Re: Ejections in 109
I'm in 109, row F. The stewards, at times, got some of the first two rows to sit down, but it was interminttent sitting! I moved to 109 last season so that I could stand and sing and was told - unfortunately, only verbally - when I relocated my season ticket that standing is tolerated in 109.
I understand that the club have safety regulations to comply with, BUT, they have put it in writing in the letter we received that they tolerate standing in certain blocks. So, IMO, the club need to have dialogue with the fans to understand where these fans are and how many prefer to stand up. The Showsec stewards were pretty heavy-handed and did seem to be targeting young lads - if they've been given that directive, then someone further up is being a complete bastard.
I am mainly angry that the letter arrived on Saturday morning, two months after the club took my money for the season ticket. If they had had complaints about persistent standing, surely we should have been told about these before we renewed our season ticket....... like that was every going to happen!
Standing needs to be brought back - without a doubt.
Get involved with the FSF's safe standing campaign. It's going to take a lot of chipping away at MPs, then the clubs, but we might get there eventually. All you have to do is sign the petition:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.fsf.org.uk/petitions/safestanding.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fsf.org.uk/petitions/safestanding.php</a>
Finally, I'm going to be complaining to the club about the heavy-handed nature of the stewards and seemingly targeting certain people, about the letter arriving two days before the start of the season and, mainly, to ask them to be sensible about this and try to allocate enough areas where standing is toleratred for those that want to stand.
If you want to add your voice to that, I've set up a special email address, so please email me with either your block and row number or your name (with any comments) at MCFCstanding@yahoo.co.uk
The more of us that pull together on this, the less chance the club will have of ignoring us. Pass the email address on to family and mates that don't go on BM.