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Reassurance given over stadium safety concerns

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london-stadium-fansLondon Stadium operators say an emergency evacuation of the former Olympic Stadium would not be a problem.

Responding to a ClaretandHugh story about one supporter’s concern over exiting the stadium on Saturday we were told “All exit doors can opened remotely from a central control room”

One reader told us how he was shocked to find only one door was open for his section as he tried and hundreds of others to leave early during the Arsenal defeat on Saturday.

In response the Operators told us “Each of the stadium exits has a bank of doors that are deployed from the Stadium Control Room. These are constantly monitored by CCTV. There is also a single door controlled locally at each exit to allow those spectators choosing to leave early to pass out of the stadium. Each one of these doors has a dedicated steward. There is also a process in place to unlock to multiple exit doors at 80 minutes when egress gathers pace. After 75 minutes of Saturday’s match, our safety and security teams opened additional doors when it became clear that large sections of the home support were keen to leave.”

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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 Moore Than Just a Podcast A Blogger on West Ham Till I die 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

6 comments

  • mooro66uk says:

    Lets open all gates during the match. Then ,when the opposing fans flood into our sections and the battles ensue you will all have the perfect excuse to have another good old moan up. Happy days eh Michael?

    • Michael Miller says:

      No, obviously not, but don’t let’s be silly – if you get a ‘fire alarm’ situation like what happened once Arsenal went 3 up on Saturday the Stadium Controllers have to be aware enough to get the gates open to cope with the surge and avoid the possible dangerous situation – makes sense to me I can’t see the problem!

  • Still Got Dry Pants says:

    You lot worry too much about everything.
    Go roll yourselves up in cotton wool in a nuclear bunker,you will be safe there 😁

    • Michael Miller says:

      Sorry, I don’t understand that attitude – surely the idea is to anticipate potential problems and to try and avoid the situations becoming dangerous – I’ve been involved in crushes at Football and it’s frightening.

      Remember what happened at Ibrox!

      • Still Got Dry Pants says:

        So have i but you cant go through life looking for worse case scenarios all the time.I have been well & truly squished at UP leaving the North Bank.
        Never saw any articles about it though.
        Its just every bloody thing gets magnified for a story at the moment when it comes to the LS.Its bloody boring 😁

  • Michael Miller says:

    That’s not good enough and definitely dangerous – if the guy in the Control Room is a bit slow of thought or action a dangerous situation is allowed to happen in seconds just like what happened on Saturday after the Arsenal 3rd goal.

    The Stadium people don’t seem to be in tune with what is happening with the crowd and are definitely slow to react – and dangerous situations are allowed to build up.

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