West Stand to re-open

Barnsley Football Club to re-open its west stand just three months after closing to ensure the protection of all supporters.

Barnsley have announced their oldest stand will re-open in 2022 despite the fact that no clear work has taken place in the time its been shut after being said to be unsafe by the owners.

A sudden announcement was made announcing the closure of the stand forcing fans to move seats and is now to re-open just months later.

This re-opening wont surprise many due to the fact that the council had declared they found the stand to be perfectly fine when the stand was initially closed.

This has led to even more anger from fans who might be on the move again. Season ticket holders were asked to leave the seats they had bought at the start of the season and were told that the stand would be empty.

Whilst fans had been forced to move, directors were still able to sit in this stand which was said to be unsafe, this caused a problem for fans who are unhappy with the way the current owners have been doing business since taking charge at Oakwell.

The statement on twitter announcing the reopening was met with angry fans who wanted answers but haven’t been given any. One twitter user asked “what improvements have been made” with another one saying that “the issue was…. there wasn’t an issue.” Showing the lack of trust in the current owners.

When the west stand was originally closed down, many fans didn’t believe what they were being told by the football club with Kallum Frost, a season ticket holder at Oakwell for the past 11 years saying, “you can’t really trust a word these owners say, they don’t treat it like a football club and that’s clear with what happened at Nice and with them recently saying if the fans don’t want them here, they will leave”.

When the west stand was initially shut, Edward Senior, another season ticket holder at the club said he wouldn’t be surprised “if we weren’t getting the full story” and it seems like this was the case.

Despite fans seeming to be unhappy with the owners, Barnsley CEO Khaled El-Ahmad said that fans he had seen over the past months were “understanding and supportive” meaning that these owners might not be leaving Barnsley any time soon.