London Stadium persistent standing to be reviewed

The government Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) have announced that they will be bringing in a new enforcement policy on persistent standing for next season and will be looking at the risk assessments and high-risk areas at West Ham games.

They say the greatest risk at the London Stadium is to the upper tiers with the away supporters. In the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) meeting in May they acknowledged that operators London Stadium 185 have done a great deal of work to get fans to sit down but more could still be done.

SGSA said they are concerned about a progressive crowd collapse on the upper tiers. With the improvement of technology, there are other solutions such as barriers or rail type seating. The SGSA said would like to propose that consideration be given to reviewing seating in the upper tier and to see if there is a technological solution that could be implemented to reduce the risk of a progressive crowd collapse.

The comments were and minuted by Newham’s SAG on 2nd May 2019

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter

4 comments on “London Stadium persistent standing to be reviewed”

West Ham Fan No 32 July 20, 2019 at 5:17 pm Reply

This is a problem solved by introducing safe standing, surely with the amount of money in football they can find a balance and a solution so that those that want to stand can. Standing supporters generally add to the atmosphere by singing more and being more vocal, seems like a no brainer doesn’t it ?
Lee the hammer July 20, 2019 at 6:27 pm Reply

Why do you need to stand to sign and cheer and be vocal, does sitting down prevent the vocals opening up? it’s for the fans own safety I guess people wouldn’t be so vocal on the subject if something awful happened and a crowd collapse killed a member of their family. All the club need to do is install barriers to stop a domino effect from happening. I myself have been at games and it is really annoying when people are standing as you can’t see the game properly so you end up having to stand on the seat to see whats happening then you obstruct the person that is behind you. Surely sitting down is a NO-BRAINER!!
Matt Willow July 20, 2019 at 8:14 pm Reply

What about the elderly, women and children forced to stand because of morons in front of them blocking their view?
Hammersone July 21, 2019 at 3:31 pm Reply

Quite simple bring safe standing in.

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