Torquay United Fans Forum

The playoffs final are on the normal start week in Aug. Fixtures will take a few weeks, bound to be Oct start. Could be no fans until December.

MellowYellow wrote: 05 Jul 2020, 13:51 London streets full of revellers as the pubs re-open. Registers keep of customers names and address for track and trace. Most put Micky Mouse/Disneyland with a few Donald Ducks thrown in for good measure. Police Federation say drunk people don't social distance (who would have thought). All this is legal. But prison sentences abound if you go get your nails clipped or watch a football match under strict controls. Go figure!

Drunk people don’t socially distance, but they do pay a load of tax on their booze etc....

London streets full of revellers as the pubs re-open. Registers keep of customers names and address for track and trace. Most put Micky Mouse/Disneyland with a few Donald Ducks thrown in for good measure. Police Federation say drunk people don't social distance (who would have thought). All this is legal. But prison sentences abound if you go get your nails clipped or watch a football match under strict controls. Go figure!

Having to make a 400 mile round trip for home matches, I can only attend about 6 / 10 a year, plus about the same away games. I would, as an example gladly buy a season ticket to use at these few home matches, if I could watch the others on-line.

Also allowing fans to pay to watch online.

If there is a capacity limit, say 25% or 50% of the max capacity allowed in the ground. Allow others to pay to watch online and for now disregard the 3pm broadcasting rule

Im sure the many exiles, inc me, would pay for that.

Easing of lockdown is moving fast and when September comes around, we will be in a very different situation than we are now as a country,

Health advice on the transmission of the virus is that it is safer when people are outside. So taking into account the “outdoor element”, supporters may be able to return sooner to watching games than audiences to indoor venues such as theatres. The difficult issues are how people get in and move around in grounds, and to cut down on too much additional travelling.

There are plenty of options to work with such as getting people to map out what traffic flows [of spectators] look like in stadium, explore what it could look like with one-metre, social distancing and so on. Plans could include “digital CV19passports” via an app showing that you are not infected, having been tested and away fans prohibited from travelling to games. Or it could be just a simple solution of just allowing 25% of ground capacity which would allow for social distancing. We operate at much less than full capacity and this would fit perfectly as a temporary solution to create revenue.

You could question how cinema's are allowed to open and what is the difference other than you can't get 'pick and mix'. Cinema booking systems has been updated to allow friends and family to sit together while ensuring a safe distance between customers from different households.

There is another nightmare scenario; being allowed to open, the furlough ending at the same time and supporters not showing up. We’re open, it’s dead, and there’s no government support.

Still to early to say if there is any picture of how long that piece of string might be.

I note GJ thinks matches may start in September. Am i right in assuming that he is anticipating a start with no fans in grounds?
Surely that is not viable.
Surely September will be too early for crowds being allowed back in grounds.
My previous (very optimistic) view was that October would be the earliest for crowds allowed
All the recent days shenanegins re non social distancing is most likely going to put back a normal restart even further.