| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? 06:43 - Aug 25 with 4762 views | bluelagos |
Anything from the local journos around the safety issues for the Fanzone?
Club due to open the Fanzone tonight and not a word?
Utterly pathetic. |  |
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 11:35 - Aug 25 with 1090 views | southnorfolkblue |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 10:30 - Aug 25 by bsw72 |
"As an aside, why can’t people hold their wallet phone and keys as they aporoach the wand wavers instead of faffing about when the mush starts waving it about?"
Dear god - THIS THIS THIS, 100%. You've queued for at least 10+ minutes, how hard is it to have stuff ready in your hands. I make a conscious effort these days to have no coins on me, will have my wallet, phone, car key and usually a headphone case (headphones in my ears) - I need nothing else. All of it is in my hand before I get "wanded". |
It’s so frustrating isnt it? You don’t need to be a rocket scientist ro think this might be a sensible thing to do. |  |
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 11:39 - Aug 25 with 1084 views | BrightonBlue |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 11:26 - Aug 25 by Blue_Heath |
Massive over reaction that people have jumped on. Why shouldn't the fanzone be open?
Read the info from the club, learn the new layout arrive in decent time, it' not rocket science. |
People did arrive early. There are certainly issues that need to be resolved. If you think it is just a case of needing to arrive early, then you are willingly missing the point. |  | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 11:55 - Aug 25 with 1037 views | bluefunk |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 09:35 - Aug 25 by Churchman |
That is not how I saw it. At 1.40 I arrived at the usual West Stand entrance near NS. The queue was about average for my more normal entry time of 2.20. A steward said to me and others that the other two entrances were free with no queues.
The first had a small number of people waiting, the Constantine Road mouldy ticket office entrance a family of four in front and a couple next to them (there were two wand wavers). So at 1.40 there were three entrances open. Entering the stand, there was a few people but that was it.
The Fanzone was busy around the nosebag outlets and tent, but fine elsewhere, including the stage area where Frans was saying hi.
Under the stand there were plenty of people but it wasn’t too busy. I suspect more people will use it when it’s complete. In the stand, a few people ran up the stairs to take their seat at 3pm (I sit next to an entrance) but no more than normal.
That’s how it was for me.
Plenty to learn and improve upon by the club - and also the supporters. As an aside, why can’t people hold their wallet phone and keys as they aporoach the wand wavers instead of faffing about when the mush starts waving it about? |
Well they must have closed the Constantine Road entrance after 1.40 because as we went past it at about 2.10 we weren’t able to enter. We were instructed to go join the queue for the other 2 entrances. That meant going halfway across the park and the other queue was longer. Luckily as we walked across one of our party was lagging behind and was told they were opening up the entrance, so we were able to use that but it still took about 30 minutes to get through two queues. That’s how it was for me. |  | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:01 - Aug 25 with 1022 views | bsw72 |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 09:11 - Aug 25 by bluefunk |
It may well be fine in time but what genius decided that it was a good idea to make 6000+ fans go via 3 entry points. The third wasn’t even open at 2.15, so even those who’d arrived early were stuck in a queue that stretched back across the park. Basic maths says that each one of those 3 entrances (which also provide exits) has to cope with 2000 people, at 15 people per minute (which I doubt they were managing) that’s still over an hour and a half to get everyone through, and if you’re unlucky enough to be in the West Stand, you have to face another queue for 16 turnstiles.
It was a complete shambles, which even if EVERYONE had arrived at 1.30, they’d still have struggled to clear. |
West stand holds 8,700 and the statement of everyone turning up at 13:30 is flawed considering fanzone opens from 12.
Assuming up to 8,700 spectators for the stand, with 16 NFC turnstiles and an average 5–6 seconds per person at the reader (industry standard is sually 2-5 seconds), the underlying entry capacity is on the order of 160–192 people per minute (16 × 10–12 per minute) at the turnstiles. That equates to roughly 45–55 minutes of “pure processing time” if arrivals are reasonably spread.
This is why your quoted “basic maths” (15 people per minute per entrance and 90+ minutes) is not automatically the right measure: the true limiting rate is whichever physical point actually throttles flow (turnstiles, pinch points, steward checks), not simply the fact there are three entrances.
Where the setup can still feel like a “shambles” is human behaviour coupled with the fanzone buffer.
With the fanzone open from 12:00 and the ground only really filling from 14:00, you should expect a sharply back‑loaded arrival pattern at the turnstiles (people eat/drink, wait for mates, then move en masse).
A simple stress test is the final 30 minutes: from 14:30–15:00, 16 turnstiles can only process about 4,800–5,760 people (depending on whether NFC averages 6s or 5s). The one change is that tickets are now scanned on turnstile entry materially separate from the security checkpoints - however as the West Stand work is completed, more will be in there under cover vs the wider fan zone so this will settle after building work completed.
If materially more than that tries to present at the turnstiles after 14:30, it becomes mathematically impossible to get everyone in by 15:00, regardless of how well the system runs, and queues will persist at kick‑off. That late‑surge risk is made worse if an entrance route is not fully open because it reduces early throughput and tends to create uneven queueing that is hard to unwind close to kick‑off - people's behaviour will have to change.
So the more accurate challenge is: it’s not “three entrances can’t handle 6,000+”; it’s that
1- the correct number is up to 8,700
2 - the new turnstiles are capable of admitting that number if arrivals are managed and distributed
3 - the fanzone encourages a late release wave which can overwhelm even a decent turnstile estate, especially if average NFC time drifts up (phone fumbling) or one entrance is opened late. |  | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:13 - Aug 25 with 975 views | Jon_456 |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 11:26 - Aug 25 by Blue_Heath |
Massive over reaction that people have jumped on. Why shouldn't the fanzone be open?
Read the info from the club, learn the new layout arrive in decent time, it' not rocket science. |
A section of TWTD overreacting to something the club has/hasnt done? Surely not.
I’m sure it wasn’t perfect but this constant need to bash the club the second there’s an issue really baffles me. Especially the entitlement from some to expect immediate answers on things the club are likely working on in the background.
To add to that, from my experience Saturday the delays I faced were mostly caused by idiots not having their pockets emptied while queuing at security and then not having their ticket ready at the turnstile. It’s not that hard to prep for is it.. | | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:30 - Aug 25 with 938 views | benrhyddingblue |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 09:11 - Aug 25 by SitfcB |
There were 3 entrances advertised though, for both the fanzone and West Stand?
Surely those who had entered the fanzone prior to going into the stand didn’t then have to queue up at the bag search queue again, could have simply joined the queue for the turnstiles?
I am surprised they didn’t keep the turnstiles on the perimeter of the ground as it’s a massive stand and people were able to move freely in a massive space once inside.
https://www.itfc.co.uk/news/20 |
I didn’t have to queue again once I’d gone into the fanzone. I just walked across to the new turnstiles - only difference from last season being the automated entry as opposed to a manual scan. | | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:48 - Aug 25 with 887 views | stonojnr |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 07:22 - Aug 25 by bsw72 |
There were queues but the situation was nothing like Hillsborough and the police requesting opening of the other gate was to bring fans in to the old fanzone area and off the public highways. |
Sir Alf Ramsey way is closed 90mins before kick off, so its not a public highways issue, unless the queues were so bad 90+mins before kick off and traffic was blocked...in which case thats absolutely a public safety issue the club should be dealing with | | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:52 - Aug 25 with 870 views | bluelagos |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 11:26 - Aug 25 by Blue_Heath |
Massive over reaction that people have jumped on. Why shouldn't the fanzone be open?
Read the info from the club, learn the new layout arrive in decent time, it' not rocket science. |
If the safety procedures required the police to intervene, then absolutely those issues need addressing. Or do we wait until people get injured through unsafe entry/exit systems before we address those issues?
Putting people through an exit at the same time as people are using it as an entry point is inherently dangerous as anyone with even a minimal appreciation of crowd management could attest.
Not having the ability to enforce a capacity in an area is absolutely a safety issue.
Those who think anyone is over reacting is merely highlighting their ignorance of the set up on Saturday imho. I for one don't give a toss for those who think it was all good. I'd far rather hear from the club an acknowledgement on what went wrong, what will change and a commitment to putting safety first.
Seems that didn't happen on Saturday when the club opened a fanzone without the ability to fully control its capacity. | |
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:53 - Aug 25 with 858 views | Churchman |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 11:39 - Aug 25 by BrightonBlue |
People did arrive early. There are certainly issues that need to be resolved. If you think it is just a case of needing to arrive early, then you are willingly missing the point. |
That depends on your definition of early. My seat neighbour who normally rocks up 5 mins before kick off gave it an extra 30 mins. For him, he arrived early. He has to wait 30 mins and arrived at his seat just before kick off.
Do I think he arrived early? No I don’t, but his perception of that word is clearly different to mine.
Should he have had to wait at all? Of course not, but anyone who’s been to an event or even an airport knows how it goes. Warnings were given aplenty and pictures of the work going on made it obvious that time was required. Plenty arrived early, plenty didn’t, as you would expect.
Yes, it must be improved, but it’ll help if people also take a little personal responsibility to allow more time, read the instructions, get their keys, phone with the ‘wallet’ page open and normal wallet out of their pockets |  | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:57 - Aug 25 with 853 views | bluelagos |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:52 - Aug 25 by bluelagos |
If the safety procedures required the police to intervene, then absolutely those issues need addressing. Or do we wait until people get injured through unsafe entry/exit systems before we address those issues?
Putting people through an exit at the same time as people are using it as an entry point is inherently dangerous as anyone with even a minimal appreciation of crowd management could attest.
Not having the ability to enforce a capacity in an area is absolutely a safety issue.
Those who think anyone is over reacting is merely highlighting their ignorance of the set up on Saturday imho. I for one don't give a toss for those who think it was all good. I'd far rather hear from the club an acknowledgement on what went wrong, what will change and a commitment to putting safety first.
Seems that didn't happen on Saturday when the club opened a fanzone without the ability to fully control its capacity. |
I'll leave it there for now, have made my opinions clear and have shared them with the club.
I'll share any responses I get - but not holding my breath. | |
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 13:01 - Aug 25 with 833 views | gb3003 |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:57 - Aug 25 by bluelagos |
I'll leave it there for now, have made my opinions clear and have shared them with the club.
I'll share any responses I get - but not holding my breath. |
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet.
Before the season started the club said the intention was for the fanzone to be open to the public, including away supporters and non ticket holders.
So I would imagine once the West Stand concourse is fully finished, you will not need to go through any checks to enter the fanzone, which (apart from delays caused by digital tickets) would solve the issue from Saturday.
So no need to panic, they porobaly just didn’t finish the concourse as quickly as they would have liked, but a couple more weeks and it should be there and there will be no massive queues to enter the fanzone. [Post edited 25 Aug 13:03]
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 13:25 - Aug 25 with 767 views | Luggworm |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:01 - Aug 25 by bsw72 |
West stand holds 8,700 and the statement of everyone turning up at 13:30 is flawed considering fanzone opens from 12.
Assuming up to 8,700 spectators for the stand, with 16 NFC turnstiles and an average 5–6 seconds per person at the reader (industry standard is sually 2-5 seconds), the underlying entry capacity is on the order of 160–192 people per minute (16 × 10–12 per minute) at the turnstiles. That equates to roughly 45–55 minutes of “pure processing time” if arrivals are reasonably spread.
This is why your quoted “basic maths” (15 people per minute per entrance and 90+ minutes) is not automatically the right measure: the true limiting rate is whichever physical point actually throttles flow (turnstiles, pinch points, steward checks), not simply the fact there are three entrances.
Where the setup can still feel like a “shambles” is human behaviour coupled with the fanzone buffer.
With the fanzone open from 12:00 and the ground only really filling from 14:00, you should expect a sharply back‑loaded arrival pattern at the turnstiles (people eat/drink, wait for mates, then move en masse).
A simple stress test is the final 30 minutes: from 14:30–15:00, 16 turnstiles can only process about 4,800–5,760 people (depending on whether NFC averages 6s or 5s). The one change is that tickets are now scanned on turnstile entry materially separate from the security checkpoints - however as the West Stand work is completed, more will be in there under cover vs the wider fan zone so this will settle after building work completed.
If materially more than that tries to present at the turnstiles after 14:30, it becomes mathematically impossible to get everyone in by 15:00, regardless of how well the system runs, and queues will persist at kick‑off. That late‑surge risk is made worse if an entrance route is not fully open because it reduces early throughput and tends to create uneven queueing that is hard to unwind close to kick‑off - people's behaviour will have to change.
So the more accurate challenge is: it’s not “three entrances can’t handle 6,000+”; it’s that
1- the correct number is up to 8,700
2 - the new turnstiles are capable of admitting that number if arrivals are managed and distributed
3 - the fanzone encourages a late release wave which can overwhelm even a decent turnstile estate, especially if average NFC time drifts up (phone fumbling) or one entrance is opened late. |
The biggest problem I think was that they shut 2 of the 3 entrances at some point around 2 o'clock apparently due to the Fanzone being at capacity, which caused the massive queues across Alderman Road rec. When they saw what was happening they opened the other entrances around 14:25 which caused a flood of people along with the people already in the Fanzone now making their way to the turnstiles. and creating a backlog that the 16 turnstiles couldn't cope with (as per your maths)
The only way I can see they cure this is to go back to having the back of the West Stand segregated from the Fanzone in the same way as it was before so if the Fanzone reaches capacity people can still directly enter the West Stand. |  | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 13:30 - Aug 25 with 743 views | Churchman |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 13:01 - Aug 25 by gb3003 |
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet.
Before the season started the club said the intention was for the fanzone to be open to the public, including away supporters and non ticket holders.
So I would imagine once the West Stand concourse is fully finished, you will not need to go through any checks to enter the fanzone, which (apart from delays caused by digital tickets) would solve the issue from Saturday.
So no need to panic, they porobaly just didn’t finish the concourse as quickly as they would have liked, but a couple more weeks and it should be there and there will be no massive queues to enter the fanzone. [Post edited 25 Aug 13:03]
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I think I saw in an interview that buried under the concourse area was all sorts of stuff including parts of the original stand roof so yes, I believe it has taken longer to do.
Looking at the new concourse, it’s far from finished and I suspect that’s where many people like myself will head once it is (dry, TVs, toilets, food and drink if you want it, sheltered in winter). | | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 13:49 - Aug 25 with 686 views | SitfcB |
Surprised the turnstiles still opened at 13:30 and not 13:00 tbh |  |
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 14:06 - Aug 25 with 635 views | Jon_456 |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:13 - Aug 25 by Jon_456 |
A section of TWTD overreacting to something the club has/hasnt done? Surely not.
I’m sure it wasn’t perfect but this constant need to bash the club the second there’s an issue really baffles me. Especially the entitlement from some to expect immediate answers on things the club are likely working on in the background.
To add to that, from my experience Saturday the delays I faced were mostly caused by idiots not having their pockets emptied while queuing at security and then not having their ticket ready at the turnstile. It’s not that hard to prep for is it.. |
Oh look, the club have been reviewing it in the background and have made some changes following the feedback. It’s almost like they know what they’re doing..
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 16:40 - Aug 25 with 516 views | Benters |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:13 - Aug 25 by Jon_456 |
A section of TWTD overreacting to something the club has/hasnt done? Surely not.
I’m sure it wasn’t perfect but this constant need to bash the club the second there’s an issue really baffles me. Especially the entitlement from some to expect immediate answers on things the club are likely working on in the background.
To add to that, from my experience Saturday the delays I faced were mostly caused by idiots not having their pockets emptied while queuing at security and then not having their ticket ready at the turnstile. It’s not that hard to prep for is it.. |
Well said this lot are not happy until they are bashing the club. |  |
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 16:54 - Aug 25 with 496 views | Cheltenham_Blue |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 13:49 - Aug 25 by SitfcB |
Surprised the turnstiles still opened at 13:30 and not 13:00 tbh |
I reckon there must be a regulation about that somewhere. All clubs at all levels open their turnstiles 90 minutes before kick off.
Never seen one, but assume there must be. |  |
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 17:11 - Aug 25 with 462 views | BloomBlue |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 16:40 - Aug 25 by Benters |
Well said this lot are not happy until they are bashing the club. |
Too many people are cowards and don't have a backbone, if the club said have a shlt at 3pm.they would walk off and have a shlt at 3pm.
People are too afraid to question anything. Fans simply drop their pants and bend over
When we had national service it taught us to have a backbone, now we have a load of yes sir, no sir, the sooner we bring back national service and people grow a pair the better. |  | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 17:39 - Aug 25 with 404 views | redrickstuhaart |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 17:11 - Aug 25 by BloomBlue |
Too many people are cowards and don't have a backbone, if the club said have a shlt at 3pm.they would walk off and have a shlt at 3pm.
People are too afraid to question anything. Fans simply drop their pants and bend over
When we had national service it taught us to have a backbone, now we have a load of yes sir, no sir, the sooner we bring back national service and people grow a pair the better. |
Good grief. | |
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 18:16 - Aug 25 with 367 views | Churchman |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 17:11 - Aug 25 by BloomBlue |
Too many people are cowards and don't have a backbone, if the club said have a shlt at 3pm.they would walk off and have a shlt at 3pm.
People are too afraid to question anything. Fans simply drop their pants and bend over
When we had national service it taught us to have a backbone, now we have a load of yes sir, no sir, the sooner we bring back national service and people grow a pair the better. |
Wanting people sacked, calling supporters you don’t know out as cowards that don’t have a backbone.
You seem very angry. Are you well? | | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 18:25 - Aug 25 with 350 views | Cheltenham_Blue |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 18:16 - Aug 25 by Churchman |
Wanting people sacked, calling supporters you don’t know out as cowards that don’t have a backbone.
You seem very angry. Are you well? |
With the bring back National Service thing, I assumed it was some kind of joke that I would get a Whoosh for as it seemed so unhinged. | |
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 18:30 - Aug 25 with 333 views | Churchman |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 18:25 - Aug 25 by Cheltenham_Blue |
With the bring back National Service thing, I assumed it was some kind of joke that I would get a Whoosh for as it seemed so unhinged. |
I left that out as I didn’t understand the point. | | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 19:28 - Aug 25 with 293 views | Libero |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 06:59 - Aug 25 by Zx1988 |
When you've got the authorities ordering the opening of extra gates, and mentioning Hillsborough in the same sentence, there were definitely safety issues. |
Very disrespectful to those who were at Hillsborough, or who lost loved ones that day. |  | | |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 03:43 - Aug 26 with 194 views | Benters |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 12:57 - Aug 25 by bluelagos |
I'll leave it there for now, have made my opinions clear and have shared them with the club.
I'll share any responses I get - but not holding my breath. |
I thought you were one of those who gave your season ticket up over the Mark and Nigel love fest? | |
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| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 04:01 - Aug 26 with 185 views | Benters |
| Anything from the Supporters club? Anything? on 17:11 - Aug 25 by BloomBlue |
Too many people are cowards and don't have a backbone, if the club said have a shlt at 3pm.they would walk off and have a shlt at 3pm.
People are too afraid to question anything. Fans simply drop their pants and bend over
When we had national service it taught us to have a backbone, now we have a load of yes sir, no sir, the sooner we bring back national service and people grow a pair the better. |
Blimey.Bending over for a poo 💩 is never a good idea. [Post edited 26 Aug 6:19]
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