The Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) has informed the London Stadium Safety Advisory Group in October that they will be risk assessing the persistent standing in the upper tiers at the London stadium. The stadium operators LS185 told the safety group they are working closely with West Ham on proactive messaging on persistent standing in certain areas. In the upper tier, the first two rows have been covered over in the away end to prevent progressive crowd collapse.The SGSA acknowledged the challenges of persistent standing in football in general but noted that other grounds do not have the same issues as West Ham with standing in the upper tiers. Evidence needs to be shown that the club have taken all possible actions to mitigate against persist standing said the SGSA at the meeting.
The SGSA will also be carrying out a peer review of all football stadiums and share their findings. Newham council recommended that video evidence of the risk and dynamics of persistent standing be prepared by the SGSA.
Operators LS185 gave an outline of their persistent standing policy which included stewards walking up and down the aisles every ten minutes requesting fans to sit down, proactive planning during the game, front guarding and working with the club to take further action against persistent standers.
West Ham shared their seating plan and claimed they are working on a long term strategy. Operators LS185 added that support from the Premier League taking a firmer stance on persistent standing and messaging would be a more determined solution. The SGSA reminded West Ham that there are technical solutions available and it may be prudent for West Ham and LS185 to view options that would suit this stadium. Newham requested a best practice guide be shared by the SGSA.
Perhaps if we owned the stadium and turned it into a football, the silly tourists wouldn’t come and complain