Mansfield Town

Club officials have today stressed the importance of supporters sitting in their designated seats at all home games next season.

Now back in the Football League after a five year exile, there will no longer be cash turnstiles at One Call Stadium as all supporters must be in possession of a match ticket in order to enter the stadium.  Supporters must sit in the specific seat as per their ticket.

Safety officer Alan Lakin said there are benefits to the club if supporters abide by the new system.  Speaking to www.mansfieldtown.net Mr Lakin said:  "The club has been advised by the Safety Advisory Group (SAG),  Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) and Football League representatives, that moving towards all ticket games and in particular - all ticket, with allocated seating gates, providing they are well managed, will help them to look favourably at increasing the capacity at the One Call Stadium back to its maximum. The club therefore needs its supporters to work alongside it to ensure that the transition to this system is carried out as smoothly as possible.

 

"We know that some supporters in the past have wanted to sit together and at games where allocated seating has been trialed have caused problems by refusing to sit in their allocated seat or move and even refusing to show stewards their ticket. In order to progress the club forward we must insist that supporters work with us and sit in the seat allocated to their ticket."

 

"The club charter and ground regulations state that any ticket or season ticket is the property of the club, and if supporters do not produce a ticket when requested or refuse to sit in the allocated seat they will be ejected and season tickets cancelled.

 

"When any of us go to the theatre or book cinema tickets in advance we always sit in the seat allocated to the ticket, if we don't and someone arrives with that ticket, we move. We don't cause a fuss, we just move. We have to develop that sort of mentality at football matches at One Call Stadium.

 

"If you want to sit with friends then you will need to buy your tickets in advance as a group, or the best way is to buy a season ticket for an available seat in the area you want to sit in," he added.

Meanwhile, almost 1,500 season tickets were sold as of 15:00BST, we are pleased to confirm.