When I was in the corner stand with barnsley66 after his hip replacement it certainly didn't feel part of the Ponty End to me. In definitely felt as a separate entity.
There was a report a few years ago that shows we are terrible in terms of disabled access. I was under the impression that we were leading the way because of the disabled stand but in reality there is a long waiting list for there and practically no other disabled spots. The report was quite damning at how small our provision is.
From the website.... Wheelchair Users (Designated Areas) 17 wheelchair bays are situated in the inside corner stand at a slightly elevated level. 9 wheelchair bays are situated in gangway OR5 of the CK Beckett South Stand at an elevated level. 16 wheelchair bays are situated in gangway OR2 of the CK Beckett South Stand at ground level. 18 wheelchair bays are situated in the North Stand (away end) at an elevated level. So 60 in total out of 23000 (allegedly). Wheelchair tickets are like gold dust no matter where you go.....we do a lot of creeping to get them when we go to Germany and have now become members at Fortuna Dusseldorf so we have more chance as they release tickets to members first (already worked for us as we have them for the derby v Schalke !). Dusseldorf have around 90 seats in a 54k stadium....1 per 600. We have 1 per 383. In comparison Bayern Munich have 220 out of 75k....1 per 340, and Dortmund have 73 out of 83k.....1 per 1137.
The lack of facilities with the building of the new media centre has already been mentioned. I'ts unlikely that will be fixed until we have need for it. It was said at a fan engagement forum they would look at it when we needed to use that area. We can't use it for away fans though. There is no disabled access. When we put Yeovil in there we spoke to their one travelling disabled supporter and they were happy to go in the corner stand
The toilet situation can be resolved by porta-loos. The club kinda confirmed this a while back. A lot of that side of the stand is used for enhanced media and scouting areas. Underneath that side is all done out now with decent facilities for scouts etc. If demand is there, they’ve said it’ll be opened up. In the meantime, it’s cheaper to close it and not have the additional costs. What’s more worrying, was the use of plug-in heaters in the new Media Building the other week! Looked a bit crap on the cameras during the interview.
I was just quoting the wheelchair sections (the ones we use) as ambulant is different at all stadiums, as is facilities for visually impaired.
If Oakwell was totally accessible to everyone regardless of any physical or mental issues they may have then we would not be talking about supporters with a disability.
As an aside to this, tickets for wheelchair users (including helper) at Barnsley are whatever the price is according to the category of the match so £23 minimum. At Dusseldorf they are €13, Dortmund €10 and Munich €5.....and that's topflight matches including (except Munich) public transport to and from the ground which, when we did Dortmund away with Dusseldorf, was 80+ km on the train.
Surely that would have to involve removing all steps out of the stands and replacing them with slopes? Hence the need for disabled areas.
Not sure if this is correct TBH, my understanding is that this is correct for new stands/stadiums to be built. Any existing stadiums have to take reasonable steps to provide disabled facilities but this is more of a whole stadium scenario, although I can see where ruling out away fans for it would make sense. Could be wrong though.
I agree - things are not going to alter in a major way at Oakwell, let me ask you a question - a new football ground is accessible to everyone regardless of physical problems, A guy turns up in a wheelchair - he can access all areas independently. Do you regard that guy as being disabled?