Hi All,
Thanks for the feedback, and great to be back at Home Park playing football after what seems like an eternity!
Yesterday saw the last game with COVID certification in place and whilst I’ll be glad to see it go, we have collectively learned a lot from the process and as a result have a much better understanding of our external operation.
We had just under 7,000 supporters arrive after 2:30pm and that put extreme pressure on queues. Arriving earlier does help & ultimately will mean we can process entry into the stadium quickly and efficiently.
We continue to operate under covid protocols set by the EFL therefore unable to put as much activity as we would like both pre-match and at H/T. We hope we can improve this as restrictions get relaxed and therefore improve the match-day experience.
Yesterday, our public address specialists attended and made some changes to the positioning of the speakers and levels. The visit was purposefully planned during a game so we could get the sound correctly distributed with supporters in seats. I hope this vastly improves the experience.
The ticket office was busy with a mixture of on the day ticket purchases and Chelsea pick ups. With no home game before the FA Cup game we had to offer supporters a chance to collect in person yesterday.
To touch on security checks and searching. The intention is for these checks to be as inclusive & non invasive as possible but we understand that the process needs refining. In due course it’s very likely that the Government will be introducing some legislation called the protect duty. The protect duty will likely outline a number of different measures any sports ground or large venue will be legally be required to undertake. This will be in the form of security checks, hostile vehicle mitigation and other infrastructure to protect venue users. These measures come as a result of the Manchester bombing enquiry. Meetings with the police, local authority & the EFL have commenced already and as a club we want to be ahead of the curve on this. The consultation can be read here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-publishes-protect-duty-consultation-findings. This means that whilst experiences getting into other clubs may be different at the moment, we anticipate that soon it will be the same across all clubs.
In addition to the above, I’m sure you’ll have all seen the abandonment of games in France where missiles have been thrown at the players. This has slowly started to creep into the English leagues and referees have been asked to report incidents which could result in action against clubs. The searching policy has enabled us to confiscate items that could be used as missiles.
Ahead of the next league game the seat replacement programme will commence and we are looking forward to this taking shape.
Hope those going have a great day out at Stamford Bridge & see you on the 12th Feb! 🙌
CK