JonDarch

As 'purpleonline' says, lack of knee room is a common problem in safe standing areas with plastic seats (as the photos below show). The curvature of the seat/backrest often pushes your backside quite a long way forward, so your knees end up a long way forward too. In areas of normal seating they would find room in the gaps between the backrests of the seats in front. But with plastic rail seats those gaps are generally taken up by the posts, so there's no space left for your knees. That can also be an issue with barriers fitted behind existing seats, although in that scenario there is not generally a post in every gap, so at least some fans do get space for one knee. With rail seats that are flat and fold up within the barrier, if you do choose to sit down, there is no curved plastic to push you forward, so your backside remains at the very back of the seat and your knees therefore don't push up against the seat in front.

I remember that day well, with my 'Safe Standing Roadshow' at the Local Hero. All of 12 years ago!! (See pic) Great to now see the club moving ahead with this and going to such lengths to get supporters' views before making their final decisions on location and rail seats and/or barriers. While still a campaigner at heart, and happy to answer any general questions here on safe standing, I must also declare an interest, in that I do now act as a freelance agent for one of the potential suppliers (including of the all-steel rail seats). The question posed about why would the club provide safe standing infrastructure for the away fans was correctly answered: for the stadium to be approved for 'licensed standing' provision for safe standing has to be made not only for home fans, but also for at least some away fans. There is no hard and fast rule about how big the away fans' area should be. Some clubs are advised to do 10% of the away area capacity, others are being told that the percentage of the away area done should mirror the percentage for home fans (so, if the home standing area represents, say, 15% of the home capacity, the away standing area should be 15% of the away capacity). But in any case, it is indeed a requirement to do some standing for away fans in order to get the ground licensed for standing. (Though the way it's done in the two areas doesn't have to be the same.) As someone has already mentioned, the big difference between the flat, steel rail seats and the various models with plastic seat bottoms and backs is the space provided by the former. And the lack of any curling seat backs to scrape your shins, or protruding seat brackets to bruise your calves! If you haven't done so already, I'd encourage you to go along and take a look for yourself. It does seem that the club genuinely wants to hear you views.

These are the ones at the back

Yep, the ballot closes on the 26th.

From memory it was a month-long pass only in 2006. Deustsche Bahn haven't given details yet of next year's pass. You could, however, already look at an Interrail ticket, where you can choose to travel on X number of days within the month, rather than paying for 30/31 days of travel. That might suit you best.

Hi All, You may remember me as the 'Safe Standing Roadshow' guy, and I'm pleased to have played a small part in getting standing back to grounds in the PL and EFL - hopefully we'll see it at the KP soon as well.. I'm also a bit of a German football nerd, so with the Euros coming up over there next summer, I've done a repeat of what I did for the World Cup in Germany in 2006 and put together a website as a guide for fans aiming to go to the tournament. It's very creatively called Euro 2024 in Germany. If you're thinking of going, I hope you find it helpful and something to browse while there's no club football going on in the Championship. All feedback and questions very welcome. Ditto re any tips you think I should add to the site.