Your matchday experience v Wigan | Page 3 | PASOTI
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Your matchday experience v Wigan

Your matchday experience v Wigan

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  • Total voters
    49

The Doctor

🏆 Callum Wright 23/24
✨Pasoti Donor✨
Sep 15, 2003
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Plymouth
andapoet.blog
Yep, the searches etc really don't help, but I think the stadium has real design flaws that obviously can't be easily fixed.
Sadly I think you are correct. It’s probably fine if all that happens is that 15,000 people come in, sit down and watch the game (which is basically what I do). But there’s simply not enough space either in/under the stands or in the area around the stands for all the other things that people expect these days. It’s clear the club realise this - recently we’ve had hospitality, catering, fan zone activities and now retail space all happening outside the footprint of the stadium buildings.

It’s a real shame.
 

Graham Clark

🏆 Callum Wright 23/24
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🚑 Steve Hooper
Nov 18, 2018
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Argyle really do have to look at the supervision of the queues particularly around the 12-14 entrances. I arrived at 2.20pm as I did for the Ipswich game which had a similar number of Argyle fans in attendance. For Ipswich I was comfortably inside just after 2.30pm but yesterday I literally got to my seat just as the game kicked off.

The lack of supervision meant that the queue for turnstile 14 had five different sources merging into one queue. There lots of young children there with anxious adults / parents and as kick off approached anxieties grew as did tensions. I observed the very polite steward at turnstile 13 doing the scan search on young children and adults alike. It took between 10 and 15 seconds each person - longer if it was bag search. That is between 4 and 6 persons entering the turnstile per minute. It's no wonder that there are queues backing up in certain locations

Couple this with supporters accessing this area from the steps not knowing which way to queue for entry then you have a recipe for delay and frustration around the 12-14 turnstiles. For the Ipswich game this was managed by excellent stewarding and communication, yesterday this was entirely absent. However, most of all the scanning of every entrant has to be urgently reassessed. The level of threat compared to delay and frustration is totally disproportionate and is creating a most unfortunate and now unacceptable match day experience which is a real shame given how the Club excel in other areas.
 

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🏆 Callum Wright 23/24
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Oct 31, 2010
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What is frustrating with the queues and searches is that they are easy fixes.

It started with the pre-season friendlies and now here we are going into December with the same problems.

Find a place for the wheelie bins that don't create a bottleneck.
Organise the queues with signposting or supervision.
Be sensible with the wand scan and searches.

Maybe the security company should go to other grounds to see how it's done, these issues don't happen at other stadiums I've been to this season.

I never see the same stewards at the turnstiles at each game, so either they are rotated around the stadium or they are new (and inexperienced) to the job.
Is there a problem for the security company recruiting experienced stewards?

It was lucky it wasn't raining yesterday.
 
Last edited:
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Cobi Budge

Auction Winner 👨‍⚖️
Apr 8, 2011
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There was a family in-front me going through the turnstiles, all three children (can't have been older than 10) were wanded and one even asked to turn out all his pockets. The dad didn't look best pleased and I'm not surprised. When I go to away games I'd say I get searched about 20% of the time, at Home Park though its 100%.
 

FourMarkGreen

Jam First
May 25, 2016
790
905
Argyle really do have to look at the supervision of the queues particularly around the 12-14 entrances. I arrived at 2.20pm as I did for the Ipswich game which had a similar number of Argyle fans in attendance. For Ipswich I was comfortably inside just after 2.30pm but yesterday I literally got to my seat just as the game kicked off.

The lack of supervision meant that the queue for turnstile 14 had five different sources merging into one queue. There lots of young children there with anxious adults / parents and as kick off approached anxieties grew as did tensions. I observed the very polite steward at turnstile 13 doing the scan search on young children and adults alike. It took between 10 and 15 seconds each person - longer if it was bag search. That is between 4 and 6 persons entering the turnstile per minute. It's no wonder that there are queues backing up in certain locations

Couple this with supporters accessing this area from the steps not knowing which way to queue for entry then you have a recipe for delay and frustration around the 12-14 turnstiles. For the Ipswich game this was managed by excellent stewarding and communication, yesterday this was entirely absent. However, most of all the scanning of every entrant has to be urgently reassessed. The level of threat compared to delay and frustration is totally disproportionate and is creating a most unfortunate and now unacceptable match day experience which is a real shame given how the Club excel in other areas.
Very good post Graham.

There's no easy way of saying this: this whole aspect is being managed poorly by Argyle, despite weeks of constructive criticism and feedback from genuine supporters old and young alike who just want to attend a match and support their team - and who are currently being let down.

Many of us were prepared to cut the club some slack earlier in the season with a new contractor providing the stewarding etc, but I'm sorry - it's time for the excuses to stop, Argyle. This situation is of the club's own making and has become unacceptable.

You (Argyle) are putting off supporters - that's paying customers - from coming to Home Park and it has to be improved. Please address it once and for all. As Posty says above, honestly it isn't rocket science.

This is not the same issue as the disgraceful scenes at the end of the match yesterday by the way, and I'm not attempting to play down the seriousness of this to the Club.
 
Last edited:

FourMarkGreen

Jam First
May 25, 2016
790
905
What is frustrating with the queues and searches is that they are easy fixes.

It started with the pre-season friendlies and now here we are going into December with the same problems.

Find a place for the wheelie bins that don't create a bottleneck.
Organise the queues with signposting or supervision.
Be sensible with the wand scan and searches.

Maybe the security company should go to other grounds to see how it's done, these issues don't happen at other stadiums I've been to this season.

I never see the same stewards at the turnstiles at each game, so either they are rotated around the stadium or they are new (and inexperienced) to the job.
Is there a problem for the security company recruiting experienced stewards?

It was lucky it wasn't raining yesterday.
Spot-on again.
 
Mar 20, 2008
276
140
Agree re the Lyndhurst queues - I always walk down to the block 12 to 14 turnstiles. Yesterday as I walked by the other turnstiles people were being sent down to them by stewards. On arriving there was chaos. I thought I had joined a queue - but it just became a scrum equivalent to how we used to exit the car park in the old days. Absolute chaos and thankfully everyone remained good tempered

re the facilities - I remember thinking how good they were compared to the old Lyndhurst, but there is no doubt they are getting dated now. It will need some really creative thinking to radically upgrade the horeshoe though
 

bigalf

R.I.P
Dec 13, 2005
1,729
2,848
Keyham
The searches are over the top but they're not helped by fans failing to prepare.

We're in the queue, you know you'll get searched, open you bag, turn out your pockets, be ready to say when you've got and it'll be quick. Or, wait until you get to the front and force everyone else to wait while you slowly open your bag and pull the keys out of your pocket.

Its a 2 way street. Help make the searches quicker by being ready.

Still, they need reviewing anyway as clearly they didn't find that Wigan flare (do flares have metal in them?) and are too slow.
Have to agree, I have a set routine for home games. Only cash I take is £3 for a programme and my Pasty money. Pasty from the van to eat as I walk and get to Lyndhurst turnstiles for 14:10. as I approach the turnstile put my phone and keys in my already open bag. No queues at this time, straight through security and turnstile. Cup of tea after a maximum wait of two minutes to get served. Drink this then in my seat for 14:30 to read programme.

It would of course be great to have luxurious catering facilities but there are few grounds that I have travelled to with Argyle that do. It has to be remembered that when the new stands were erected in 2001, the club had a strictly limited foot print to build on and a strictly limited budget! In addition the number of turnstiles, exits and vomitories are laid down in the plans that have to be produced for ground evacuation after the Popplewell Inquiry into the incidents at Bradford and Birmingham. This of course affects the areas available for retail outlets.

I totally agree that the facilities are not great but then again who remembers the queues at the back of the Mayflower terrace and Dem'pot End for a luke-warm Trewoon's pasty ( when they sold decent pasties in Home Park) and a tepid Bovril in days gone by. I go to Home Park to watch my team play football. if I want a luxury experience, I don't go to a football ground. Then again we could have taken the option that Northampton Town did with Sixfields. I was amazed two seasons ago at the room under the stands and the access to the kiosks. All superb but then again the capacity is under 8 000.
 
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May 16, 2016
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It would be interesting to find out the churn of extra supporters / customers over and above the regular 7-10K. How many are returning after an experience such as yesterdays for example. If they're not, financially it makes little difference to the Club as they're readily replaced by others keen to see what all the media fuss is about. If the majority decide it's just not worth it, coupled with a drop in form, cash flow will take a bigger than expected hit post Christmas.

As commendable as the new Argyle is regarding transparency, communication and generating income streams towards sustainability, they are a little guilty of only looking up. It wouldn't hurt to look down occasionally and see what's happening outside of the comfortable admiration bubble they can appear to be living in.
 
Feb 21, 2012
873
338
77
Plymouth
Went up the steps behind the Lyndhurst to find myself in a big crowd moving in both directions,
no sort of marshaling going on it seemed, people just guessing where to turn to get into any sort of queue.
Saw two stewards leaning on the railings chatting to themselves as if nothing was happening, eventually found myself in a queue for gate 19,took about 30 minutes to get in.
There should be more guidance from stewards all along the Lyndhurst side to indicate which queues are for which entry gates,it is like this every time,not a good experience.
 
May 28, 2019
261
4
there has always been faults at argyle with bigger crowds, always has been, how to fix it i dont know, my day, i drove in from east cornwall, would love to jumped on the number 12 bus but it has been unreliable , used to park else where in the city, and bus it in, but plymouth city bus has become the same,, with driver shortages, so parked nearby, not argyles fault but public transport is not the greatest to get to argyle at min, got in the ground pretty early around 2pm, upper mayflower, ginsters pasty 3 pounds the size of a cocktail pasty, luke warm tea with uht milk in plastic wrapper! i know it has to be quick service but the product is not good enough, during the game a group of men smoked there way through most of the game, then at the end walking out with dads with crying kids in their arms because of the thugs, just put a whole downer on the day, stewarding for that incident was more like keystone cops......
 
Feb 8, 2005
4,272
2,365
there has always been faults at argyle with bigger crowds, always has been, how to fix it i dont know, my day, i drove in from east cornwall, would love to jumped on the number 12 bus but it has been unreliable , used to park else where in the city, and bus it in, but plymouth city bus has become the same,, with driver shortages, so parked nearby, not argyles fault but public transport is not the greatest to get to argyle at min, got in the ground pretty early around 2pm, upper mayflower, ginsters pasty 3 pounds the size of a cocktail pasty, luke warm tea with uht milk in plastic wrapper! i know it has to be quick service but the product is not good enough, during the game a group of men smoked there way through most of the game, then at the end walking out with dads with crying kids in their arms because of the thugs, just put a whole downer on the day, stewarding for that incident was more like keystone cops......
Ever thought of helping and noting the seat numbers of the smokers and informing Argyle so that they could deal with it? They would have the details of the purchasers and advise them accordingly, and even look out for them at the next match.

Argyle can be a cumbersome beast and we supporters can play our part in helping.
 
Nov 13, 2006
1,436
1,515
Plympton St M
Before COVID there used to be an ‘old boy’ walking up and down managing the line on the Lyndie. He was obviously a fan who seemed to know everyone, and he managed things really well. Once one line got too long he advised people to another. He gave clear info to people, especially people who were not season ticket holders.


That said, the bigger issue as several posters have highlighted, is what happens with security once you get to the turnstile. The stewarding company have not got it right yet, which given how many home games we have had amazes me.
 
Feb 23, 2008
1,640
78
The tannoy in the Devonport end is uncomfortably loud lately, I'm not sure why as it's not always been the same level.

At the Wycombe game it was fine with the dance mini-mix etc, anything with high frequencies like a guitar solo, white stripes, whatever that is they play at the start of the second-half is horrible.

People around me are bringing it up constantly, stopping conversations halfway through as there's no competing with it and are getting quite fed up with it.

Someone must do some sort of sound check once every now and then surely?

As for getting in, not sure why Lyndhurst taking so long, the stewards at the Devonport end do a pretty good job and a 'wanding' takes less than five seconds with people being verbally directed to less busy turnstiles, but as I've said to my two sons who started watching when we were under Sheridan, the more successful we get the more detached we will get from the club and the less enjoyable things non-football related are likely to be.

As for the crowd trouble if the Argyle fans wanted to get into the Wigan end then they would've, at one point there was one steward stood in their way.