Dave’s Villa Blog

STANDING UP FOR SEATING

28-03-2008

Parts of the Holte End are threatened with closure because of persistent standing. Heroes and Villains editor Dave Woodhall – who broke the story – sympathises with fans who are forced to sit, but insists that there are ways and means of protesting.

I found myself giving the Mail a headline last Saturday. Half a word in passing to one of their reporters and the story had been found, picked up and run. I hadn’t thought it was that important, the editor of the Mail reckoned it was worth a front page lead.

That’s why he get paid a seven figure salary and has a helicopter take him to work every morning and I stand on street corners peddling me wares.

Anyway, the story concerned a threat from the council to close part of the Holte End next season, due to persistent standing. It might be more of a warning than a definite threat, but it’s caused quite a bit of debate on Villa messageboards.

There are those who reckon the council is run by Blues supporters, a theory that has very little substance and can be disproved by the application of logic. There are those who believe they should have the right to do what they want, where they want. And there’s the element who believe this is another extension of the nanny state.

As with anything else, once the words ‘political correctness’ are used it’s best to smile politely and change the subject.

Leaving the safe standing debate for one moment – and I would love there to be a proper debate on the pros and cons of bringing back terracing for the top two divisions free of the emotive language used by those opposed – there’s a problem at Villa Park and other Premier League grounds.

Sunderland and Middlesbrough regularly cut ticket allocations for visiting supporters due to persistent standing, the former having given Villa less tickets than we were entitled to this season for that very reason.

When the Taylor Report recommended the abolition of terraces at our larger grounds, there was a general feeling that within a couple of years everyone would get used to sitting down. That might have happened in the beginning but there’s been an upsurge in standing over the last season or two.

And with this has naturally come conflict. While Villa supporters are, on the whole, law-abiding there’s always a few who spoil it for the rest. Debates about standing, particularly at away matches, always include phrases along the line of “The majority want to stand so the rest have got to put up with it.”

Nobody has ever bothered to ask the majority what they want; this unscientific claim is based on the fact that everyone’s just spent ninety minutes standing. How many of them wanted to, and how many were forced into it because the bloke in front was standing up, wasn’t taken into account.

Nor was it asked how many regular supporters would like to have been at a match but decided not to go because they or one of their family wouldn’t be capable of standing throughout the match. I’m certain that this isn’t a uniquely Villa problem; every group of supporters who fill the away bit of Villa Park includes large sections who spend most or all the match on their feet.

If it was down to me, the Holte End would never have been knocked down and twenty thousand would be able stand there as safely as they ever did. But time moves on and unless something surprising happens Villa Park is going to be an all-seater ground for the foreseeable future. That, sadly, means playing by the rules.

As many Stirrer contributors know, there’s nobody quite as officious as a council official who thinks he’s being ignored.

If you want to stand at the match, whether that be in the Holte, any other part of Villa Park or for that matter, any other ground, do your utmost to campaign for the rules to be changed. But until they are, it’s a sad fact that whoever loses out in the great standing debate, it certainly won’t be your local council.

And not a word about the debacle on the pitch last Saturday.