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Archived News from September 2007

TOO MANY TICKETS SOLD TO SPIREITES
17th September 2007 21:31


Audio interview with James Derry from BBC Radio Nottingham (RealPlayer needed) http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/realmedia/2007/09/james_derry.ram
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Stags apologise for ticket error
BBC.co.uk, 17 Sep 2007
Mansfield Town FC could face an investigation after Chesterfield fans were given too many tickets for Saturday's local derby.
Restrictions imposed by the county council safety officials earlier this year were breached.

The mistake was spotted by officials just before Saturday's game - and the Stags have apologised for the mix-up.

Chesterfield were only supposed to be allocated 1,300 tickets after Field Mill stewarding problems last year.

'Genuine mistake'

The club was mistakenly allocated 1,900 seats.

About 200 Chesterfield fans were allowed to sit in the disused Bishop Street Stand which does not have a safety certificate.

The Stags have a restricted capacity of 6,553 after trouble at last season's final match with Barnet.

Stags chairman James Derry said: "Due to an administrative error - which we have not yet got to the bottom of - they were sent 1,900 tickets. It was a genuine mistake."

"I think we did very well as the game went off without an incident."

He said the club also needed to increase its capacity or the Stags "will go out of business".

"We are losing a quarter of a million pounds a year and we need to resolve this soon," the chairman said.



EXCLUSIVE: Computerised turnstiles not working at Stags - police


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The spill over of fans into the Bishop Street Stand.


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View GalleryBy Tim Morriss
POLICE have said that Mansfield Town FC and safety officials face 'significant issues' after the ticketing problems at Saturday's derby clash with Chesterfield - including explaining why computerised turnstiles were not working.
Top of the police's worries is to find out how around 2,100 Chesterfield fans were admitted into the North Stand - 200 more than the capacity for the away stand and 800 more than the limit imposed by Nottinghamshire County Council's Safety Advisory Group (SAG).

Today it has been revealed that a computerised system monitoring the number of people being admitted into the North Stand was not working.

The overspill meant that police had to escort around 200 supporters into the disused Bishop Street Stand.

On Saturday, chad.co.uk exclusively revealed that the Stags had sent 600 too many tickets to be sold at Saltergate - breaching the sanctions imposed by SAG. But now it has emerged that a further 200 fans were allowed into the stand.

The club and SAG - made up of representatives from the County Council, Nottinghamshire Police, Notinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, East Midlands Ambulance Service, Mansfield District Council and other organisations - are due to meet on Wednesday. SAG had reduced the 9,368 capacity at Field Mill to 6,553 following trouble with stewarding at the last game of last season.

Ch Insp Mark Holland, police match commander for the game, told Chad this lunchtime (Monday): "There are a number of issues for the club and the Safety Advisory Group to address at Wednesday's meeting.

"What I can categorically state is that at no point did Nottinghamshire Police ask Mansfield Town stewards to let fans without tickets into the ground on Saturday.

"We will be asking the SAG to examine how the club managed to send 600 more tickets than had been agreed to Chesterfield, and will also be questioning how a further 150 to 200 people managed to get into the North Stand.

"We do know that the computer system monitoring people coming into that stand was not working, and we will be asking the SAG to examine how that failing may have impacted on crowd safety.

"The combination of these factors resulted in a potentially dangerous situation in the North Stand, and in the absence of any action from the club to address the overcrowding, I took the decision to move a number of fans from that area.

"As a result, around 200 fans that were blocking emergency stairwells and standing on the concourse behind the goal were moved to the Bishop Street terracing area.

"I will be giving a full account of all the problems faced by the police during Saturday's game, which have highlighted some significant issues for the club and the SAG, at Wednesday's meeting."

On Saturday Stags chairman James Derry apologised for the mistake in sending too many tickets for Chesterfield to sell.

He said: "We have apologised to the county council and Chesterfield have apologised, too.

"I hope SAG will look on this sympathetically and see that we just made a mistake.

"What it has done is show that we can manage a bigger crowd. The game passed off without incident - despite passions running high in a local derby with controversial decisions on the pitch."

Today a spokesman for the county council told Chad that they could not confirm specific details ahead of Wednesday's SAG meeting, but said SAG has the power to reduce capactiy or introduce other terms and conditions to secure spectator safety.

This afternoon the football club issued a statement: "Due to a genuine administrative error, Mansfield Town Football Club regret that 1,900 hundred tickets were sent to Chesterfield Football Club for away supporters instead of the intended 1,300.

"However, any safety issues that arose on Saturday afternoon were dealt with promptly and efficiently by the Mansfield Town stewards and the Nottinghamshire police.

"The club is currently looking into the details as to why extra Chesterfield fans had to be hosted in the standing area of the Bishop Street Stand.

"This issue will be taken up on Wednesday when the club hold their regular meeting with the Safety Advisory Group.

"Mansfield Town Football Club feel It would be inappropriate to comment further until after this meeting."


CHAD EXCLUSIVE: Computerised turnstiles not working at Stags - police
CHAD.co.uk, 17 Sep 2007
By Tim Morriss
POLICE have said that Mansfield Town FC and safety officials face 'significant issues' after the ticketing problems at Saturday's derby clash with Chesterfield - including explaining why computerised turnstiles were not working.
Top of the police's worries is to find out how around 2,100 Chesterfield fans were admitted into the North Stand - 200 more than the capacity for the away stand and 800 more than the limit imposed by Nottinghamshire County Council's Safety Advisory Group.

Today it has been revealed that a computerised system monitoring the number of people being admitted into the North Stand was not working.

The overspill meant that police had to escort around 200 supporters into the disused Bishop Street Stand.

On Saturday chad.co.uk exclusively revealed that the Stags had sent 600 too many tickets to be sold at Saltergate - breaching the sanctions imposed by SAG. But now it has emerged that there were a further 200 fans allowed into the stand.

The club and SAG - made up of representatives from the County Council, Nottinghamshire Police, Notinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, East Midlands Ambulance Service, Mansfield District Council and other organisations - is due to meet with Stags officials on Wednesday. SAG had reduced the 9,368 capacity at Field Mill to 6,553 following trouble with stewarding at the last game of last season.

Ch Insp Mark Holland, police match commander for the game, told Chad this lunchtime (Monday): "There are a number of issues for the club and the Safety Advisory Group to address at Wednesday's meeting.

"What I can categorically state is that at no point did Nottinghamshire Police ask Mansfield Town stewards to let fans without tickets into the ground on Saturday.

"We will be asking the SAG to examine how the club managed to send 600 more tickets than had been agreed to Chesterfield, and will also be questioning how a further 150 to 200 people managed to get into the North Stand.

"We do know that the computer system monitoring people coming into that stand was not working, and we will be asking the SAG to examine how that failing may have impacted on crowd safety.

"The combination of these factors resulted in a potentially dangerous situation in the North Stand, and in the absence of any action from the club to address the overcrowding, I took the decision to move a number of fans from that area.

"As a result, around 200 fans that were blocking emergency stairwells and standing on the concourse behind the goal were moved to the Bishop Street terracing area.

"I will be giving a full account of all the problems faced by the police during Saturday's game, which have highlighted some significant issues for the club and the SAG, at Wednesday's meeting."

On Saturday Stags chairman James Derry apologised for the mistake in sending too many tickets for Chesterfield to sell.

We have apologised to the county council and Chesterfield have apologised, too.

"I hope SAG will look on this sympathetically and see that we just made a mistake.

"What it has done is show that we can manage a bigger crowd. The game passed off without incident - despite passions running high in a local derby with controversial decisions on the pitch."

Today a spokesman for the county council told Chad that they could not confirm specific details ahead of Wednesday's SAG meeting, but said SAG has the power to reduce capactiy or introduce other terms and conditions to secure spectator safety.


Too many tickets sold to away fans for local derby
CHAD.co.uk
By Tim Morriss
TROUBLED Mansfield Town Football Club may face an investigation after it was revealed that Chesterfield were given too many tickets to sell for this weekend's local derby at Field Mill.
Restrictions imposed by safety officials, after stewarding problems last season, meant that 1,300 tickets should have been sent to the away supporters, but in error they were given 1,900 tickets - the normal allocation for away fans at Mansfield Town's ground when there is no limit in place.

Neither club noticed the error until just before Saturday's big match, which Chesterfield won 3-1 - match report.

The 'extra' tickets may have contributed to the confusion which led to around 200 Chesterfield fans being led into one end of the disused Bishop Street Stand.

That stand does not possess a safety certificate from Nottinghamshire County Council's Safety Advisory Group (SAG), which imposed the current capacity restriction on the ground.

SAG - made up of representatives from the County Council, Nottinghamshire Police, Notinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, East Midlands Ambulance Service, Mansfield District Council and other organisations - is due to meet with Stags officials on Wednesday.

The county council and SAG are responsible for setting the number of spectators allowed into designated sports grounds and last season Stags were allowed 90 per cent of the ground's 9,368 capacity. That was reduced to 4,684 after the trouble at last season's final match against Barnet, but then increased to 6,553 before the start of the season.

It is believed that SAG chairman Sue Storey was at the game on Saturday and that the Chesterfield fans were moved into the condemned Bishop Street stand on police advice.

Stags' chairman James Derry - who also revealed today that he is close to agreeing a deal to take over the Stags - told chad.co.uk: "The police made the decision to put the fans in the Bishop Street area.

"I can only summise, but perhaps some fans got into the ground without tickets or the police decided it was safer to move ticketless fans outside Field Mill into the ground.

"The mistake with the tickets was genuine human error. We sent too many - as if there was no capacity restriction - and they sold them. We have apologised to the county council and Chesterfield have apologised, too.

"I hope SAG will look on this sympathetically and see that we just made a mistake.

"What it has done is show that we can manage a bigger crowd. The game passed off without incident - despite passions running high in a local derby with controversial decisions on the pitch."

Mr Derry added that the confusion over the ticket sales may also have contributed to an attendance figure of 4,548 being announced during the game.

He added: "The attendance was somewhere around the 5,000 mark, the anomaly with the away tickets may have something to do with this.

"But either way, the attendance was not near the 6,500 ceiling imposed by SAG."

 

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