Should drinking in the stands be allowed back in football?

[stealthpapes]

Sort of unrelated but where UK football appears to be now is no-one batting an eyelid at three queues at the toilets for at least one Reading game last season.

My, why would three blokes in their late twenties all use the same cubicle.

[Snowflake Royal]

Having been to many games, and seeing the utter twats that go absolutely not.

I'm all for a laugh, but many fans are so anti-social and insufferable that you'd end up getting soaked with beer after an equaliser against Peterborough in the 26th minute on a cold Tuesday night.

These are the same fans that continually say things like:

If you want to sit you shouldn't go to games
Away games are unreserved so I don't care that your ticket says a seat number - go somewhere else (as I've seen on Twitter)

If a game is unreserved, then that latter one is completely right.

[Sanguine]

Sort of unrelated but where UK football appears to be now is no-one batting an eyelid at three queues at the toilets for at least one Reading game last season.

My, why would three blokes in their late twenties all use the same cubicle.

Ugh, is this a thing at Reading now? Pathetic.

There's a corner behind a stairwell in the Putney End at Fulham that was regularly being used like this.

[stealthpapes]

Having been to many games, and seeing the utter twats that go absolutely not.

I'm all for a laugh, but many fans are so anti-social and insufferable that you'd end up getting soaked with beer after an equaliser against Peterborough in the 26th minute on a cold Tuesday night.

These are the same fans that continually say things like:

If you want to sit you shouldn't go to games
Away games are unreserved so I don't care that your ticket says a seat number - go somewhere else (as I've seen on Twitter)

If a game is unreserved, then that latter one is completely right.

Home games says

The majority of fixtures we operate reserved seating and you need to sit in the seat allocated to you. Our home section in the south Stand operated by Reading FC fan group Club 1871 operate unreserved seating.

For some smaller cup games and friendlies we may choose to operate unreserved seating which means you can sit in any seat within the stand/area that you have selected and any seat details on your booking confirmation can be ignored.

We will communicate if a match is unreserved seating in the selling information.

Away games says

Yes, supporters will be able to select the exact available seat they would like to sit in. Supporters who prefer to be in a more ‘family-friendly’ environment or may need to be seated for the duration of the match are usually advised to select lower rows depending on the away stadium layout.

Away games, you literally pick a seat. Other than the odd few on a terrace, how can this be unreserved?
So, yeah, other than early rounds of cups and friendlies, I'm going with this doesn't really exist unless explicitly stated otherwise.

And I also have a at the woman who sat near the back of Blackpool and shouted at alllll the people in front of her to sit down.
There were literally hundreds of empty seats. You could have chosen at your heart's desire.

[katweslowski]

If a game is unreserved, then that latter one is completely right.

Well yea, that makes sense. My post was about games which ARE NOT unreserved. Where your ticket says a block, seat and row number. Including occasions where you've chosen the block yourself.

To then see people on Twitter complaining about people being arsey about wanting their alloted seat

[Snowflake Royal]

If a game is unreserved, then that latter one is completely right.

Well yea, that makes sense. My post was about games which ARE NOT unreserved. Where your ticket says a block, seat and row number. Including occasions where you've chosen the block yourself.

To then see people on Twitter complaining about people being arsey about wanting their alloted seat

Oh right, so a fukwit saying a reserved game is unreserved ... gotcha

[Royal_jimmy]

In my opinion for some games it should be permitted. People drink anyway before matches, football has improved significantly from hooliganism and it'll help club revenues. I probably wouldn't drink anyway as I hate stadium beers.

I say it should be piloted for a number of games.

[From Despair To Where?]

Aside from all the other issues previously mentioned, the potential number of pissheads taking a dive down the stairs would be enough to make this an absolute non starter on its own.

Culturally, it's unmanageable in this country.

[Sutekh]

Aside from all the other issues previously mentioned, the potential number of pissheads taking a dive down the stairs would be enough to make this an absolute non starter on its own.

Culturally, it's unmanageable in this country.

Rugby fans manage to stay reasonably sober, but then I suppose nobody really cares enough about who wins at rugby so it wouldn’t be fair to compare the two sets of fans. Mind you I think laws should be consistent across all sports.

[Snowflake Royal]

Aside from all the other issues previously mentioned, the potential number of pissheads taking a dive down the stairs would be enough to make this an absolute non starter on its own.

Culturally, it's unmanageable in this country.

Rugby fans manage to stay reasonably sober, but then I suppose nobody really cares enough about who wins at rugby so it wouldn’t be fair to compare the two sets of fans. Mind you I think laws should be consistent across all sports.

Why punish rugby and cricket fans because 5-10% of football fans are psychotic knuckledraggers?

[Sutekh]

Aside from all the other issues previously mentioned, the potential number of pissheads taking a dive down the stairs would be enough to make this an absolute non starter on its own.

Culturally, it's unmanageable in this country.

Rugby fans manage to stay reasonably sober, but then I suppose nobody really cares enough about who wins at rugby so it wouldn’t be fair to compare the two sets of fans. Mind you I think laws should be consistent across all sports.

Why punish rugby and cricket fans because 5-10% of football fans are psychotic knuckledraggers?

Because life’s not fair. Why should any majorities be penalised by the actions of small minorities?

[Snowflake Royal]

Rugby fans manage to stay reasonably sober, but then I suppose nobody really cares enough about who wins at rugby so it wouldn’t be fair to compare the two sets of fans. Mind you I think laws should be consistent across all sports.

Why punish rugby and cricket fans because 5-10% of football fans are psychotic knuckledraggers?

Because life’s not fair. Why should any majorities be penalised by the actions of small minorities?

Because that's how protecting people works.

There's no issue in rugby or cricket.

Why stop at sport, why not any large gathering of people. Gigs. Rallies. Marches.

[Winston Biscuit]

Aside from all the other issues previously mentioned, the potential number of pissheads taking a dive down the stairs would be enough to make this an absolute non starter on its own.

Culturally, it's unmanageable in this country.

Rugby fans manage to stay reasonably sober, but then I suppose nobody really cares enough about who wins at rugby so it wouldn’t be fair to compare the two sets of fans. Mind you I think laws should be consistent across all sports.

This is interesting. Can you flesh out a bit which areas you mean?

Would you introduce VAR to synchronised swimming? Does downhill skiing need to be 90 minutes long with a 15 minute break in the middle? Should chess have people around it who are wearing fancy dress and are absolutely wasted, and when good chess happens the crowd all sing along to a song and at the end go 'oi oi oi!'

[Sutekh]

Why punish rugby and cricket fans because 5-10% of football fans are psychotic knuckledraggers?

Because life’s not fair. Why should any majorities be penalised by the actions of small minorities?

Because that's how protecting people works.

There's no issue in rugby or cricket.

Why stop at sport, why not any large gathering of people. Gigs. Rallies. Marches.

Yes why stop at sport, apply it to any large gathering of people in case one of them starts behaving like a dick.

Technically alcohol is an addictive drug so why isn’t it treated like other addictive drugs such as cannabis?

[Sutekh]

Aside from all the other issues previously mentioned, the potential number of pissheads taking a dive down the stairs would be enough to make this an absolute non starter on its own.

Culturally, it's unmanageable in this country.

Rugby fans manage to stay reasonably sober, but then I suppose nobody really cares enough about who wins at rugby so it wouldn’t be fair to compare the two sets of fans. Mind you I think laws should be consistent across all sports.

This is interesting. Can you flesh out a bit which areas you mean?

Would you introduce VAR to synchronised swimming? Does downhill skiing need to be 90 minutes long with a 15 minute break in the middle? Should chess have people around it who are wearing fancy dress and are absolutely wasted, and when good chess happens the crowd all sing along to a song and at the end go 'oi oi oi!'

Absolutely, all for it

[Winston Biscuit]

Rugby fans manage to stay reasonably sober, but then I suppose nobody really cares enough about who wins at rugby so it wouldn’t be fair to compare the two sets of fans. Mind you I think laws should be consistent across all sports.

This is interesting. Can you flesh out a bit which areas you mean?

Would you introduce VAR to synchronised swimming? Does downhill skiing need to be 90 minutes long with a 15 minute break in the middle? Should chess have people around it who are wearing fancy dress and are absolutely wasted, and when good chess happens the crowd all sing along to a song and at the end go 'oi oi oi!'

Absolutely, all for it

As i was typing the chess one I was thinking 'that sounds great, I would genuinely go watch it!'

[From Despair To Where?]

I was referring to football culture and, I guess, British drinking culture rather than any other wider cultural meaning. It just wouldn't work because of crowd control issues, policing issues, crowd safety, public liability issues etc.

Laws shouldn't be consistent across all sports, they should be appropriate for the relative environment and atmosphere.

[Royal Rother]

The more I ponder it, the more I realise how pathetic football tribalism is

I've been saying this for 20 years on here.

The hatred of another football club is, and always has been, pretty pathetic and a bit weird.

Such expressions of hatred used to be a very common thing on here, not so much these days.

(That said, I suppose it may have been connected to hooliganism. If you've been surrounded by a bunch of neanderthals and chased / beaten up on the way to / from a match that might develop a hatred for the club they support.)

[Dirk Gently]

The more I ponder it, the more I realise how pathetic football tribalism is

I've been saying this for 20 years on here.

The hatred of another football club is, and always has been, pretty pathetic and a bit weird.

Such expressions of hatred used to be a very common thing on here, not so much these days.

(That said, I suppose it may have been connected to hooliganism. If you've been surrounded by a bunch of neanderthals and chased / beaten up on the way to / from a match that might develop a hatred for the club they support.)

'Greed, but there are too many vested interests promoting the idea that you're not a "proper fan" unless you but all the tat from the club shop, bet all your money on them, hate their rivals etc for people to see sense. Just watch any Sky football programme or any betting company's adverts etc.

So now we have this perpetuating culture of competitive fandom - aka "I'm a better supporter than you because..." no wonder some people take it too far. The warped logic is "real fans hate their rivals so if I do things that show how much I hate them more than anyone else then I'm a better fan than anyone else..."

[Winston Biscuit]

The warped logic is "real fans hate their rivals so if I do things that show how much I hate them more than anyone else then I'm a better fan than anyone else..."

100%. I've said before, one of my best mates is a Spurs fan, and while he is sensible and level headed about other things, if you mention Arsenal to him he will tell you how sh*t they are, how they only ever fluked their way to winning things, how everything about them is laughable etc. its quite mad really. Ive tried to chat to him to say its fine to desperately want them to lose but still acknowledge at times they are very good at football, and he looks at me like ive lost my mind and can't see whats really happening. elements of MAGA type behaviour where if you point out something obvious he will question whether i think that because the media are telling me to think it, then laughs to himself as if he can see through it all.

genuinely had this:

having pleasant conversation about football

me 'Arsenal on a great run right now, see their win last weekend?'
him 'oh is that what Match of the f*cking day and Sky Sports told you is it?!' shakes head and rolls eyes, gets up and heads to the bar/toilet to end conversation