Thetownend.com

Club to boost capacity ahead of Chelsea's visit
           
           


  AN EXTRA 578 fans will be able to watch Swindon Town face Chelsea next week after the club’s decision to install new seating at the County Ground.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/10678511.Club_to_boost_capacity_ahead_of_Chelsea_s_visit/?ref=rss
           
           
           

Why were they removed in the first place?  :sherlock:

The more people he can get in the ground the more money his cronies can line their pockets with.

It's so obvious

I think it's more the case that there are illogical gaps here & there.  When I was booking my ticket last night for Saturday, there were obvious gaps along the side at the Town End where there could have been seats.  If it's simply a case of bolting on a few seats to an empty space of concrete, why not?

I suppose that this would take the total capacity of the ground back above 15,000 for the first time in quite a few years.

The seats being talked about are presumably going back into the areas they were taken out of a few years ago. I know the we made the drastic move of taking them out next to the away fans in the Arkells after a Rovers home game when they were being lobbed at each other. I don't think they wanted town lads getting as close to the away fans as they were. Never really understood that. Surely some netting/tarpaulin could have done the job and stopped people sitting there if that was what they wanted.

Some were removed for security related concerns (Arkells, small section on the Bank by DR Stand) and others were cannibalised over time I think.  Some of the TE ones will have pretty awful views I'd imagine, but in games such as the Chelsea one, people will buy them so why not have them in place.

My season ticket of 8 years was in the seats removed between the home and away sections in the Arkells. In all those years the only 'trouble' we ever saw was a Millwall lad run over and say boo. I kid you not.

Presumably these seats have been put in the Stratton Bank (as per Chelsea getting an extra 250? tickets yesterday) and the Town End to the left by the turnstiles? Can't think of anywhere else, except the segregation part of the Arkells where they could be!

Having a bar in the Town End is a great idea!

At the risk of going all TC, this is the game I was referring too. I thought the seats were removed pretty soon after that. No idea if this was one of the 8 years you had a season ticket or not though Gnasher.

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/1078988.fans_clash_as_rivalries_boil_over/

Na, this was in the early-mid 90s! We had a good view of the Rovers seat exchange from the DRS.

Edit - It was Jan 1992. We beat them (Millwall) 3-1.

Likewise. :-)

 Various seats have been removed down the years for H and S reasons...I'd always assumed because SBC insisted on it, so it comes as a surprise that we can just put them back in. Perhaps it was just Ron Topp.

Thats a name from the past, I had forgotten all about Topper and his right hand man Ray Rodgers, nice bloke but a bit of a stickler for H&S even before it came to the forefront in the late 90's.

I remember seats being thrown in the arkells by town/wovers  fans around 2008, they had netting over those seats taken out

I didn't think you could change your capacity at will. Although the article said the police had approved the release of the extra tickets, I thought that post-Hillsborough changes to capacity had to be approved by some stadium licensing authority. I hope Jed knows all about getting the relevant H&S certificates.

there are far more sarcastic comments like this posted than anything seriously suggesting Jed is fleecing the club.  :zzz:

There are now I agree. Shame the same can't be said for a few months ago.

I think Jed is doing ok at the moment

Rightly so.

I somehow doubt that.

Such unfounded nonsense was endemic on here for weeks/months (starting even before we knew their identity). The sarcasm is very much warranted.

Well i've not seen alot of stuff from people saying they think the club is being fleeced by the board.
Not on here at least.

There was shitloads of it, starting with the mercs on about day 2 iirc.

The merc issue was ages ago,but whats been said recently ?

So we're to just forget all about it now then?

 :pint:

It was almost a daily occurance for months.

I thought it was a ludicrous suggestion at the time so I'll quite happily drop a sarcastic comment of ridicule now.

Certainly a better option than trotting out the same old shit all the time.
Things have moved on.

You do what you like. Free speech and all that.

I would say much more frequent than daily.

For all we know there could still be issues? All appears to be going well but let's not get carried away eh.
I don't think the club are being fleeced and never have. I think the board struggled at first,were going along as it happend and this was clear. Looks like they've got to grips with it now but that could always change as history has proven at STFC.

It looked ropey as fuck for a while(contradictory budgets,fighting board members and comings and goings etc) and fans were right to be worried although the abuse was ott. I think it will end in tears eventually as it always does but i'm happier with things more so now than 2 months ago.
This is purely down to the quality of players we have currently which have far exceeded my expectation. Behind the scenes stuff i'm still not sure about.

All very true but I COULD get hit by a bus tomorrow. I'm being flippant but just trying to make the point that there's just some things you can't worry about. Some of the shit that was being made up on here during the summer was quite simply bollocks! The fact some were drawn in by it made it even worse. If Abrahmmer wants to make a comment ridiculing this then good on him I say.

I agree
Also the communcation has been better

Completely agree.

Glad I managed to get my point across without sounding like an argumentative cunt. I don't seem to manage this that often. :-)

Well let me be an argumentative one!

Anyone giving the Board a clean bill of health at this stage are being way too premature and the vast majority of the criticism the Board received was, imo, brought on by themselves.

Board members are in a position to abuse the club financially for themselves or their family and friends - remember the millstone that was Razor's contract given to him by STFCs chairman, a neighbour of Ruddock's?  Never mind the land grabbing that has occurred at York City and Brighton & Hove.  The examples are endless.  So when communication is dire, it is right to be concerned though not accusatory.

I never understood the "problems" over the Mercs. However, the initial lack of identifiability and absence of any financial credibility of STFC's new Board, coupled with (as one example) the frankly laughable tales about debts from the 1950s or 60s causing unexpected financial problems did little to dispel a perfectly justifiable healthy scepticism.

IMO, the Board deserves real credit for having clearly addressed the budgetary issues, with realism and also some creativity.  Although I still place little more reliance on the truthfulness of Jed's tweets than I do their spelling, I am starting to warm to the guy and his team. 

I think trust should always take a little longer.  A number of Jed's greatest admirers seem to have revised their opinions of the old board only after the end of that era so why not be open minded now?

Not much to argue about here. Pretty much agree with all of it. I have no problem with being open minded, it's those who choose to see the worse in everything without knowing anything that I had/have a problem with.

That's no fun ;)

The great thing is that Jed & LPs kids have won a very difficult tie at Loftus Road and earned (with the luck of the draw)a payback with this Chelsea tie

I prefer your Oxford avatar  ;)

Didn't want to depress Dosser with the old one - Just need to write "Eric" on this new one and pay a Topcat-style visit to the Yellows forum