Old Trafford can be modified to hold 23,500 safely.

Blue As

Blue As

Well Known Member
Official Ticketer
www.bbc.co.uk

Old Trafford modified to hold 23,500

Manchester United have modified Old Trafford to accommodate 23,500 spectators, and say they are "bemused" by the ongoing ban on fans.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Manchester United have modified Old Trafford to accommodate 23,500 socially distanced spectators, and say they are "bemused" by the ongoing ban on fans at stadiums.

The government had proposed crowds be gradually reintroduced from the start of October but made a U-turn following a rise in coronavirus cases.
"We received government guidelines," said Collette Roche, United's chief operating officer. "I'm convinced that we would be able to [accommodate fans] safely."

Last month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the new restrictions were likely to remain in place for the next six months.

The financial impact of the pandemic has severely affected several sports and teams, including United who suffered a £70m drop in expected revenue in the period to 30 June 2020 as a direct result of it.

Roche told Sky Sports News: "It's quite bemusing to understand why people can gather in other settings such as on an aeroplane or in a restaurant, or even in a cinema to watch football, when we know we've got the plans and the process is ready to deliver a match day here safely.

"We spent around two months working with the government guidelines to develop the right processes and measures to make sure that we can have around 23,500 people in this stadium safely social distancing."

She added that United had plans to introduce staggered arrival times for fans and temperature checks before entry to minimise risks.

Earlier in October, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said clubs had been punished by a "quadruple whammy" over the continuing ban.

He told the Times: "Firstly that the optimism of 1 October has been taken away; secondly that there will be a sports bailout but that it wouldn't include football; thirdly that the Premier League will be expected to secure the future of the EFL while dealing with the implications of having no fans until possibly March; finally the opening up of entertainment arenas within sometimes a couple of miles of football grounds without any road map for the return of football supporters."
 
Last edited:
I watched the highlights of game 6 of the world series and there were a good amount of fans in the stadium. Would be interesting to see how that has been handled.
 
Even big Borna says, a 1000 fans would make a big difference, it's boring with no fans.
 
Toilets would be an issue maybe.

Some science says the virus spreads in feces.

Maybe spectators could be issued with nappies.
 
Is this the same Manchester that’s in tier 3?
They still can’t wash their hands and socially distance in an everyday setting after a 3 month lockdown. What planet are football clubs on? If it was a low risk area, then I could see their grievance, but it is one of the worst in the UK for spreading the virus ffs.
 
SAGE can investigate if fag smoke kills covid-infused aerosolized feces.

Maybe the smoking ban should be rescinded.
 
After they had 300 fans at Aberdeen and Dingwall several weeks back I cannot understand why this kind of test events weren’t tried at the likes of Killie or Livingston, limit it to about the same kind of numbers and locals only, supporters will return at some point but to me it seems the Scottish and UK authorities have no intention of doing anything about it for a long time to come
 
Fair play to Manchester United, they have shown outstanding foresight here. By appointing Olé, they have ensured social distancing can be easily achieved.
 
If we can have people going to work on public transport, people close together in pubs and cafes as we had through the summer, and students in their halls of residence then i'm not buying that governments could not figure out how to have people attend football matches in the way Man Utd are proposing. The issue is that the government don't care enough about football to work through the issues, and there is an already working plan B - watch games on TV.
 
Couple of points to note:

1) There is evidence to suggest that even 20% full stadiums facilitate the spread of viruses, including Covid-19 (https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/economics/emdp202019.pdf, https://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR847106.aspx) - Roche is suggesting that 31% capacity is perfectly fine.

2) BUT the evidence also suggests that clubs can make mitigating changes but there will need to be pilot events and subsequent studies before making a firm decision.

3) It is natural for Roche to compare his organisation with others and question as to why others are allowed to open up and they're not. Unfortunately that is not a good argument to make in terms of trying to get people back to the football. It is more likely that those other organisations should not be opening, or may have to close to accommodate sports returning. After all, I'm sure Roche with his completely not transparent dedication to fairness would agree that if you let one sports club have spectators then you need to give the same chance to other clubs. Only fair, right? He hasn't thought through his position at all and it makes him look all the more disingenuous. I wonder if Tifo could explain it better.

In my opinion there is not yet enough evidence showing that sporting events can be held with spectators that don't lead to a statistically significant rise in cases afterwards. This means pilot studies.

Until those studies are complete I can't see any way this discussion can progress. I would be grateful for other perspectives of course.
 
Hopefully this is something Rangers have done behind the scenes also. The way Ibrox is built is perfect for social distancing, especially the Govan, Broomie and Copland the way exits and toilets are situated.

I reckon we could get in 10-12000 easily.
 
TQ3 said:
Is this the same Manchester that’s in tier 3?
They still can’t wash their hands and socially distance in an everyday setting after a 3 month lockdown. What planet are football clubs on? If it was a low risk area, then I could see their grievance, but it is one of the worst in the UK for spreading the virus ffs.
Click to expand...
yeah, Manchester can get to %^*& with the way they have treated the last 3 months.
 
Jake said:
And entering / leaving / HT? How's that gonna work?
Click to expand...
I’m fairly certain they can stagger people entering and leaving the ground, with proper stewarding and policing, it really wouldn’t be difficult to implement a structure for this.

We aren’t talking about thousands of people going to a pub or restaurant here.
 
BruceyBalboa said:
I watched the highlights of game 6 of the world series and there were a good amount of fans in the stadium. Would be interesting to see how that has been handled.
Click to expand...
If you watch college or the NFL football in the US pretty much all games have fans in the stadiums. I go watch high school football most Weekends and they have fans at the games without any issues.
 
Seen a photo of fans watching the West Ham match in a packed cinema at the weekend, it's a total farce.
 
Poor timing given the way the numbers are going but would it not be manageable to get a few thousand into and away from the bigger stadiums safely?

Happy to be corrected by anyone who actually understands planning an event but staggered arrivals, temperature checks, sanitising stations at toilets, free stadium parking and priority to those who would drive. It would need planning and money but why couldn't it work? Glasgow Central is managing to have thousands still pass through daily.
 
Find it quite funny that you can watch Haringey play at one end of White Hart Lane, yet at the other you can't watch Spurs in a Stadium that cost x million quid!
 
Hinshelwood Bear said:
Couple of points to note:

1) There is evidence to suggest that even 20% full stadiums facilitate the spread of viruses, including Covid-19 (https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/economics/emdp202019.pdf, https://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR847106.aspx) - Roche is suggesting that 31% capacity is perfectly fine.

2) BUT the evidence also suggests that clubs can make mitigating changes but there will need to be pilot events and subsequent studies before making a firm decision.

3) It is natural for Roche to compare his organisation with others and question as to why others are allowed to open up and they're not. Unfortunately that is not a good argument to make in terms of trying to get people back to the football. It is more likely that those other organisations should not be opening, or may have to close to accommodate sports returning. After all, I'm sure Roche with his completely not transparent dedication to fairness would agree that if you let one sports club have spectators then you need to give the same chance to other clubs. Only fair, right? He hasn't thought through his position at all and it makes him look all the more disingenuous. I wonder if Tifo could explain it better.

In my opinion there is not yet enough evidence showing that sporting events can be held with spectators that don't lead to a statistically significant rise in cases afterwards. This means pilot studies.

Until those studies are complete I can't see any way this discussion can progress. I would be grateful for other perspectives of course.
Click to expand...
The other angle that I know is being looked into is around when testing becomes more common and commercially available (e.g. the deal just announced by Boots). In that scenario then people who have tested negative could more reasonably expect to get in to various types of events. There are many variables in that - cost of testing, test turn around time, gap between test result and event, logistics around entry, behaviour when inside etc etc. All very speculative, and known to be so; but the alternate is looking like not attending games for a long time. To look at the numbers side; if you assume live infection rate of around 61 per 100k people as it was last week then a 50k crowd at Ibrox would be assumed to have to screen out say 30 positives (many of which would be false positives). So a test event with say 5k people is looking to screen out 3 positives. Testing 5k people would cost around £100k; that cost is falling fast and does not factor in that clubs all have testing kit anyway.

Put it another way, if you could get a test on the morning of the game on 2nd Jan 21 that would allow you to get in; how much would you all pay for that test?

Not saying that's what's going to happen; just flagging another perspective.

Another would be at, for example, my local club Stenhousemuir. Small average crowd, all local (if they did not sell tickets to away fans) and tons of room for social distance. Really can't see why fans are not being allowed into those grounds on a controlled basis.
 
Its unbelievable that they don't have any plan in place for the return of fans to stadiums. I watched the EFL highlights programme on ch5 at the weekend and it was depressing to see big grounds without anyone there, surely there can be a way for them to have a limited number in grounds depending on size etc.
 
Everyone that want to get on with life should be free to. Anyone that wants to continue hiding behind the couch that is their choice. Farce that we are going to end up with a year of this pish. For something that won't badly harm 99.9% of us.
 
Teddyjohn said:
The governments both sides of the border are utterly incompetent. There is no reason whatsoever why 5000-10,000 Rangers fans couldn’t socially distance within Ibrox.
Click to expand...
What about socialising before the game
Using public transport
Queuing to get in
Toileting
Getting to and from your seat before and after using the toilet
Half time
Police
Stewarding
First aid
Snack bar and catering staff
Referees and linesman
End of match
How long to clear the ground after the match in a socially distanced way
Public transport going home
Rising virus transmission rates,hospital admission rates and fatalities
When I renewed my season ticket I thought that I would have in Ibrox watching games by now
I am just grateful that I can see the games on TV
 
Gardenhall Bear said:
Everyone that want to get on with life should be free to. Anyone that wants to continue hiding behind the couch that is their choice. Farce that we are going to end up with a year of this pish. For something that won't badly harm 99.9% of us.
Click to expand...
We have a choice to go to a game or not
NHS staff have no choice but to try to treat every single person who falls seriously ill
Do you want to catch the virus or more importantly pass it on to a loved one?
 
11 ALBERTZ said:
After they had 300 fans at Aberdeen and Dingwall several weeks back I cannot understand why this kind of test events weren’t tried at the likes of Killie or Livingston, limit it to about the same kind of numbers and locals only, supporters will return at some point but to me it seems the Scottish and UK authorities have no intention of doing anything about it for a long time to come
Click to expand...
It's simply not something that they've given even a second thought to.
 
Fans should have been back in during the summer months when the cases are naturally low.

Bojo & Nippy totally wasted fans chances of attending games as no way they will allow us in during the winter months.
 
Bluebear72 said:
We have a choice to go to a game or not
NHS staff have no choice but to try to treat every single person who falls seriously ill
Do you want to catch the virus or more importantly pass it on to a loved one?
Click to expand...

At this point I really don’t care anymore. Me and my family are happy to take the 0.01% risk of death. We all have probably already had it.
 
Read somewhere a team in England had some fans in the hospitality area of the stadium whilst the game was on. They had to 'Close' the curtains and set up a large screen TV for the socially distanced fans! You cannot make it up that you can sit in an enclosed area inside a stadium but not at 10% capacity on terraces!

I can understand the counter about travel to/from. and gathering outside. But that has been proved to be unfounded with the trials as with staggered entrance times can overcome this with ease. I am getting the feeling the power has gone to Wee Krankies heid and she loves to be the feminist and tell guys what they can do. There is little or no public health issue with 5000 fans travelling to/from and sitting in a 50000 stadia.
 
Bluebear72 said:
We have a choice to go to a game or not
NHS staff have no choice but to try to treat every single person who falls seriously ill
Do you want to catch the virus or more importantly pass it on to a loved one?
Click to expand...
That is exactly the fear mongering reply to be expected. No one wants a single person to catch or worse die from this and it is very low to insinuate that people do. What people are desperate for is not to live their lives controlled by this virus, but to find a way to safely live with it.

I would like to see the covid facts put up alongside the human health costs of these restrictions. The virus is not the only health issue on the block. Let us see the Excess deaths now from Cancer, heart disease, suicide. Let us see the misery from a long delayed hip or knee op and other so called 'non-essential' operations. Let us then balance the risks and costs and choose a better path for ourselves.
 
Johnny Yen said:
It’s absolutely outrageous that fans can’t return to stadiums, spectators sitting outdoors spaced well apart is as safe as it gets.
Click to expand...
How do they get to the game? What about car sharing rules, Buses etc would be mobbed. It’s not just as simple as fans being inside the ground.
 
High Society said:
How do they get to the game? What about car sharing rules, Buses etc would be mobbed. It’s not just as simple as fans being inside the ground
Click to expand...
It is fairly simple to be honest, folk don’t car share for a start, buses have been fairly busy anyway, people have hours to get to the game, with staggered times and travel, it can easily be worked.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Latest posts

Back
Top