The football safe standing debate is available
Parliamentlive.tv
Pretty much every speaker supports the review on
'safe-standing' and the vast majority stated that safe standing should be allowed, the general feeling was that
'match-day permission' for
'safe-standing' at football grounds should be devolved to the local authority (
as it is with Rugby, Cricket, Horse Racing etc.) so if a club does or doesn't want safe standing that's a local issue ...
Two voices of dissent came from representatives of Liverpool, both felt safe standing should not be reviewed until the H'borough cases were concluded (
understandable due to vested interest but that could be many, many years) interestingly one claimed that Liverpool fans were against safe standing, and one said they were in favour ... different polls I guess ...
Another interesting speech came from the Cardiff representative who very clearly stated that Cardiff already allow standing in one stand, they actively advertise this fact to supporters ... thought that was illegal, but she said it ws down to interpretation ...
Several speakers said standing would make tickets cheaper, despite the fact that rail-seats cost more and that no increase in capacity was likely ... so math clearly not a strong point, pretty safe bet ticket prices won't change ....
Over and over speakers pointed out that every stadium already has standing and that safe standing had to be better than unsafe standing ... it's feckin' obvious ... many speakers said they want any review concluded in time for 2019/20 season ...
There's some almost funny speeches where MP's give a very
'inflated' view of their local club ...
Sadly the government response was
'we will collect more data' and that they hope to complete that by the end of the year ... only after that will they consider starting a review on safe standing ....