The Club are in a really difficult position. Just say an evacuation was needed. And the staircase was dark. And someone tripped. The aim today is to minimise risk and that's what had to happen.
But the execution was terrible. We arrived 1445, gates to covered end upper closed, told by a policeman that we should go to the west. Stewars occasionally peeping out through the exit doors and taking cover again. Got in west upper and sat down no probs, saw lots of people making their way into the covered end upper via the quadrant, no-one stopping them. Didn't hear anything from the PA regarding this, it would have been nice for West standers to know what was going on. The old dear behind me said she would move to the East if the drummer was going to be there every week...
The really lucky thing is that there were seats to move to. Imagine this happening Hartlepool at home, need a win to guarantee promotion, 26k tickets sold and 3k can't take their seats? Interesting situation...
Really do not understand all of your whinging and moaning. The club is faced with a serious H&S issue that could have meant that the game was cancelled. They dealt with it the best they could, even with people sneaking up to the upper when they were told that it was closed.
I was tipped off that the game was delayed till 3:15 so stayed in the pub for another beer. Got to the ground at 3:13 to find that the upper was closed. So I entered the Lower and found a seat there. No problem.
I'm not going to get too involved in this as the club has made a statement and one thing I have learned over the years is that people sitting in the stand are in no position to second guess the emergency services or the safety officer. No doubt what happened will be thoroughly reviewed.
However, what is obvious is that years of cost cutting and under-investment in the stadium - for perfectly understandable reasons - is taking its toll.
We had a walk-up of 2300 - about 500 more than usual - home fans today and we struggled to cope with it. Had the game kicked off on time there would have been hundreds still queuing to buy tickets.
Thats fair enough. Was just difficult for my family when all I was told was "sit somewhere in the west" then to keep moving seats just took the piss really.
It looks & sounds to me as (yet again) a small minority of fans in the Upper North got their way - even though both the OB & Stewards were trying to do their job and move them.......not because they were causing trouble but because of a potential health & safety issue.
What gives people the right to decide that they are above the law & health & safety. The club must know who these "fans" are & if I had my way I would ban them forthwith.
Just good job nothing serious happened & the game postponed.
I know we have a lot of weary fans who love a moan but this has to be the worst thread there's ever been on here. So people had to sit somewhere else? Big deal. We won today, but I suppose that wasn't noticed by people moaning about a drum being near them and them being unable to talk all the way through the match without being heard. Maybe we should have more drums scattered around the West and East stands to drown out the moans and groans. I don't want this to be a debate between different stands as we all support the same club, but I think the people who go to Charlton should be thankful for us lot in the Upper North as without us there would be no atmosphere and support what so ever. Comparing the lights going at the valley and people moving seats/not moving seats, to Heysel and Hillsborough is an absolute joke.
I come away from Charlton in a good positive mood most of the time and then I look at this site and it makes me despair at being a Charlton fan. Stop being such a moany bunch of idiots and get behind your team. If having to move your family a few seats away makes you unhappy then you must have no real problems in your life.
Surprised the club did not use the big screen or a general tannoy announcement that people could hear, even if it was the make some noise for the boys bloke (sorry if your him and your on here but it does make me cringe in a Delia kind of way), but overall I thought the club did well, the game was under threat but they did enough to maintain it went ahead and we got three valuable points, they didnt over react and so enough people moved to ease any potential problem and minimise risk. No complaints from me
I didn't even realise kick off was delayed. Or that I'd been made to sit in the West Stand. People turning up sober and on time have destroyed football.
I know we have a lot of weary fans who love a moan but this has to be the worst thread there's ever been on here. So people had to sit somewhere else? Big deal. We won today, but I suppose that wasn't noticed by people moaning about a drum being near them and them being unable to talk all the way through the match without being heard. Maybe we should have more drums scattered around the West and East stands to drown out the moans and groans. I don't want this to be a debate between different stands as we all support the same club, but I think the people who go to Charlton should be thankful for us lot in the Upper North as without us there would be no atmosphere and support what so ever. Comparing the lights going at the valley and people moving seats/not moving seats, to Heysel and Hillsborough is an absolute joke.
I come away from Charlton in a good positive mood most of the time and then I look at this site and it makes me despair at being a Charlton fan. Stop being such a moany bunch of idiots and get behind your team. If having to move your family a few seats away makes you unhappy then you must have no real problems in your life.
Good post dude, I was in the East today in a Box and was amazed by the pure muppetery around me, at one point a bloke really or on the back of one of our players for making a silly foul right on the edge of the box, I mean he really laid into who ever it was, but at no point in the game at all did I see him get behind the team vocally, no praise etc just vitriol when (rare) mistake was made! We seriously do have some smeggy muppet fans.
On a another note had a brilliant day In said box, thanks to @Ketman for organising and the rest of the lads too, was a right laugh.
I know we have a lot of weary fans who love a moan but this has to be the worst thread there's ever been on here. So people had to sit somewhere else? Big deal. We won today, but I suppose that wasn't noticed by people moaning about a drum being near them and them being unable to talk all the way through the match without being heard. Maybe we should have more drums scattered around the West and East stands to drown out the moans and groans. I don't want this to be a debate between different stands as we all support the same club, but I think the people who go to Charlton should be thankful for us lot in the Upper North as without us there would be no atmosphere and support what so ever. Comparing the lights going at the valley and people moving seats/not moving seats, to Heysel and Hillsborough is an absolute joke.
I come away from Charlton in a good positive mood most of the time and then I look at this site and it makes me despair at being a Charlton fan. Stop being such a moany bunch of idiots and get behind your team. If having to move your family a few seats away makes you unhappy then you must have no real problems in your life.
We were turned away from Upper North by fans. There was no sign of a steward. Went through to the West where we found one steward who was a Supervisor. She was walking away and seemed very put out that I should ask what was going on. Her only comment was 'use any gate'. The safety issue was that there was little to no crowd control or information available.
I actually did agree with the fact that potentially, with the darkness accidents could have been caused, and the confusion of the police and stewards letting people climb across from the east into the north and then stopping them, was a potential accident waiting to happen. Not quite a disaster, but why people can't just go where stewards/police tell them to go and get on with it is beyond me.
we sat in the east in front of the box that the boys from here were in. That created some atmosphere and it was an enjoyable experience, the people around us seemed pleasant and welcoming to us refugees, having said that we don't feel the need to act like neanderthals so there would have been no reason for anyone to not like us sitting there.
There were plenty of stewards outside informing people to go to the east or west, and no problem getting in the gate. I can only thank the club for their quick thinking and organisation in getting the game on.
The safety issue was that there was little to no crowd control or information available.
This is what prompted my sisters and niece and nephew to leave. you can rest assured that if one of them pulled a bottle of evian out with a lid on, the belmarsh rapid response unit would've been on the scene with tazers and tear gas.
Hi BDL, happy with everything but the make some noise for the boys bit, sorry...was scarred by Bolton away in the cup a few years ago when they tried to spoon feed the reebok crowd with history and lots of shouting when the sight of Nat Lofthouse should have been enough, bit of a traditionalist thats all, I must admit Iwas dreading us drop further down the leagues to save you having to shout "its saturday, its the beazer homes league 2 you know what you have got to do....."
You do more for the club than me and I know im in the minority so no offence chap
Sounds as though the emergency batteries had gone beyond their life cycle and i think Airman's right, a review of all life safety systems and a proper mainteance / life cycle plan will be needed. My firm deal with this sort of stuff all the time - any help needed, give us a shout.
I haven't read all of this, so excuse me if I repeat something that's already been said.
@golfaddick Have you stopped to consider the fact that many of the people who didn't move, had no idea what was going on. I could see the OB & stewards moving people but they didn't get as far as me and I had no idea that the reason for moving was to do with the lights. Moving would have meaent I would've missed some of the game, and perhaps a goal, in a situation that left more danger by trying to move people that letting people be sensible at the end of the game.
Most of the fault lies with the terrible lack of organisation and no information being available.
1) At 2pm I entered North Upper via normal turnstile and everything appeared as normal
2) If an evacuation was deemed necessary (debatable in my view but let that go for a moment) then why not at the start of half time rather than when the second half started?
3) As a "rebel" (who would have moved had I been directly requested to by a steward or police officer) I can confirm that when I left, after applauding the players off in the normal way, the stairs were no darker than normal.
4) Whilst I can understand Golfie's observations about "lawlessness" as one who was actually there it was more dangerous for so many people to evacuate once the second half had started as pushing and shoving to avoid missing the game could have caused the very situation the evacuation, presumably, was trying to avoid!
I would argue that my "lawlessness" (and those like me) contributed to safety rather than detracted from it.
5) Once again, as the more I think about it the more pertinent it is, why not evacuate at the START of half time rather than the END?
The safety issue was that there was little to no crowd control or information available.
This is what prompted my sisters and niece and nephew to leave. you can rest assured that if one of them pulled a bottle of evian out with a lid on, the belmarsh rapid response unit would've been on the scene with tazers and tear gas.
I didnt move ( I sit in Block N Upper North ) simply because i had my 8 year old son with my and a mass evacuation on dark stairwells would far to dangerous and quite frankly a dangerous decision to make. As it happens people from the middle blocks came and sat in N Block anayway.
One point. My son wanted to go to the toilet during the first half and when we went to the top of the stairs we were greeted by four of our thug stewards dressed in yellow and black.
One scowled at me and said - " No Chance he will have to wait till he gets home " !! the other three just looked at me and my son , all with their usual gormless smug grins . One even laughed. I asked them what they found funny and they had no answer but one squared up to me trying to look big in front of his mates. Honestly you couldn't make it up.
I wasn't going to continue it because i was just a dad with his son wanted to find a loo , but they didn't seen to care.
Nasty pieces of work they were .
My 8 year old son was clearly upset yet they found it funny.
We moved on to the next entrance where a friendly woman let us through.
I didnt move ( I sit in Block N Upper North ) simply because i had my 8 year old son with my and a mass evacuation on dark stairwells would far to dangerous and quite frankly a dangerous decision to make. As it happens people from the middle blocks came and sat in N Block anayway.
One point. My son wanted to go to the toilet during the first half and when we went to the top of the stairs we were greeted by four of our thug stewards dressed in yellow and black.
One scowled at me and said - " No Chance he will have to wait till he gets home " !! the other three just looked at me and my son , all with their usual gormless smug grins . One even laughed. I asked them what they found funny and they had no answer but one squared up to me trying to look big in front of his mates. Honestly you couldn't make it up.
I wasn't going to continue it because i was just a dad with his son wanted to find a loo , but they didn't seen to care.
Nasty pieces of work they were .
My 8 year old son was clearly upset yet they found it funny.
We moved on to the next entrance where a friendly woman let us through.
The belmarsh boys ? legalised thugs...surprised they didn't kick you out for acting in a threatening manner
Comments
The Club are in a really difficult position. Just say an evacuation was needed. And the staircase was dark. And someone tripped. The aim today is to minimise risk and that's what had to happen.
But the execution was terrible. We arrived 1445, gates to covered end upper closed, told by a policeman that we should go to the west. Stewars occasionally peeping out through the exit doors and taking cover again. Got in west upper and sat down no probs, saw lots of people making their way into the covered end upper via the quadrant, no-one stopping them. Didn't hear anything from the PA regarding this, it would have been nice for West standers to know what was going on. The old dear behind me said she would move to the East if the drummer was going to be there every week...
The really lucky thing is that there were seats to move to. Imagine this happening Hartlepool at home, need a win to guarantee promotion, 26k tickets sold and 3k can't take their seats? Interesting situation...
I was tipped off that the game was delayed till 3:15 so stayed in the pub for another beer. Got to the ground at 3:13 to find that the upper was closed. So I entered the Lower and found a seat there. No problem.
Not happy at all to be honest.
For the record I knew as much as you. I had some tweets to say the PA wasn't working, the engineer then told me about the power cut.
More important that I kept out of the way and let The safety team get on with it.
On a another note had a brilliant day In said box, thanks to @Ketman for organising and the rest of the lads too, was a right laugh.
It was good to hear singing from the other stands, shame it will never happen again.
The safety issue was that there was little to no crowd control or information available.
Still good view from the vocal Upper West.
you can rest assured that if one of them pulled a bottle of evian out with a lid on, the belmarsh rapid response unit would've been on the scene with tazers and tear gas.
You do more for the club than me and I know im in the minority so no offence chap
Sounds as though the emergency batteries had gone beyond their life cycle and i think Airman's right, a review of all life safety systems and a proper mainteance / life cycle plan will be needed. My firm deal with this sort of stuff all the time - any help needed, give us a shout.
I haven't read all of this, so excuse me if I repeat something that's already been said.
@golfaddick Have you stopped to consider the fact that many of the people who didn't move, had no idea what was going on. I could see the OB & stewards moving people but they didn't get as far as me and I had no idea that the reason for moving was to do with the lights. Moving would have meaent I would've missed some of the game, and perhaps a goal, in a situation that left more danger by trying to move people that letting people be sensible at the end of the game.
Most of the fault lies with the terrible lack of organisation and no information being available.
A few points:
1) At 2pm I entered North Upper via normal turnstile and everything appeared as normal
2) If an evacuation was deemed necessary (debatable in my view but let that go for a moment) then why not at the start of half time rather than when the second half started?
3) As a "rebel" (who would have moved had I been directly requested to by a steward or police officer) I can confirm that when I left, after applauding the players off in the normal way, the stairs were no darker than normal.
4) Whilst I can understand Golfie's observations about "lawlessness" as one who was actually there it was more dangerous for so many people to evacuate once the second half had started as pushing and shoving to avoid missing the game could have caused the very situation the evacuation, presumably, was trying to avoid!
I would argue that my "lawlessness" (and those like me) contributed to safety rather than detracted from it.
5) Once again, as the more I think about it the more pertinent it is, why not evacuate at the START of half time rather than the END?