Re: Floodlight Failure : Tue Sep 30, 2014 1:07 pm  

Unfortunately, it doesn't answer a large number of questions including why were fans told by the ticket office that kick off was delayed and why was kick off not put back when it was clear many fans were still outside (loads of precedents for this, including on Sky Live games, for instance, when away fans coaches are due to arrive late due to motorway accidents).
The statements reads as if the incident wasn't their fault (which is fair enough, that's accepted, but where was the contingency plan?) and that they should be credited for how well they managed the incident. They apologise but accept no fault so what are they apologising for? Pitiful statement, I'm afraid.

Re: Floodlight Failure : Tue Sep 30, 2014 1:15 pm  

Unbeliever see my earlier post:

Catalans Team had their flights booked straight after the game so they wouldn't agree to delay the game to 8:30. If it was to be moved to Sunday the winner would have to play Sunday then Thursday so this wasn't an option either.

I can't imagine many of us would have been able to manage the situation much better than they did with no power/no PA system to keep staff around the ground informed etc. Credit to the staff who worked their ar$es off on Friday. I know most people missed 5-10 minutes, but I'm just happy everyone got in safely.

Re: Floodlight Failure : Tue Sep 30, 2014 1:31 pm  

I think the issue is no one who was told the kick off was delayed where then informed it wasn't so didn't think a rush to join the large queues outside the turnstile block was essential at that time, only when they heard or saw the teams coming out did people realise it wasnt actually delayed, which in turn caused even bigger queues !!

Re: Floodlight Failure : Tue Sep 30, 2014 2:38 pm  

giantarmy wrote:

Unbeliever see my earlier post:

Catalans Team had their flights booked straight after the game so they wouldn't agree to delay the game to 8:30. If it was to be moved to Sunday the winner would have to play Sunday then Thursday so this wasn't an option either.

I can't imagine many of us would have been able to manage the situation much better than they did with no power/no PA system to keep staff around the ground informed etc. Credit to the staff who worked their ar$es off on Friday. I know most people missed 5-10 minutes, but I'm just happy everyone got in safely.

So why not move KO to 8.15? They get their flights and no-one misses 5-10minutes.

And I'm not sure I buy the story about the flights. Games are often delayed for lengthy periods for injuries, etc, and what about if the game went to Golden Point. Would they forfeit the game as they had a flight to catch?

Re: Floodlight Failure : Tue Sep 30, 2014 3:03 pm  

Unbeliever wrote:

So why not move KO to 8.15? They get their flights and no-one misses 5-10minutes.

And I'm not sure I buy the story about the flights. Games are often delayed for lengthy periods for injuries, etc, and what about if the game went to Golden Point. Would they forfeit the game as they had a flight to catch?

My son works alongside the team and heard the discussions down near the pitch. I think golden point was considered, but if you have golden point after having it delayed til 8:30 then they wouldn't have made the flights.

I know it's frustrating that there were mixed messages but I imagine it's hard to get the same message to all Stewards without power. I personally think the club handled it well.

Re: Floodlight Failure : Tue Sep 30, 2014 3:50 pm  

What I found when I arrived was not stewards helping out informing the queues. The contingency as far as I was aware if this occasion ever happened was that loudhailers be used and contact between stewards via mobile phones if radio contact was not possible ( though saying that the radios can be worked without a base station) Neither was used which I found strange in fact the stewards at the south end retreated into the gates not willing to help informing or sorting the queues. I did approach the supervisor of these stewards inquiring why certain things were not done as they should and he said I don't have access to a loudhailer ( common sense would've obtained one seeing as they are plenty of spares!!) and we did a good job considering the situation! Hmmm not from my point if view a more thorough professional approach could've been done at the south end as it was chaos!!
But hey no one died and tbh the turnstile operators did a good job! But the rush to the turnstiles reminded me of a well publicised in going enquiry! No organisation!
My son was in tears cos he couldn't get in but I assured him things would be ok! And the amount of folk who approached me to ask what was going on and that well I was in the dark as much as them!

Re: Floodlight Failure : Tue Sep 30, 2014 4:21 pm  

i am sure most people involved did work very hard on the night to get the game on and get the hospitalities fed!

however the issue most people had was the lack of information, most people i spoke to,like myself, had heard the game had been delayed ( where this came from nobody knew) but a lot of people thought the game was delayed and were in no rush to get in the ground for 8.00,hence the massive queue to collect tickets at 7.45
indeed, a lot of people were still in the pub at 7.50 presuming the game was delayed. im fairly sure someone within the club must have known about the "rumour" that the game had been delayed, so why was no message sent out that the game would, in fact kick off at the usual time of 8.00
from arriving at the ground to collect tickets to getting into the ground with 10 minutes gone, not one person representing the club relayed any information to anyone as far as i am aware,most of the stewards, like most of the fans, were under the impression that the match had been delayed and they were as much caught out as the fans when the teams came out for an 8.00 kick off with thousands of people still outside.
wishy, mentioned loudhailers, but even just a tannoy announcement or even relaying a message for sky to broadcast advising that the game wasn't delayed would have been better than nothing.

the real danger occurred after kick off when the previous queues for the turnstiles turned into one massive scrum to get in, thank god it wasn't worse than it was.

i think the club could have handled it a lot better than it was, and the ticket office giving wrong information out didn't help.
but to me, the fans and stewards were just left to it once the game had kicked off, and thankfully, everybody got in safely although most missed the kick off and the first try.

Re: Floodlight Failure : Tue Sep 30, 2014 5:26 pm  

i was disappointed in the stewards, no one knew what was going on and they didnt help the situation, should have been shouting out what was happening, also when the turnstiles opened their was confusion as to which ones were for tickets only and paying only (some had signs above some not) they stewards didnt really help with the queues either.

but overall it could have been worse, could have missed alot more than the 10mins that some did

Re: Floodlight Failure : Wed Oct 01, 2014 7:48 am  

As Wishy mentions the rush to the turnstiles could have ended a lot worse, but the staff aren't to blame for this...it's us fans, we're all old enough to know better than try cram our way in forcing others out of the way. Do we as adults need a guy probably younger than us in a high vis to tell us to behave?

Being told there was a delay I can understand the frustrations however.