Anticipation has been growing as York City build up to the first game of their first season in the new stadium.
But the excitement has turned to anger after many fans were left unable to go to the match.
The all-seater LNER Community Stadium has a capacity of 8,500. But only about 2,000 fans are being allowed in for the game against Kidderminster on Saturday (14 August). And one in ten of those are away supporters.
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YorkMix understands that this limited capacity is because the company contracted to run the stadium – York Stadium Management Company Ltd (SMC) – has failed to comply with a number of safety measures.
As a result the York Safety at Sports Advisory Group (SAG), in conjunction with City of York Council, has restricted attendance to around 2,000. The council is both licensing authority and stadium owner.
The SAG, made up of the council, police, highway authority, fire and ambulance service, had originally required a number of test events to take place before allowing public access to the stadium.
But this requirement was downgraded, and instead the SMC was asked to provide proof that it had complied with a long list of requirements, covering everything from CCTV cameras to stewards to first aiders.
A failure to meet all these requirements led to a safety certificate being issued for the reduced capacity. And that has left fans scrabbling to get tickets.
Anger increased as the online ticketing system proved unable to cope with demand and crashed. Long queues built up at the stadium as fans gave up online and tried to buy tickets in person.
The game has now sold out.
‘Absolute joke’
York City fans have endured years of on- and off-the-pitch troubles. Successive relegations have seen the team fall to the second rung of non-league football, while the promised stadium only arrived many years late.
After the nightmare of a promotion wiped out by Covid, followed by an excellent pre-season – which has seen the first team beat Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Notts County – fans were desperate to be there for the start of a promising new era at the LNER Community Stadium.
So they have understandably reacted with anger at failing to get tickets. These are just some of the comments on social media from fans:
- “an absolute shambles”
- “have you seen the fiasco at York City FC?”
- “what few tickets are available nobody can buy! Website crashes and phone lines say leave a message. What a missed opportunity to get fans onside”
- “What an absolute farce. Spent most of the morning trying to get online to be told system not working. Tried 150 times on the phone then get a message on Twitter to say sold out!”
- “It’s not personal, but the club are taking the fans for granted, and don’t deserve the loyalty shown”
- “beyond embarrassing”.
So how has it come to this?
Who runs what
The system works like this. City of York Council owns the stadium and its associated leisure facilities.
It has contracted the management of the facility to GLL. In turn, it subcontracted the running of the stadium on match days to York Stadium Management Company Ltd.
This company is wholly owned by York City Football Club, which in turn is 75% owned by its chairman Jason McGill. Mr McGill is the sole director of York Stadium Management Company Ltd.
York City’s long-standing safety consultant Chris Tock left the club in December. YorkMix understands there has not been a permanent replacement, raising questions about what expertise in running a stadium is now available to the club.
The club has been warned on a number of occasions that it was not meeting the requirements to open the stadium at full capacity. And doubts were also raised about the online ticketing software.
York City Knights, who share the stadium, have raised their concerns over the capacity limit and ticket sales system.
Councillor Darryl Smalley is York’s executive member for culture, leisure and communities.
He told YorkMix: “We appreciate entirely the frustration of fans – we also want our fantastic new stadium to be full of fans safely cheering on York City and the Knights. But we cannot give running commentaries on the details of discussions between a licensing authority and the holder of a safety certificate.
“There are national minimum legal requirements set out in a ‘green guide’ which anyone running a sports event has to follow.
“As the licensing authority, the council assess plans and processes that any applicant for or holder of a safety certificate has in place to meet those requirements.
“This is done in conjunction with the Safety at Sports Advisory Group, which also contains the police, ambulance and fire services along with other agencies like public health.
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“As we do with any applicant or certificate holder, council officers will continue to provide guidance to the Stadium Management Company over the processes, plans and people they need to have in place to increase the capacity at the games.”
York City FC has declined to comment. We have also asked GLL about the situation, and will update.
City of York Council can request that GLL remove York Stadium Management Company Ltd as the subcontractor for breach of contract if there are repeated failures.
But if the match goes ahead successfully on Saturday, this may help the stadium company acquire the safety certificate for the full 8,500 capacity.