Bag Searches at Grounds

dimanche 1 octobre 2017

At yesterday’s game at Manchester United several fans were prevented from taking bags into Old Trafford and some have already posted on the Man Utd travel thread. United set up an initial cordon to screen out bags but many fans were not stopped until they got to the turnstiles.
It seems that they have changed their policy following the Manchester bombing and now will only allow small clutch type bags no bigger than A5 or 8x6x2 inches to be taken in anywhere in the ground. Women of over 70 and young girls were stopped from taking in even handbags. Stewards tried to claim it was a Manchester Police or Council requirement but it was pointed out to that the same bag had been allowed in at Manchester City only the week before. They also claimed that CPFC had been informed but had obviously not passed the information on to supporters.
Supporters had to subsequently leave their bags in a bag-drop in one of the car parks and were told that it could take up to an hour to retrieve the bag after the game. Many who had travel connections left the game 10 minutes early to avoid potential queues. Eventually following numerous complaints some fans were later allowed to take in small bags which were searched and then security tagged. A girl with us emptied all of the contents from her bag into her pockets and rolled up her bag to gain entry. Apparently home supporters were allowed in with purchases in official carrier bags from the Megastore.

A search on google leads initially to the previous away fans guide published in 2014 where small rucksack type bags were previously allowed after searching. However this has been updated and the new restrictions were eventually found in a link from the FAQ section of their website. This google search also led to some press reports about the change and a notification warning issued by West Ham to their fans so clearly some clubs have been notified. So it is always advisable to check that a goggle search provides current information.

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The Palace website above published a preview guide for Old Trafford with a link to the out of date visitor information guide. As they now post out away tickets they clearly had an opportunity to publicise this critical information to all travellers and nothing was mentioned on the website. No one in the club communications department seems to actually verify information or even proof read articles. A typical example of this is the recently published Disabled Access Statement linked from the article below which is full of poor phrasing, grammatical errors, inconsistent formatting and factual errors; even stating that Selhurst Park Stadium is in Whitehorse Road.

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Newcastle United has a similar bag restriction policy and currently will only allow bags smaller than an equivalent A4 size. Larger bags may only be allowed at the steward’s discretion. They do not however offer any bag storage facility.

Tottenham Hotspur will allow small bags or rucksacks up to 30x30 cm at Wembley but again no storage facility is available. It is interesting to note that Wembley has to adopt the stricter NFL bag policy for American Football games. This does not allow a host of different bag types including backpacks, bum bags, camera cases or even handbags. Fans can only use clutch bags or airport style clear plastic bags no bigger than 4.5x6.5 inches or an NFL approved clear carrier bag 30x30x15 inches.


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