Not all Showsec stewards are wankers of course but some are, and IMO a lot of it comes from the top of that organisation.
When I went to The Cure gig at the Arena at the back end of November I witnessed the most inept organisation and stewarding ever at a concert from these incompetent twats. Not for the first time we had standing tickets for a gig there, and turned up a good 15 minutes before The Cure came on. The woman who scanned our tickets at the entrance told us to use the entrance behind her to get to the floor. Great we thought, as there was absolutely no queue, but when we got to that entrance the steward there told us to use one of the other entrances further round as they weren't letting any more in through that door. The next couple we got to both had long queues so we proceeded to the next where again there was no queue, only to be told by the steward there that we couldn't use it and that we should proceed to the next one. It was at this point that I admittedly started getting irate and told him that we were being sent from pillar to post and it wasn't on. Turns out this Showsec steward is a season ticket holder at City who is in our block and he recognised me - he asked me to pipe down which I did and said he'd see me on Saturday for the Chelsea game. Anyway, we went to the next entrance as advised by him and somewhat astonishingly, the female steward there told us we weren't allowed in that entrance at which point we were getting seriously pissed off along with several others who had been sent on the same wild goose chase. The woman was getting it in the neck a fair bit and radioed for back-up but insisted we couldn't use that entrance and that we should double back and use one of the others. We went back to the entrance where the City supporting steward was and told him that they weren't letting anybody in that entrance either and he said there was nothing he could do and that we should keep working our way round. By that time though, the queues at the other entrances were horrendous and it wasn't helped by the fact that they were taking ticket holders with both seating and standing tickets in the entrances which was slowing the process down even further. The Cure had already taken to the stage at that point, and it took us another half an hour or so to get onto the floor for a gig where we'd shelled out the best part of £60 a ticket. While we were in the queue we got some bullshit story off one of the Showsec supervisors who said once the gig starts, they can only allow people with standing tickets through 2 entrances at the back of the arena as it blocks the views of those that are seated. Firstly, the band hadn't even taken to the stage when they started closing off entrances and secondly, we were still blocking the view of seated punters while using the 2 entrances at the back. Frankly, he was spouting utter bollocks.
Anyway, I caught up with the City-supporting steward prior to the Chelsea home game and he blamed it on too many people turning up too late - I disagreed, saying many people were already inside the venue before The Cure came on. I asked him how he'd like it if he turned up for a City game 15 minutes before kick-off, only to be told that he couldn't use his usual entrance to get to his seat and was then sent on a wild goose chase to entrance after entrance, eventually only getting to his seat half an hour after the game started. Needless to say, there wasn't much of a response.
