Seating issues

[ferrarilover]

Absolute rubbish, as usual. Terry is defeating his own argument by saying that he won't move people on when they're sat in his seat, but he will move on if he is sat in someone else's seat. He's not bloody Saint Terry, he's not some mythical do-gooding being who heals sick children with the power of good wishes.

Brucie, mate, stop being a pussy. If someone is sat in your seat and you want to sit in it yourself, then ask them to move. If they refuse, then tell someone who can force them to move, it's not bloody rocket science. You're not dealing with the Kray twins or the Don Corleone, you're not going to find a horses head in your bed if you ask someone to get the hell out of something which is yours. What would you do if you came home and found a man sitting on your sofa? Would you ask him to piss off and, if he said no, call the police, or would you move home?

Jesus wept, there are some proper idiots about.

Andy, maybe allow Terry to identify himself to you and provide him with steward assistance to his seat in future. Despite his protestations, he is clearly incapable of resolving even the most basic of disputes on his own.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Quality.

[Kernowgull]

The problem is, if a big group are sat in your seat, and you move somewhere else, and then that seat is someone elses things could spiral. To me its simple, to get an allocated seat, you must book in advance of Midday. The club run a report of booked seats at midday, and a steward puts reserved stickers on all booked seats. Anyone who turns up on the day gets an unallocated seat, and can sit in any unreserved seat. This way there will be no issues. Allocated seating for everybody makes no sense, evidenced by the fact that nobody sits in their seat anyway.

[ferrarilover]

The problem is, if a big group are sat in your seat, and you move somewhere else, and then that seat is someone elses things could spiral. To me its simple, to get an allocated seat, you must book in advance of Midday. The club run a report of booked seats at midday, and a steward puts reserved stickers on all booked seats. Anyone who turns up on the day gets an unallocated seat, and can sit in any unreserved seat. This way there will be no issues. Allocated seating for everybody makes no sense, evidenced by the fact that nobody sits in their seat anyway.

You too have defeated your own argument, twice.

If allocated seating doesn't work, then why your midday suggetion?

Of course, it does work, perfectly, provided people obey the one simple rule that you sit in your allocated seat. That's like saying that speed limits don't work because everyone ignored them. Well of course, if a system is ignored, then it won't work.

If any of you have "ability to obey simple instructions" on your CV, I suggest you delete it immediately.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

There is something on the O/S now about this and the clubs stance. (no link - sorry! )

[Oil Beef Hooked]

There is something on the O/S now about this and the clubs stance. (no link - sorry! )

As mentioned by Austrian.

http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 69847.aspx

Steve

[SuperNickyWroe]

FFS just stand on the pop instead.

[Kernowgull]

Because, Matt, if you want a specific seat, you book it. The reason for midday, is so that the club can sticker the seats before they let anyone in. Then you know which seats arr free, and which aren't. I am capable of following simple instructions, but I also have friends in the Bench who are season ticket holders, so when I go, I might try and sit close to them if there are free seats. If all seats that were booked were indicated, then Id know where I could sit.

[ferrarilover]

You already know where you can sit. Helpfully, the club print a number on the ticket which corresponds to a number on a seat in the ground. Match the two and Bob's your uncle.
If you want to sit with your mates, then tell Pete the receptionist that you'd like seat X. You'll be given seat X and, guess what, you can sit there.

In short, obey the rules of the present system, rather than introduce a big, complex new system which won't work any better than the present system because people will continue to disregard the basic principles.

This sort of thinking is why we have swathes of new legislation these days. Rather than enforce the existing law, Parliament has decided to tackle society's ills by introducing new laws which cover exactly the same ground as the old law. It won't work because it won't be enforced, just like the old law.

Anyway, this isn't an arguments thread, it's a suggestions thread.

Andy, introduce an IQ test before allowing admission to the ground. That way we'd have plenty of room and those incapable of sitting in their allocated seat wouldn't be allowed in anyway.

Matt.

[Richinns]

Hi Andy

Can we expect those subtle pink and blue players training tops in the club shop anytime soon?

Cheers

Rich

[Alpine Joe]

Ferrarilover

Of course, it does work, perfectly, provided people obey the one simple rule that you sit in your allocated seat.
Introduce an IQ test before allowing admission to the ground.

Now I've previously admitted to failing the IQ test to such an extent that even though I'm a Bristow's Bench regular I didn't realise anyone took a blind bit of notice of the numbers on the tickets, until almost the end of last season

All in all I think the British are a pretty fair minded bunch and if they think a rule is reasonable they'll obey it, and if they find it unreasonable they'll try to avoid it. I'd prefer to have the seat of my choice but if in order to do so I'd have to queue up for 15 minutes or so in order to get into a League2 game with a crowd very often sub 3000 then it's crossed the line into unreasonableness for me.

Becoming aware of the seat allocation procedure I did actually think of obeying the rules, and turned up at the next game at home to Barnet and joined the queue for the ticket office so as to select my preferred seat. Even with over 30 mins to kick off there were still over 60 people ahead of me in a slow moving queue. The majority of which were actually queuing to buy tickets for the next home match versus Bristol Rovers.

That Rovers game only underlined how farcical the allocated seat policy is. If people had been allowed to sit where they wanted then Rovers fans would have sat with Rovers fans and Torquay fans would have sat with Torquay fans and a few stewards could have ensured an unoccupied area was kept between the two. However, we insisted on implementing the pig headed allocated seat policy which insisted that Rovers fans had to stay among Torquay fans for the whole 90 minutes, and we all know the problems, and safety issues that caused.

Sad to say, but the best hope we've got of getting this overturned is for example, the game at home to Portsmouth in October, to lead to further flashpoints when the club insists that the Pompey fans stay in their allocated seat number next to Torquay fans and trouble results. Either the stewards (who are the poor blighters that have to attempt to sort it out) or the Safety Advisory Group will then demand that the aggro caused by the allocated seats policy rather than letting the sets of fans separate themselves naturally, puts fans safety unnecessarily at risk, all for sake of stubbornly sticking with a policy that has been demonstrated to fail when there's a large away following.

It's the old story, but something nasty will have to happen before anything is done.

I was at Plainmoor by 2.25pm on Saturday, but the ticket office queue was still winding back and blocking the entrance to the Club shop. By the time you get a few dithering, or paying by credit card...I really don't want to stand there for 15 minutes queuing.. when there are empty turnstiles I can hand over my cash to (bear in mind that until today I was unaware of the existence of Pete the receptionist, who might be the answer to all our problems).

In the end left to their own devices, British reasonableness would solve the problem without the need for the Big Brother ' sit where we tell you, and not where you want to' heavy hand that we've got at the moment. If Austrian Andy wants to sit in a particular part of the bench, then tell him to get there 30 mins before kick off and he'd have no trouble finding empty seats in that area. If 5 people want to sit together and there are only 4 seats free, ask the person to shove down one...they almost always will...or better still come in a bit earlier if you require a row of 5 seats together. Let all the Bristol Rovers fans gravitate towards one end of the stand so they sit together, rather than insisting they have to stay in allocated seats among the home fans.

This isn't Old Trafford, or anywhere that gets anywhere near selling out for the vast majority of matches. Stopping people just coming in and selecting their own seat is an unnecessary obstacle at our level...and probably creates more bad feeling among those inconvenienced by it than it does goodwill from those too lazy to arrive 15 minutes sooner and select empty seats of their choosing.

Letting people sit where the hell they want (excluding season ticket holders seats naturally) isn't some big complex new policy, it's a simpler, safer, and more popular system than the current one that the powers that be are hell bent on trying to make work.

Don't take this sitting down ...fight back against the Allocated Seat Fiasco, and remember with the help of a few aggressive Portsmouth or Argyle fans being forced to remain 'allocated' among the home fans we can surely get this nonsensical and potentially dangerous policy overturned.

[brucie]

I don't actually care if I sit in my own seat or not. I quite happily admit that last season I didn't sit in my allocated seat on a number of occasions as I went with friends/relatives and quite reasonably I would have thought we wanted to sit together.
I arrived late on saturday due to the traffic and only managed to get in the ground at two minutes to three.
There wasn't much room in the stand by that time and my seat was occupied by someone who was on a stag do I guess because there were about twenty or so dressed in the same shirts.
Obviously it would have been churlish of me to ask one of them to move.
There was a queue outside the ground when I got in and there were a hell of a lot of latecomers who were wandering up and down the stand as late as 3.10pm looking at their tickets and trying to marry up where their seats were.
Are your seriously suggesting that the stewards would enforce the ruling of seating by numbers. It would only take I reckon two people sat in the wrong seats to cause chaos. People getting pissed off, trying to watch the game whilst being made to play musical chairs.
Far from being common sense, its actually an unworkable system.
I suppose the other issue might be - say a group of four people paid at the turnstile. There wouldn't even be any guarantee that they would get four consecutively numbered seats.
That has got to be a nonsense.
Not having allocated seat numbers is by far and away a better system. It would encourage people to turn up earlier perhaps and those that do would get the pick of the seats - thats a fairer system as well.
As I said before it would be then far easier for latecomers to identify where there are spare seats to sit in.

[ferrarilover]

Ferrarilover Now I've previously admitted to failing the IQ test to such an extent that even though I'm a Bristow's Bench regular I didn't realise anyone took a blind bit of notice of the numbers on the tickets, until almost the end of last season

All in all I think the British are a pretty fair minded bunch and if they think a rule is reasonable they'll obey it, and if they find it unreasonable they'll try to avoid it. I'd prefer to have the seat of my choice but if in order to do so I'd have to queue up for 15 minutes or so in order to get into a League2 game with a crowd very often sub 3000 then it's crossed the line into unreasonableness for me.

Becoming aware of the seat allocation procedure I did actually think of obeying the rules, and turned up at the next game at home to Barnet and joined the queue for the ticket office so as to select my preferred seat. Even with over 30 mins to kick off there were still over 60 people ahead of me in a slow moving queue. The majority of which were actually queuing to buy tickets for the next home match versus Bristol Rovers.

That Rovers game only underlined how farcical the allocated seat policy is. If people had been allowed to sit where they wanted then Rovers fans would have sat with Rovers fans and Torquay fans would have sat with Torquay fans and a few stewards could have ensured an unoccupied area was kept between the two. However, we insisted on implementing the pig headed allocated seat policy which insisted that Rovers fans had to stay among Torquay fans for the whole 90 minutes, and we all know the problems, and safety issues that caused.

Sad to say, but the best hope we've got of getting this overturned is for example, the game at home to Portsmouth in October, to lead to further flashpoints when the club insists that the Pompey fans stay in their allocated seat number next to Torquay fans and trouble results. Either the stewards (who are the poor blighters that have to attempt to sort it out) or the Safety Advisory Group will then demand that the aggro caused by the allocated seats policy rather than letting the sets of fans separate themselves naturally, puts fans safety unnecessarily at risk, all for sake of stubbornly sticking with a policy that has been demonstrated to fail when there's a large away following.

It's the old story, but something nasty will have to happen before anything is done.

I was at Plainmoor by 2.25pm on Saturday, but the ticket office queue was still winding back and blocking the entrance to the Club shop. By the time you get a few dithering, or paying by credit card...I really don't want to stand there for 15 minutes queuing.. when there are empty turnstiles I can hand over my cash to (bear in mind that until today I was unaware of the existence of Pete the receptionist, who might be the answer to all our problems).

In the end left to their own devices, British reasonableness would solve the problem without the need for the Big Brother ' sit where we tell you, and not where you want to' heavy hand that we've got at the moment. If Austrian Andy wants to sit in a particular part of the bench, then tell him to get there 30 mins before kick off and he'd have no trouble finding empty seats in that area. If 5 people want to sit together and there are only 4 seats free, ask the person to shove down one...they almost always will...or better still come in a bit earlier if you require a row of 5 seats together. Let all the Bristol Rovers fans gravitate towards one end of the stand so they sit together, rather than insisting they have to stay in allocated seats among the home fans.

This isn't Old Trafford, or anywhere that gets anywhere near selling out for the vast majority of matches. Stopping people just coming in and selecting their own seat is an unnecessary obstacle at our level...and probably creates more bad feeling among those inconvenienced by it than it does goodwill from those too lazy to arrive 15 minutes sooner and select empty seats of their choosing.

Letting people sit where the hell they want (excluding season ticket holders seats naturally) isn't some big complex new policy, it's a simpler, safer, and more popular system than the current one that the powers that be are hell bent on trying to make work.

Don't take this sitting down ...fight back against the Allocated Seat Fiasco, and remember with the help of a few aggressive Portsmouth or Argyle fans being forced to remain 'allocated' among the home fans we can surely get this nonsensical and potentially dangerous policy overturned.

No, it really didn't. What it did dow as reinforce how important it is to obey yet more simple rules. Away fans are not permitted to enter the home seating. You can't point to yet more rule violations as proof of how a perfectly sound system works, because it's not being used properly. That's like saying that self service tills don't work properly because people nick stuff. That's not the fault of the self service tills in just the same way that away fans in the home end does not signal a failing of the allocated seat system.

Dave (SG) summed it up perfectly for me last season regarding the Rovers match. If you can't sit next to an opposition football fan for 90 minutes without punching them in the face, you're probably an idiot.

No, they really won't. They will insist that the club enforce the segregation rules. They will not overturn the allocated seating system which is used, as far as I know, by every entertainment venue on the planet. I've never been to a theatre, cinema, sports ground or anywhere else where I wasn't issued an allocated seat (where seating was the arrangement).

This really isn't Orwellian, it isn't Big Brother, it's asking that people follow simple (very bloody simple) rules for the good of everyone. We have rules everywhere which make things better for all. We all go round roundabouts in the same direction, we all drive on the same side of the road, we all stop at red traffic lights. This is not The State telling us what to do, it's common sense. It is the same common sense which says that away fans don't go in the home end and that people sit in their allocated seat. It really isn't that much of a bind. The ultimate proof, of course, is that, if everyone obeyed the rules, then this argument wouldn't exist in any form. No one would come on here complaining about how they had always got the seat they paid for and that, when they got there, it was empty and waiting for them to use it, because that isn't a complaint. The only time complaints arise is when things go wrong and things only go wrong when people fail to obey the number system. The fact that some are arguing against this only reinforces my argument that Hitler had the right idea when he said we should exterminate idiots.
Follow the simple rules and no one suffers, it really, REALLY isn't hard.

Matt.

[Richinns]

I have a problem with this seat allocation. The bench offers a brilliant view of the game and for me the best view is from the higher up you get. When I am going to watch the game from the Bench I get to the ground early so I can pick me desired viewpoint (half-way line, as far back as possible). This is now taken away from me as I am now told where to sit.

Can I check with Andy that if your purchase your tickets online you can choose your seats? If this is the case then my only problem is one which can be solved another way.

[AustrianAndyGull]

You can choose whatever seat you wish online Rich and the screen shows you which seats are available and which aren't. I usually pick a seat near the back on an end but obviously the later you book the ticket the less choice of the 'good' seats you will have. I've booked online before and had tickets sent out to my house no problems, it's excellent.