Thorneywood Tricky
A. Trialist
As a relatively long term member of this forum, but only on a viewing basis, I thought I would make my first post in response to this issue. I have been going to the City Ground for well over 40 years now and have worked there on match days for the past 25. With this increased away fan allocation the big problem Forest are now faced with is the policing of these fans. Those with reasonable memories will know that we used to give away fans the whole of the lower Bridgford, even in the Championship. Teams like Leeds and Sheff Wed regularly used to fill the allocation and make a real racket behind the goal. I believe that Fawaz had something to so with changing this, after being petitioned by fans soon after he took over. As a result Forest cut its away allocation in half and limited it to 2000 and introduced home fans into the other half of the stand.
From an atmosphere perspective the lower Bridgford is not a great place to house away fans as the low roof to the stand generates a lot of noise and when completely filled with away fans the noise is amplified and it often drowned out the home fans. Cutting the allocation in half and housing the Forza guys and other vocal home fans next to the away support has made things much better and this past season there has been a wall of sound from all home parts of the ground, but this increase in the away allocation is going to affect the atmosphere in the ground next season.
The issue here is logistics and the policing of the away fans. By putting them in the lower Bridgford they can be corralled and separated from the home fans. With the lower tier home fans accessing their seats through turnstiles in the PT stand the police are able to keep the away fans separated at the back of the Bridgford stand where their buses are parked. They can also walk them over Lady Bay Bridge to and from the railway station. As soon as you look to move the away fans to another area of the ground you are going to meet with objections from the police and security. Ideally they should be put into the corner of the lower Clough stand, but that then brings them into contact with home fans coming in and out of upper Bridgford and upper and lower Clough. Gone are the days of mass brawls outside the stadium with the likes of Leeds, Cardiff, Swansea fans, but the police will point out that the current segregation has gone a long way to prevent this from happening.
So, if the away allocation is to be increased to 3000 there is really nowhere else the club can put them and the home lower Bridgford fans will have no option but to vacate their seats. It’s not great and I would be hacked off if I had to move seats as a result, but the club has no alternative due to limitations of the ground in its current format. Even if the new PT stand goes ahead as planned I can't see how it would be able to house the away fans for the same logistical reasons.
From an atmosphere perspective the lower Bridgford is not a great place to house away fans as the low roof to the stand generates a lot of noise and when completely filled with away fans the noise is amplified and it often drowned out the home fans. Cutting the allocation in half and housing the Forza guys and other vocal home fans next to the away support has made things much better and this past season there has been a wall of sound from all home parts of the ground, but this increase in the away allocation is going to affect the atmosphere in the ground next season.
The issue here is logistics and the policing of the away fans. By putting them in the lower Bridgford they can be corralled and separated from the home fans. With the lower tier home fans accessing their seats through turnstiles in the PT stand the police are able to keep the away fans separated at the back of the Bridgford stand where their buses are parked. They can also walk them over Lady Bay Bridge to and from the railway station. As soon as you look to move the away fans to another area of the ground you are going to meet with objections from the police and security. Ideally they should be put into the corner of the lower Clough stand, but that then brings them into contact with home fans coming in and out of upper Bridgford and upper and lower Clough. Gone are the days of mass brawls outside the stadium with the likes of Leeds, Cardiff, Swansea fans, but the police will point out that the current segregation has gone a long way to prevent this from happening.
So, if the away allocation is to be increased to 3000 there is really nowhere else the club can put them and the home lower Bridgford fans will have no option but to vacate their seats. It’s not great and I would be hacked off if I had to move seats as a result, but the club has no alternative due to limitations of the ground in its current format. Even if the new PT stand goes ahead as planned I can't see how it would be able to house the away fans for the same logistical reasons.