After the good soaking we received at the away end of Exeter's magnificant "stadium", isn't it about time that we looked at the pricing policy for away fans admission.

Following the generally away-fan unfriendly policy at Exter (yes you can come into the stand for another £2 but no, you can't go out to the snack bar/toilet/for a smoke and be readmitted), plus the fact that we appeared to have paid £2 more (according to the steward) than the Exeter fans who were stood at the opposite end under the new stand, shouldn't we be looking to put a similar "levy" on away supporters from teams who have a higher charge for away fans?

I would suggest that we take the difference in price between home and away admission prices for these clubs and apply a similar uplift to our prices (after all, we are probably one of the cheapest admission prices in the conference) thereby putting ourselves in line with these other clubs and, as a bonus, generating some additional income for ourselves.

Of course, this may just be the rambling thoughts of a grumpy old man following the journey back from Exeter earlier today!!

Any thoughts on this suggestion, and as to how valid/legal it may be?

That we were charged a Seating Price and thats how the get away with it.

For us to charge more we would have to sit them all in the main stand ,as I'm not sure you could charge more for the same facilities ... Then again I'm sure Scarboro charged more and I think I have heard that some Preimership clubs charge more for away fans,especially when Liverpool, Man U or City are around ? .. Can anyone confirm who watches a top flight club

another problem is that we would end up with away fans in our end if its cheaper for them and that may start more trouble than the extra money is worth ?

I am not 100% sure if the £2's that were given (over £100 worth I would say) would have gone anywhere near Exeter City Football Club, and that is also annoying.

The first post is correct Exeter do charge £2 extra foa away supporters to get into the ground,standing is home supporters £11 and away £13 add ontop of that £2.80 for the program and the cost of travelling down(for you supporters) then it was quiet expensive.Then the £2 they charged to get out of the rain,i thought they could have and should have let you into that corner of the old stand free.

.. Its £2 extra for lesser facilities or £4 if we want to stay dry !
. Now I didn't know that.

I think it was very harsh to charge us, its not like there were 100's of us wanting to get out of the rain, It would have been a nice gesture, afterall surely you knew you'd get the 3pts !

Gary it would have been a nice gesture,but something i forgot,next season that end will be covered and the terracing will be made larger(its going to go as far as the 6 yard box)making the pitch smaller according to their stewards.

I believe Harold is an Exeter based Altrincham support.

As far as I can see there is no difference in price for home supporters and away fans at Exeter.

The admission prices on the Big Bank are as follows:

Adult: £13

Student/OAP: £8

Under 16: £6

These were the exact same prices as we were charged on Saturday for entrance to the away section.

However in terms of the cost to transfer some away fans may have been hard done to compared to home fans.

The stand we were allowed to transfer to is called the Family Stand, the charges for this stand are as follows:

Adult: £15

Student/OAP: £9

Under 16: £6

Therefore if you paid the £2 to transfer and you are an adult then the price you were charged in total is in line with the home supporters, however if you are a student/OAP then to achieve parity with the equivalent home supporter you should have only had to pay £1 to transfer and not £2. If you are under 16 then the transfer should have been free.

Does Harold work in a bookshop?

Looks as if there is some confusion over admission prices then at Exeter - I would have assumed that the steward was in the know when he told me the prices!!

It was also interesting that when I returned home, the interview that SAM had with the Exeter fan also stated that away fans get a raw deal with the open end etc etc.

based Alty supporter and i am not a bookseller but a signalman.When exeter annouced their admission charges for this season they said that the away end would be £2 dearer and that the home end was staying as it was last season.Now having said all that i did read on exweb that they have put up prices so maybe they have increased the cost for the home supporters also.

Same game same stand same price.

Dont lower ourselves to other clubs standards.

What box do you work in then Harold??

On the north devon line

Having read the comments from Alty fans about the admission prices at Exeter, I (Mike Blackstone - Programme Editor, Exeter City, but living in Morecambe!) put those points to a Grecians Trustee, who in turn also contacted the Club's Operations Director. The answers are as follows:-

- Away fans coming through turnstiles into away terrace were charged EXACTLY
the same price as our supporters on the bank terrace (the home end).

- Away fans wishing to transfer to OG (Old Grandstand) were charged the
difference in price by stewards so paid EXACTLY the same as others in the OG

[NB normally they would not have been allowed to do this but an executive
decision was taken to allow it in this instance with the inclement weather.
Given they had that choice prior to entry it would have been unfair on fans
already in seats if they had not been charged - Ed]

- No-one can smoke anywhere in the OG

[This is due to Health and Safety rules as it is an old wooden stand )

- Problems arose because away fans wanted to be able to transfer between the
Away terrace and the OG at will ie sit in the OG then go and have a fag
standing on the terrace. As you know no supporters can transfer between
stands.

[Under Health and Safety rules again = Ed]

Should you further like to contact Exeter City then please note the following from Trustee, Neil Le Milliere,:-

"I hope whoever stated we had a "generally away-fan unfriendly policy" would
perhaps consider retracting this or alternatively let me know what they
consider to be unfriendly about their treatment to see if we are getting it
wrong somewhere as we would wish to address it if we are.

My thanks to Frances Farley, our operations Director, who took the trouble
to get the answers for me to post this reply.

Cheers,
Neil Le Milliere
neil_le_milliere@btinternet.com (H)
02088020644 (H)
07946615889 (M)
With Exeter City FC in my Heart

Thanks for taking the time to address some of the concerns raised, but I am afraid that the following is just not true; *"Away fans wishing to transfer to OG (Old Grandstand) were charged the difference in price by stewards so paid EXACTLY the same as others in the OG"*.

I paid the £8 concession price to gain admittance to the away terrace; to transfer to the stand I then had to pay an extra £2 (I have no objection to paying more to enter the stand in the interests of fairness to all spectators).

My total expenditure amounted to £10 to enter the OG, however the equivalent price of a concession should they have gone straight to the OG and not via the away terrace would have only been £9.

All in all anyone who paid a concession price and then transferred is down £1 compared to those who went straight to the OG.

I'm not particularly bothered, but when transfers do occur there is a discrepancy in cost for some spectators.

I found the whole thing a bit silly, everyone was p1ss wet through by the time the gate between the two stands was finally opened. The away support was not massive and were friendly, and both sets of fans mingled and chatted in the various pubs around the ground and town centre.

Why when that end block of the OG is segregated from the rest of ground, couldnt the gate between the away end and that block have been left open?. Its unreasonable to say, "yes now your soaking, for a further £2 you can sit undercover, but after your five hour journey you cannot go to the snack bar or for a cig either at will or at halftime.

Im sure we all appreciate health and safety issues and are glad you have taken time to answer peoples points, but a little more commonsense and understanding of supporter comfort would not go a miss, Fully endorsed for a 600 strong travelling support etc, but this is Exeter v Alty.

I am confused by this whole thing

We paid £13 (x2) to enter the away end + £6 for our son.
We were then charged another £2 each to transfer to the OG, but thankfully were not charged for our son.

We left the ground via the entrance to the OG because we were parked by St James railway station. On leaving the ground I asked a policeman what the prices were to the OG and he pointed to the sign above the turnstiles which clearly read "£11".
I assume these have been left there from previous seasons; because it seems too cheap to sit down and because I feel the Exeter Trustee would not want to tell lies.

My complaint was that we were all absolutely soaked before we were admitted and whereas I accept that we had no 'footballing' right to transfer, the decision could have been made much sooner (probably just after kick-off when all the away fans got in). I reckon we were in the torrential rain for 15-20 mins before we were admitted and then it stopped raining !

NB the police were present as part of enquiry to catch a sex attacker and were not there in relation to football matters.

Can't believe people are complaining about being stuck out in the rain when our away end is open too!

Last season i think it only rained for a couple home games against Crawley and gravesend. With crawley the early decision to segregate supporters under the Popular side was taken. Against Gravesend, these away fans were taken into the family stand (quite quickly too).
I dont mind standing in the rain, but i do mind when its so bad you can hardly see the other end of the stadium. Or when no-one makes a decision for 15-20 mins. I also paid the concessionary price £8?? but did not transfer (i was already too soaked to give a sh*t.

Though i didnt like the amount of time it took for someone to finally allow the alty fans into the dryness of the stand. If the decision had been made earlier, i would have changed. We took less than 100 fans, its not exactly hard work to accomodate this number within an enclosed space. Though i have heard that the away end will be covered next season.

You people have far too much time on your hands!

Due to a nasty sprained ankle I had to sit down on Saturday so we went straight into the stand - what a good decision that turned out to be. I can confirm that we paid £15 to sit in the OG.

When I finally made it over to pay my roof tax at Exeter I only had £1.91 in change. I offered him a £5 note but even though he had just taken everyone else's £2 he mysteriously had no change to give!!

I then said will you take £1.91 and he said no.

There is a word for people like that. So the "unfriendly" tag earlier used was fairly appropriate in my eyes.

It is possible that the change had been whisked off to be deposited however 9p is not going to break the bank is it???

I managed to get the attention of the steward who had possession of the common sense gene for the day and he let me in for 9p short.

RR

I'm of course nothing more than one of our Supporter's Trust Trustees so these
are all views from that perspective rather than an official one although I
probably do have more knowledge of the workings at the club than some other
fans.

Firstly lets be clear about this those spectators who chose to go in the
away terraced end did so of their own free will and a) knew the terrace was
open and b) presumably knew, as we all do, that the view would not be as
good as going in a seat. The club was of course under no obligation
whatsoever to allow those fans to subsequently transfer but decided it would
be a good thing to do.

Basically what we now have is people moaning about what essentially was a
gesture by our club which does seem a little churlish - how many times have
Altrincham done the same for instance (thanks to the Alti fan that expressed
his amazement given your away terrace is also open)? If they have done it
then ask your people how long it took them to get authority and if it was
quicker then let us know how it was done.

Hopefully the answer is lots of times but is it? We seemed to have been
damned for what we did do and do doubt would have been damned if we hadn't,
you can't win sometimes :>)

Because of the Police presence and ground safety rules this was never going
to be able to be a quick decision as there are rules and regulations which
have to be followed and authorities to get. On top of this our people would
have had to check hat the area they were going into (given it was a shared
home/away fans area and we would have been contravening segregation rules if
we were in the league - luckily the conference still allow shared areas) was
not a potential problem area as surely far worse would have been to transfer
fans into an area that was unsafe for them.

I suspect the only thing on anyone's mind having got the decision agreed to
was nothing else than getting people transferred. The decision was taken as
soon as humanly possible but unfortunately the timing of the downpour meant
it couldn't be addressed until other things had been done as admission and
post admission time is one of the busiest for stewards and until they were
freed up from those duties they couldn't be re-assigned to deal with the
transfer issue eg checking people entering the ground inside and out;
escorting gatemen to the cashier's office; supervising those already in;
etc.

Stewards aren't gatemen and I'm sure all they were told was let people
transfer but out of fairness they need to pay the £2 difference. They, and
indeed the people making the decision, would almost certainly not have been
aware that children and concessions should only have been a pound and
nothing respectively.

Block A, where the Alti fans sat is no longer segregated and spectators in
there have access to the catering and toilet facilities as do the rest of
the fans who sit in the stand and the Alti fans who transferred should have
been treated the same - if they weren't then that is wrong and I'm sure I
can speak on behalf of the club and offer apologies but I can't believe they
were denied this. In addition no one is allowed to smoke in that grandstand
or allowed to go out to smoke so why should the Alti fans have been treated
differently. I happen to live near White Hart Lane and there you can't smoke
anywhere inside the ground and this will be the norm in all stadiums soon -
I already know of a few clubs who are bringing this in from next May!

If the gate had been left open there would have been two problems.

Firstly it would of course have contravened the H&S rules about movement
between grandstands and thus we could have got into serious trouble.
Rulebooks as we all know take no account of scale and, in fact, sometimes
are enforced more stringently on smaller numbers than on larger ones -
witness standing up at Premier Grounds for instance. Given we had a heavy
police presence (not connected with football as it turned out but a
particularly nasty crime committed locally) we were under close scrutiny.
We'd contravened them to even let the transfer take place and to have then
flagrantly continued to contravene them would have been frankly idiotic on
our part.

Secondly how would the stewards have been able to check that people coming
in to the Old Grandstand had paid as presumably there was no 'ticket' or
stamp given for the £2 to signify they'd already paid. It would have been
unfair on stewards to act as gatemen as that is simply not their job and
they are rotated so it wouldn't have been one steward hoping to recognise
people even if they could.

The person who asked about entrance prices is correct that must have been a
sign from last season as the price for entrance to the Old Grandstand is
indeed £13 this season and I'm glad to hear that his son transferred free.
We'll make sure the signage is changed directly.

There are no plans in place to cover the away terrace at the moment but when
we do manage to fund moving the pitch (diagonally towards the big bank and
cowshed ie away from the away terrace and Old Grandstand where there is
already room provided when the new stands were built) and free up room to
re-build both that will be the addressed but I can't see that happening for
a few years yet.

Once again I'm more than happy to field any further points.

Cheers, Neil Le Milliere
neil_le_milliere@btinternet.com (H)
02088020644 (H)
07946615889 (M)

Thank you for your reply. All valid and fair points.

I doubt though that anyone was seeking to gain a 'better view' , the weather was terrible and common sense said people wanted to get under the cover for their own health and safety and not to gain a better view and be able to sit on a seat.

Altrincham keep a section of the ground available if its raining prior to kick off (or looks that way) for away fans to go into at no extra cost. The problem is its a standing area, although with the facilities being better (ie a roof unlike the away end) does that mean we should charge more ?

At the end of the day its all sorted now and if it didn't rain in these tourist hotspots then there wouldn't be a problem Good old English weather, wouldn't swap it for the world !

Thank you for taking the time to reply

Alty fans were not denied any of the facilities once we were in the stand. A few used the snack bar located in the rear of the stand.
However, please note that I do not think anybody moved for a better view, just to get out of what was a serious downpour. I am used to standing out in the rain, but then again there is rain and then there is what we got at Exeter.
Here's hoping to a dry day at Moss Lane and a reverse of the 2-1 defeat

Firstly many thanks for your reply. I don’t think any of the comments made were surprised that the away end was not covered, as many away ends are uncovered (even ours).

The main observations and complaints (ie NOT moans) revolve around the time taken by stewards to decide whether or not to allow less than 100 away supporters into the closest stand that was covered, and just happened to be seated. I accept Exeter city FC were under no obligation to allow any supporters to “transfer”, however the appearance of a goodwill gesture would have given Exeter a better recognition as away friendly with the Altrincham supporters, who do not have a reputation for causing any trouble at games.

In my own personal view all it took was for one steward (manning the gate) to ask his supervisor for permission, this did not happen for at least ten to fifteen minutes, despite a group of supporters repeatedly asking to be allowed under cover, and another group of stewards standing around near the tunnel. Even after our manager (GH) asked the steward to bring his supervisor over, this again didn’t happen, and we continued to get soaked.

Overall the weather conditions that endured during the match were exceptional, it should have been obvious to the steward supervisor that a majority of the alty fans that did transfer only wanted to be out of the awful heavy rain and would want to return to the terrace once the weather had cleared up, which is what duly happened.

As from a previous post, last season at alty, i think it only rained for a couple home games against Crawley and gravesend. With crawley the early decision to segregate supporters under the Popular side (covered terrace) was taken, despite it only raining for fifteen minutes of the game, someone had actually checked the weather forecast!! Again against Gravesend, these away fans were taken into the family stand (quite quickly too) and were NOT charged for the privilege of sitting down (and importantly keeping dry).

Additionally I think Exeter need reminding that they are now plying their trade at semi-pro level (the nationwide conference) and we are Altrincham FC not the next door neighbours at Man Utd. There are many clubs like alty that will take less than 100 to a long distance away game, it would make more sense to make a gracious offer and keep up good relations with supporters, which is what has happened at alty.

Once again thankyou for your comments, I hope that in the future that both the away supporters and host club will both check the weather forecast.

That was NEVER the announcement. But don't let facts get in the way.

Also away end will not be covered next season. No ground redevelopment is planned in until we negoiate a longer lease.

Response was to Barry