I think ticketing will be a challenge. Surely families can (and will want to) sit together rather than be spread out across 12 seats so working out which seats can be sold will be tricky. It could be a case of general admission for a capacity of x and then stewards allocate seats when you enter the stands. However, if we’re like the shopping centres I’ve experienced so far they just put a few stickers up and assume they’ve complied but nobody actually enforces any of those stickers rules - football being an easy target I think we would get hung out to dry!

Agreed. If I am being honest, I can't see County having the ability to correctly identify who can sit together depending on social bubbles. They struggle with fairly basic online sales so this may be beyond them.

I think there are going to be trials next month possibly at Goodwood races, some snooker tournament and a cricket match if all goes well the season will start with fans in October

amberbhoy wrote:I think there are going to be trials next month possibly at Goodwood races, some snooker tournament and a cricket match if all goes well the season will start with fans in October

Not really sure how a successful outcome to 'trials' in those sporting venues will translate to football becoming a spectator sport again. I would expect a trial run of maybe 20% capacity to be undertaken, maybe for a month, and certainly a bar on away supporters. Let the clubs administer ticket distribution, to those on some kind of database. That may need to be Trust membership.

excessbee wrote:

amberbhoy wrote:I think there are going to be trials next month possibly at Goodwood races, some snooker tournament and a cricket match if all goes well the season will start with fans in October

Not really sure how a successful outcome to 'trials' in those sporting venues will translate to football becoming a spectator sport again. I would expect a trial run of maybe 20% capacity to be undertaken, maybe for a month, and certainly a bar on away supporters. Let the clubs administer ticket distribution, to those on some kind of database. That may need to be Trust membership.

I can see the relevance to football as far as ticketing, getting people in and out of the venue and movement within the venue such as toilets, food sales etc. Less so in terms of the actual spectating but that seems to be of a lesser concern for some reason.

I did hear a rumour that the FA were asking for a small crowd to be allowed at the FA Cup final but that seems to have gone quiet this last week.

Amberexile wrote:

excessbee wrote:

amberbhoy wrote:I think there are going to be trials next month possibly at Goodwood races, some snooker tournament and a cricket match if all goes well the season will start with fans in October

Not really sure how a successful outcome to 'trials' in those sporting venues will translate to football becoming a spectator sport again. I would expect a trial run of maybe 20% capacity to be undertaken, maybe for a month, and certainly a bar on away supporters. Let the clubs administer ticket distribution, to those on some kind of database. That may need to be Trust membership.

I can see the relevance to football as far as ticketing, getting people in and out of the venue and movement within the venue such as toilets food sales etc. Less so in terms of the actual spectating but that seems to be of a lesser concern for some reason.

I did hear a rumour that the FA were asking for a small crowd to be allowed at the FA Cup final but that seems to have gone quiet this last week.

,"Movement within the venue such as toilets"....... I would hope so!!!

If there are to be no away fans at the start lets hope the fixture computer makes the logical choice of playing those furthest away first. Clubs will need the bigger away followings once they're allowed rather than a home match against Carlisle on a tuesday night.

Collars wrote:If there are to be no away fans at the start lets hope the fixture computer makes the logical choice of playing those furthest away first. Clubs will need the bigger away followings once they're allowed rather than a home match against Carlisle on a tuesday night.

Excellent point - forward that the EFL...

Re no away fans...

I know it's strange times, but unless they change the EFL ticketing rules then away sides have to have tickets made available for 10% of the ground capacity, which with RP and a reduced capacity might equate to around 200 tickets for away supporters. How many sides brought close to that last season?

And long-distance travel is no longer banned, even in Wales, so there is no current reason to stop such travel.

Having said that, I'm operating a keep it local policy for the foreseeable future. The more travelling, the more chance for encountering the virus, and the more chance of passing it on. So I'd be happy if away fans were banned until safe to return to old normal.

Collars wrote:If there are to be no away fans at the start lets hope the fixture computer makes the logical choice of playing those furthest away first. Clubs will need the bigger away followings once they're allowed rather than a home match against Carlisle on a tuesday night.

I think there's a flaw in that argument. Take Exeter and Carlisle. They are probably each others furthest journey, so would each qualify to be an early season fixture. That would conflict with the system of teams playing each other once before the halfway point and once after. I can't see that being scrapped as it keeps things on an even keel.

NearlyDead wrote: I know it's strange times, but unless they change the EFL ticketing rules then away sides have to have tickets made available for 10% of the ground capacity... The more travelling, the more chance for encountering the virus, and the more chance of passing it on. So I'd be happy if away fans were banned until safe to return to old normal.

Surely public health will trump all other considerations regardless of what has been in the rules to date? So home supporters at RP would be safer if visitors can only use the open seats, which isn't currently allowed.

I don't see crowds in stadia before Christmas. And indeed without a vaccine not even then. However if I am wrong, and the UK being run by a man who has no moral compass, I might be I still fail to see how the problem of localized lockdown can be over come.

Back in March I was of the opinion that a full season would be lost and efforts to prevent this if not thought through might result in two seasons being lost. Nothing that has happened in the last four months has altered that opinion.

Cricket are trailing two games in the next few weeks with a crowd of 1000 as test cases..Surrey v Middlesex and Worcester v Warwickshire
I know its a different sport but if successful can you see them being able to stop Football clubs playing games with paying spectators even with a limited attendance???
There would be a lot of Court cases to follow if they tried to say its different.....

neilcork68 wrote:Cricket are trailing two games in the next few weeks with a crowd of 1000 as test cases..Surrey v Middlesex and Worcester v Warwickshire
I know its a different sport but if successful can you see them being able to stop Football clubs playing games with paying spectators even with a limited attendance???
There would be a lot of Court cases to follow if they tried to say its different.....

There won't be any court cases as local authorities have been given the requisite powers either way. I can't say it won't happen but on balance I believe crowds at football this side of Christmas are not likely.

John Crace in the Guardian Friday:

As predicted last week, I have renewed my Spurs season tickets though I can’t say I did so with any great sense of excitement. Partly because watching Tottenham hasn’t been much fun this season but mainly because the club – like all the others – has no idea when fans will be allowed back into the stadium.

There was talk in their email of maybe allowing supporters to enter a ballot to attend games if clubs were allowed to reopen the ground to a much-reduced capacity, but even that didn’t exactly inspire me with hope. Because what I’ve come to realise ever since the Premier League restarted behind closed doors is that it hasn’t really been the football I’ve missed. Sure, watching a game on TV being played in an empty stadium has been better than no football at all, but it’s been a fairly soulless experience. At times I haven’t even got that excited when Spurs have won. More just a feeling of, “That’s nice, I suppose.”

It’s the companionship and friendship ... that I’ve really been missing. The sense of shared disappointment and joy. The catching up with what they’ve been up to over the past 10 days or so and the cathartic pleasure of a group moanathon.