Match Atmosphere

[Lush Vlad]

4 hours ago, TheGuv said:

Judging by my tweet I’m massively in the minority on where it should go (Leazes Level 4 as a first choice). However, I’ll certainly be making it clear that Gallowgate Upper is also in a minority…I believe the club are trying to push this as their desired choice. Imo, that would be the worst of all worlds tbh.

I think Leazes L4 and below right down to the pitch is a great shout. As you could get a decent number in there, at a guess? 
 

As others have said. If you are going to do small corners with a tiny capacity. Or sections miles away from the away fans, where nobody can hear you and a restricted view. Then it seems a bit pointless. 

[TheGuv]

Will do a proper post tomorrow, or will answer any questions people have. 
 

Some key takeaways:

 

75% said they would like to see safe standing at SJP via online survey 

 

70% preferred not to move seats

 

78% respondents were over 35 years of age

 

Over 70% of survey wanted Gallowgate/Strawberry Corner 

 

Overwhelming majority in favour of safe standing introduction across those in attendance tonight. 

 

Club looking to implement safe standing between 1500 and 3000 

[Heron]

I'll leave it for Chris to update in a more full way, but I'd say I was surprised by the backing for safe standing with approximately 95% backing of the room, but my suspicion is only 20/25% would actually move to help accommodate it.

 

The demographic was probably largely reflective of the Season Ticket holding demographic, dare I say it, a lot of middle aged (and older) folk. Was quite surprised by their support of it in all honesty so it was refreshing but I think to a lot of this folk it's an option or ideology not a reality.

 

Aside from that, was great catching up with @TheGuvfor a few pints and a good chinwag

[Wolfcastle]

Can we not just have a designated singing area where standing up is allowed and encouraged.

What difference is actually standing in the same place without the seat going to make?

[Yorkie]

Cheers for the work and for updating us, chaps.

 

1500 would be a pretty big disappointment unless it was like a test and a precursor to a much bigger allocation. Even the aways have 3000.

[timnufc22]

Leazes L4 for me

[Superior Acuña]

2 hours ago, Wolfcastle said:

Can we not just have a designated singing area where standing up is allowed and encouraged.

What difference is actually standing in the same place without the seat going to make?

‘Persistent standing’ in a regular seated area is considered a safety hazard I believe, hence why you can be warned for it and we’ve previously been collectively punished as a fan base. They’ve given up now but we’ve had away ticket allocations reduced for it, as well as things like no alcohol allowed for us in the ground. 
 

(In safe standing areas you still have a seat, but you have a rail bar as well)

 

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by Superior Acuña

[Heron]

I'd honestly have the whole Gallowgate safe standing me.

[Vedder]

1500-3000 seats is surely not the level of ambition here. Might as well just put railings up in the strawberry corner on ‘safety grounds’ that people stand anyway. 
 

If they want to do something bigger Leazes corner might be the best shout with presumably less season ticket holders and season ticket holders who don’t really care where they sit.

 

People want to be in the Gallowgate to be in the best atmosphere. If the Leazes corner was a standing area and designated signing area I’m sure people would leave the Gallowgate to get involved. I left a prime seat in Gallowgate middle tier behind the goal to move to Strawberry corner for this reason. 

[NUFC91]

9 hours ago, TheGuv said:

Will do a proper post tomorrow, or will answer any questions people have. 
 

Some key takeaways:

 

75% said they would like to see safe standing at SJP via online survey 

 

70% preferred not to move seats

 

78% respondents were over 35 years of age

 

Over 70% of survey wanted Gallowgate/Strawberry Corner 

 

Overwhelming majority in favour of safe standing introduction across those in attendance tonight. 

 

Club looking to implement safe standing between 1500 and 3000 

 

The trouble for me is not moving seats... no point having any lads or lasses in safe standing who dont want to back time for 90 mins. Surely need to move around to get people together. 

 

Why not got 3k in strawberry corner and 3k in leazes corner

[Wallsendmag]

33 minutes ago, Heron said:

I'd honestly have the whole Gallowgate safe standing me.

 

This. 1.5-3k probably not worth doing as it's not enough to make a marked difference. As I said further up I was at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night. They have a capacity of 40,000 and around 12k of that is safe standing. Wolves and Spurs also have full ends behind the goals as safe standing.

 

If they're not going to do it properly they might as well just leave it as it is, rather than going through all the upheaval of moving season ticket holders for the sake of a couple of thousand standing places.

[NUFC91]

One positive that might come from it is when the ground is expanded they may think they have trialled it already.

 

The club should just force seat moves, are fans going to pack in given the demand? Of course not.

 

Been great if we got 8 like minded fans, 4k in oppisite corners bouncing off each other

[Wandy]

So people agree that a singing/standing section is needed but aren't interested in helping facilitate it by moving their seat. Proper NIMBY attitude that.

 

The club need to take it out of their hands and force it on them or it's clearly never going to happen.

[NUFC_Chris]

Happens all the time man - when they extended the family enclosure to encompass all of level 7 you were given the option to stay or move. Same thing here. They just need to pick somewhere and do it. 

[Wallsendmag]

4 minutes ago, NUFC_Chris said:

Happens all the time man - when they extended the family enclosure to encompass all of level 7 you were given the option to stay or move. Same thing here. They just need to pick somewhere and do it. 

 

Think this is the way to go about it. Pick a section (ideally the Gallowgate which been the traditional home end for best part of 50 years now) and say this is going to be the safe standing area. Anyone already there is welcome to stay there but you'll have to be happy to stand for 90 minutes. If they want to leave for another area the club should help them do this or maybe even offer a little sweetener by letting them move to the East Stand or another more expensive area and freeze their ticket price for 3 seasons or something along those lines.

 

No point in putting 2k or whatever in a little corner because that's a drop in the ocean in a 52k stadium. It doesn't need trialled, other clubs have already done that for us so they need to go all in and do it properly.

[TheGuv]

1 hour ago, NUFC91 said:

 

 

Been great if we got 8 like minded fans, 4k in oppisite corners bouncing off each other

I manipulated (or should I say gently persuaded) my table to say this . They were bang into that opinion by the end mind you.

 

Hmm where to begin. 
 

Thomas from the FSA did a brief presentation and then Sarah Medcalf from the club presented. She showed the above figures I posted previously along with a few other slides. There were around 10 tables, and each table had a representative from the club. We were given two questions:

 

Do you think safe standing would be a positive change at SJP? Why?

 

What do the club need to consider in relation to fans if safe standing was introduced?

As @Heronhas said the vast majority were overwhelmingly in support. My table was unanimously in support of it for example. Most tables seemed to indicate it would be positive for atmosphere, not ruining the experience for those sitting down etc etc. I’m pretty sure the club want to do it anyway so this all just backed up the majority backing in the survey.

 

The second question is where some of my concern comes in. The main reason being ‘where?’ I heard a lot of chat about the Strawberry Corner, particularly on my table. But as I mentioned, the vast majority of atmosphere comes from there already, so you’d effectively just be replacing one with the other (current de facto singing corner with a standing section). I know of one woman on another table who specifically wanted it known that not everyone in the Strawberry Corner currently stands - which is correct. I’d suggest it’s currently less than half.
 

The vast majority in attendance would not want to move seats to accommodate standing but if they did have to move some form of compensation was mentioned on every table (reduced ST price, loyalty points!, an extra seat!, free cup games etc). 
 

There were some canny people on my table, but the room was overwhelmingly middle aged and (much) older. I was rather happy when I saw @Heronand a few other lads my age spread around other tables, as  all of the table notes will be reviewed by Eales and Co. However, the amount of people who had no idea about safe standing was staggering. Their general knowledge of SJP and the club was poor and it didn’t fill me with confidence of what the club will inevitably implement. 
 

I think the club already know what they want to do, and unfortunately it isn’t going to be what some of us on here want. E.g. a large safe standing area of 5,000+ or even two separate safe standing areas at opposite ends of the ground. My heart sank when they mentioned 1500-3000. They then mentioned that timings are tight and if they don’t implement for next season it’ll be the season after. A bit of a disaster if that’s the case imo. 

If they just plonk it in the Strawberry Corner, I think it’s a massively missed opportunity. I can’t see many from that corner moving to accommodate the singers/standers and will just want to be ‘part of it’ and keep their view. This will in turn not improve the atmosphere (the biggest positive mentioned by all of the tables) at all, as we already have it…
 

Those who really want it would move to where it goes. Again Leazes Level 4 would really put the cat amongst the pigeons. If they build it, they will come springs to mind…

I get the feeling the majority in attendance would never want to move their seat, so I can’t imagine that many wanting to move to the Leazes to sing and stand (just my opinion).

 

I even said I’d pay more money to stand - much to the confusion of the rest of my table!

 

However, one comment from a lady on my table was spot on - the club need to know how many want to stand - before implementing it. If 6,000 want to stand - there’s your answer (for the timing being). Otherwise, using that example you’re going to have 3000-4500 pissed off that they can’t stand. Will you then have to re-perform this rigmarole the season after and continue moving people around???
 

I also drilled home (as did another table fortunately) that there would need to be access to safe standing for general sale/membership. Fingers crossed that is listened to as well. 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by TheGuv

[Bada Bing]

 

4 minutes ago, TheGuv said:

I manipulated (or should I say gently persuaded) my table to say this . They were bang into that opinion by the end mind you.

 

Hmm where to begin. 
 

Thomas from the FSA did a brief presentation and then Sarah Medcalf from the club presented. She showed the above figures I posted previously along with a few other slides. There were around 10 tables, and each table had a representative from the club. We were given two questions:

 

Do you think safe standing would be a positive change at SJP? Why?

 

What do the club need to consider in relation to fans if safe standing was introduced?

As @Heronhas said the vast majority were overwhelmingly in support. My table was unanimously in support of it for example. Most tables seemed to indicate it would be positive for atmosphere, not ruining the experience for those sitting down etc etc. I’m pretty sure the club want to do it anyway so this all just backed up the majority backing in the survey.

 

The second question is where some of my concern comes in. The main reason being ‘where?’ I heard a lot of chat about the Strawberry Corner, particularly on my table. But as I mentioned, the vast majority of atmosphere comes from there already, so you’d effectively just be replacing one with the other (current de facto singing corner with a standing section). I know of one woman on another table who specifically wanted it known that not everyone in the Strawberry Corner don’t stands - which is correct. I’d suggest it’s currently less than half.
 

The vast majority in attendance would not want to move seats to accommodate standing but if they did have to move some form of compensation was mentioned on every table (reduced ST price, loyalty points!, an extra seat!, free cup games etc). 
 

There were some canny people on my table, but the room was overwhelmingly middle aged and (much) older. I was rather happy when I saw @Heronand a few other lads my age spread around other tables, as  all of the table notes will be reviewed by Eales and Co. However, the amount of people who had no idea about safe standing was staggering. Their general knowledge of SJP and the club was poor and it didn’t fill me with confidence of what the club will inevitably implement. 
 

I think the club already know what they want to do, and unfortunately it isn’t going to be what some of us on here want. E.g. a large safe standing area of 5,000+ or even two separate safe standing areas at opposite ends of the ground. My heart sank when they mentioned 1500-3000. They then mentioned that timings are tight and if they don’t implement for next season it’ll be the season after. A bit of a disaster if that’s the case imo. 

If they just plonk it in the Strawberry Corner, I think it’s a massively missed opportunity. I can’t see many from that corner moving to accommodate the singers/standers and will just want to be ‘part of it’ and keep their view. This will I turn not improve the atmosphere (the biggest positive amongst the tables) at all, as we already have it. 
 

Those who really want it would move to where it goes. Again Leazes Level 4 would put the cat amongst the pigeons. I even said I’d pay more money to stand - much to the confusion of the rest of my table. However, one comment from a lady on my table was spot on - the club need to know how many want to stand - before implementing it. If 6,000 want to stand - there’s your answer for the timing being. Otherwise you’re going to have 2-4x the amount pissed odd that they can’t. 
 

I also drilled home (as did another table fortunately) that there would need to be access to safe standing for general sale/membership.

 

Thanks for the summary.

 

It doesn't fill me with any confidence at all. 1500 odd standing places will just look naff. 

[NUFC_Chris]

I wonder how my many existing season ticket holders really want it. 70% saying they’d rather not move seat strikes me as being quite high. Sort of, “a great idea, but not where I’m sat”. In which case it’s pointless making it any bigger than 3K.

[NUFC91]

Well summarised, most important point is the club need to get idea of who wants to stand. If its 8k build 8k.

 

I honestly can't abide some of our fans. They spout on about love for club blah blah blah...yet can't move seats to accomadate like minded fans to get behind the team.

 

How can Chelsea, Liverpool, Wolves, Spurs, Arsenal, Leeds all move fans to help improve atmosphere yet the boring fuckers at St James moan amd groan....fucking pathetic.

[Pilko]

Sounds unsurprisingly like the old, know-it-all "I've been here since 197x" brigade who sit silently and hate any kind of change will put the dampeners on this to me.

[Kid Icarus]

Was it implied that 1500-3000 was a starting point to see how it goes or an end target?

[Big River]

39 minutes ago, TheGuv said:

However, the amount of people who had no idea about safe standing was staggering. Their general knowledge of SJP and the club was poor and it didn’t fill me with confidence of what the club will inevitably implement. 

 

any time I'm exposed to a large number of our fans and their opinions/behaviour I always feel like I'm on an entirely different planet. easy to forget that this place is a total echo-chamber.

 

3 minutes ago, Pilko said:

Sounds unsurprisingly like the old, know-it-all "I've been here since 197x" brigade who sit silently and hate any kind of change will put the dampeners on this to me.

 

aye same, although it's encouraging that most people would back it, as long as it doesn't affect them of course

 

I think it goes without saying they're going to convert the Strawberry corner. but the point about them needing to poll all fans is absolutely spot on, they need to understand the demand. the corner alone isn't enough, that only solves the clubs health and safety headache. I hope this is about more than that, but like you Guv I'm not confident.

[TheGuv]

Just now, Kid Icarus said:

Was it implied that 1500-3000 was a starting point to see how it goes or an end target?

It felt like it was a starting point…

 

But imagine the upheaval of increasing it every year? Especially if you start it in the Stawberry Corner. Where do you expand to? Unless they did get rid of the middle Gallowgate - but I just can’t see that ever happening. 

[TheGuv]

@Big Riveryou are right like. We’re an echo chamber on here, but my god plenty of posters know their stuff about the club. I do get surprised how little people know about the club. Especially for those who’ve been going since 19XX. 
 

I had to give a bit of a history lesson to some of them why the Strawberry Corner became the de facto singing section. It was because we all got booted out of the L7 singing section and that’s where people moved to! I also made the point, and I know @Herondid on his table, that none of us were compensated and we actually had to pay more money to move out of there. I believe another table made a point about the Milburn Paddock/Platinum Club. So people wanting loyalty points for being moved does seem mental. 
 

 It’s not some whimsical fantasy that the Starwberry Corner was always magnificent (pre Gallowgate roof it was of course but I’m talking modern history), but it’s clearly going to be easiest for the club to put safe standing there. Bear in mind however, a large proportion do not stand in there - but I bet they won’t move seats…Imagine after all of this, you see people sitting in the safe standing section and the Strawberry Corner is exactly the same as it is now except with rail seating?

[TheGuv]

This is what you’re dealing with man ^