Interesting to read especially the bit about fans thinking the Goverement should not have control of this. What chance them ever passing it out to the local authorities? Although in our case Greenwich have been fuming with CAFC over ManU amongst others permanently standing at our ground in seated areas as they have been previously with our own supporters who do it at the back of the North Upper. (Oops that includes me)
I posted this on the CAFC Discussion List. I was giving some thought to the issue of standing versus sitting and my own experience.
It was an exciting thing to stand. You could stand with your mates, with people you only ever met at a football ground. You could kick the air or ground in front of you every time Ralph Milne completely f*cked it up. The singers were all largely in one area which helped the atmosphere. For me anyway there was an edge to standing at the Valley, you never knew whether Millwall would show up and punches would be thrown. I remember the game against Chelsea in 76/77 which we won 4-0 and the whole of the covered end was taken by Chelsea and there were fights on the east terrace and behind the main stand throughout the game. Away games were very exciting and there was something extremely tribal about standing on the away terrace, usually behind the goal, giving it large to the home fans. I still get that buzz now at away venues even though we are in seats.
If you were a small person like a kid, if there was a big crowd, it was very hard to see. I went to see Chelsea play Spurs at Stamford Bridge in 1970/71, there were over 60,000 inside the ground. I was eleven and the crush was incredible. I could only see at best half the pitch and I wasn't the smallest kid there.
I have an eight years old lad. I take him to most home games. I would be much more circumspect about taking him to so many games if standing were back to where it once was. When I was his age, at most Charlton games the crowd was pretty small. Hence the old joke: "what time does the game start"? "When can you get there". Thus as a kid, there was usually plenty of room to see. It would have been different were we in the top flight drawing much bigger crowds. If you go back a generation, kids were passed over heads to stand on the perimeter fence. I can't see that ever happening now.
I know people are not talking about that sort of thing. People are talking about limited standing area's but that was what it was like. Great excitement if you were full of testosterone, pretty much a nightmare for (most) women and children.
I am entirely happy if grounds now have the choice of limited safe standing area's as long as I can get a seat for me and my lad. My hunch though is that most who want the standing areas brought back are thinking about the excitement that was around in the old days. I suspect those days are gone, even if safe standing areas return.
Comments
someone needs to actually take an existing stadia in this country & draw up a real workable plan as to where you will put the 'safe standing' area
it will then have to conform with existing h&s stuff & not impede the view of those seated
until someone comes up with something like that, those in control will not even look at it, no matter how much debate goes on.
Link dood
It was an exciting thing to stand. You could stand with your mates, with people you only ever met at a football ground. You could kick the air or ground in front of you every time Ralph Milne completely f*cked it up. The singers were all largely in one area which helped the atmosphere. For me anyway there was an edge to standing at the Valley, you never knew whether Millwall would show up and punches would be thrown. I remember the game against Chelsea in 76/77 which we won 4-0 and the whole of the covered end was taken by Chelsea and there were fights on the east terrace and behind the main stand throughout the game. Away games were very exciting and there was something extremely tribal about standing on the away terrace, usually behind the goal, giving it large to the home fans. I still get that buzz now at away venues even though we are in seats.
If you were a small person like a kid, if there was a big crowd, it was very hard to see. I went to see Chelsea play Spurs at Stamford Bridge in 1970/71, there were over 60,000 inside the ground. I was eleven and the crush was incredible. I could only see at best half the pitch and I wasn't the smallest kid there.
I have an eight years old lad. I take him to most home games. I would be much more circumspect about taking him to so many games if standing were back to where it once was. When I was his age, at most Charlton games the crowd was pretty small. Hence the old joke: "what time does the game start"? "When can you get there". Thus as a kid, there was usually plenty of room to see. It would have been different were we in the top flight drawing much bigger crowds. If you go back a generation, kids were passed over heads to stand on the perimeter fence. I can't see that ever happening now.
I know people are not talking about that sort of thing. People are talking about limited standing area's but that was what it was like. Great excitement if you were full of testosterone, pretty much a nightmare for (most) women and children.
I am entirely happy if grounds now have the choice of limited safe standing area's as long as I can get a seat for me and my lad. My hunch though is that most who want the standing areas brought back are thinking about the excitement that was around in the old days. I suspect those days are gone, even if safe standing areas return.