[Archived] Flares

[AlanK]

Just a heads up to whoever let's the flares off during the match

Me, I'm not too fussed, I'm a big boy

However, I took my 7yr old girl to her 1st Rovers match on Monday and you start to see things from a different perspective.

She was just 7 or 8 seats to the right of whoever set that off at Milton Keynes and got a facefull of it. Her eyes were streaming for the next 5 minutes. In the seat directly in front of her was a little girl who could have been no older than 3. She also got a facefull and her parents had to cover her in a hoodie.

Just not cool

[arbitro]

3 hours ago, AlanK said:

Just a heads up to whoever let's the flares off during the match

Me, I'm not too fussed, I'm a big boy

However, I took my 7yr old girl to her 1st Rovers match on Monday and you start to see things from a different perspective.

She was just 7 or 8 seats to the right of whoever set that off at Milton Keynes and got a facefull of it. Her eyes were streaming for the next 5 minutes. In the seat directly in front of her was a little girl who could have been no older than 3. She also got a facefull and her parents had to cover her in a hoodie.

Just not cool

There are some real selfish numpties going to away games and whilst they believe they are having fun and 'a laugh' it's just annoying to many of us. Why on earth would anybody risk being prosecuted and a banning order just to let a flare off. I actually challenged the validity of body searching people on Monday with a steward when a flare can be smuggled in. He just shrugged his shoulders.

[Vinjay]

1 minute ago, arbitro said:

There are some real selfish numpties going to away games and whilst they believe they are having fun and 'a laugh' it's just annoying to many of us. Why on earth would anybody risk being prosecuted and a banning order just to let a flare off. I actually challenged the validity of body searching people on Monday with a steward when a flare can be smuggled in. He just shrugged his shoulders.

Should have threatened to sue (or at least those directly affected should) bet that would have gotten his attention. Many stewards don't care though and its not like MK Dons care about football fans.

 

[DeeCee]

Won't be wearing mine anymore then

[rigger]

1 minute ago, DeeCee said:

Won't be wearing mine anymore then

I can't get into mine anymore.

[had.e.nuff]

So title of the thread and got excited thought my clothes in the back of my wardrobe where coming back into style.

[levi]

rovers should reserve a block or part block of away ends for familys

[arbitro]

Just now, levi said:

rovers should reserve a block or part block of away ends for familys

Why?

 

[levi]

everybody stands up and kids can't see

plus our younger fans trying to relive the glory days of hooliganism and getting it horribly wrong and just acting/looking like complete and utter bell ends

[scotchrover]

1 hour ago, levi said:

everybody stands up and kids can't see

plus our younger fans trying to relive the glory days of hooliganism and getting it horribly wrong and just acting/looking like complete and utter bell ends

We were lucky on Monday with the height of steps, but I can imagine at most away games many youngsters can’t see a thing when they go away. I’ve nothing against people who stand though, as I do it most of the time away from Ewood.  

The 16/17 year olds are embarrassing. I do wonder if they’ll still be around, if we go up though. Can you really see those lads giving it large over Millwall or Leeds? 

[OxSouthernRover]

It's a bit embarrassing but Im def for standing areas and family sections. Always different ideologies of away fans and I feel that its actually better to have the standing lot at the back so if they do stuff like like off Pyro's then the front won't be affected. 

[4,000 Holes]

7 minutes ago, OxSouthernRover said:

It's a bit embarrassing but Im def for standing areas and family sections. Always different ideologies of away fans and I feel that its actually better to have the standing lot at the back so if they do stuff like like off Pyro's then the front won't be affected. 

Yep, wouldn't be hard to split the tickets into, at the very least, a "family section" and "all other fans"

[had.e.nuff]

2 hours ago, levi said:

rovers should reserve a block or part block of away ends for familys

and for people wearing flares

[Stuart]

Anyone caught taking (or with) a flare into a football ground should be prosecuted.

If they can get those in undetected then someone could get other, more dangerous, items in.

Then we wonder why stewards are searching every bag and patting people down.

[only2garners]

The problem with flares these days is that they can be very small, so it makes it really difficult for even diligent stewards to spot them.

I’m pretty sure everyone who has let off a flare at Ewood has been prosecuted. They certainly were at the Burnley game this season.

Regarding segregating fans at away games we have discussed this a few times at the Fans’ Forum. The problem generally is that the home club will dictate in what order tickets are sold. Many clubs will want to sell in blocks so that if not all the allocation is taken they can sell more tickets to home fans. Admittedly that’s not often an issue in League 1 but it often is higher up.

[AlanK]

my 7yr old never had a problem seeing the match.There was nearly always a gap somewhere she could see through and when she couldn't she stood on the seat. The only time she couldn't see is when her eyes were streaming.

I was surprised how many families were there. My girl was a bit nervous about coming but when I pointed out all the other kids her age it reassured both of us

[Vinjay]

5 hours ago, only2garners said:

The problem with flares these days is that they can be very small, so it makes it really difficult for even diligent stewards to spot them.

I’m pretty sure everyone who has let off a flare at Ewood has been prosecuted. They certainly were at the Burnley game this season.

Regarding segregating fans at away games we have discussed this a few times at the Fans’ Forum. The problem generally is that the home club will dictate in what order tickets are sold. Many clubs will want to sell in blocks so that if not all the allocation is taken they can sell more tickets to home fans. Admittedly that’s not often an issue in League 1 but it often is higher up.

Well someone was actually burned in that incident albeit nothing life changing. A kid actually so they will probably ban anyone until 16 travelling next time . Police and stewards could have been sued for incompetence especially with the ridiculously over the top travel arrangements.  Didn't stop someone getting on the pitch either did it? I had some degree of sympathy for one as it was the guys birthday and all but after the last few years there's been more justified causes for pitch invasions than someone scoring a perfectly fair goal. 

Speaking of safety I recently noticed that a Rovers fan was jailed (he had a prior conviction as well so the sentence probably partly influenced by that) for assaulting a United fan last year. Now I'm not condoning that (a light kick and a shove maybe but busting someone open is excessive) but safety officer Stuart Caley didn't mention the fact that the United fan was with another Rovers fan. So isn't that against ground regulations as well? Its possible that this United fan was on the database but if the Rovers fan bought his ticket why hasn't he/she been reprimanded? What if the United fan had sued the club? Not sure the fact he shouldn't have been there in first place would have been enough to prevent it. I've been hesitant to mention it (besides a few twitter DMs) particularly as its United related (admittedly their fans are the last people I want in the home end) but Caley still appears to have ignored ground regulations. The United fan claimed he hadn't brought attention upon himself but clearly whoever attacked him noticed something. Perhaps there was something odd about his appearance or hygiene though maybe that's just me taking a childish dig at United fans lol. I asked Caley for an explanation (ironically just hours before I was irritated by Gillingham's behaviour) and he hasn't responded so seems like ground regulations only matter when prompted by police, etc.

[Mattyblue]

Something I’ve noticed in this league is the general ‘do what you want’ approach at away grounds.

You often don’t get searched on the way in, we didn’t on Monday. Because one man and his dog usually turn up, it is normally unallocated seating (which causes issues in sold out stands - Rochdale as an example) and the stewards don’t even try and attempt to get folk to sit down.

As an aside, Rovers fans generally still buy away tickets in advance, the norm in the higher leagues, but a good proportion of away fans coming to Ewood rock up on the day.

Very different culture.

[Paul]

8 hours ago, only2garners said:

Regarding segregating fans at away games we have discussed this a few times at the Fans’ Forum. The problem generally is that the home club will dictate in what order tickets are sold. Many clubs will want to sell in blocks so that if not all the allocation is taken they can sell more tickets to home fans. Admittedly that’s not often an issue in League 1 but it often is higher up.

I understand the point about selling blocks but there is a simple alternative solution. Rovers could reserve the first few rows of the first blocks to go on sale for families with young children. 

We need an unrestricted view for my son as he is short and can’t stand easily for 90 minutes. I always phone the club and ask for tickets in the front two or three rows and the TO always come up with the goods. Parents just need to be aware of this. 

There’s often a good deal of seat swapping at the front to make sure everyone gets a clear view. 

[Paul]

19 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

You often don’t get searched on the way in, we didn’t on Monday. Because one man and his dog usually turn up, it is normally unallocated seating (which causes issues in sold out stands - Rochdale as an example) and the stewards don’t even try and attempt to get folk to sit down

We arrived at gate 2 at 2.50pm and everyone was being searched. The crazy thing was as I was carrying a rucksack we got sent to bag search and didn’t get body searched. It was the same for everyone in the bag search queue rendering the entire search process pointless.

My experience is it doesn’t matter which league we play in the stewards make little or no attempt to sit people down. 

I have found though, in every case, a quiet request to a steward to move seats is always met with a positive response. 

[arbitro]

9 hours ago, only2garners said:

The problem with flares these days is that they can be very small, so it makes it really difficult for even diligent stewards to spot them.

I’m pretty sure everyone who has let off a flare at Ewood has been prosecuted. They certainly were at the Burnley game this season.

Regarding segregating fans at away games we have discussed this a few times at the Fans’ Forum. The problem generally is that the home club will dictate in what order tickets are sold. Many clubs will want to sell in blocks so that if not all the allocation is taken they can sell more tickets to home fans. Admittedly that’s not often an issue in League 1 but it often is higher up.

As a slight aside I noticed there haven't been any FF minutes on the official club website since the January meeting. Has there been one recently?

[Vinjay]

There's usually a delay (not sure why they can't just go up the next day its hardly complex) but 3 months is a long time. Can anyone remember when the January meeting minutes were actually posted? It might not say on the official site but usually they would be posted on here not long after going up there. Should be easy enough to work out for anyone who wants to check. Of course there's usually some discussion on what happened at any meetings even before official records are published.

[only2garners]

Thanks for the heads up arbitro. We had our last meeting on 13/3/18 and the minutes were approved on 21/3/18 and should have been posted on the web site shortly afterwards. Something has clearly gone wrong but I'm on the case and they should be up shortly.

Vinjay - the minutes are never going to be posted on the day after the meeting. Firstly someone (me!) has to write them and that can take a few days depending on what I've got on. Then I need to agree them with the club, which again can take a few days. Generally this is done within about a week, but it is sometimes quicker. Whatever, it's done as quickly as possible. The January minutes were approved within a few days as went away on holiday five days after the meeting and they approved before then.

Whilst I or someone else on the Forum might mention something that has happened at the meeting before the minutes are published generally any discussion doesn't happen until after publication.

[only2garners]

Fans Forum minutes from 13/3/18 now up on the club website.

[only2garners]

If you read the minutes all will be revealed......