By The Editors
February 12 2007

With the onset of the 06/07 season there was one subject on most people’s lips : not the new signings, not the upcoming double header, not the re-introduction of everyone’s favourite team the old Hairyqueens, No – it was all about seats. East stand reserved seats to be precise.

The 3 co-eds of this site have had very differing experiences of the ‘New East Stand’ which we thought we would share. These were written independently, in isolation and have simply been put together for your perusal:

Unreservedly - Giles

For me my initial reaction was simply that I would have to get more organised. Actually to be more precise I was going to have to get my mates more organised. To sit together now this was going to take a little bit of preparation – that was all.

So our first home game arrived. Having missed the first couple of home games due to being on holiday I’d already heard a few stories of ‘no atmosphere’ and ‘season ticket chaos’ but managed to still keep an open mind. One mate was in the South end of the east stand sitting on his own, another was about on the half way line up in the gods on his own and I was with my girlfriend above the drummers where we used to all sit but probably a few rows further back than we’d have liked. This due solely to not really knowing from booking on line what row I was actually buying.

The crowd was half decent in scale with 9,100 turning out to see Sale give us a lesson in rugby. Maybe the scoreline contributed to the atmosphere but something was definitely missing.

I think the main problem, for my match experience anyway, is that people go to the rugby usually as part of a sociable experience and there are up to a dozen of us who used to sit ‘together’. Together doesn’t mean in the same row or in two rows of 6 but in the same area. That group of people bring friends from time to time who whilst not being ‘known friends’ to me become acquaintances who you can talk to and they talk back. The type of acquaintance that don’t know your name but that doesn’t matter – through association with these people around me and through sitting in this area for every home game become ‘friends of sorts’.

With ticket booking as it is you now have no idea who will be sitting around you, new faces, all Irish supporters but not the Irish supporters I usually ‘sit with’. The following week the faces were new again. The atmosphere definitely has suffered. I even tried on a couple of occasions to start singing The Fields but my efforts were only to be greeted by disapproving looks from ‘strangers’.

We’ve actually, due to another’s generosity, been lucky enough to watch the game from the west stand for all but two of the games since. My experiences of the east stand from there are naturally less marked but I have noticed, particularly in the Heineken Cup games that the away support all sit together and form a collective that certainly sounds bigger than the home support. It’s not. But they are all together while we have been divided.

If this is simply a club initiative to drive revenue then they should be bold enough to stand up and be counted – tell us if it’s working or not. I’m sure we all have our opinions. Whilst I’m not the ‘crowd stat obsessive’ that one of my fellow co-eds may be it seems to me that crowd numbers are pretty similar to last season. Could that be seen as success? Many on here were predicting massive ‘stay aways’ due to the reserved seating – that clearly hasn’t happened. Admittedly we haven’t seen massive growth either.

I can’t help thinking that many of us need to take a step back and take a look at what happens in 95% of sporting grounds up and down the country : reserved seating ! It’s a way of life in sporting events. Maybe we’ll get more organised and people will get to sit together again but until we do it does feel like the ‘East Stand Craic’ lies dormant, hopefully not extinct.

The view from the Souf - BrianC

When the first whispers of the plan to make the East stand reserved seating came out I was concerned. When those plans were subsequently confirmed despite firm advice from the LISC against them I was dismayed.

I was dismayed not only by the decision but also by the fact that in between the two events we lost arguably the most astute senior managers we have ever seen at LI, our then Commercial Director, Pat Coyne. Whispers at the time were that he fundamentally disagreed with Chief Executive Ian Taylor over this decision and that it cost him his job. I do not know for sure if this was the case but, particularly given the timing, it strikes me as very plausible.

My own decision was to move to the South stand. This, despite wholly inadequate catering on those occasions I have been there, is one I am glad I took. The ability to bring visitors, to sit and mix with them and opposition supporters without having to wrestle with the Madejski ticket office is one I value. The view of the match from the South is still excellent albeit from a different perspective.

Has the decision been a commercial success? On the basis of this season one can say categorically that it has not. Even if we do have a capacity crowd for our St Patrick’s game and healthier than average gates for the other four fixtures our average GP gates will be similar to those of last season. That is before you take into account the changed counting methodology in use this season and against a background of gates generally up.

Looking at the revenue vs. cost there has certainly been a downside. One of the key arguments in favour of reserved over free seating was that it allowed for an extra 10% capacity in the stand. The safety margin required for unreserved seating could be sold. We have not thus far this season come even close to filling the stand itself let alone capacity. Again even if we do fill the ground for the St. Patricks game, which I have to say I doubt, the extra revenue generated will be in the region of 6k. I do not know how much it has cost to open the South Stand this season but it will be well in excess of that figure.

As I write this I am aware that I may not be seeing the big picture. That there may be a strategic plan stretching over a number of years where zoning is introduced to the East and enhanced generally. It may be the intention that the price of seats in those blocks closest to the half way line, on either side of the pitch, command a premium. Even if that were the case I don’t see it doing much in the way of revenue generation. The ‘best’ seats in the house, upper West, have never been particularly full.

Perhaps what concerns me most this season is something that has been remarked on by many but at the same time is very difficult to quantify, the match day experience. The East stand, the focal point of the party in recent seasons, has seemed to me very flat in those matches I have been to. This combined with other things such as the band, the messing around with days, the at times shambolic catering and transport arrangements are, to my mind, all serving to cause the loss of existing and deter new customers. The craic may not have been killed but it appears to be in danger of death by a thousand cuts.

Throughout our clubs long history the social aspect of its being has been fundamental to its existence. This carried on into the professional era where ‘more than eighty minutes of rugby’ became our clubs commercial slogan. Whatever has been happening on field down the years our unique selling point has always been the party. This, more than anything else, is what has seen our gates treble in the professional era. Those who think that this aspect of our being should be dismissed should take a long hard look at themselves.

Tales of the drum-corps - Griff

I was singularly, whole-heartedly and fixedly against making the East-stand reserved. Not in principle, I don't think the idea of it should be safe-guarded, but as a brilliant marketing tool that still had legs. The East stand has allowed Irish to capitalise on a "draughty, soulless, concrete barn" in such a way that their support has grown massively and yet it still felt like a family.

By reserving the stand the club gained one thing - 750 seats on sold-out match days. For me it would lose much, much more. The marshalling of the crowd by getting them in early to choose and save their seats, the atmosphere this created well before K.O., the ability to turn up on match-day with 10 extra mates and know you'd still get to sit together. I'd love to say I was wrong but there is far less atmosphere and camaraderie in the East these days, the traffic is worse and the "you're sitting in my seat" arguments are just as plentiful.

My season ticket is about half-way up on the half-way line. I've not sat in it all season because I've mostly been drumming. When I wasn't I've been sitting with friends, I could've moved my ticket for those times but somehow life seemed too short so I simply booked seats in places I knew there would be space. It's been much more work but it has been fairly satisfactory, mainly because I have resonable experience of the East so I know what I'm doing. A newcomer would have no chance.

When I've been drumming I've had the most hassle, not people complaining about the noise - strange though that may seem - but from people who've been sold tickets either on row S (where the drummers sit) or on row R (where the drums sit). I've had to explain the situation ("The ticket office are barking") to countless folks, almost all have taken it with good humour and moved elsewhere. Some have even sat close-by and had a whale of a time. The situation isn't completely unworkable, it just seems really pointless to have enforced this when it was so unnecessary - especially given the fact that it was pointed out before the decision was made (allegedly) that it was unnecessary.

One interesting side-effect of the decision, and one the club may regret long-term, is the vast reduction in the core-support's keenness to help them out. I speak to a lot of people on match days, that's not a boast we have a lot of really nice folks at our matches and over the years I've got to know quite a few. A lot of them, normal, quiet, well-mannered people have expressed, shall we say, a lack of support for Mr Taylor and the current management. I find this very, very sad. To me the core-support, the nutters who live and breathe London Irish are the life of the club and to keep them happy is a complete doddle (much, much easier, say, than finding new support) and they seem very disenchanted at the moment. Perhaps it's natural change, perhaps it would've happened anyway but, somehow, I think not.

As I've always said it's not the reserving of the stand per se that I object to. If we were selling hod-loads of tickets every game the East would need to be reserved but while we're 10K in a 24K stadium, why bother? For me Mr Taylor would've been much wiser to say he wanted to reserve the stand for the two sell-out matches (and reserve the right for any others that are selling well) and leave it alone for the others. That way everyone would've had to choose their seats this season (for the big games) but the extra hassle would only affect the big games (when there was already a bit of a bun-fight caused by the very unreservedness...). I'd like to see this change for next season. I don't expect it to happen but I do think it would go a long way to restoring the atmosphere and friendliness of the East.

I think the board should think long and hard about what it is London Irish actually provide. We've had a lot of people on the message-board of the opinion that Irish is simply a game of rugby and that anything outside that is a bonus. This isn't a view I subscribe to, Irish was always much more than a game of rugby for me. The band in the cow-shed and the generally social nature of the "experience" were all extra factors that made Irish an attractive proposition. If we lose these and become a "rugby only" attraction then we have a problem. The rugby has to be of a consistently high-quality or there is nothing... Brian Smith, Toby and the boys have done a fantastic job but we're still not the finished package - betting the farm on the rugby may be a much bigger gamble than simply delivering a good day out. It'd be lovely not to have to think in business terms but I'm afraid these days we can't. If I were the board I'd want more bums on seats and, for me, losing the existing ones is a crime. There hasn't been a mass exodus yet and there won't be but if the experience dulls folks will simply drift away. Replacing them will be an even bigger task.