A recent announcement made by PM Boris Johnson suggested that we may see fans able to attend sporting events once again as early as October as many of the restrictions put in place throughout the lockdown are slowly starting to lift, whilst there are still many challenges to overcome this is some great news for fans who have largely been without anything to watch live since late March when the cancellations and postponements initially came through.
A statement released by Scunthorpe United today however has outlined the plans to get fans back in seats as soon as possible, and to also offer some level of assistance in recovery to the club economically as many of the smaller teams have been facing struggles during the downtime – it was stated that of course the measures would follow the government and EFL safety guidelines, but as there were many believing no live attendance would be possible until the new year, some restriction is better than all restriction.
The first big change comes to season ticket holders, as it was noted that it may not be entirely possible to get their allocated seats due to social distancing measures, but also that early holders would get preferential treatment with the reduced capacity requirements.
A reduced price had also been announced through the duration of the season to reflect the cancelled home games during the 19/20 season – the post mentioned that the published early bird price would remain throughout the season for new season ticket holders and would also apply regarding reduced capacity games although there had been not mention of what could be expected moving forward into the new year and beyond as there’s still a long path ahead for the ‘new normal’ to really be discovered.
This is some great news for punters too, although football has been back for a few weeks at this point there’s nothing quite like actually getting to the games – despite a number of recent changes within the UK such as a recent ban on online credit card betting and gambling alongside changes to the Gamstop initiative aimed at reducing participation options for these players, a growing number of betting sites and casinos aren’t registered and open for all players, this casino list at TBC for example provides users a place to get involved once the season gets underway again.
There will of course be some challenges to overcome and ensuring fan safety will definitely be at the top of the list, even at reduced capacity there’s no guarantee that can be made without systems in place for one way movement and ensuring that choke points don’t get caught up for fans getting in and out of the stadium, we’ll no doubt start to see how other sports are preparing for the same too and there may be lessons learned for the best way to handle attendance once it’s possible again, and so it’s important to keep in mind that many of these changes are subject to change and possibly will do very early on.
Any Old Iron 