'customer Service' Stewards At The Vic

The whole thing with our stewarding is bizarre. Searched more intrusively than any other venue you'd ever enter, had to take a used tissue out of my pocket to show them last time I went. What did they think it was going to be?

The nonsense with food and hot drinks (surely just forcing people to spend more inside rather than based on any genuine safety concern), umbrellas being confiscated from OAPs, kids being searched, flag gate (where they clearly hadn't read their own ground regulations) and now limiting the size of any bag so people can't come straight from work for an evening kick off.

And I've said it before but the army of stewards that surround the pitch near full time as though we're likely to have an invasion when we're playing some other no-mark Championship team. We are one of the most docile fanbases around yet they treat us like some sort of Balkan club ultras. And if, for some reason, it did kick off, none of those stewards (who look like students and are probably on minimum wage) are going to be able to stop anything or put themselves in harm's way.

 

Absolutely true and yet also easily circumvented. While one of them was rigorously searching my bag before the Derby game (unzipping all the pockets, sigh) another bloke just barged right through without stopping for a search. The guy searching my bag stopped doing that, turned around, got distracted and then in the few seconds delay while he dithered about what to do I gave up and walked past too. Not only did the first one get in without a search, but I successfully smuggled in the ultimate contraband in my bag - a metal flask!

I appreciate on reading this the club will double all gate searches for the next match now they know a rogue flask entered the premises.

 

You monster!

 

I miss the guy who for years used to be on duty at the first tunnel going into the UGT from the Vic Rd end. Knew his regulars, dealt with the irregulars who didn't know where their seat was efficiently (80% of the time they were supposed to be in LGT), cleared the clowns who decided to leave early but wanted to hang around in front of the exit blocking everybody's view, and didn't feel it was necessary to stand in the middle of the aisle every 5 minutes looking up at the stands as if something was going to kick off.

Now we have an endless procession of inexperienced "stewards" who have to be trained by us paying punters.

 

Well I always find it amusing that they're looking for certain items for seemingly no basis (i.e. how many umbrella/flask related assaults or accidents have actually occurred?). But then on several occasions over the last couple of seasons people have quite openly been doing coke in the Rookery toilets. Would be better off having a couple of sniffer dogs wandering around the queues as a deterrent if they really don't want things coming in.

 

We both know that can't be true. Without photographic evidence you have now lost all credibility on this forum.

 

The one bit of sympathy I have for the club is clearly the regulation and professionalisation of the whole security industry means the olden days practices are long behind us. When I were a lad I went with my grandad and he was on first name terms with one of the East Stand stewards, who he knew worked by day at a industrial business on the Croxley trading estate and then for home games would don the dayglo jacket and act as a friendly steward. I think the club had a pool of regulars and it was obviously very low key. I doubt between them they searched a home fan in the whole of the 1990s.

Now it's all just a really poor. I feel sorry for the minimum wage slaves on the front end. We seem to have too many of them, but I guess that's driven by ratios somewhere, and as you said earlier in a genuine emergency (say, a potential mass casualty event) I'm absolutely sure they'd be more of hinderance than help. In fairness to their bosses they're just imposing a diktat that comes from elsewhere. The local Safety Advisory Group decide what must be banned. SAGs aren't a new thing (possibly a post-Hillsborough / Taylor report invention?) but clearly after many years they're into the terminal phase where they're just dreaming up new risks and things to ban to keep justifying their existence.

 

Yeah alight Scott, I'll just post the incriminating evidence for all to see.

You won't catch me that easily!