Bristol City to install safe standing at new-look Ashton Gate

From the BBC

League One Bristol City plan to become the first club in the United Kingdom to install rail seats, which have been pioneered in the German Bundesliga.

The seats can either be unlocked or locked to create a standing or seated area inside a stadium.

Regulations currently prohibit their use in football, so they will initially be used for rugby games at Ashton Gate.

The Football League has agreed to lobby the Government in a bid to permit "safe standing" areas in the game.

All-seater stadiums have been compulsory in the Premier League and Championship since an inquiry into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans.

Standing is currently allowed in Leagues One and Two, but Championship grounds must be all-seater after a club have played in the second tier for three seasons.

Some Football League clubs have backed calls for the introduction of standing areas and campaigners believe rail seats provide a safer alternative to 'old-style' terraces, which did little to stop the forward movement of fans.

Rail seating is used at some of Germany's biggest grounds, including at Borussia Dortmund's Westfalenstadion, which has a capacity of more than 80,000. They are also approved for use as seats by Uefa and Fifa.

Bristol City intend to install the new seating in two stands as part of the redevelopment of Ashton Gate.

In their support of the concept, the club have have installed a demonstration block for spectators to see how it may look if it were made legal.

It is in an area of the ground not currently used, but will give fans an idea of what the proposed new areas would look like.

The demonstration block will be unveiled in front of dignitaries from the Football Association and Football League on Wednesday.

Bristol City's development of Ashton Gate starts in the summer, and Bristol Rugby will ground-share with them from the start of the 2014-15 season.

The all-seated Wedlock Stand will be replaced with a new stand and plans are in place to install 2,202 rail seats, if regulations permit it.

Further redevelopment in the Dolman Stand, to the side of the pitch, could see a further 1,568 rail seats incorporated in the stadium.

TomandJerry said:

Teams can keep standing areas for three seasons if they stay up from league one, for example Yeovil still have standing but they are going back down so they are keeping it

Click to expand...

KZNSeagull said:

I would imagine that until such time as the legislation is changed, if that is ever, if Brizzle get promoted back to the Championship, people would have to sit in the safe-standing cheap plastic seats.

Click to expand...

Notters said:

Not once theyve had two seasons in the Championship.

Click to expand...

So wouldn't that mean that as a current League 1 club, Bristol are allowed standing areas anyway?

Fair play for trying out the rail seat idea but it's not really something to point to as progress in the 'safe standing' debate if they're already allowed is it? I fully accept I may be missing an obvious point here.

Gordon Bennett said:

Going off at a slight tangent but I believe Bristol's planning problems are more to do with local politics/politicians as well as local residents objecting to what the Planning Department and the Planning Officers are trying to get approved rather than the 'planning function' itself being atrocious.

Click to expand...

Good point well made. Thanks for clarifying that. Not wishing to bash planning officers.

jackcgull said:

Singing is a standing sport - it is hard enough to hit a note at the best of times. While sitting it's almost impossible.

Click to expand...

The singing has NOTES

TomandJerry said:

Thumbs up for North/West lower/upper stands to become safe standing

Click to expand...

I'd be writing my disgust to Paul Barber if he made WSU safe standing.

Blue Valkyrie said:

I'd be writing my disgust to Paul Barber if he made WSU safe standing.

Click to expand...

I think that was slightly tongue in cheek - the obvious areas would be North and South Stands, and then parts of WSL/ESL if demand showed it to be worthwhile.

Hamilton said:

Is the Liverpool MP against it because of Hillsborough? Only my understanding is that the disaster there happened not because of standing, but because of appalling process and policing.

Click to expand...

True, opening the gate at the back of an all seater, fenced in stand and herding hundreds more fans into it than it can take would be disastrous too.

No big deal surely that a club in the lower leagues where standing is already permitted should allow for standing when redeveloping, particularly as it will be massively cheaper to do.