My 12 year old daughter and the North Stand debacle

My daughter enjoys playing and watching football but on quite a casual basis. Before Friday night, she had been to 3 or 4 matches at Oakwell this season, all when it was sunny for the day out.

She did not stop talking about Friday's match for the entire of yesterday, and all she can think about now is the trip to Wembley next week. This is how new lifelong fans are made

Obviously the atmosphere on Friday was absolutely off the scale which she loved, but it was also important that we were able to sit in a big group, including her cousins who are a similar age.

Now, on to the North Stand. By failing get it open, we denied the opportunity to thousands of people to experience a very special night, sitting together with their families and friends. As there are no season ticket holders in this stand, it is reasonable to assume that many people who would potentially have bought tickets there would have been new or casual fans. Exactly the sort of people we need to be attracting if the club is to progress long term.

I am very rarely one to berate the club, and I understand that issues with splitting the North Stand are not simple. But it was designed and built over 20 years ago, to be split if needs be. The fact that when it was needed to be split, it couldn't be for whatever reason, is bordering on the absurd. Obviously this is all compounded by half of the West Stand being out of use, giving us very little flexibility on where to accommodate away fans.

Even if we'd have not made any extra money by selling 2k more tickets once extra stewarding costs had been taken into account, I still think that the benefits would have heavily outweighed the costs. I just hope that anyone who wanted a ticket for Friday and didn't get one is still up for going to Wembley. And that for the 15-20,000 people who go there who aren't regulars at Oakwell, they enjoy it enough to come a few times next season as well, whatever division we're in.

 

I think reading between the lines in YTBFC Thank you thread they had tried but couldn’t get sign off but it sounds like more developments in due course in terms of news about the ground just reading between the lines.

“I do get the gripes about not splitting the Barry stand. But we did want to and did try, right up until Tuesday. But there's a lot more to come out of the wash in the next few months in certain areas that will hopefully make sense and at the same time make such circumstances irrelevant in future cases. But we'll see. Anyway, that's negative, and this isn't a negative post. “

 

Yes, I saw that. As I mentioned, I'm not directly griping at the club for last week's arrangements, more that provisions should have been in place long ago for such games. It sounds like the club are well aware that things were less than ideal, so fingers crossed that it doesn't happen again. I'm hoping that the announcement is for a new West Stand. Much as I love it, its limitations were a large reason why we're having issues with the North Stand.

 

I'm sure the club did try but they need to start thinking long term. "Sold out" but thousands of empty seats across 2 stands is not a good look.

 

Whitey said the morning of the first leg we had 3,000 tickets left. If our fans are fickle enough to wait and see how the first leg went first then that's on the fans. If people had bought earlier we probably would have had the north stand opened. Even if we had lost the first leg 3-0 the players deserved a full house for the second leg.

 

So I’m reading it was SYP stopped it but is there a suggestion that it may Be a home end ?

 

SYP have a lot to improve on but I doubt it was them that t stopped it. I have always believed that SYP were not opposed to the split seeing as how it was designed with a periodic split in mind.

 

You could argue that the club needs to show "faith" in the fans as well as fans in the club, by planning for the fact that Barnsley fans would turn out if the arrangements were in place.

 

They did it in a flash when they discovered the loose panelling in the East Stand. Portsmouth game I think.

 

Lets hope these thousands of fans who couldnt get a ticket go to wembley.

 

SYP Didn't Stop it mate. They would have dealt with it. It was all the other factors. Mentioned.

 

Some of em will. But only if the royal box is available lol.

 

There weren’t over 2,000 Pompey fans in there though, for a Play-Off Semi Final.

On Friday night, despite warnings all week and incessant warnings on the PA system during the last 20 minutes of the match for fans to remain in their seats, hundreds ran onto the pitch and towards the away fans until met by the line of stewards.

I can understand why it wasn’t given the go ahead in the short time leading into the match. Had we had sold tickets a lot sooner, it would have maybe allowed for a better chance in terms of planning, logistics etc. But yeah. Before the first leg was played, there were thousands of empty seats.

100% agree that there are limitations and hurdles to overcome on this topic which I would fully expect to be cleared in time. And actually, it’s pleasing really. Rather than frustrating. Because it proves the fans are out there. It shows that we’ve been doing something right.

But I tend to look at things in a positive light so take what I say with a pinch of salt.

I don’t see a Barnsley fan going without a ticket a week tomorrow.

 

I'd suggest maybe proactively putting plans in place rather than reactively trying to do so with a couple of days notice.

 

But there are a lot of factors to take into account, including the lack of spare money floating around the country, not least in Barnsley. The majority of regular fans would have gone whatever on Friday, but it's precisely the number of casual fans and floaters we need to increase if we are to progress. Some of them then become regulars. Plus their kids, mates etc.

 

This. Half the West stand shut down. Can only split the stand if it's with lots of notice. Opportunities to fill the ground and potentially pull in new supporters need to be taken when they come along.
Not blaiming fans for not buying tickets sooner like a couple on this thread have, which is not how you run a successful business.
These are the sort of things I want to see change to believe we are moving forward behind the scenes.
These have been long term problems at club going all the way back to post administration.

 

Must admit that was my first thought, surely when they initially met couldn’t they agree on a plan A & plan B so everything was in place. The only thing I can think of is if was down to costs and not actual logistics.

 

We were able to do so, for Pompey.

Again, the club wanted to, and tried to make it happen.

My final comment on the topic. Lovely day out there, I’ve fresh air to get into my lungs and good food to devour!

 

But costs honestly wouldn't be that much as they come out of the pot of ticket sales before it gets split up and given to the clubs. Basically 87.5% of the cost for stewarding is paid for by the EFL, Sheffield Wednesday, Bolton and Peterborough.

The exact percentage may be different to that but it's in the general area. We get 12.5% of the ticket revenue AFTER all stewarding costs so the vast majority of those stewards are paid for by the others.

 

If it was about cost, we’d have put 5,000 Bolton in there.

PS - that was my final comment