Question The North Bank and your thoughts?

[CanveyCastle]

Exactly. The North Bank we all loved was about the characters that stood in there. It was a time of rebelious youth cultures and the camraderie that came from them. Chaos and fighting were all part of the social fabric in the country at large and it all came together in Southend for 90 minutes on a Friday night. It's impossible to create that in this day and age.

Says the boy who threatened to punch me in the NB about 55 years ago. Good one G.

 

[E for B and Billy Best]

Says the boy who threatened to punch me in the NB about 55 years ago. Good one G.

I'm a different person now, K. I apologized for that little faux pas, 50 years late, but it still counts.

 

[* ORM *]

Today’s tourist is tomorrow’s fan. As usual the vocal minority seem to want to speak for everyone. I’d be interested in a poll asking whether people would relocate permanently to the North (assuming no teething problems, catering issues etc). I wouldn’t mind betting the results are similar to the Maher out poll but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.

 

[It'sGrimUpNorth]

I'll be in there for this one as I can't stand the east stand.

As for the league games I'll stay out in the west.

If there was an option for walking round and joining after half time if we were kicking towards the north. That's unlikely to happen.

If they rebuild the north with a safe standing option I'd be in.

I sat in the east stand for the Yeovil game (1st time since the mid 2000’s when I used to sit in the blues) and I forgot what a good view it is. And made me realise just how bad the view is in the west stand.
Anyway, tickets booked in NB for the Halifax game, back row, block nearest to the goal.
I’m really hoping others will at least try it for a few games to see if we can get the atmosphere going. Show the Shaymen what a good home support is like as they didn’t make a noise when we went there.

 

[IloveShrimp]

Justin giveth (The burger wagon), and Justin taketh away!
I refuse to eat or drink that overpriced rubbish available in the West Stand.. sorry.

 

[Wingnut]

its pretty cheap compared to some ground s ,you could always scan the code around the ground and air your opinion on there

 

[united we stand]

I sat in the North yesterday with my son, first time since the playoff semi against Crewe I think. We enjoyed the atmosphere, and the view gave a different perspective of the game from what we normally get in the South Upper. We'll definitely stay in the North if the club keep it going.

Last time I was in the north bank was 12 years ago when we also won 4-0 vs Cheltenham with a certain butland in goal. Whatever happened to him…..

 

[IloveShrimp]

its pretty cheap compared to some ground s ,you could always scan the code around the ground and air your opinion on there

Cheers, I didn't know about the code.

 

[Shrimp and two veg]

Heard the West and North will share the Eat Street burg van with the blue gates opened up and the North bank to open up every game.

 

[Cricko]

Heard the West and North will share the Eat Street burg van with the blue gates opened up and the North bank to open up every game.

Yes , this was a big issue i was on the case about since the last game which we finally got resolved, it was utter madness in the first place to make it segregated.

 

[HertfordshireBlue]

Heard the West and North will share the Eat Street burg van with the blue gates opened up and the North bank to open up every game.

Fair play to COSU, accept feedback and acts on it.. very refreshing.

 

[Sherif H]

The potential is there for the North Bank, and moreso now that the industry is very slowly backtracking on 30 plus years of the damage done by the Taylor Report to the extent that traditional crush barriers are likely to be permitted alongside safe-standing which changes the dynamic of the rebuild v replenish discussion.

 

[Cricko]

The potential is there for the North Bank, and moreso now that the industry is very slowly backtracking on 30 plus years of the damage done by the Taylor Report to the extent that traditional crush barriers are likely to be permitted alongside safe-standing which changes the dynamic of the rebuild v replenish discussion.

On Friday nights many years ago we used to get 15, 16k turn up and all we had were Crush barriers. I must admit in those days they helped a lot after a few pints.

 

[Sherif H]

On Friday nights many years ago we used to get 15, 16k turn up and all we had were Crush barriers. I must admit in those days they helped a lot after a few pints.

The critical difference here is that safe-standing is a relatively expensive retrofit based on a 1:1 capacity ratio.
Crush barrier design is based on square meterage per person, and as such, you can usually work a design to give you more capacity for the available space.

 

[Cricko]

The critical difference here is that safe-standing is a relatively expensive retrofit based on a 1:1 capacity ratio.
Crush barrier design is based on square meterage per person, and as such, you can usually work a design to give you more capacity for the available space.

One thing i was told by the bosses was, if they took out the seats they would have to replace all the concrete steps from scratch which would be a very costly outlay.

 

[cerbera45]

my 80 year old Dad and I were in the North Bank today, all these memories came flooding back for him (btw his first match was 1953).

 

[Supershrimper]

Was surprised at how shallow an incline the north bank is.

I was standing around row R or S and was only just above the goal crossbar.

 

[Sherif H]

One thing i was told by the bosses was, if they took out the seats they would have to replace all the concrete steps from scratch which would be a very costly outlay.

They are obviously just quoting what has been told to them, as that isn't strictly true. Everything needs to be assessed on a case by case basis.
However, that is exactly what we did at Portsmouth. Cheaper than rebuilding the stand, but, in this instance would almost certainly yield no extra capacity, as the tread depths of each row are so tight.

 

[Crowstone Crevette]

The critical difference here is that safe-standing is a relatively expensive retrofit based on a 1:1 capacity ratio.
Crush barrier design is based on square meterage per person, and as such, you can usually work a design to give you more capacity for the available space.

@Sherif H Would you mind clarifying? My understanding is that with 'safe-standing' your entrance ticket / Season Card gives you a row and number in a specific area of a stand where you are supposed to stand. Exactly the same as if you had a seat allotted.

With Crush barrier design standing, is that like the old days where you purchase a ticket for a specific stand and then stand anywhere you like within that stand?

 

[Sherif H]

@Sherif H Would you mind clarifying? My understanding is that with 'safe-standing' your entrance ticket / Season Card gives you a row and number in a specific area of a stand where you are supposed to stand. Exactly the same as if you had a seat allotted.

With Crush barrier design standing, is that like the old days where you purchase a ticket for a specific stand and then stand anywhere you like within that stand?

Safe-standing is a simple like for like replacement or addition to a regular stadium seat. There are two systems currently in circulation - one is a retrofit rail which is fixed behind or in front of existing seats and the other is an integrated rail and seat system which replaces the existing seats.
One safe-standing position equates to one seat position, so ticketing would be much the same as current.

Crush barriers are indeed the rails you see on old-school standing terraces.
For modern applications these are still permissible, but capacity is calculated on a minimum square meterage of space per person. In this instance, one would imagine it would only be possible to sell tickets on an unallocated basis.