Jump to content

Big Queues At Tynecastle Today


ian_mac
 Share

Recommended Posts

Our BoD and our off field administration have presided over a number of incidents ranging from shambolic, embarrassing, underhand, incompetent through to simple naivety.

This occasion is not one of those and for people to surmise (as some have done earlier) that somehow our club is as equally culpable as the host club is baffling. The responsibility lies with the host club alone IMHO.

 

To me, Hearts totally failed to react when the queue started building up. This must have started around 1440 but it took until bang on kick off to get a total of 6 turnstyles open. However, I can't understand how they ever though the two turnstyles would be enough:

Crowd predicted at 400

Assume all queued up at 1430, which I think most people would agree should be early enough.

With 2 gates, you need to get someone through each gate every NINE seconds to get everyone through by 1500 (never mind all the way to a seat).

Perhaps others with more experience could tell me if that "run rate" is feasible even for all ticket. Once you add in the cash element, I would be doubtful. On the day, I think our transaction took 3 times that.

 

For the record, we arrived at the back of the queue at 1447 which I am happy to concede is cutting it close. We reached our seats at 1511. Between us, we paid £32 for the privileged. A key challenge for every club in the SPFL is persuading away fans to make a second visit to their grounds each season. This type of thing doesn't help at all. It could have even stopped a first visit: perhaps if it hadn't been our eldest's first trip to Tynecastle or if it been much later when we reached the front of the queue or (whisper it) had we been still outside & it was Hearts not Thistle that has opened the scoring...

 

All that said, it was a refreshing change to meet both stewards and police who were able to smile and treat people like grown ups. It is also not a bad problem to be attracting larger crowds to see us!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This doesn't merit it's own thread but what was the police presence like in the away stand at Tynecastle? Easter Road had multiple times what you'd normally expect due to 'intelligence' and it was pretty shady in the first half, nobody likes to watch a game of football like that (in fairness they were sound as when asked what the deal was at half time).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

police left us alone as far as i noticed. same with stewards. stood at base of stand watching, but left us to it.

 

They did that at Easter Road as well, loads down the front staring up, a big huddle of them in the corner to our left and a few dotted up the unused bit of the otherwise empty stand. It's needless, costly and ruins the atmosphere. Got to hope this smoke bomb craze never catches on with us otherwise we'll all be getting stopped and searched out our nut.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wouldn't say we were over policed or over stewarded (after all, they were only expecting a maximum of 400 of us), and what was there watching us seemed a reasonably low number in comparison to firhill and other away games i've been at.

 

having said all that i was watching the game, didn't think at time whether poli ce and stewards were high or low in number, but looking back now, i'd say was lower than we'd normally expect

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...