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Stewarding today (Man Utd H)


Paul Chuckle
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As a season ticket holder in block 37 for several years I was disappointed to see 2 Man Utd fans walk into the stadium whilst wearing Man Utd shirts totally unchallenged, be shown by a steward where to sit in block 35, and remain in the stadium until 20 mins into the game after numerous fan complaints.

 

The club really needs to sort out the poor standard of stewarding if things like this can happen, yet home fans aren't even allowed a bottle top for their drink of water.

Edited by Paul Chuckle
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It's really poor, Itchen North is season ticket holders only now so there are loads of empty seats. And we have loads of extra stewards all the way up the block on the end of rows, my mate had to move season ticket seat to the other side of me to accommodate this. Away fans are now buying tickets in other areas of the stadium where there is little steward presence, so the over-saturation of stewards in the itchen north decide to nitpick - 3 stewards surrounded a bloke today as his foot was ever so slightly on the stairs, meanwhile Man Utd fan was pretty much waving a flare in a stewards face in the away end. 

Edited by saintrich
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9 minutes ago, saintrich said:

It's really poor, Itchen North is season ticket holders only now so there are loads of empty seats. And we have loads of extra stewards all the way up the block on the end of rows, my mate had to move season ticket seat to the other side of me to accommodate this. Away fans are now buying tickets in other areas of the stadium where there is little steward presence, so the over-saturation of stewards in the itchen north decide to nitpick - 3 stewards surrounded a bloke today as his foot was ever so slightly on the stairs, meanwhile Man Utd fan was pretty much waving a flare in a stewards face in the away end. 

It's terrible. Seems our fans are being blamed yet the abysmal stewarding seems to be the issue. How many stewards did those Man UTD fans pass whilst wearing shirts in the home end, totally unopposed? I reckon at least a dozen. 

 

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10 minutes ago, Paul Chuckle said:

It's terrible. Seems our fans are being blamed yet the abysmal stewarding seems to be the issue. How many stewards did those Man UTD fans pass whilst wearing shirts in the home end, totally unopposed? I reckon at least a dozen. 

 

I actually think Saints are hoping fans react and cause a scene so they can proclaim LOOK MORE ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, there seems to be a campaign to make it sound like a visit to St Mary's is like the 1980s Den like the statement they put out today about scenes at the Leeds game (there were none) 

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The club are willingly allowing it in the hope that it kicks off and they can tell everyone how awful we are. All these empty threats of closing parts of the stadium or erecting a wall are pathetic. This new stadium safety guy appears to be an utter helmet. 

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22 minutes ago, LGTL said:

The club are willingly allowing it in the hope that it kicks off and they can tell everyone how awful we are. All these empty threats of closing parts of the stadium or erecting a wall are pathetic. This new stadium safety guy appears to be an utter helmet. 

Ex copper and worked at Millwall what do you expect?

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24 minutes ago, Turkish said:

I have never known another club treat it’s traditional fan base with such condescending contempt whist bending over backwards to help away fans and monitory groups 

It’s no wonder that season ticket sales are way down. Our record at SMS was around 23,000, this season I believe we’ve sold less than 18,000.

But then it seems that’s what the club wants, more day trippers. The fact you can even get through the home turnstiles while wearing away team merch basically sums it up. Away fans can do what they like, but it’s the awfully scary lads in blocks 1-3 who get the treatment. No wonder loyal fans get fucked off with that, especially when pretty much every game is available to watch online or on tv.

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Today was really bad , i was in block 4 of itchen north and surrounded by Mancs , no Saints fan would buy a half and half scarf and i was surrounded by them .

There was a little manc twat in front of me towards the half way line ...he was standing singing with the Manc fans goading everyone around him only when a large 50 year old skin head told him to sit down you C1nt did he stop it ten minutes from the end , the saints fan who told him to wind it in then got a lecture from the stewards...madness

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1 hour ago, charliemiller said:

Today was really bad , i was in block 4 of itchen north and surrounded by Mancs , no Saints fan would buy a half and half scarf and i was surrounded by them .

There was a little manc twat in front of me towards the half way line ...he was standing singing with the Manc fans goading everyone around him only when a large 50 year old skin head told him to sit down you C1nt did he stop it ten minutes from the end , the saints fan who told him to wind it in then got a lecture from the stewards...madness

Is it still on the tickets as being against ground regulations for away fans to be on the home areas? It used to be and any found risk being ejected 

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5 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Is it still on the tickets as being against ground regulations for away fans to be on the home areas? It used to be and any found risk being ejected 

Saints would love to copy what Fulham had and introduce a neutral area, cash in on southern glory hunters 

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Changing personal circumstances meant I thought I wouldn't be able to renew this season.

So when I realised I could, I did - without really spending enough time thinking about what others around me would do.

Missed the Leeds game, so today was my first of the campaign. Couldn't believe the drop-off of familiar faces; many of whom I'd seen fortnightly since I could first afford a ST.

And realistically who can blame them? 

A largely inadequate playing product at home for years. Some of our most loyal supporters chided and whittled away at, whilst opposition fans roam free. Petty, jobsworth stewarding over engaging 'trouble makers' like human beings.

None of this screams "fun day out that's worth paying a bloody premium for."

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Agree with much of the above, although I don't have a problem with away fans buying tickets in the home end if they do the basics: keep quiet about it and for the love of God don't wear colours you utter helmets, just asking for trouble in our society where there will always be people that can't help calling someone a cunt or threatening violence because they happen to be near someone that doesn't support their team of 11 blokes kicking a bag of air around a grassy area.

Like others there has been a clear out of regular ST holders around me in Block 39. Had a family of closet mancs (from Essex) turn up in the 23rd minute today, who had to stand in front of me while they turfed out two other mancs who were in the wrong fucking block. This after having four people so drunk they could barely stand next to my group at for the Leeds game. Shit show. 

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26 minutes ago, Saint_Jonny said:

Agree with much of the above, although I don't have a problem with away fans buying tickets in the home end if they do the basics: keep quiet about it and for the love of God don't wear colours you utter helmets, just asking for trouble in our society where there will always be people that can't help calling someone a cunt or threatening violence because they happen to be near someone that doesn't support their team of 11 blokes kicking a bag of air around a grassy area.

Like others there has been a clear out of regular ST holders around me in Block 39. Had a family of closet mancs (from Essex) turn up in the 23rd minute today, who had to stand in front of me while they turfed out two other mancs who were in the wrong fucking block. This after having four people so drunk they could barely stand next to my group at for the Leeds game. Shit show. 

I know two season ticket holders in the Kingsland who gave up last year just not enjoying the whole premier league experience,  paying a fortune to experience nonsense like your example. Ironically they are more likely to come back if we get relegated 

Edit - This was meant to be a reply to Ant. 

Edited by JRM
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14 hours ago, Paul Chuckle said:

As a season ticket holder in block 37 for several years I was disappointed to see 2 Man Utd fans walk into the stadium whilst wearing Man Utd shirts totally unchallenged…. The club really needs to sort out the poor standard of stewarding if things like this can happen, yet home fans aren't even allowed a bottle top for their drink of water.

The stewarding is poor.

Its easier for our stewards to control our generally passive fan base than it is to deal with away fans or turf out some cunt in a Utd shirt. 

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9 hours ago, Saint_lambden said:

ED55746C-46E6-4A10-8F2C-7B00FF45AC74.thumb.jpeg.a581350e8ec95ae0007a52ecf3390071.jpeg

FAO Toby Steele and our useless ‘supporter services’ team. 

But look around him, most of the others are on a family day out, no one in that picture is going to take a swing at the Utd fan. Perhaps our placid supporters enable this problem, do you think it would happen at West Ham or Newcastle?

It’s one thing having a sensible supporter base it’s another being walked over to the point away fans can openly take the piss.

9 hours ago, Turkish said:

Is it still on the tickets as being against ground regulations for away fans to be on the home areas? It used to be and any found risk being ejected 

Good question, Grounds for a letter to Toby Steele or Semmens. 

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5 minutes ago, Badger said:

But look around him, most of the others are on a family day out, no one in that picture is going to take a swing at the Utd fan. Perhaps our placid supporters enable this problem, do you think it would happen at West Ham or Newcastle?

It’s one thing having a sensible supporter base it’s another being walked over to the point away fans can openly take the piss.

Good question, Grounds for a letter to Toby Steele or Semmens. 

On their own ticketing policy

5.10 Any attempt to gain access to the Ground wearing or carrying apparel (including, without limitation, hats and/or scarves) that demonstrate support for the Visiting Club, may result in admission being refused or you being ejected from the Ground and in such circumstances no refund or alternative seat will be offered.

 

 

so they are breaking their own rules by allowing fans in wearing away shirts although they’ll probably hide behind it says “May”

joke of a club

 

 

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12 hours ago, Saints foreva said:

Just a reminder that we give the away support 300 tickets more than we're supposed to.....

Up the Semmens. 

Despite the praise he’s received over the last couple of years (some of it stemming from the fact he wasn’t Ralph Krueger) you have to wonder about some of the decision making at the club.

On occasion Semmens seems to morph into Tim Nice But Dim*

”I knew a Chelsea/Manchester United, or was it City, fan once. Bloody nice fellow. Let’s give them 300 more tickets”.

 

(*congrats to whoever it was that came up with that comparison a few years ago can’t recall who it was) 

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9 minutes ago, Badger said:

Despite the praise he’s received over the last couple of years (some of it stemming from the fact he wasn’t Ralph Krueger) you have to wonder about some of the decision making at the club.

On occasion Semmens seems to morph into Tim Nice But Dim*

”I knew a Chelsea/Manchester United, or was it City, fan once. Bloody nice fellow. Let’s give them 300 more tickets”.

 

(*congrats to whoever it was that came up with that comparison a few years ago can’t recall who it was) 

Unfortunately that’s what happens when you’ve got people running a business that don’t understand their customer base. Semmens is a marketing guy and Steele comes from a media and aviation background. They’re both polished middle class boys who come across well but you can see they don’t just get it in terms of how to deal with a customer base of mainly working class people from a working class city in a passionate industry of football. How ever much they want to promote rainbow saints wish everyone happy Eid  and do surveys on how much fans earn they lifeblood of this club is its working class roots. They seem to want to do all they can to cut these off and promote corporates and day trippers whilst allianating the traditional support. Most people I used to go with don’t bother anymore I think pretty much all of they would cite that’s it’s just not enjoyable anymore as the main reason and that isn’t due to the standard of football, we watched some absolute rubbish in the 90s and championship days. Still I doubt they really care as long as we stay in the premier league and have a ground 90% full they probably don’t really care who is paying to be there 

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Add to Semmens and Steele the two of David Thomas and Tim Greenwell and you have a frightening mix of people who don’t have a clue about football fans, and football fan behaviour. 
 

From speaking to people at the club, Thomas and Greenwell are bellends of the highest order. When it comes to the issues on this thread, these two are the first port of call for the idiocy. I have heard that if these two were no longer employed by the club, few tears would be shed as not only are they dicks, but they also aren’t very good good at what they do and don’t like having informed and good people around them, preferring yes men and women. As evidenced by a club’s commercial department making it easy for away fans to buy tickets in home sections, and then a stadium rule being broken by the director of risk and legal allowing it. 

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I got one of those post match survey emails so filled it out and complained about the stewarding and away fans in home ends.

If everyone who gets the email does the same then at least they'll have some idea that fans are annoyed.

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Being annoyed that we don’t have fans  / try to actively keep and attract the fans who would happily take a swing at someone because of a shirt they are wearing is really weird 😂

Fair enough it’s stupid that they’ve managed to get in/not been spotted when they’re in a shirt but I sat next to a lad who came on his own and who was actively talking about how he was a United fan and it’s much more enjoyable engaging with him about the game than it would have been frothing at the mouth with anger, taking sneaky pictures of him, thinking about how to get him kicked out and swinging at him. 
 

If you’re really desperate to have the days of a hostile atmosphere back then actively pursue it and see if it catches on. No point moaning about how the club isn’t catering for your old mates anymore, get them back, create the atmosphere yourselves and make it what you want it to be.

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8 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Being annoyed that we don’t have fans  / try to actively keep and attract the fans who would happily take a swing at someone because of a shirt they are wearing is really weird 😂

Fair enough it’s stupid that they’ve managed to get in/not been spotted when they’re in a shirt but I sat next to a lad who came on his own and who was actively talking about how he was a United fan and it’s much more enjoyable engaging with him about the game than it would have been frothing at the mouth with anger, taking sneaky pictures of him, thinking about how to get him kicked out and swinging at him. 
 

If you’re really desperate to have the days of a hostile atmosphere back then actively pursue it and see if it catches on. No point moaning about how the club isn’t catering for your old mates anymore, get them back, create the atmosphere yourselves and make it what you want it to be.

I think you're missing the point here. 

At the fans forum the club were incredibly defensive when it was suggested that away fans in the home ends is a thing or are causing the trouble, there are some areas of the ground where it will cause a problem - and it seems as if we are being blamed for the trouble, threatened with all sorts of shit, when all along the stewards have failed in their one main job.

home fans in the home ends, away fans in the away ends. But no, it's our fault.

Edited by S-Clarke
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Stewards by us might as well be mannikins in hi vis vests. Never work out that cunts on their way out who want to stop to watch a bit more of game and block others views need to be moved on.  
Weren’t even on hand to help the usual idiots who can’t work out the enigma code for seating. Letter is the row, number is the seat number. I swear I woudl have worked this out as a 3 yo

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38 minutes ago, Daft Kerplunk said:

Add to Semmens and Steele the two of David Thomas and Tim Greenwell and you have a frightening mix of people who don’t have a clue about football fans, and football fan behaviour. 
 

Who takes credit for the overpriced wine bar and cushioned seats ?

Might also add the abomination of the two away kits.

There does seem a disconnect between those running the club and what fans want, and the traditions of the club/it’s fans.

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51 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Unfortunately that’s what happens when you’ve got people running a business that don’t understand their customer base. Semmens is a marketing guy and Steele comes from a media and aviation background. They’re both polished middle class boys who come across well but you can see they don’t just get it in terms of how to deal with a customer base of mainly working class people from a working class city in a passionate industry of football. How ever much they want to promote rainbow saints wish everyone happy Eid  and do surveys on how much fans earn they lifeblood of this club is its working class roots. They seem to want to do all they can to cut these off and promote corporates and day trippers whilst allianating the traditional support. Most people I used to go with don’t bother anymore I think pretty much all of they would cite that’s it’s just not enjoyable anymore as the main reason and that isn’t due to the standard of football, we watched some absolute rubbish in the 90s and championship days. Still I doubt they really care as long as we stay in the premier league and have a ground 90% full they probably don’t really care who is paying to be there 

Agree with most of that but find this  they don’t go to games out of principle a bit hard to believe. It might not be as they remember but suspect more like they can stream and do other things and save money.  

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4 minutes ago, whelk said:

Agree with most of that but find this  they don’t go to games out of principle a bit hard to believe. It might not be as they remember but suspect more like they can stream and do other things and save money.  

It’s not out of principle. They just don’t enjoy it anymore. It’ll be a combination of things I guess. The price, rhe crap atmosphere, the weird fans we have, the fact that  the club don’t seem to want working class blokes in their 30s and 40s as fans,  perhaps growing up a bit and realising there is more to life than football, plus the pretty crap home form all these things lumped together and youve got a very expensive hobby that isn’t as much fun as it used to be.

from personal experience I gave up my season ticket at the of the season 9 years ago when I moved up north. Once I’d got out of the habit of going I didn’t miss it and now every time I go it’s a reminder of why I dont Miss it. Like any sort of business once your customer stops coming regularly and finds other things to do it’s hard work getting them back when you need them

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1 minute ago, Turkish said:

It’s not out of principle. They just don’t enjoy it anymore. It’ll be a combination of things I guess. The price, rhe crap atmosphere, the weird fans we have, the fact that  the club don’t seem to want working class blokes in their 30s and 40s as fans,  perhaps growing up a bit and realising there is more to life than football, plus the pretty crap home form all these things lumped together and youve got a very expensive hobby that isn’t as much fun as it used to be.

from personal experience I gave up my season ticket at the of the season 9 years ago when I moved up north. Once I’d got out of the habit of going I didn’t miss it and now every time I go it’s a reminder of why I dont Miss it. Like any sort of business once your customer stops coming regularly and finds other things to do it’s hard work getting them back when you need them

Sad fact is they don’t actually need them. I stopped going for a while when kids were young so absolutely get that also had other commitments including playing at weekends. Now kids are older and most mates in same position and look forward to pub meet up before and often a few beers afterwards.  Not because Saints have enhanced the match day experience in any way more just what we do

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8 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

It's pretty clear the club is totally out of touch, instead they're choosing to double down. Wouldn't surprise if things get nasty soon, particularly if it's on a match we lose heavily, and it'll be the club's fault entirely.

It does feel like that sadly. More focus on the new luxury padded seats in the Kingsland rather than helping the existing fans who have been around for years. (the fans who'd sat there for years were shoved out with very little consult, either pay up or get out)

Edited by S-Clarke
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The club may pay a heavy price for fucking over its core support as the economic gloom escalates. Many are going to need to prioritise where their money goes with fuel, energy, food, goods, etc. costs going through the roof. They're making it too easy for long-term regular fans from a certain background to walk away and get out of the habit.

I'm concerned they're going to fuck this up big time with these crazy, blinkered policies.

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1 hour ago, Turkish said:

It’s not out of principle. They just don’t enjoy it anymore. It’ll be a combination of things I guess. The price, rhe crap atmosphere, the weird fans we have, the fact that  the club don’t seem to want working class blokes in their 30s and 40s as fans,  perhaps growing up a bit and realising there is more to life than football, plus the pretty crap home form all these things lumped together and youve got a very expensive hobby that isn’t as much fun as it used to be.

from personal experience I gave up my season ticket at the of the season 9 years ago when I moved up north. Once I’d got out of the habit of going I didn’t miss it and now every time I go it’s a reminder of why I dont Miss it. Like any sort of business once your customer stops coming regularly and finds other things to do it’s hard work getting them back when you need them

It always used to be said that once you gave up your season ticket you never bought another one.

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1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

It does feel like that sadly. More focus on the new luxury padded seats in the Kingsland rather than helping the existing fans who have been around for years. (the fans who'd sat there for years were shoved out with very little consult, either pay up or get out)

This is very true. I was pleased to see that couple who used to sit there behind me have now moved across to where I am sat now. They were equally annoyed at the way that they had been treated. Many others have not returned.

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3 hours ago, Fabrice29 said:

Being annoyed that we don’t have fans  / try to actively keep and attract the fans who would happily take a swing at someone because of a shirt they are wearing is really weird 😂

Fair enough it’s stupid that they’ve managed to get in/not been spotted when they’re in a shirt but I sat next to a lad who came on his own and who was actively talking about how he was a United fan and it’s much more enjoyable engaging with him about the game than it would have been frothing at the mouth with anger, taking sneaky pictures of him, thinking about how to get him kicked out and swinging at him. 
 

If you’re really desperate to have the days of a hostile atmosphere back then actively pursue it and see if it catches on. No point moaning about how the club isn’t catering for your old mates anymore, get them back, create the atmosphere yourselves and make it what you want it to be.

Talk about missing the point. Jesus wept 

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