Stewarding at Cappielow

[BishopBrennan]

I will double my MCT subscription if someone at the club cuts the power and hot water to the away changing room just before full time. 

[Toby]

Usual from the usual just as the penalties were starting, refusing to let folk into a not-even-half-full Sinclair Street End.

whatever the rules and regulations (and I fail to see one that’ll cut the mustard, here) her demeanour, attitude and tone of voice with those who pay her wages is nothing short of a disgrace. She’s here to serve us, and ensure that our experience is as safe and enjoyable as possible. She’s failing on that front.

Time to go.

[good guy]

Apparently one was heard to say "remember Hillsborough". As if there was any sort of comparison.

[Mr.Blue]

24 minutes ago, good guy said:

Apparently one was heard to say "remember Hillsborough". As if there was any sort of comparison.

Surely not.

I heard they stopped letting folk into the Sinclair Street end as it was apparently full. However it was more of a health and safety risk having a group of supporters caught in a bottle neck by incompetent stewards.

[vikingTON]

The Sinclair Street end being 'full' despite there being barely 1,000 home fans in the entire ground. Utter shite. 

[dunning1874]

Back at our nonsense with this.

So the whole gates remaining closed thing was actually just the club putting out an unnecessary and poorly worded tweet. Everyone was free to leave whenever they wanted, they just had to ask the steward at the gate to let them out rather than the gates being permanently opened minutes before the end. There's no stewarding issue there and that's common across Scottish football.

There are still other persistent issues. So we still have the ongoing farce of safeguarding children by not allowing them in without an adult, creating the extremely safe situation where weans need to approach random adults in Sinclair Street to be able to get in. Yet in line with that safe approach, I did see yesterday a child at the turnstiles with what appeared to be their father. Naturally, as is normal at the terracing turnstiles, two of the four weren't working and people were all over the place, not knowing how to use the tickets etc (leading to one steward loudly commenting "fucking cretins").

So the parent and child are both trying to scan their tickets, it comes up green and the adult tries to let the child through first only for the steward stood there to insist that it was the adult ticket which was scanned, so the adult need to go through first. So he does, then the wean scans his ticket and the turnstiles flashes up red, saying the ticket had already been used. Rather than draw the natural conclusion here that this had arisen from the white elephant turnstiles being a mess in the first place, the child and adult both trying to scan and maybe it was the child ticket that had let the adult through, the position was immediately "That ticket has already been used, you need to go and buy one if you want in". As if someone has stood up the back of the Sinclair Street end and floated their already used ticket down to their mate in the street without anyone noticing.

I was also told that people were having umbrellas confiscated yesterday on such a delightfully dry day, although I didn't witness that myself.

You look at how a club like Arbroath has grown to having a larger support than us, and of course success on the pitch has been far and away the main factor in that, but put it this way: there's no way they would have grown their fanbase among children to the same extent if Gayfield had the Cappielow stewards.

[Jamie_M]

50 minutes ago, dunning1874 said:I was also told that people were having umbrellas confiscated yesterday on such a delightfully dry day, although I didn't witness that myself.

 

You look at how a club like Arbroath has grown to having a larger support than us, and of course success on the pitch has been far and away the main factor in that, but put it this way: there's no way they would have grown their fanbase among children to the same extent if Gayfield had the Cappielow stewards.

Heard the umbrella thing several times over the past year. Wild when we have uncovered areas of the ground and people have been holding umbrellas there for decades.

 

Arbroath do actually also have a policy where 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult. You just know they won't criminalise kids for trying to get in though.

[port-ton]

I struggle to buy that it was a poorly worded statement regarding some niche sub group of people that leave and re-enter the ground that barely anyone even knew was a thing and wasn't mentioned at all in the statement. 

More likely for me is that they saw that their original tweet had over 100 quote tweets and rising and was quickly making its way around Scottish football fan twitter and beyond with lots questioning the legality of the actions of our " security partner " and decided to reverse course. 

 

 

 

[EanieMeany]

7 minutes ago, port-ton said:

I struggle to buy that it was a poorly worded statement regarding some niche sub group of people that leave and re-enter the ground that barely anyone even knew was a thing and wasn't mentioned at all in the statement. 

More likely for me is that they saw that their original tweet had over 100 quote tweets and rising and was quickly making its way around Scottish football fan twitter and beyond with lots questioning the legality of the actions of our " security partner " and decided to reverse course. 

 

 

 

Indeed. If every single person thinks a tweet means what it says (in quite a specific way, then I think it tells you that that is indeed what they meant. I can’t really see why you would write something that means one thing if it’s not actually what you mean - it’d be a pretty unusual example of “poor wording” if it didn’t mean what it was unanimously accepted as meaning

Anyway, whilst keeping the gates shut isn’t necessarily a big deal, I always quite liked the idea that you could maybe pop in for the last 5/10 mins. It’s one of the peculiar wee quirks of Cappielow although it’s not something you’d really lose any sleep over either. Why exactly a “security partner” has any real business having a say on something of a absolutely no consequence isn’t clear either, especially when it’s the same clowns that insist the Sinclair Street end is full when pretty much the entire crowd could fit in with room to spare.

[TRVMP]

They're at it. There's no way it meant anything other than what it meant.

The 'security partner' think we work for them and not the other way around. Get them in the sea.

[Toby]

Not a complaint that’s exclusive to Cappielow by any means, but I was asked if I minded going through a “random” search when entering the ground, to which I replied I absolutely do mind as there was no reason to search me, as opposed to anyone else and was told that if I didn’t comply I would be refused admission.

I was stone cold sober and questioned why “random” searches at football grounds tend to pick out guys who look like myself as opposed to women, pensioners, young children etc. Could it perhaps be that they’re not random at all?

The steward then admitted that the reason I was being searched was because of the style of jumper I was wearing, contradicting the “random” nature of the search that he originally claimed. A heated debate ensued for a minute or so before I eventually entered, after reluctantly have went through a search that found absolutely nothing, but not without being threatened with refusal to enter because the steward mistook the guy behind me telling me he was on a power trip for my own comments.

It would of course have been an awful lot easier for me to just accept the search without complaint, but when this is a regular occurrence at grounds across the country and you don’t see others going through the same rigmarole, it becomes incredibly grating.

If there is a search policy, it should, in my opinion he for everyone, as opposed to whoever a steward decides he or she just doesn’t fancy on any particular day.

[Brian Skelton]

41 minutes ago, Toby said:

Not a complaint that’s exclusive to Cappielow by any means, but I was asked if I minded going through a “random” search when entering the ground, to which I replied I absolutely do mind as there was no reason to search me, as opposed to anyone else and was told that if I didn’t comply I would be refused admission.

I was stone cold sober and questioned why “random” searches at football grounds tend to pick out guys who look like myself as opposed to women, pensioners, young children etc. Could it perhaps be that they’re not random at all?

The steward then admitted that the reason I was being searched was because of the style of jumper I was wearing, contradicting the “random” nature of the search that he originally claimed. A heated debate ensued for a minute or so before I eventually entered, after reluctantly have went through a search that found absolutely nothing, but not without being threatened with refusal to enter because the steward mistook the guy behind me telling me he was on a power trip for my own comments.

It would of course have been an awful lot easier for me to just accept the search without complaint, but when this is a regular occurrence at grounds across the country and you don’t see others going through the same rigmarole, it becomes incredibly grating.

If there is a search policy, it should, in my opinion he for everyone, as opposed to whoever a steward decides he or she just doesn’t fancy on any particular day.

Why I maybe agree with some of this can you imagine the chaos if they searched everyone. 

[Toby]

10 minutes ago, Brian Skelton said:

Why I maybe agree with some of this can you imagine the chaos if they searched everyone. 

A one-size-fits-all policy it should be, then. It’s perfectly reasonable to expect to be searched entering a nightclub because everyone is, and not to get searched when visiting a restaurant because nobody is but that steward profiled me yesterday with no good reason.

I completely understand the need to question/search/deny entry to folk if they appear under the influence of drink or drugs, or are behaving disruptively in the queue but there was absolutely no reasonable cause for me to be picked out of the queue yesterday. A steward not liking someone’s face or choice of clothing doesn’t cut the mustard, I’m afraid.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

I'd check with the club that they've given the stewards the authority to deny entry after you've purchased a ticket, for refusing to allow to be 'randomly'  searched for no reason. If they have, that's unacceptable IMO. At the very least, the fact that you may be subjected to a 'random' search and the consequences for not allowing it should be printed clearly on the ticket.

Just as a by the way, everyone is searched on entry at football games in Belgium, which I have no problem with. Like you said, it should be everyone or no one. 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

2 hours ago, Brian Skelton said:

Why I maybe agree with some of this can you imagine the chaos if they searched everyone. 

As mentioned above, everyone is searched on entry at all Jupiler league games in Belgium, with crowds much larger than at Cappielow yesterday. It literally takes a few seconds and there are plenty of stewards to prevent 'chaos'.

No advocating it should be done in the Scottish championship by the way, but again, if we're going down that road it should apply to everyone and not up to the whims of a steward. Toby is 100% correct.

Edited August 21, 2022 by Cet Homme Charmant

[Mr.Blue]

I saw someone getting searched before I went into the shed yesterday and thought it was totally bizarre. Never seen it done before at Cappielow. 

Also had a discussion with a steward inside the ground. My boy and his pals wanted to sit in tje seats at the shed and were told not without an adult.  Went and asked the guy what the issue was and he began to talk about pitch invasions, health and safety etc. I told him that the boys would be sitting there and I'd be literally 10m away and assured him that there would be no hassle. He then told me that it was my responsibility if I chose to let them sit there. They were my responsibility anyway! Total gestapo behaviour and I'd love to hear who is actually making these decisions and filtering them down  to the stewards.

[GiGi]

6 hours ago, Toby said:

The steward then admitted that the reason I was being searched was because of the style of jumper I was wearing

This is absolutely wild. Club should put an article out including the brands of gear the stewards they employ take particular offence to.

[capitanus]

6 hours ago, Toby said:

A one-size-fits-all policy it should be, then. It’s perfectly reasonable to expect to be searched entering a nightclub because everyone is, and not to get searched when visiting a restaurant because nobody is but that steward profiled me yesterday with no good reason.

I completely understand the need to question/search/deny entry to folk if they appear under the influence of drink or drugs, or are behaving disruptively in the queue but there was absolutely no reasonable cause for me to be picked out of the queue yesterday. A steward not liking someone’s face or choice of clothing doesn’t cut the mustard, I’m afraid.

This is an interesting one. 

Did the search take place on the Sinclair Street outside of the ground or was it inside the ground? 

If it was outside the ground then the steward was acting unlawfully as he has no right to stop and search anyone in a public place.  You were well within your rights to refuse the search, the fact that you accepted under duress the club (and its security partner) owes you an apology and compensation.  You also have grounds to make a police complaint against them for harassment. 

This is one way to get rid of the Head of Security, by getting her license revoked. 

Edited August 21, 2022 by capitanus

[Scapaflow]

7 hours ago, Toby said:

Not a complaint that’s exclusive to Cappielow by any means, but I was asked if I minded going through a “random” search when entering the ground, to which I replied I absolutely do mind as there was no reason to search me, as opposed to anyone else and was told that if I didn’t comply I would be refused admission.

I was stone cold sober and questioned why “random” searches at football grounds tend to pick out guys who look like myself as opposed to women, pensioners, young children etc. Could it perhaps be that they’re not random at all?

The steward then admitted that the reason I was being searched was because of the style of jumper I was wearing, contradicting the “random” nature of the search that he originally claimed. A heated debate ensued for a minute or so before I eventually entered, after reluctantly have went through a search that found absolutely nothing, but not without being threatened with refusal to enter because the steward mistook the guy behind me telling me he was on a power trip for my own comments.

It would of course have been an awful lot easier for me to just accept the search without complaint, but when this is a regular occurrence at grounds across the country and you don’t see others going through the same rigmarole, it becomes incredibly grating.

If there is a search policy, it should, in my opinion he for everyone, as opposed to whoever a steward decides he or she just doesn’t fancy on any particular day.

I was behind you in the queue, if you remember I made comment about kids being denied access without adult stopping our future fan base. You were definitely selected as the steward in question passed about 3 others before selecting you

[capitanus]

Out of interest Toby, do you think that you were perhaps 'targeted' for a 'random' search as you are a well known supporter who has passed comments on here about the conduct of the stewards at Cappielow in recent times? 

I think that may be the case.  I would not be surprised if it happens again very soon.