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Not enough room by the time I get in, only at the front and I like to be at the back to get a decent perspective

http://www.petitiononline.co.uk/petitio ... y-end/2715" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Have made this online petition with the intention of handing it to the club once we reach the target of 5,000 signatures. If you could sign, and maybe post to a few of your friends' facebook/twitter or other accounts, It would help reach the goal.

Signed

Cheers Dave

All signed Chris...... maybe we should do one about various members of the bank as well?

signed

Awayday wrote:All signed Chris...... maybe we should do one about various members of the bank as well?

Members of the bank?

You wont like it there, the sun gets in your eyes, the Sou'westerlys hammer rain into your faces and there's no access to Boots & Laces at half time.

The above reasons are why away supporters are allocated the BABBACOMBE END.

As a wrinkly old 40 something who stood in the old mini stand, i can sympathise with our singers - the acoustics on the pop side have always been poor.
As soon as the old mini was pulled down and replaced with the current family stand, the noise at Plainmoor effectively died, straight away.

Let's face it, our ground is (thanks to Bateson) badly designed and suffers from having a ridiculously small capacity, a ground that once held nearly 23k and now even after a new grandstand wont even hold 7k......daft when you think about it.

....in a perfect world the popside would be seated with an enclosure for standing at the front (like the grandstand side is at the moment) and the now family stand home end would be covered terracing behind the goal for the singers. Add the new grandstand to this and our ground would be spot on - with a capacity nearer to 10k than 6k.

Sadly it isn't.......there is no way, in my opinion, the club will give the home fans the away end - or especially, even part of it - you rarely see (if at all) shared terraces these days even with a dividing gap - and i'm sure the police/elf n safety wouldn't allow the potential for missiles to be chucked and the more boisterous sections of fans to be so close.
We either get it all or nothing, trouble is where do you put the away fans?
You cant put them on the popular side.....as most have agreed.

One of the main problems here that no-one has touched on is the fact that the club will want the potential to attract more away fans from a financial point of view, they're going to invest a sizeable amount of money in the new stand and will see this as an opportunity to increase turnover for clubs with very large away support.
It seems that away fans will probably have a quarter or a fifth of the new grandstand seating (1750), some 400 or so seats potentially, so with the 1000+ space behind the away end goal - 1400/1500 easily controllable away allocation is planned i reckon.

It might be better to approach the club to take steps to improve the acoustics in the pop side, I'm sure there are ways to do this....without too much outlay, it's not what we want but it may be better than nothing.

Some good points Justin, BUT, there are plenty of examples of shared stands (I know you said terraces), Bournemouth, Swindon, Cheltenham (not this season though), Barnet with their terrace. Southampton, Oxford etc etc.

After speaking to Jon Gibbes on saturday I know that he's of the thinking that the TUST could do something on the Pop to help acoustics but I can't see what good can come of that to be honest.

We could give a section of the popside, closest to the police box to clamp down on missiles being thrown over to the away fans, and a section of the new grandstand for those that prefer to be seated. Give them half the popside, and split it so as you enter the popside from the middle (Marnham Road) they enter through one set of turnstiles, and leave through the same. Home fans that want to be in the other end of the popside (Closest to the family stand) enter through the either boots and laces, or through the same turnstiles as away fans. Obviously some extra policing or stewarding may be required.

Give the away end to the home fans, Home fans use the turnstiles away fans currently use, both for entry and for exit.

The grandstand and family stand to be left as it is.

Maybe if they put terracing back on the ellacombe end now that more seating is being put in the new stand ? I say this knowing it will never happen but i'm saying it anyway.

With the superb acoustics the away end has - a shared end would be very loud and really add to the atmosphere.

Would be happy to see it happen.....just cant' see it, for the reasons already stated.

Only TUFC could build the best stand for noise and give it to away supporters.....

Not a chance in hell of them changing it all around, in my opinion. They might do the odd game, where TUFC fans get the away end if the away following is expected to be sub 200 (or however many seats they get). Or splitting it in half for those occasions, as the seats from the Grandstand won't be in if it's before February.

Cannot see them splitting the Popside and moving fans into the away end permanently though, without a doubt!

petition signed.

i'm in agreement with what some of you have said already, and a split away end could work, once the new grandstand is complete. this would be like the arrangement at Aldershot, and we know how good the atmosphere can be there.

the only downside i can see is the pop side would look pretty empty for most standard league matches, unless the away support were given a section of the pop side towards the family end. but, this would then create the half time beer problem, so as far as i can see, there is no ideal/cost effective answer. maybe better acoustics in the pop side would help, and maybe if the supporters weren't so spread out, so the noise was more condensed, that might help. i wonder if putting up some sort of acoustic panelling along the back of the popside would be the way to go, instead of brick wall that just kills sound ??

also, IF we go up to league 1, we can probably expect more away supporters coming down than we get now (on average), so would give the appearance that we are being even more out-sung than at present with the current set-up.

everything is just in the wrong place - if only we could pick up all the components and put them back down in different places, it would be perfect !! if only they'd make these stadiums out of lego, we'd be laughing.