Standing Room
Floodlights
How S.A.F.E. are you?
Phill Gatenby talks to Groundtastic about his organisation’s campaign
SAFE is short for ‘Standing Areas For Eastlands’. It is a campaign group aiming to put pressure
on the government to ease the legislation in relation to all-seater stadia for clubs in the top two
divisions of the League. More specifically, it hopes to persuade Manchester City to build terracing into their new stadium at Eastlands when it is converted after the Commonwealth Games in
2002-03.
Apart from the legal aspect, another hurdle in this process has been the edict from UEFA that no
grounds with standing areas would be allowed to host European matches as from this season.
When the campaign started out the then Minister for Sport, Tony Banks, replied to a letter on the
subject stating that as the first class stadiums in England were the centrepiece of the England
2006 World Cup bid, no such moves to reintroduce terracing would be entertained. This viewpoint fell flat on it’s face however when the competition was awarded to Germany. Ironically,
Germany has large football grounds with terracing which is simply converted to seating areas for
European games. In fact three of the grounds forming the German bid for the World Cup fit this
criteria.
The campaign originally focused on Eastlands as it will be converted for football after the Commonwealth Games and two new ends will be built before Manchester City take up residence in
August 2003. This means that the design for these ends could be modernised to include terracing which is convertible to seating as and when required. Since then the campaign has widened
to encourage supporters to bring pressure on all top flight clubs to support the cause and to consider installing terraces where possible.
The benefits of terracing utilised in this way are that grounds would have increased capacity for
domestic matches and with a reduction in admission prices, some of the economically excluded
fans may be able to come back. There would also be an increased atmosphere at grounds,
something which is often mourned these days at such places as city rivals United’s Old Trafford
where 67,000 seated sometimes fail to be heard.
So where does the campaign go from here? As well as lobbying MP’s and club chairmen, the
fight is being pushed via Independent Supporters Associations and club fanzines. More confident
exponents are being encouraged to raise the subject at club meetings and through local papers
and radio stations. Efforts are being made to get the discussion onto radio shows such as Radio
5 Live’s 606. If you wish to support SAFE you can write to your MP, the Minister for Sport, your
club chairman or a fanzine. Anything that raises the profile of the campaign is useful.
For further information contact Phill Gatenby on :Tel 07887-884653 or E-mail him on [email protected]
Groundtastic
page 43
Issue 23