Spice Girls (4 Viewers)

MusicDating

Euro 2016 Prediction League Champion!!
Arena Coventry Limited, actually!

Just read the Companies House file on ACL. The list of former officers made a shiver run down my spine!
Ah of course. And I guess he thinks that the CEO/Secretary of ACL is a different Nicholas John Eastwood...
 

RoboCCFC90

Well-Known Member
He was our (CCFC) safety officer from the mid-90s until he was basically forced out by Wasps as they wanted their own person in charge on matchday. He was snapped up by Stoke City, then in the Prem, as their Operations Manager, believe he is still there.

From what I understand when we moved from HR a lot of the stadium staff moved across to being employees of ACL. Seems since Wasps have taken over they have pushed out staff with CCFC connections but their recruitment of replacements hasn't been up to scratch. Very few people there with significant experience in the sector.

Chris is a good bloke, always had a good understanding with him.

Kept me from trouble a few times in my younger years.

*Thank you Offenham for spotting my obvious mistake!
 
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Nick

Administrator
You had more than one adolescence?

No he was just in them.

giphy.gif
 

RoboCCFC90

Well-Known Member
Re the topic itself..

I'm not entirely surprised by these events that people are suggesting on Twitter, the parking aspect of the Ricoh Arena is shambolic, even after a CCFC game they struggle to get people out of car park A and people are left waiting for ages - I waited 45 mins after the Shrewsbury game.

It's a shame that Coventry is getting a bit of bad press about this, but beautiful in the sense that this is all falling at Wasps and the Ricoh Arena's door :D
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
If some of things being suggested are true, like opening the gates and not checking bags, then that's seriously dangerous and needs enquiries made .

But a lot of the complaints on queues etc aren't new - they've been the same since it opened and even occurred with big crowds at HR at times, esp for toilets and getting food/drink.

We've had people contacting the CWR phone in from queues outside the ground on major matchdays saying what a shambles it is. Chelsea for example. Even the Crewe game. Loads of people at the footy leave their seat 5 mins before half time to go to the loo and get something to eat drink because they know the queues will be dreadful. If you regularly go to games with a women you'll expect them to be gone for half an hour just to go to the toilet because of queues. Remember that stupid fucking payment card where you had to put money on it at one place and then queue up elsewhere to get served because you couldn't use cash? Then people were finding they'd been charged wrongly on those cards because it was busy they'd just put the card it without checking how much was being charged to it.

I tend to arrive quite early at games and one game a few years ago we were there as the turnstiles opened, went in, I went to the toilet and then decided to get a burger, walked up to the kiosk and was informed they were out of burgers - they'd only opened the turnstiles five minutes before! How unlucky I'd chosen the kiosk Mick Quinn had just visited for a light snack... Now I don't even bother trying to get anything and eat beforehand or after.

At the Oasis gig again we turned up as early as possible - at least 90 mins before the start time - we still only managed to get in just before the start. Completely missed The Enemy supporting. It might have been that gig where there were hundreds of brollies just strewn about the floor because people weren't allowed to take them in and had been told to just chuck them away at the side of the turnstile/bag check area/

Very rarely do I go in a car to a match but if we do I then after I go over to the Arena and get something to eat - no point going to the car because you'll just end up sitting there for ages.

Given that this was an event that was going to be attended predominantly by people unfamiliar with the stadium and largely female, at a place nigh on impossible to access by public transport and next to a main road used by commuters on a workday it's not surprising it was a shambles.

With it being a workday the thing of 'get there early' is loads can't due to leaving work so it was always going to be lots of people turning up at once with little time to spare.

At the football there are people who who turn up and complain it took them ages to get in if we get bigger crowds than normal when they time it to get to the stadium about 10 mins before kick off. They could get there earlier - they choose not to. And a lot of the time people just go to the nearest set of turnstiles (like those nearest the away end after you've walked under the railway) and it's hugely busy, but if the walk along to the next set or the ones after that and you can walk straight in - no queues. Did it at the Crewe game. Ridiculous queues for those turnstiles, I walked past them to the set two up from there and got straight in.
 
I went with my wife last night (last time I buy her concert tickets for Christmas!) we were stood on the pitch at around the halfway line. Got in about 5 mins before Jess Glynne started but the queue and queue management both inside and outside the stadium was atrocious.

Outside we was in a queue for turnstile 21 but then that spilt into about 8 different lines from the original queue we joined and we ended up going in turnstile 23.

Once in the stadium and queuing on the staircase to enter the pitch area and it was really tight but not management on how many was on the stairs and no managing the flow so people trying to get to the bar underneath the stand had to fight against the surging crowd getting on to the pitch.

When on the pitch it was fine to start off with, and normally standing at concerts done bother me, been in mosh pits loads before and at sold out concerts in academy venues around the country where they really do push the limits but last night was the first time I felt unsafe at a concert due to the volume of people on the pitch. It was rammed before the end of Jess Glynne but the crowd just kept coming.

Getting off the pitch at the end was a joke. We went to the Rihanna concert at the Ricoh and they opened the massive gates at the end of the stadium. Nothing of that last night, all coming off through the staircase, took 20 mins or so until the stewards had the brainwave of letting us use the exit via the now vacated wheelchair section to release a bit of the pressure on the staircase and unsurprisingly a couple of cat fights broke out between groups of drunk women all trying to fight for a tiny gap to get off the pitch.

Despite all that and reading comments on Twitter we got off rather lucky compared to some people experiences. Getting out the car park was relevantly easy despite then stewards jumping out of nowhere to stop traffic to allow pedestrians to cross. The only issues getting back to car park c via the subway was the bottleneck around the station. Glad I wasn’t getting the train the underpass to the station looked more packed that the pitch
 

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
I went with my wife last night (last time I buy her concert tickets for Christmas!) we were stood on the pitch at around the halfway line. Got in about 5 mins before Jess Glynne started but the queue and queue management both inside and outside the stadium was atrocious.

Outside we was in a queue for turnstile 21 but then that spilt into about 8 different lines from the original queue we joined and we ended up going in turnstile 23.

Once in the stadium and queuing on the staircase to enter the pitch area and it was really tight but not management on how many was on the stairs and no managing the flow so people trying to get to the bar underneath the stand had to fight against the surging crowd getting on to the pitch.

When on the pitch it was fine to start off with, and normally standing at concerts done bother me, been in mosh pits loads before and at sold out concerts in academy venues around the country where they really do push the limits but last night was the first time I felt unsafe at a concert due to the volume of people on the pitch. It was rammed before the end of Jess Glynne but the crowd just kept coming.

Getting off the pitch at the end was a joke. We went to the Rihanna concert at the Ricoh and they opened the massive gates at the end of the stadium. Nothing of that last night, all coming off through the staircase, took 20 mins or so until the stewards had the brainwave of letting us use the exit via the now vacated wheelchair section to release a bit of the pressure on the staircase and unsurprisingly a couple of cat fights broke out between groups of drunk women all trying to fight for a tiny gap to get off the pitch.

Despite all that and reading comments on Twitter we got off rather lucky compared to some people experiences. Getting out the car park was relevantly easy despite then stewards jumping out of nowhere to stop traffic to allow pedestrians to cross. The only issues getting back to car park c via the subway was the bottleneck around the station. Glad I wasn’t getting the train the underpass to the station looked more packed that the pitch
Such a shame we learn nothing as humans. Seems sheer luck that no one was seriously injured or worse and deluded organisers blame everyone but themselves
 

SBAndy

Well-Known Member
Hope tonight is an improved experience but just a little bit of me wants it to be fucking horrendous again.

Obviously not too bad, and hope there are no injuries, but a bit of disorganisation will do me.
 

Nick

Administrator
It's interesting that the Twitter accounts who pipe up to get people angry at SISU are trying to defend Wasps about Spice Girls as well. Not another coincidence.
 

SBAndy

Well-Known Member
It's interesting that the Twitter accounts who pipe up to get people angry at SISU are trying to defend Wasps about Spice Girls as well. Not another coincidence.

Links? Don’t know where I’m looking on Twitter.
 

larry_david

Well-Known Member
Was at thr etihhad as mentioned earlier and the queues were ridiculous. Luckily the gf has a broken ankle so we skipped in but it not it would have been another hour I reckon. 5 portaloos or whatever they are outside when expecting 60k mental women. Good one!

Sounds like ricoh was worse though
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
If some of things being suggested are true, like opening the gates and not checking bags, then that's seriously dangerous and needs enquiries made.
In theory they should be heavily fined and loose safety certificate if they can't ensure visitor safety.
Will be interesting to see what happens. There's uproar when the slightest little thing happens at one of our games and more restrictions come in so surely something this serious can't just be brushed under the carpet.
We've had people contacting the CWR phone in from queues outside the ground on major matchdays saying what a shambles it is.
This is the key thing for me. All of this was easily predictable as its basically the same things we've seen over and over again amplified.
 

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