can we have a new stand please....ffs ??

https://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/news ... ement-nwc/

Health and Safety...?

Is it structurally unsound?
Apparently British Airways had a similar problem a few years ago when they found all the Stewardesses had cracks in them.

No doubt. The polis will have made representations to Licensing.

FGRovers only get a couple of thousand of their own fans to their home games, so they're hardly going to be bringing many up to the Suits You Sir Stadium. Sounds suspiciously like the NWC will be empty for the foreseeable.

Next step is to prohibit any banging of drums unless everyone within 20 metres wears ear defenders.

talk about own goals....ffs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW49_KNabRw

Absolute bollocks is what it is

who made this decision anyway. next thing we,ll be advised not to cheer a goal just in case that stupid saying that the noise will cause the roof to come off will actually happen.

What is the real reason?

the club say they were "instructed" to close the NWC for "safety reasons" including "overcrowding"...they dont say who gave the instruction....they dont explain the other safety reasons...they dont explain how a stewarded seated area has become overcrowded...a bit of transparency wouldn't go amiss tbh...

I suspect the North West corner was going to catch somebody’s eye sooner or later. It is crowded and is chaotic and has a great atmosphere, but at times looks like an accident waiting to happen.
Start to sort it out now before the H&S get involved.
Unfortunate but unavoidable.

its a seated area.....overcrowding occurs on terracing....it shouldn't occur in a properly stewarded seated area......one person one seat.....whats been the problem ?......if its that fans refuse to sit down just say so....if its we don't have enough stewards just say so....if its fans haven't cooperated just say so.....and if police and/or the council have issued the instruction just say so.....if the stand is 50 years old plus and is at risk of imminent collapse just say so.... as i say a bit of transparency wouldn't go amiss tbh.....its our club hobin and were all grown ups...

I think maybe the club feels sad about it. It really is a shame but I suspect you just aren't allowed to use a seated area in that way, regardless of how strong the legs are..... or not.

Even if they do leave it open for proper numbered ticket holders, it's not going to be the same and people will have to go somewhere else in the ground to get that experience.

Basically, they’re using that section as a terrace. It isn’t a terrace. As for the stewards, bless em, it would be like trying to herd cats.

Replace the stewards with 80s style Church Street bouncers.

Not tonite lads.

The issues are obvious to anyone who sits in the Millhouse. In addition to the fans who have bought seats in that section of the ground, the North West Corner is a magnet for young boys, teenage lasses and some blokes who are old enough to know better. Most of the time the fans there are standing, so one person per seat doesn't apply. People also stand in the aisles and on the concrete platform half way up the steps to the section. You can access the NWC from any part of the Millhouse seats just by walking along the rows of seats.

Stewarding was hopeless for the first few games but has got better game by game. No surprise really bearing in mind the 15 month hiatus caused by Covid. These days there is a steward on every gangway checking people have a valid ticket before they can get up onto the seats, so the problem is not that people haven't got tickets but rather that they have seats for a different area of the Millhouse but gravitate to the NWC.

Once people are packed into the NWC and standing you'd need dozens of stewards to impose any sort of order. It's all fairly good humoured so antagonising our own fans by being heavy handed would be counter-productive - and it's not what stewards are trained to do. Most stewards aren't bright enough to act as ushers either - they stand where they're told to stand and that's about it!

so just say it the way it is....but it's all a bit late in the day isnt it since the idea of the NWC got going in 2018 ??....it was fine then.....now its a disaster waiting to happen.....meanwhile just look at all those empty seats in the rink end....

I sit on opposite side but from speaking to to people near the N.W corner they say it’s just a matter of time for an accident to occur. Then of course Pools would be hit with health and safety especially as we know of the problem.

Block F closed.
Will these fans now go to block E and stand up.

If they want to stand up, get where we always went, the Town End...(after Gibson buggered up the Rink End) it’s all we have left.

I read something elsewhere that a guy and his six year old son had tickets for F block but, up to now, they had never been able to take them up because of the number of youths standing on the seats etc.
Sensibly the guy and his son have sat elsewhere in the MH away from any danger, especially to a six year old. Can you imagine the outcry if that little boy had been killed or permanently maimed.
The simple solution is for everyone who buys a ticket for any all seater area is to use the seat designated on the ticket. It becomes complicated and therefore not simple when people refuse to comply. So what are the options. The club have, for weeks now, virtually pleaded with fans not to overcrowd block F and it's gangways. That plea has been ignored, resulting in the block being closed. The danger now is that other blocks/areas will become hazardous. So the problem hasn't been solved but simply moved. This is going to cause conflict between fans who populate other areas and fans who "invade" these areas. Some fans will stop going because of this and the club will lose out financially.
So, unless we the fans actually accept the principle of sitting in the seat we have bought, the only other solution is for fans who don't want to comply with the rules to move to a standing area, produce specific standing area tickets, and don't allow movement into that area without a valid ticket for it.
The bodies issuing the safety certificates for the various areas of the ground will eventually run out of patience and we'll all be the losers.

In my experience no one ever sits in the seat on their ticket unless they are a season ticket holder, it’s not the first time I have found my seat and some one else is sitting it. Fortunately in the days of the lower crowds there were plenty of available seats.

That's the whole point, if there is plenty of available space then there isn't a problem but in the case of block F there isn't plenty of available space and when that is the case the rules have to be applied. Even season ticket holders can't get their allocated seat and have now been told they must disperse to another area. So now they have no seat at all in their preferred block. I don't know how many seats there are in block F but whatever the number is it cannot be exceeded. No ifs no buts and no argument.

I know it’s asking a lot of some people, but wouldn’t it be nice if some people grew up and complied with the rules.
As for block F, it’s the closest to the away supporters and ideal for chest beating and general dick waving, so maybe a bit of no mans land might be a good thing.

thats the reason i moved away from the millhouse. it was a fall out with a fellow fan just waiting to happen.

Same here , usually some one sat in your seat, but always made them move... if you don’t you end up with someone asking you to move out of the alternative seat you find.

its more to do with peoples behaviour nowadays on your first point. when i started going there was never a problem even with higher gates than pools are now getting. young lads and dads were allowed to get to the front without any problems and i,d hate to see a situation of where people do not think its safe to bring kids to games and end up either going somewhere else of packing the game in. as for the NWC standing area surely a barrier could be put up between that and the rest of the MH and once the number of tickets are sold out then fans have to stand somewhere else.

The north west corner is one of the best things to happen to the club in recent years, atmosphere has been bloody fantastic, think people getting over dramatic on it, unless someone goes flying over the top of the seated area which was cordoned off anyway, then what really is going to happen if people don't like it move a block or two away.

It’s unsafe. Simple as that.

Ground capacities, individual stand capacities, gangways, means of escape are all designed to keep us the fans as safe and comfortable as possible. The club are responsible for carrying out their duty of obligation to fan safety and to follow any advice or restriction given to them by the appropriate bodies such as The Police, The Fire Service, the Health and Safety Executive etc etc etc.
It is incumbent on us the fans to do our bit by not jeopardising such designated safety measures and adhering to the conditions of entry to the stadium.
Nobody wants to be a killjoy but when comments like nobody has been killed or maimed so far indicate that loss of life or the maiming of somebody has to happen before adherence of the rules is just plain madness.
Which one of us wants to be the guy who dies or is maimed or worse still, the father of that person.
Basically we're all sensible people and deep down know we can't defend the allowance of overcrowding or unsafe behaviour in any part of the ground.

bar the tin shed are any of the old feethams stands knocking about? Player swap?

If you worked for an airline who said “don’t worry, none of our planes has crashed yet, and it’s really exciting when a wing catches fire or an engine falls off.....if you’re that worried, buy a parachute”, you’d give ShytAir a miss.

Seems Im not the only ex-millhouse resident, I've also moved to the townend. I used to stand right under the NWC, up until a year or so ago it was one of the quieter areas of the ground.

I last went into the millhouse for the Northampton game and eventually had to stand in the causeway between the seats and terrace as it was that heavily congested.

For me the solution would be to open half the rinkend for home fans when the likes of Forest Green come. As it's hardly full.

My point is snowy how can a stand be safe by removing 3 or 4 rows of seats, it's either safe or it isn't, it was no different Saturday than it's been previous weeks just with another couple of rows missing. I've noticed now that we are selling out the millhouse standing and it's nowhere near as full as it has been in years gone by.

The stand is not unsafe. The problem is those using the stand are behaving in a manner that makes it unsafe. Simple as that mate.

rink end acoustics..... best in the ground.....hundred sound like a thousand....exact opposite of the town end....dont know why...

the worst thing Gibson ever did was put seats in the rink end,( and plonked himself right behind the goal)

For me the NWC has been a breath of fresh air in recent years, it's attracted a load of young lads to the club and when it gets going the place is bouncing.

wommers.....totally agree......dont think the group of young lads involved in NWC get the credit they deserve.....ive not seen anything like it at pools before.... and when you listen to how it all started its quite a good story....

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/n ... 0539444074

Years ago didnt tbe town end have a barrier splitting it into 2

Not fully sure about that, but the club were at one point trialing free movement between the townend and the millhouse. Doubt it'd be allowed in the EFL though despite the fact it'd ease congestion and make everyone a bit more comfortable.

For donkeys years a lot of home fans switched ends at half time so they could always be behind the goal Pools were attacking - they did it by walking round the front of the Millhouse terracing . Can't remember when that finally got stopped - in the 1990s maybe?

Early 90s can't remember the exact year. I remember you could still swap halves in the 90/91 season.

The away fans used to be hoyed in the far corner of the town end. There was a couple of high gate fences which seperated them and the pools fans. Then i think IOR or possibly Harold Hornsea before put the away fans in the rink end. But by that point Gibson had put seats in the rink end completely destroying the atmosphere so it didnt really matter at that point.

....swapping ends was ok When we got sub 2,000 crowds, but I ‘m surprised it lasted so long. Took my two lads with me when they were kids and it was a case of them shooting off like two ferrets around the back of the Mill House Stand to get a good perch in the Rink End or Town End second half.

Just take the seats out of that section.
Think the Redevelopment plans need to include both seating n Standing Areas.
UTP.

can understand why fans did this but its something i,ve never done. my old man used to like watching how the defenders performed and being a keeper i liked watching whoever was in the nets for pools ay close quarters.

It's all down to personal preference. I haven't watched a home Pools game from behind the goals since I was a teenager. I like to be able to see the whole game - including what the midfielders are up to!

When I was living in Leeds I used to stand in the Kop with some local lads I knew. Leeds is (or used to be be) a foggy place in winter and there were games where you couldn't see past the half way line - so the Kop would chant "Who scored?" when a Leeds goal went in at the far end.