miserable git

One of the biggest threats to FC's long term future is in fact possible success; there may come a point when the membership have to vote on whether they accept promotion into the football league. I suspect that with the one member one vote system it might be too close to call. Acceptance might be perceived as selling out the principles upon which the club were founded. Declining might result in many members departing. In the mean time thousands are enjoying the ride. The club is largely run by volunteers with only 3 or 4 full time staff; on match days they have around 120 volunteers doing all sorts of jobs stewarding, turnstiles, programme sellers, all manner of other things. In their own ground some things will change but use of volunteers will remain an intrinsic part of their success.

If things go to plan the ground should be complete for Sept/Oct of next season. A large proportion of the fans money has been raised by a Community Shares scheme. Approx £1.9 million has currently been raised in this manner with about 1500 members contributing. They don't have any major sponsors, nor do they accept shirt sponsorship. In addition, the fans have run all sorts of fund raising events which have raised about £750,000. Another simple example of this is that at every home game they have barrels into which fans deposit their loose change; over the five/six years this has been running they've raised £50,000. Comedy nights, sportsman's dinners, race nights, and all manner of other events abound. Membership is running at about 3,100 and rising. Season tickets are purchased on the basis of 'pay what you can afford' with a min. £90. Walk up prices remain at £8 for adults and £2 for kids. Admittedly attendances have declined somewhat in the last two years (haven't they everywhere), but once they have their own ground they are confident these will pick up. Footballing wise they aren't setting the world alight, but that's because they aren't prepared to speculate with the playing budget, promotion isn't the be all and end all.

I would agree with you about the comparison with parking at Curzon, but to say 'hundreds' of streets is a bit of an exaggeration, unless you are prepared to walk up a bloody steep hill; and many of the locals don't like you parking outside their houses.

Don't be so sure that Tameside would welcome us with open arms. They own the ground but have a contractual agreement with Curzon that allows Curzon run the bars refreshment kiosks etc. and thus take the profits - I can't see Curzon being willing to tear that up. Anyway the ground isn't upto league standards and would need significant investment to make it so; in the current climate Tameside Council haven't the money for unexpected investment on improvements to the stadium. Also the current stands have very high roofs so generating an atmosphere under them is something of a challenge. Finally, the pitch is not particularly good. A ground share with Rochdale isn't that simple, I have it on good authority that the Football Licensing Authority would not permit Oldham to use the standing facilities at Spotland but god knows why. Stalybridge, nice homely ground but very poor parking facilities, and very remote from public transport. None of these options look that attractive.

It won't if the numbers attending remains at less than four thousand!

Those of you talking about redevelopment to incorporate safe standing areas are living in cloud cuckoo land. Such redevelopment would cost a fortune, and I don't see any club clammering for such a change (even the Premiership clubs). The club's are in the comfort zone of being able to outwardly agree with their supporters, but safe in the knowledge that they are never going to have to consider splashing the cash because the authorities won't let them anyway. Fact: representatives of the Football Licensing Authority (inc. the Chief Executive) were present against Leicester; they cannot have failed to have seen the scale of the persistent standing problem - don't be surprised if there are repercussions. At the very least they will require the local authority to monitor the situation further and report back. Ultimately the FLA can require the local authority to punish the club by reducing the safe capacities of the areas concerned (let's not go down that road) - just use a bit of common sense; there was no problem at the Hereford game because people were prepared to sit down when told.

At Tranmere there were about half a dozen Oldham fans ejected for persistent standing - not trouble fee. I'd like to know how many of those persistently standing are season ticket holders? the best deterent would be to confiscate their ST books - hit them where it hurts. The frustration is that those people involved don't appear to realise that there are no winners in this conflict and it's all down to stupidness and pig headedness in varying degrees from both sides.

A good point well made. The persistent standers need to realise that they need to co-operate with the stewards and sit down when told; if the stewards get to the stage of not bothering to encourage people to sit down, thats precisely when the local authority will act against the club. The capacity of the RRE could be progressively reduced, the whole stand could be closed, the club could be prosecuted and fined. Yes if the stewards don't act sensibly and start from the front their tactics are doomed to fail; the Safety Officer needs to address this, but in general they do a blody good job. I would say again the stewards are only human and must get pissed off with awkwards bastards ignoring them and continually seeking confrontation - I'm not surprised they sometimes lose their patience.

Alan Hardy cannot do anything - if you want change, lobby your MP for a change in the law. If this is achieved then the club can (if the will is there) do something - otherwise stop moaning and don't persistently stand!

All this whinging and whining! It's simple really; comply with the law of the land, OR legally campaign to get the law changed - lobby your MP's. Under the present laws persistent standing is simply not permitted. Let's be fair much of what we have seen in the RRE so far wouldn't be tolerated on the streets, so why should it be acceptable on the terraces. Most of the little s_ _ _s causing the problems are nowt but cretins. If people don't see sence soon there won't be winners and loosers; there will only be loosers - with the club being the biggest looser. Those making comparison with Germany (where same standing is facilitated by remodelling the terracing) perhaps don't appreciate that this comes at a price that most club's cannot afford - even if they had the desire; which most don't.

You all need to take a step back and put things in context, neither the club or the stewards want to destroy a fans match day experience, however the stewards are trying to enforce rules that are imposed throughout England and Wales; they are imposed (& monitored) locally on the club by the Council, the Council and the club are monitored by The Football Licensing Authority who represent the Government. Instead of moaning at the stewards and club, get yourselves organised through the Football Supporters Federation, and locally lobby your MP for a change in the law to allow for the reintroduction of safe standing areas. You compare the performance of the stewards with other clubs, but in reality you are seeing/experiencing it at other grounds from an away supporters perspective where because you only visit once a season you feel braver to chance your arm to ignore stewards, knowing your not at risk of loosing your season ticket. At home you are all under the scrutiny of CCTV and staff will remember you game on game - if stewards continue to meet aggression they will react accordingly (contrary to popular opinion they are only human) they will pick out 'ring leaders' to set an example. I would urge all of you to give it time; if both sides give a little, things will settle down for the majority. Having seen some of the previous paddock numpties (fortunately in the minority) they will either learn the hard way or fall by the wayside. Before you speculate: I am not a steward or a club official but I do enjoy my football.