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The Coronavirus and its impact on sport/Fans Return (Merged)


Loderingo

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I know it's ultimately for everyone's own good but it's going to be rubbish. I wouldn't be particularly fussed about going at all if the only way to enjoy the match was a socially distanced fairly lonely experience with no atmosphere and no away support. I suppose on the bright side it's better than nothing and a sign that things are gradually improving.

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The season starts in under 7 weeks. The virus isn't going away. There won't be a vaccine that has been widely distributed in the near future. It's expected that there will be a second wave. It's anticipated that it may flare up again in the winter. I'd imagine therefore - indeed I'd expect - that every club in the country is working on contingency plans, including the not wholly unrealistic possibility that there are no fans at matches at all next season.

For those thousands of us who paid up front, and on whose cash the club has been sitting for months, it wouldn't seem unreasonable to expect a tiny bit of communication...along the lines of the options being considered.

The club might even ask the Supporters Club and Trust for input, assuming that they haven't done that already.

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18 hours ago, Lrrr said:

It would require some work but I'd say probably on a ballot where you can request to be in the next seat available to certain people ie family/friends so you can at least still talk to them. I say ballot because out of 23 games some fans may normally only attend 17 ish and to have a 1,3,5 / 2,4,6  game policy could mean all games you couldn't attend falling in your set and being hard done by. The trick with the ballot would be keeping track of how many games people attend so after 5 games or so the club start saying the people who have attended 0, 1 or 2 games take priority for games 6/7/8 and work on a similar process to try and ensure all the ST holders get the chance to watch a similar amount of games in the season. As said would require work to do but its possible.

I can’t see the club doing something that complex. They won’t please everyone no matter how they do it so I’d expect them to just allocate people every other game or 3 game rotation. If you can’t make it maybe you have the option to sell back your ticket or swap with another ST holder. The club will want it to be as simple as possible IMO

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1 hour ago, S25loyal said:

No, hence they go bust. Loads of people are losing their jobs, over paid footballers shouldn’t be exempt from it. 

Footballers will certainly get a reality check through this virus, but unfortunately it’ll likely be the less well paid players and smaller clubs in the lower leagues who bear the brunt of financial fall-out from all this.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens if sponsors, advertisers and tv companies all want their money back, as that will directly hit the wealthiest in football, then the legal battles may become our main source of entertainment!

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2 hours ago, Dr Balls said:

The virus is still out there and people need to realise that. Even though the South West has dodged the very worst of it so far (apologies if you have lost a loved one, as every death is very sad for the families and friends), there is still a trickle of positive cases every week in Bristol. We all need to do our bit to stop it spreading rapidly again, which does unfortunate mean simple measures such as proper hand hygiene, social distancing, and wear a mask indoors, especially if you can’t stay a certain distance away from each other. Even back as far as the Spanish flu epidemic a hundred years ago, it was high levels of compliance with the above that made the difference in terms of spread, and where was least affected and where was worst.

The EFL should be underwriting the cost of testing for all clubs, especially as the smaller ones are more dependent on crowd attendance for income, which with the best will in the world, is not going to be anywhere near normal levels for next season. There will also be localised flare ups, as certain groups flout the rules, and that should lead to local measures being taken, as per Leicester, which could again affect clubs either directly by players becoming infected, or no spectators again.

The real worry is what happens this winter, especially as all the other viruses and bacteria that usually cause problems every year, haven’t gone away either. Hopefully the rates of those might be a bit lower, if we follow the rules for how to prevent coronavirus spread, but as for the blusterer-in-chief saying it will “all be over” by Christmas, that also has echoes of just over a hundred years ago, as it’s likely to be just as incorrect.

This is a new virus on the block, although related to others I believe, hopefully we can find an injection soon to help us all combat it and put it on the back burner. I was out in Hong Kong years back when sars was rife and many were wearing masks it seemed to fade into the background hopefully this one will to, although it seems more of a killer and still very much expanding all over the world and is trying to surface again in Europe.

As was said we must do "whatever it takes" and not relax our guard until we have help to fight it.

Lost my mother (in a care home) to it a few months back and have no wish to lose anyone else, can we not manage without going to footie/swimming/clubs/gyms for a few more months? seems a small price to pay.:dunno:

Edited by glos old boy
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Interesting that  fans returning in October ( in moderation) has been suggested as a possibility . Not sure what anyone else thinks but when it comes to making that decision whether to attend or not , I honestly don’t know how I’ll feel ( despite having already paid for my st next year ) 

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Looks like next season football will have to  be played in front of half empty stadiums, and even that may have to be reduced further if chanting is found to further spread the virus says a government advisor, not good news if you have just bought a season ticket.

Edited by pillred
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Yeah saw that, not sure if people expected any different as it doesn’t look like covid is going away anytime soon.

Be interesting to see the options the club present to the fans, agree it will be a tough decision In respect to those that have already committed to a season ticket. Can’t be easy as damned if you do and damned if you don’t scenario.

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27 minutes ago, pillred said:

Looks like next season football will have to  be played in front of half empty stadiums, and even that may have to be reduced further if chanting is found to further spread the virus says a government advisor, not good news if you have just bought a season ticket.

Yep, the club is going to be ripped to pieces over this through no fault of its own,

Personally I'm going to give it a miss until the virus is under control 

The club can keep my money

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3 hours ago, italian dave said:

With yesterday’s announcements delaying any further relaxation to lockdown, October is looking less likely. It raises the real possibility that we’ll be into 2021 before there’s any prospect of fans returning, and I just don’t see how many L1 and L2 clubs can survive if that happens. 

Is a business support scheme possible from the EFL at all? They borrow money, knowing full well that they will have continued income and stability, and use it to help smaller clubs if and when needed?

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Now I saw a similar story a while ago in the Times. 

This gives grounds for cautious optimism, as usual the story is focused on PL but what goes there maybe applicable further down.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8593129/The-Premier-League-hope-90-minute-COVID-19-swab-tests-help-bring-supporters-stadiums.html

90 minute swab tests.

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Further encouraging news comes from Germany. 

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11881/12042382/bundesliga-clubs-agree-plan-for-fans-to-return-to-stadiums-as-early-as-september

I note that it will of course if ratified- final say will be with each individual state leader- that it will be quite different. 

*No % of capacity stated.

*Standing areas shut until at least October 31st.

*No alcohol, again until at least October 31st. 

*No away fans until 2021.

Suspect all of the above will be open to review if of course it is ratified.

Bit more detail below.

https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/resolutions-regarding-the-possible-return-of-stadium-visitors-12300

Edited by Mr Popodopolous
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There is obvious sympathy to the club - and all clubs - here in that they’re looking at a moving target. They don’t know if fans will be allowed back, when, and to what extent. However, to go all Rumsfeld, there are a few “knowns”

- We know that fans won’t be allowed in at season start

- We know that when they are, it is likely to be at reduced capacity, and not all ST holders can be facilitated - and they won’t be in “their” seat 

With these in mind, what I’d like to see the club offer is the following two options for ST holders (with respect, everyone else is irrelevant at this stage as the club can’t facilitate them to attend)

1. A refund is offered but the supporters “seat” remains attached to them and then at the point attendances can return to normal, they’ve not lost their seat. They’re offered the opportunity to “reactivate” the ST when capacity allows. Games purchased on individual basis through Robins TV

2. A refund is not given, but the supporter gets every game through Robins TV. These supporters are prioritised to attend when regulations allow

In effect, our chicken:egg problem is that we have too many ST holders to meet any reduced capacity mooted in Oct/Nov/Whenever. I think you’d get enough takeup under (1) as that protects ST holders rights to mean that the number in (2) ends up being about right and workable.

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18 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

There is obvious sympathy to the club - and all clubs - here in that they’re looking at a moving target. They don’t know if fans will be allowed back, when, and to what extent. However, to go all Rumsfeld, there are a few “knowns”

- We know that fans won’t be allowed in at season start

- We know that when they are, it is likely to be at reduced capacity, and not all ST holders can be facilitated - and they won’t be in “their” seat 

With these in mind, what I’d like to see the club offer is the following two options for ST holders (with respect, everyone else is irrelevant at this stage as the club can’t facilitate them to attend)

1. A refund is offered but the supporters “seat” remains attached to them and then at the point attendances can return to normal, they’ve not lost their seat. They’re offered the opportunity to “reactivate” the ST when capacity allows. Games purchased on individual basis through Robins TV

2. A refund is not given, but the supporter gets every game through Robins TV. These supporters are prioritised to attend when regulations allow

In effect, our chicken:egg problem is that we have too many ST holders to meet any reduced capacity mooted in Oct/Nov/Whenever. I think you’d get enough takeup under (1) as that protects ST holders rights to mean that the number in (2) ends up being about right and workable.

Extremely sensible proposal. Something the club could consult on, or even offer, without being any more certain about the future. The season kicks off in just over a month. At a time of immense uncertainty it would be good to hear something official sooner rather than later.

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Some updates on this- lifted from another forum I saw it on but won't plagarise etc- Malcolm Clarke of FSA posts on it, presumably he is a fan of that club and he is the poster.

Couple of relevant documents.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-phased-return-of-sport-and-recreation/elite-sport-return-to-competition-safe-return-of-spectators

https://sgsa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SG02-Planning-for-social-distancing-at-sports-grounds.pdf

Certainly not read them myself but pulled out some of the salient points from the post on the other forum.

  • Fans given an arrival time would be likely, eta up to 3 hours before kick off.
  • 20-40% capacity- fans in a single household or bubble not expected to have seats between. As one of the more modern and redeveloped grounds we would have more scope to maybe be towards the higher end of that estimate?
  • Recording of names and contact details-that combined with the arrival slots being staggered, seems could be like an airport, you miss your slot not coming in. Mentions random temperature checks too as a possibility. For Test and Trace purposes, name and contact detail aspect.
  • Again mentions the idea of the relaxation of the alcohol rule- I think that is an issue because alcohol in grounds during times of circulation of Covid don't mix IMO. Otherwise if not for Covid it feels long overdue!

There's some other stuff too, EFL have encouraged clubs to engage correctly with fans on this- especially local fan groups.

The other update, is that the Test Event at Community Shield likely scratch that, definitely won't be happening.

Seen halftime closure of toilets mentioned elsewhere in recent days.

Edited by Mr Popodopolous
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50 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Some updates on this- lifted from another forum I saw it on but won't plagarise etc- Malcolm Clarke of FSA posts on it, presumably he is a fan of that club and he is the poster.

Couple of relevant documents.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-phased-return-of-sport-and-recreation/elite-sport-return-to-competition-safe-return-of-spectators

https://sgsa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SG02-Planning-for-social-distancing-at-sports-grounds.pdf

Certainly not read them myself but pulled out some of the salient points from the post on the other forum.

  • Fans given an arrival time would be likely, eta up to 3 hours before kick off.
  • 20-40% capacity- fans in a single household or bubble not expected to have seats between. As one of the more modern and redeveloped grounds we would have more scope to maybe be towards the higher end of that estimate?
  • Recording of names and contact details-that combined with the arrival slots being staggered, seems could be like an airport, you miss your slot not coming in. Mentions random temperature checks too as a possibility. For Test and Trace purposes, name and contact detail aspect.
  • Again mentions the idea of the relaxation of the alcohol rule- I think that is an issue because alcohol in grounds during times of circulation of Covid don't mix IMO. Otherwise if not for Covid it feels long overdue!

There's some other stuff too, EFL have encouraged clubs to engage correctly with fans on this- especially local fan groups.

The other update, is that the Test Event at Community Shield likely scratch that, definitely won't be happening.

Seen halftime closure of toilets mentioned elsewhere in recent days.

I think I would rather watch Jeff Stelling on soccer Saturday than go to a game with those restrictions if that's the future count me out

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I hope the club empathize with the situation we are in and for those who may ask for refunds, they are not treated unfairly by the club and lose their season ticket holder status.

Of all the things going on at the moment, this one is a key indicator of how the Lansdowns view their relationship with the fans.

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36 minutes ago, 054123 said:

I hope the club empathize with the situation we are in and for those who may ask for refunds, they are not treated unfairly by the club and lose their season ticket holder status.

Of all the things going on at the moment, this one is a key indicator of how the Lansdowns view their relationship with the fans.

I don't really think customer service is a top priority for the Lansdowns they've got the money so tough you know what

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