Incident in the stand today

[Gully]

You buy a ticket in advance of the game for a particular seat, you turn up at the ground and expect to sit in it, what is wrong with that.

Alternatively, you arrive at the ground and find someone sat in the seat you have paid for, he has probably been to the pub for a couple of pre-match sherberts and gets arsey with you when you politely ask him to move. To avoid a scene or possibly worse you back down and go and find a spare seat behind a stanchion somewhere else, your day out has been pretty much ruined because of this regardless of the result, you probably don't feel like going away to watch your team again.

 

[Hiney]

Gerbil, consider yourself owned. Consult Watford O for advice on blowing your top, or enigma on advice about crying about it.

 

[El Presidente]

Yea and you find yourself one end of the stand and your 10 year old is at the other end surrounded by "top boys" goading the home fans.

Fine by you is it?

Or he's at the other end of the stand sat next to Desert Orchid.

Awaits threats to close down NSC and handwringing about being persecuted

 

[fatboy]

Yea and you find yourself one end of the stand and your 10 year old is at the other end surrounded by "top boys" goading the home fans.

Fine by you is it?

Or he's at the other end of the stand sat next to Desert Orchid.

Some utter twat tried to sit in one of our seats five minutes into the SECOND HALF.

If you want a seat, get there early.

The stewarding was an asbolute joke today.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Maybe its time for us to take a leaf out of the Leeds stewarding and take our own stewards to away matches ....
They'd soon get to know who the regulars are and spot the big game Charlies and deal with accordingly.
we might have more respect for our own stewards than these other so-called muppets.

 

[fatboy]

Maybe its time for us to take a leaf out of the Leeds stewarding and take our own stewards to away matches ....
They'd soon get to know who the regulars are and spot the big game Charlies and deal with accordingly.
we might have more respect for our own stewards than these other so-called muppets.

I really could not respect stewards.

They are like policemen and referees. The good ones are the ones you don't notice.

 

[Charles 'Charley' Charles]

The stewards seemed ok in the first half then took some magic bully pills from "jack" at half time.

 

[clapham_gull]

I felt a bit sorry for some of the stewards today. Bit of an incident down the front when a steward was asking very very nicely for a lad to sit down.

We can argue about the rights and wrongs of reserved seating, the demise of terracing etc.. but the total abuse the bloke got from all quarters was out of order.

Bloke behind me and a lad in front smoking when the stand is clearly non smoking in the seats, stewards saw them but decided to do nothing I guess in fear of being abused.

I was embarrased by the behaivour of a few around me to be honest.

 

[Pat McCrotch]

I tend to find that most stewards will be polite and helpful to you if they are displayed the same courteousness in return.

On arrival at the ground today (approx 2.30pm) I was asked to unzip my coat before approaching the turnstile. I assumed this was for security reasons (I am occasionally asked to do the same at Withdean) & duly obliged. I had been neither offended nor inconvenienced. The steward smiled and said 'enjoy the game'.

I enjoyed a pint and a pie on the lower concourse before heading up to the stand entrance. Whilst climbing the steps I looked ahead and noted that the stewards were checking people's tickets before advising them on their allocated seat. I displayed my ticket clearly to the yellow coated helper (I felt no conversation required) and was told "top of the stairs, first seat on the right in row CC". I located my empty seat quickly and easily and enjoyed the match chatting to the guy next to me who was with (I assume his) three teenage girls.

A couple of minutes before kick off we noticed a commotion on the other side of the aisle. Two burly blokes were mouthing off at a family (mother, father, daughter, boyfriend etc etc) who had turned up to take their seats only to find them occupied. A steward got involved - he was promptly told to f*** off by one of said gents. Within minutes three police officers arrived, the two 'hard men' shit themselves and jumped out of the seats quicker than you could say "he wore a yellow jacket in the merry month of may", and were removed from the vicinity pronto.

I think if you act like a prick you deserve to be treated like one.

 

[dwayne]

I tend to find that most stewards will be polite and helpful to you if they are displayed the same courteousness in return.

On arrival at the ground today (approx 2.30pm) I was asked to unzip my coat before approaching the turnstile. I assumed this was for security reasons (I am occasionally asked to do the same at Withdean) & duly obliged. I had been neither offended nor inconvenienced. The steward smiled and said 'enjoy the game'.

I enjoyed a pint and a pie on the lower concourse before heading up to the stand entrance. Whilst climbing the steps I looked ahead and noted that the stewards were checking people's tickets before advising them on their allocated seat. I displayed my ticket clearly to the yellow coated helper (I felt no conversation required) and was told "top of the stairs, first seat on the right in row CC". I located my empty seat quickly and easily and enjoyed the match chatting to the guy next to me who was with (I assume his) three teenage girls.

A couple of minutes before kick off we noticed a commotion on the other side of the aisle. Two burly blokes were mouthing off at a family (mother, father, daughter, boyfriend etc etc) who had turned up to take their seats only to find them occupied. A steward got involved - he was promptly told to f*** off by one of said gents. Within minutes three police officers arrived, the two 'hard men' shit themselves and jumped out of the seats quicker than you could say "he wore a yellow jacket in the merry month of may", and were removed from the vicinity pronto.

I think if you act like a prick you deserve to be treated like one.

I think the general sentiment is about right here.

 

[Cian]

Allocated seating == Allocated seating, what kind of idiot isn't able to see that?

You want to go where you like, thats whats terracing is for, but unfortunately nanny stateism is all but killing that. So allocated seating just has to be put up with until enough of a fuss is kicked up about terracing to get it back.

 

[enigma]

Gerbil, consider yourself owned. Consult Watford O for advice on blowing your top, or enigma on advice about crying about it.

Or alternatively, consult Looney on how to be a social outcast in your mid 40s and having to resort to flaming websites just to get yourself through the day

 

[Bozza]

Allocated seating == Allocated seating, what kind of idiot isn't able to see that?

You want to go where you like, thats whats terracing is for, but unfortunately nanny stateism is all but killing that. So allocated seating just has to be put up with until enough of a fuss is kicked up about terracing to get it back.

Most of the "idiots" who regularly follow the Albion away, where it is usual to sit where you want despite the supposed allocated seating.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The mathematics still seems to elude some people.

When we sell our full allocation, "sit with your mates, anywhere" cannot work, without other groups of mates being split up.

When we don't sell our full allocation, there's no problem.






Test it out. Take a chessboard. Place five counters in a line, anywhere. Repeat until you can't do it anymore. Discover that you can't fit anywhere near 64 counters into the grid.


Try again, with only 36 counters to fit into the grid. No problem.

 

[Cian]

Most of the "idiots" who regularly follow the Albion away, where it is usual to sit where you want despite the supposed allocated seating.

Having spent twenty minutes trying to think of a suitable answer....

f*** it. Yes, I can't get over often. Theres problems, mostly timing related. Getting tickets to link in with flights and somewhere to crash for the night isn't particularly easy. Doesn't mean you can use it against in me in every f***ing threat you disagree with me on, though.

If a ticket has a seat number on it, I sit in that seat. To be honest, I don't care if its "usual" or not, its extremely annoying. Yes, there is a difference between a match thats totally sold out and one where theres 200 people in a 2000+ capacity away end, but its still utter f***ing HASSLE. And I don't know of anywhere else is just seen as acceptable to use someone elses seat, from other sporting arenas - feck, other damn teams playing away - through to pretty much anything else in life. You don't go into a restuarant and sit down at someone elses reserved table, even if you have one yourself.

Oh, and if being at less matches makes me "less of a fan", so be it. I don't need to wave around a bunch of ticket stubs to know I'm a fan, thanks.

 

[fatboy]

You are buying entrance to the ground, not a specific seat.

How much extra are front row seats?

 

[clapham_gull]

The mathematics still seems to elude some people.

When we sell our full allocation, "sit with your mates, anywhere" cannot work, without other groups of mates being split up.

When we don't sell our full allocation, there's no problem.

Test it out. Take a chessboard. Place five counters in a row, anywhere. Repeat until you can't do it anymore. Discover that you can't fit anywhere near 64 counters into the grid.


Try again, with only 36 counters to fit into the grid. No problem.

Totally agree. Some people seem to go to away games and just look for some reason to have a pop at anyone trying to do their job.

I've been at the wrong end of stewards and police on a couple of occasions, worst being assaulted by a policeman at Orient for simply being asked by another copper to go in a certain direction and the said copper deciding I wasn't allowed there. Cue arm lock.

All said, the stewards I saw today were being initially reasonable and then instantly abused. Saw a little too much alcohol induced aggression for my liking today.

 

[BensGrandad]

You are buying entrance to the ground, not a specific seat.

How much extra are front row seats?

Wrong.

The ticket you buy states a seat number on it and if everybody sat in the correct seat there would be no problem. If the seat no etc show nothing then sit where the f..k you like. It makes no difference whether you go to 1 away matcha year or 21 the same criteria applies hence when I apply I ask all of my party how many are going to that particular game and buy the appropriate number of seats together.

 

[NMH]

There are some on this thread who think you can defend the collective mentality of a group of 'our' fans as if all rules apply evenly.

Unfortunately you have to realise and admit that there are some BHAFC fans who are the worse type of tosser and some who are wonderful warm human beings.
The latter deserve to be accomodated and the former do not.

Case in point I argued once, was the debacle at the palace away where we lost by 5 and were kept in - the dullard element at the front of the procession only warranted the police 'discrimination' treatment by acting up like thugs and nob-ends, stupidly kicking at riot cops - which ONLY served to slow things MORE and get some blokes truncheoned until there was claret(!)

There HAS to be organised behaviour, and the 'good' fans should be accomodated, including the kids and parents and codgers. That means keeping seat allocations, enforcing them when necessary, and not 'trying it on' until some overly power-conscious steward can give it their notice.

Some need to quit defending our poorer element and be glad they are policed where it's necessary. There isn't much middle ground unless you are toe-ing the lines, especially away from home.

 

[C1 BHA]

for what it's worth, if everyone sat in the seat named on their ticket, they'd be no need for arguments. All parents would presumably have seats next to their kids and groups of geezers who want to sit together should have got their 'admin' sorted out and applied together when the tickets went on sale. Job done, everyone's a winner.