Remembering Hillsborough

Sat, 15th April

What do Liam Gallagher, highly talented but obnoxious half of the famous singer / song writing brother's who front UK rock band Oasis, and me have in common?

OK, bit of an ‘Off the Wonder Wall' type of question, so I'll cut to the quick; we both had the pleasure of being seated in the Doctor Martin Stand at the West Ham United v Manchester City game on Saturday. Yeah, Liam and me were there. Obviously not seated together, like I want to be seen with a scruffy little oike millionaire Rock Star!

No, we bumped into one another as Liam was being ushered into the entrance of the Executive suite's, whilst I was being hurried around to a less salubrious, but no less excellent seat, in what is commonly known as the ‘Rio Ferdinand stand'. (The West Ham faithful named it such on Rio's £18million transfer to Leeds United, unsurprisingly just prior to the stand's construction commencing in 2000!)

It was just 20 minutes before the kick-off, so no doubt Liam and his mates were in as much of a rush as my son-in-law and I were, to enjoy a swift beer before talking our seats. I know Liam was getting the V.I.P treatment, but even us everyday Joe's enter this superb stadium in a trouble free and highly efficient manner. So neither of us should have worried about having enough time to quaff a lager before the kick-off. We were both fully catered for.

You see, quite apart from completely rebuilding their old traditional football ground, of two grandstands with upper tier seating and the rest mere concrete terracing, into an impressive all seater stadium, West Ham have recently introduced a proximity reader card entrance system. This technology enabled un-manned turn-style does not use the old paper ticket form of admission. Once purchasing your ticket in advance of the game, you are presented with a plastic club card, which is actually to all intents and purpose, a credit card. Each time you purchase in advance a seat at the stadium, the card is activated to accept your admission on the day of the event, to the exact part of the stadium you have purchased your seat. The supporter has a highly effective and safe entry system to the stadium and the club enjoys lower running costs and more data on their customer. A marvelous win-win scenario.

On entering the stadium, we quickly accessed the bar area. Here we enjoyed a refreshing beer whilst watching highlights of the Bolton v Chelsea game that had just finished and was being relayed on the TV screen above our heads. Right on kick-off, we strolled to our seats and made ourselves comfortable.

Come Full-time, Liam Gallagher and the rest of the Manchester City supporters present would have been just a tad upset with their team's 0 -1 defeat. Still, all of the 34,305 in attendance had been entertained to an exciting, sporting occasion. We had benefited from an excellent view, enjoyed pleasant facilities and had accessed and exited the ground in complete safety.

All because of the superb innovations and subsequent construction programmes that have been ongoing at the UK's major football stadiums for the last decade.

Now, what riles me, is that if it had not been for the 96 football supporters being killed in Britain's worst-ever sporting disaster 17 years ago to the day, I've no doubt Liam Gallagher, me and the thousands of other football supporters present at West Ham's Boleyn Ground this afternoon and at every other Premier League stadium, would still have had to endure the atrocious facilities that had plagued British football grounds since god knows when! Limited seating, cattle-shed-like terracing, with an attitude towards the fans that was not much different to herding cows, little or no food and drink facilities and utterly appalling access and egress to and around the grounds.

The fans died on that fateful day at ‘Hillsborough', Sheffield, during the FA Cup semi-final between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool. They were crushed in what is said to have resulted from too many Liverpool fans being allowed in to the back of an already full terrace at the now infamous ‘Leppings Lane' end of the ground. More than 2,000 Liverpool fans had still not got into the stadium when the match started at 03:00pm. It has been said, that they were like me, Liam, and thousands of other football supporters over the years, rushing to get that last beer before the game.

Now that we football supporters can have that ‘last beer before kick-off' in, and not outside the ground, that we all have an allotted seat with wide, airy gangways to access and exit the stadiums, let us hope and pray that there will never, ever be another ‘Hillsborough'.

Innovation on the scale that the construction sector came up with for their football club clients was due entirely to the Government's Taylor Report on the back of Hillsborough disaster, and the subsequent legislation to radically improve the UK's football stadia.

The construction sector, not just Wembley Stadium Ltd, had better ensure that our National Stadium is fully and utterly compliant with the requisite safety regulations before we let one person enter it.

And Finally…

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."
James Joyce