Vale Park Capacity

[Valiant in Brum]

It was to protect Port Vale from being evicted from the ground so it could be used for other purposes, always two sides to a coin.

I see that and yes it had its purpose. However is no longer necissary.

[Stockleys_socks]

Forgive me if this has already been discussed re the current capacity but, aside from the unused section of the Lorne Street, what are the particular 'health & safety' issues that prevent us from selling all of the available seats elsewhere in the ground? There are clubs in the national league that can fill their ground to the rafters so surely VP should be able to? In the scheme of things it seems a token gesture to reduce the capacity by a few thousand but it doesn't give a good impression when on SkyTV beamed around the world it appears that we cant sell all of the home tickets for such a big game!

 

[Coyney Valiant]

34 minutes ago, Stockleys_socks said:

Forgive me if this has already been discussed re the current capacity but, aside from the unused section of the Lorne Street, what are the particular 'health & safety' issues that prevent us from selling all of the available seats elsewhere in the ground? There are clubs in the national league that can fill their ground to the rafters so surely VP should be able to? In the scheme of things it seems a token gesture to reduce the capacity by a few thousand but it doesn't give a good impression when on SkyTV beamed around the world it appears that we cant sell all of the home tickets for such a big game!

 

You are right it also don’t look good when the crowd is quoted as 9000 in a huge game against Newport when there we’re a lot more there 

[Fosse69]

Forgive me if this has already been discussed re the current capacity but, aside from the unused section of the Lorne Street, what are the particular 'health & safety' issues that prevent us from selling all of the available seats elsewhere in the ground? There are clubs in the national league that can fill their ground to the rafters so surely VP should be able to? In the scheme of things it seems a token gesture to reduce the capacity by a few thousand but it doesn't give a good impression when on SkyTV beamed around the world it appears that we cant sell all of the home tickets for such a big game!
 

Not a token gesture, the safety rules cover 100 pages. Un-reserved seating drops capacity to 90% as an example.

[robf]

2 hours ago, Stockleys_socks said:

Forgive me if this has already been discussed re the current capacity but, aside from the unused section of the Lorne Street, what are the particular 'health & safety' issues that prevent us from selling all of the available seats elsewhere in the ground? There are clubs in the national league that can fill their ground to the rafters so surely VP should be able to? In the scheme of things it seems a token gesture to reduce the capacity by a few thousand but it doesn't give a good impression when on SkyTV beamed around the world it appears that we cant sell all of the home tickets for such a big game!

 

I think it's unclear what the specific reasons are. It's down to safety regulations but why those numbers have been decided for VP when other grounds with similar issues regarding exits, turnstiles etc can seemingly have greater capacities is unclear. For instance, if it is a maximum of 2,000 in the Railway stand that's 57% of the previous 3,500 capacity. I think that why we can understand some reduction in capacity, no-one is sure why it is so low and what measures the club could take to raise them (if they could afford to do so). 

[Stockleys_socks]

23 minutes ago, robf said:

I think it's unclear what the specific reasons are. It's down to safety regulations but why those numbers have been decided for VP when other grounds with similar issues regarding exits, turnstiles etc can seemingly have greater capacities is unclear. For instance, if it is a maximum of 2,000 in the Railway stand that's 57% of the previous 3,500 capacity. I think that why we can understand some reduction in capacity, no-one is sure why it is so low and what measures the club could take to raise them (if they could afford to do so). 

Unclear is an understatement! I don't understand any reduction in capacity because what has changed/got worse since we last filled VP?

[robf]

1 minute ago, Stockleys_socks said:

Unclear is an understatement! I don't understand any reduction in capacity because what has changed/got worse since we last filled VP?

It could be the regulations rather than the stadium that have changed. Either way, it's certainly extremely draconian and galling when you see other stadiums which seemingly aren't subject to the same rules.

I don't know enough about this but are the regulations nationwide or set locally? By the council, police or both?

Is it that the issue that we are subject to local guidelines which are far stricter than other places? I honestly don't know.

[Stockleys_socks]

14 minutes ago, robf said:

It could be the regulations rather than the stadium that have changed. Either way, it's certainly extremely draconian and galling when you see other stadiums which seemingly aren't subject to the same rules.

I don't know enough about this but are the regulations nationwide or set locally? By the council, police or both?

Is it that the issue that we are subject to local guidelines which are far stricter than other places? I honestly don't know.

Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 - Sports Grounds Safety AuthoritySports Grounds Safety Authority

SGSA.ORG.UK

I dont know anything about these things either and I may be way off the mark but the above link suggests that it is the local authority that issues the safety certificate in consultation with the police. The devil will be in the detail of course but maybe its at the discretion of the appointed H&S person within the local authority?

[Fosse69]

1 hour ago, Stockleys_socks said:

Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 - Sports Grounds Safety AuthoritySports Grounds Safety Authority

SGSA.ORG.UK

I dont know anything about these things either and I may be way off the mark but the above link suggests that it is the local authority that issues the safety certificate in consultation with the police. The devil will be in the detail of course but maybe its at the discretion of the appointed H&S person within the local authority?

The club applies for a Safety Certificate based on the Green Guide from the  above, which applies to all  stadiums above 10,000 capacity. There is a copy of Plymouths on the internet showing the detail, every seat, exit, turnstile are shown and have to be in working order and safe for example. Vale seats date from 1990, possible the rules have changed since then, highly likely that remedial work has been neglected and some capacity can be restored next season now that it is needed.

[valiant steve]

The Hamil away end for the Sheffield Wednesday fixture can be "reserved seating" and all ticket. So why is it only 3300 ticket when there's 4700 seats? 

[Andy Proctor]

Once shef wed have sold them out they will just start buying in the home ends.

[Loggerheads Sage]

46 minutes ago, valiant steve said:

The Hamil away end for the Sheffield Wednesday fixture can be "reserved seating" and all ticket. So why is it only 3300 ticket when there's 4700 seats? 

Might they issue more, as when those are sold possibly?

It's been repeatedly quoted as holding 4000, weird.

[darren1810]

This reduced capacity malarkey is farcical.

You get folk on here going on about 10 grand win in the Tin pot cup. Yet for our next home game we'll be losing maybe 30 grand on ticket sales and refreshments. Bizarre situation that isn't help by the silence and lack of clarity. 

The only actual information I've seen was from a fan on here Jacko. 

Add Derby in the equation as the only other to sell it out and we are looking at losing upwards of 60 grand.

Go a long way towards signing a player in January. 

And as a footnote the amount of Police yesterday was scandalous, I thought Millwall or Den Haag were in town. 

 

[geoff1]

3 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

This reduced capacity malarkey is farcical.

You get folk on here going on about 10 grand win in the Tin pot cup. Yet for our next home game we'll be losing maybe 30 grand on ticket sales and refreshments. Bizarre situation that isn't help by the silence and lack of clarity. 

The only actual information I've seen was from a fan on here Jacko. 

Add Derby in the equation as the only other to sell it out and we are looking at losing upwards of 60 grand.

Go a long way towards signing a player in January. 

And as a footnote the amount of Police yesterday was scandalous, I thought Millwall or Den Haag were in town. 

 

the police intelligence unit expected 1500 away fans. we could have told them 8-900. very intelligent policing. 😄

[darren1810]

3 minutes ago, geoff1 said:

the police intelligence unit expected 1500 away fans. we could have told them 8-900. very intelligent policing. 😄

Should of put intelligence unit in inverted commas !