Safe standing: a golden opportunity
Clubs can now introduce safe standing areas at their grounds. Sheffield United should grasp this chance with both hands, says the founder of Blades supporter campaign group Stand United.
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The Pinch Team
Words: Joseph Clift
What a week. A moment in Parliament we’ve been eagerly anticipating for years, following some testing moments over the past twelve months, celebrated up and down the country, likely to reduce tensions and make our lives altogether happier in the years to come.
That’s right, The Football Spectators (Seating) Order 2022 was laid before Parliament, paving the way for Safe Standing to be expanded to any Championship or Premier League club that wants to introduce it.
It’s taken a long time to get to this point. When the all-seater laws removed terracing from grounds in the top two divisions, it wasn’t clear when or if we’d see standing areas introduced again at this level. It took years of chipping away at the authorities to even allow Shrewsbury, not even covered by the all-seater laws, to install 550 rail seats for a crowd-funded Safe Standing area in 2018.
A Football Supporters Association campaign and several trials later, things are set to potentially rapidly change. From the 2022/23 season, any club can in theory introduce standing areas if they meet the safety criteria. Some that saw the direction of travel have already prepared for this – Wolves, Brentford, QPR and even Wembley are set to be the first to seize on the changes.
Giving fans the choice
Not every club is going to pick this up immediately, as this has now become a ground redevelopment issue (how long have we been waiting for that new Kop again….?), but clubs should now be looking at this as a way to help improve atmosphere without making drastic changes to existing stands.
At the end of the day, a good number of fans prefer to watch a game while standing. And now they will potentially have the option of doing so without worry of a steward asking them to sit down – or, in my case, without the worry of annoying fans behind me who, for quite legitimate reasons, might not share my desire to stand.
This can therefore be a win-win-win for standers-sitters-stewards. Rather than standing being a source of tension, clubs have a way of providing clear choices for fans.
The clue is obviously in the name, but safety is a key part of this. I love standing at away games, but I’d love it more without the risk of being catapulted across rows as another injury-time Sharp shot hits the back of the net. There is arguably more of a risk now if clubs opt not to take advantage of bringing this in.
Is this going to lead to whole stands converted to standing again? Probably not in the short term, other than at clubs like Spurs where rail seating has already been widely in use. But we’re maybe not that far away from clubs taking that step.
Bringing standing to the Lane
Take a walk around the end of the car park and you see all sorts of famous firsts celebrated at BDTBL. The first cup final in 1867. The first use of floodlights in 1878. The first known transfer of a big plasma screen between clubs in 2009 (undisclosed fee).
We can’t be the first to introduce Safe Standing, but we still have the opportunity to be a pioneer. It’s also probably the best opportunity we have to make a significant improvement to the stadium without it costing a crazy amount or relying on Premier League funding to get it done.
This would be a popular move for the club to do too. When Stand United surveyed Unitedites last autumn, there were some fairly clear results – 91 per cent wanted to see safe standing piloted at Bramall Lane, with support across all age ranges.
Fans want a choice of standing at the Lane. They are fairly clear that the Kop would be the best place to introduce it, which makes sense given that the back few rows regularly stand throughout the game. Nobody realistically expects the club to introduce this in the South Stand, or John Street, but could areas like the Kop corner be under consideration.
What’s clear is that the club doesn’t need to be held up by building a new stand, or extending the Kop before they act. Whilst a new training ground is high on the list of priorities - and that means big investment - there’s no reason to shut the door on improving the matchday experience. In fact, with the door now wide open for safe standing, Sheffield United Football Club has a huge and pressing opportunity.
And if the club needs one final incentive, think back to Paul Heckingbottom’s words from last season when he described the on-the-pitch benefits of a roaring crowd:
“It can drive you on and give you extra energy in your legs as a home player while at the same time taking away that energy from the opposition.”
A vocal Kop, standing for 90 minutes, wouldn’t half make a din.
Share your thoughts on safe standing 👇
Joseph Clift is the founder of Stand United, a fan-led campaign aiming to bring safe standing to Bramall Lane. It is an Associate member of the Football Supporters Association. For more information, or to get involved in the campaign, visit standunited.uk or tweet them here.
Continued. Alternative could be top half of Kop safe standing and bottom half seating
Thanks, Joseph – you’re obviously well on top of this and yes, I agree, “a vocal Kop, standing for 90 minutes, wouldn’t half make a din.”
I would be fully in favour of every ground having safe standing but with one important proviso – it must, must mean that all other areas of the ground would be – enforceably – seating areas.
I want to keep this comment light-hearted and it’s not a “rant”, but just my personal situation. I have arthritis and cannot stand up for 5 minutes, let alone 45 or 90. I’m not worried about this at Bramall Lane as I have a good seat in the South Stand, where everyone sits down (until the goal scoring moment anyway!) and I have a good view of all the games. So yes, safe standing in the Kop would be great for those that want its benefits.
However I have, reluctantly, had to give up going to “away” games (in my youth, when I was fitter, I rarely missed a game!) simply because nowadays everyone stands up to watch the games. Even if I book a seat on the front row, my sightline is still blocked by the people standing either side of me, and I also take the risk of being severely injured as supporters do indeed pile forward when “another injury-time Sharp shot hits the back of the net.” This became so dangerous at some grounds, that on occasion I’ve had to ask stewards if I could move into the wheelchair area for safety!
So, from my point-of-view, safe standing would be absolutely brilliant, as long as it was understood that in the remainder of the ground, seating actually meant sitting. Unfortunately, I don’t really hold out much faith in that, since anyone not able to purchase a ticket for the safe standing area, would buy tickets for the seating area and . . . stand up. Unless, of course, stewards and police take much firmer action.
I worked for a firm of Architects and after Lord Justice Taylor’s report on the Hillsborough disaster, Safety at Sportsgrounds became the paramount criteria for design and grounds became “all seater”. At first this was observed and enforced by stewards and police. However, in recent times, standing for “away” supporters seems to have become the ‘norm’ again (and not just Sheffield United supporters – see any of the other clubs’ supporters in the Bramall Lane stand last season); and despite notices to the contrary, stewards turn blind eyes and supporters are not ‘ejected from the ground for persistent standing’, which means those of us who can’t stand are ignored and even put at risk.
My apologies if all of this sounds like a gripe (!) That wasn’t my intention at all, but I wanted to put forward the viewpoint that safe standing would be marvellous, as long as the other side of the coin was provision for strictly seating areas. Then, hopefully, in the future (albeit it perhaps a distant future!) I will once again be able to visit “away” grounds, safe in the knowledge that wherever I book a seat (and let’s admit it, the view’s not great from the front row!) if it’s not in the safe standing area, I will actually be able to sit for the entire game.
In the meantime, though, still looking forward to this season’s “din” from the Kop!