EFL clubs set to lose £200M

[BaZ87]

In terms of facilities you're only really looking at how quickly you can safely get supporters in and out of the ground. Once supporters are in their seats there's going to be very little difference between a brand new PL stadium and an old League 2 stadium - give or take you'll have fairly similar percentages of capacity that can be used. You'd hope, given what's at stake, that the EFL could quickly put together a group that assess each stadium and calculate how many supporters per x minutes enter each stadium and work from there.

edit: I guess you've also got things like toilets etc, although I guess that could be linked to capacity too. Who knows.

 

[Shamikebab]

I don't see a difference between having to introduce guidelines for pubs/bars and introducing guidelines for stadiums. It's not like every restaurant is the same.

 

[BaZ87]

I guess the key difference is everybody doesn't arrive, leave and use the toilets at the same time when they go to a pub or restaurant and it's that which is causing the problem.

 

[Rroff]

edit: I guess you've also got things like toilets etc, although I guess that could be linked to capacity too. Who knows.

Some of the lower tiers have much more basic grounds with number of entrances/exits, toilets and so on being restrictive and barely coping with their normal gate let alone providing sufficient scope for running a COVID "secure" event. But rather than deal with that the attitude seems to be to bin the whole lot off - no we are all in it togetherness or anything :s

My local town team did a trial of running under these restrictions and showed it is perfectly possible to do if you have a reasonable stadium.

 

[BaZ87]

I don't think entrances/exits are a big issue - you just have to determine the rate at which you can get fans in and out of the stadium safely and then stagger arrival/exit times accordingly. Incredibly I think the toilet situation is probably the biggest challenge and could massively reduce capacities in some old stadiums.

 

[Rikmeister]

What a mess

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1310931629209251841

To be fair, I expected there to be the odd anomaly thrown up by government policy but that Weldstone FC example is just nuts.

@OliverDowden
look at the absolute state of this. Wealdstone fans can gather in the club house at the stadium to watch the game on TV, while the game is being played on the pitch outside. The windows must be blacked out. You literally have no idea what you're doing. #LetFansIn

 

[Rikmeister]

I don't think entrances/exits are a big issue - you just have to determine the rate at which you can get fans in and out of the stadium safely and then stagger arrival/exit times accordingly. Incredibly I think the toilet situation is probably the biggest challenge and could massively reduce capacities in some old stadiums.

Agreed. My understanding it that clubs have been working with their local Health & Safety executive to make sure any return of fans is as safe as possible.

 

[Rikmeister]

I don't think entrances/exits are a big issue - you just have to determine the rate at which you can get fans in and out of the stadium safely and then stagger arrival/exit times accordingly. Incredibly I think the toilet situation is probably the biggest challenge and could massively reduce capacities in some old stadiums.

I understand that that is the approach Belgium is taking. They also have some sort of post match entertainment with phased dispursal so that they don't get everyone leaving at the same time.

 

[Rikmeister]

Some of the lower tiers have much more basic grounds with number of entrances/exits, toilets and so on being restrictive and barely coping with their normal gate let alone providing sufficient scope for running a COVID "secure" event. But rather than deal with that the attitude seems to be to bin the whole lot off - no we are all in it togetherness or anything :s

My local town team did a trial of running under these restrictions and showed it is perfectly possible to do if you have a reasonable stadium.

The trouble is that this government have an urge to centralise everything but fooball grounds (and other sports stadiums come to that) are so varied a one-size-fits-all cannot possibly work.

 

[vanpeebles]

While you might be safe inside the ground, I think it's impossible for any kind of social distancing to actually get in there. At the boro, you have a long walk via small underpasses, across a train track. Impossible for everyone to be kept apart in large numbers.

 

[The Running Man]

Given the general clientel I see at football games I suspect that both distancing and the washing if hands is frankly a pipedream.

 

[omnomnom]

Given the general clientel I see at football games I suspect that both distancing and the washing if hands is frankly a pipedream.

I see a lot worse outside weatherspoons etc.

While you might be safe inside the ground, I think it's impossible for any kind of social distancing to actually get in there. At the boro, you have a long walk via small underpasses, across a train track. Impossible for everyone to be kept apart in large numbers.

Yet there is a pub, a Costa and a KFC all within 500 yards (ish google earth innit) all allowed to open.

 

[omnomnom]

I guess the key difference is everybody doesn't arrive, leave and use the toilets at the same time when they go to a pub or restaurant and it's that which is causing the problem.

They do if they are watching the football though. They are also nearly always inside increasing any transmission risk.

 

[Rikmeister]

Yet there is a pub, a Costa and a KFC all within 500 yards (ish google earth innit) all allowed to open.

“We’re playing in an empty stadium, no fans allowed in, totally soulless,” Robinson, the Oxford manager, says. “And then you look out beyond the goal, onto the retail park, and you see people queuing to get into the cinema.”
https://twitter.com/WeAreTheFSA/status/1311241013483233280

Where's the logic?

 

[flea.rider]

so just ask the players to support the clubs .. they took enough off them ..