphere for all.

Anyone want to sign up ?

Does anyone know if there still is a Campaign for safe terracing ?

OTBC

Any memories of the old barclay or river end stands ?

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Hi Keelan''s Glove

I agree with all you say, the first City match I ever attended was in the old div3(S) v Southend.*

I stood on the terraces in front of the old (seated) Main Stand.

There were about 6 steps and the view was great, even for a lad as I was then.

 Is there a reason why we couldn''t do this all around current grounds ?

It would increase the capacity of each ground and Cater for the needs of  both sitting and standing supporters.

*Oh by the way we lost 2-4 or something  and I think Punton and Crossan then played for Southend.

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I just much prefer sitting, sorry if that''s too new school, but the view is so much better, I''ve been to pop concerts when your sitting and people stand up and it means noone can sing.  Plus how many disasters have we had in all seater stadiums, lets not go back

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 most fans would go back to standing like a shot , but alas , seats are here to stay whether we like it or not , so im afraid your wasting your time . asylum seekers , now thats one that has got legs

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Whilst I started supporting the mighty green and yeller after the stadium was all seater I used to go to games at Hampden when i was a kid that were standing and the atmosphere was second to none! Any idea that means we can cram a few more supporters into FCR and raise the noise level has my full support!! Count me in! 

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keelan''s glove

sorry i meant to get back to you earlier, but was unable to....

 i fully support your views on all of this, 100% - there is no one who will ever convince me sitting is safer or more enjoyable than standing was (or is!)

i fully appreciate that some people want to sit down for the duration, well fine, that was always possible before the H&S madness hit us.

yes, the middle class thing has helped to weed out trouble, but it is not just the legislation passed that has helped, society itself has changed dramatically over the past twenty years or so

i can see no reason why we cannot have areas of standing terracing - there is no such word as never!

 

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I think KG''s suggestion of limited standing areas at the front of a couple of stands is a good idea and worthy of serious consideration. Remember that Hillsborough happened because too many supporters flocked into an overcrowded stand at one time with no access control. If you solved that problem by limiting numbers through turnstiles (which themselves slow up the rate of access) and having proper escape routes then it should not be a major problem. I am not saying that Taylor was wrong but it did recommend the extreme option rather than something a bit more measured.

Personally I would probably still get a seat as I have just become used to it now (or is it old age?), but terracing would increase the capacity of FCR a bit more and, as it always used to be cheaper, open the game up to the less well off.

I am not totally convinced that the atmospehere was much better when you had the terrace, this year with the new stand in place the noise has been terrific. It was largely the fact that in the Barclay you had a low roof which amplified the noise plus the home and away fans together in one place. I think other grounds (especially Spurs and Arsenal) suffered more by having all seaters.

To get back to KG''s point I would certainly support the reintroduction of limited controlled terracing.

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