davieG Posted 25 November 2005 Share Posted 25 November 2005 A Message From Tim Davies Open Meeting - Thursday 17 November 2005 Thank you to all those who came to last week's open meeting which I felt was constructive and will enable us to improve the club's operation. About 90 people attended which included fans from all areas of the ground and as well as myself, Andrew Neville, some stewards, our senior health and safety officers, Peter Jones, Chief Superintendent Geoff Feavyour, Adrian Russell, Chairman of the Safety Advisory Group and Dave Beaumont from the Football Licensing Authority. Thank you to others who have corresponded directly with the club over many matters, including some of the issues referred to below. The first and major part of the meeting related to stewarding and tolerance limits at football. Questions and topics raised on this matter were as follows: No atmosphere at games Not being allowed to stand Not being allowed to swear Banter between home and away fans What level of banter is acceptable? Why can away fans get away with it all the game? Standing at a game How long is acceptable? Some away fans stand nearly all the game Standards need to be set - use common sense Police cameras in the face of fans during the game This ruins the atmosphere for the fans Stewards Stewards and Police obstruct the views of fans Responsibilities/powers of stewards and response team need defining What training do stewards/response team have? Some stewards are thugs Inconsistency of stewarding Stewards generally do good jobs Difference between Leicester and other grounds' approach to stewarding and standing Bag searches - why don't we do them? Evacuation policy - why don't we announce this before a game or print it clearly in the programme? Policing Why have them? How many? Costs? What is the difference between Police and stewards, i.e, powers, laws? As a club, we all want the same thing as fans, indeed most of us are fans and we do not want a 'them and us' approach. We want passion, atmosphere and for people to have a good time. We do not want racist abuse, threatening and aggressive behaviour or anything likely to cause an immediate and violent reaction from any supporters. We want to get it right, we obviously have not at the moment. As pointed out last week, we need to have a more common sense approach, we need to apply the 'customer as king' principle and we need to be consistent for home and away fans. All these points we will take on board. With regard to standing, we need again to show a common sense approach and would ask you to as well. Standing and chanting is fine, when it becomes persistent then this is a problem to us and breaks our ground regulations that we have to adhere to. But what is persistent? That is difficult to define, it is not standing and singing a song for 20 seconds, but it is standing persistently. We, that is both the club and fans, need to work together to get this right. The Police are here to prevent public disorder under our safety certificate granted to us by the Safety Advisory Group and organise themselves regarding numbers at particular matches. They also, as discussed by Geoff Feavyour, have their own strategies for policing football to include cameras but to set standards as would be expected in normal life. Geoff would like to see limited police numbers and a passionate atmosphere. Bags are searched at matches on a random basis. We explained that stewards search the whole stadium before a game and there are set procedures for evacuation but there is not a set announcement as each situation would be different. Our stewards receive extensive training and we ensure they meet the requirements as set by both the FA and security industry regulations. Overall on this matter, I promise we will work to get this right. It will be difficult and I ask for patience but let us all have a go working on this together. There will be setbacks and times when it doesn't work but at least we can ensure most of the time we get it right from all points of view, fans, the stewards, the police, the FLA and our safety advisory group. I provide below a summary of other items raised: Exiting Why are the bottom exits not open after the game? Fans have to walk up the stairs to get out and back down the stairs We are looking at ways of getting this better and stewarding this so quicker exits are made. Smoking Fans are lighting up after the final whistle and smoking as they walk out of the stadium The smoking policy needs clearly defining and making obvious Possibility of smoking blocks? Smoking is an issue for all of us. We will be holding a public vote at the end of the season to try to come to some resolution for next season. In the South Stand, we may try at half-time having a large open air smoking area. Please can people who are lighting up straight after a match be aware of others around them. Standing Areas Call for standing only areas This is not possible for us by law. We have spoken to the government and lobbied officials, however, to no avail. We will try to bring this up at a Championship club meeting to see if there is any other club support for this. However, this is a matter where individuals need to lobby their own MPs. Henry Unclear why Henry doesn't play before the games any longer We thanked Henry for all his work and pointed out that if people in general wanted Henry back then that was fine by us. However, we had been asked at a previous Open Meeting and a website vote not to have Henry playing as the players came out but have the recorded version of the Post Horn Gallop instead. We therefore asked Henry to only play at 2.45 pm. Henry did not want to as not many people were in the ground at this time. If fans as a whole want Henry back then that is fine. He is there or not there as you wish. It makes no difference to the club what takes place pre-match or at half-time. We simply respond to your wishes. Pricing Policy A couple of people complained about high ticket prices and about loss of value for the season ticket holder. However, most others present said they thought prices were fair and even our season ticket holders wanted a full stadium. As a club we would dispute the high ticket prices. Season ticket holders have got a great deal, furthermore season ticket holders will always be better off over a season and are currently £71 better off in an example seat. We have also done a large number of deals during the season for members and other fans. A lot of the issue came from one biased Leicester Mercury article based on the Ipswich match which was our only 'A' grade match so far this season. No-one mentions fans fixtures or kids for a quid, etc. Kiosks Points raised that we encourage children to come to the game for free or little cost, but then overcharge them for food and drink in the concourses. The concourses are on a franchise and thus we do not control prices but will discuss anyway with the franchise. Racial Abuse One fan had heard some abuse. We do not tolerate racism and will take action if we know about it. Stewards are available or for more confidentiality the supporters hotline can be called. Action can be taken if the seat number is identified and this detail would be useful to know. Birch Has Birch been moved? We informed everyone that this was not the case and Birch would be back soon following a recent family bereavement. Other Ideas - Singing area - Adult-only area - Swap the kop and family stand - Adult-only pricing area - Unreserved seating We will look into all these, consult more and come back on them in view of their practicality or otherwise for next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon the Hat Posted 25 November 2005 Share Posted 25 November 2005 A reasonable response, obviously they have thought about it. Lets hope we see some further progress in due course, and a genuine improvement in focus on the Fans as the core of the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lush Posted 25 November 2005 Share Posted 25 November 2005 About 90 people attended which included fans from all areas of the ground and as well as myself, Andrew Neville, some stewards, our senior health and safety officers, Peter Jones, Chief Superintendent Geoff Feavyour, Adrian Russell, Chairman of the Safety Advisory Group and Dave Beaumont from the Football Licensing Authority. I was under the impression from posters here that 200 attended? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davieG Posted 25 November 2005 Author Share Posted 25 November 2005 I was under the impression from posters here that 200 attended? Ultra's original post said about 100, then chinese whispers kicked in and it rose to 200. Couldn't be arsed to point it out at the time but that's what happened Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frenchy_lcfc Posted 25 November 2005 Share Posted 25 November 2005 Swapping the Kop and The Family stand is a great idea!!!! That will definatley get the atmosphere going!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_lcfc Posted 25 November 2005 Share Posted 25 November 2005 Swapping the Kop and The Family stand is a great idea!!!! That will definatley get the atmosphere going!!! il second that a good response from tim i hope when im in L1 tomorow that we see a more mature approach from the orange thugs and those power crazy men in yellow jackets and pointy hats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted 25 November 2005 Share Posted 25 November 2005 i think swapping the kop is the most likely outcome ahead of moving away fans, unreserved seating or standing coming back. be better for families as well being away from traviling support and out of harms way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxes_Trust Posted 25 November 2005 Share Posted 25 November 2005 We would welcome feedback to tell us if you see a noticeable change in the way things are handled over the next few home games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stez Posted 25 November 2005 Share Posted 25 November 2005 We would welcome feedback to tell us if you see a noticeable change in the way things are handled over the next few home games. a bit of common sense regarding persons on crutches would be nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobbo Posted 25 November 2005 Share Posted 25 November 2005 a bit of common sense regarding persons on crutches would be nice It would. The club have been notified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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