Fans forced to give up their seat and move to the south or east stand at Barnsley FC’s ground as iconic west strand is shut due to concerns over fan safety.
On 7th October 2021 Barnsley Football Club informed its fans that the west stand would be closed with a statement from new Chief Executive Officer saying that “The safety and security of supporters and staff is of the utmost importance. I made a promise internally to both staff and fans alike to be transparent regardless of how difficult the news is to share. “The decision is purely based on a structural report and a number of West Stand specific crowd management challenges.”
This was met with a lot of displeasure amongst supporters who were devastated to see the 130 year old stand close its doors.
Fan anger was then increased when Barnsley council issued a statement about the west stand shortly after.
The statement said that the ground had been inspected on 21st September 2021 and “found the physical infrastructure (including the west stand) perfectly safe to host professional football and accommodate fans in all areas to the capacity set out in the current safety certificate”.
The anger that followed these conflicting statements is understandable as it is well known within the community of Barnsley that there is currently a battle over Oakwell between Barnsley’s new majority owners and former owner Patrick Cryne’s son, James Cryne.
Edward Senior, a season ticket holder in the west stand before being relocated, said that he hopes “everything can be sorted and we wont have to move grounds like other teams have had to do” and claims that even though CEO Khaled El-Ahmad had promised transparency he wouldn’t be surprised “if we weren’t getting the full story”.
On the 24th October 2021 Oakwell hosted it’s first game since closing the west stand and fans were not happy. Despite the initial statement saying that “The closure will be immediate, meaning that neither fans nor directors will be permitted access to their seat for the next home fixture” Paul Conway (Barnsley FC co-chairman) was spotted in his usual seat in the west stand.
The closure of the stand has not been helped by the performances of the team on the pitch which is causing even greater frustration at Oakwell with anger being shown inside the ground and its looking like its only going to get worse…
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