Had a very controversial idea, this aft, watching football..

West stand North side only. (If we could sell the rest of the ground to home fans.) For away fans. Easily segregated imo. North stand accessible via back of east stand only.

 

Leeds fans changed ends in the 70s when they built the Gelderd Rd stand. The old Spion Kop was uncovered so the noisiest home fans used the Scratching Shed behind the other goal. The new stand was bigger, covered and had better facilities so they moved in there after a few games.

 

For a very short time, the North Stand was used for the exact purpose it was designed for - to allow both home and away fans. In the 1999/2000 season, I sat in it for a couple of game towards the end of the season - I recall watching Dean Ashton make a return for Crewe after a long lay-off from that exact spot.

The stand was split on the concourse and had netting down the middle, just like you se at loads of other grounds wen go to. You accessed from the East Stand side, so there were no segregation issues.

As far as I know, there are no league regulations about the proportion of capacity which should be given up to the away side. If I remember correctly, guidelines for the FA Cup are that the home side should allow 10% of ground capacity for the away side. Either way, the most we should ever be required to give up to visitors is around 3k.

It's therefore up to the club how they arrange this. I believe the idea of the North stand being solely for away fans developed in the 2000's when we'd regularly allow up to 6k visiting supporters, primarily because we didn't fill the rest of the ground and it's better to earn than not. There were even games where we'd sell more than 6k to away fans and host the excess in the West stand lower, before it mysteriously became uninhabitable. I recall games against Derby, Wolves and Sunderland when they were going for promotion, where it got to the point where they had almost as many fans in our ground as we did. I didn't enjoy those games.

I guess the point is that going forwards, how we've used the ground for the last 20 years doesn't have to define what we do in the future. Of course no-one wants to give up the Ponty in favour of the North Stand. But it's certainly plausible, if the gaffers like, to limit away fans to the West Stand while making the North available to Reds fans, if the demand is there. Alternatively, split the North stand in the way it was designed for.

 

Giving up the Ponty is the funniest daftest idea put forward in many a year but I do like the splitting of the North stand, between home and away. If we need to give away fans more tickets give them lower west lower top bit.

Half of North stand could be cheaper season tickets which may increase overall season ticket sales and would improve the overall atmosphere.

Move the tunnel aswell. Home team should come out at the side of home fans not away.

A full away support North stand gives the away team an edge. Split them up and give us some noise balance.

If we get prem we should sell a full house of season tickets to be able to do this.

 

Very suprised if there will be away fans allowed while Covid exists as an issue.

 

It would cause uproar. Clubs do move their fans around though. Huddersfield for example now have half their own away end.