Are We Going Back, 2

[marky No.1]

We could well be, depending which tier we get dumped into, hopefully Lancashire isn't classed as one area

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/55010011?at ... LZu_wADQo0

[Wild Bill]

Best we can hope for is tier 2 but that might just do the job for us.

[Phil Anderer]

Lancaster City Council area has lowest infection figures in North West, but they'll probably lump it in with the whole of Lancashire, although figures across the North West are down except in Carlisle, Hyndburn, and South Lakeland, but I'm convinced that latter's down to people knowingly having symptoms coming to stay in their holiday homes - maybe they have childcare issues .

[marky No.1]

https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/co ... m=referral

[Jack Poulton]

With the announcement that we may be able to go back from 2nd December, depending on which Tier Morecambe finds itself in, I set about searching for my season ticket. Not being able to find it made me wonder if they were ever distributed and if not there will have to be an urgent operation required to get them out. Also I saw a report, not from our club, that fixtures scheduled for 1st December (Barrow in our case) might be moved until after 2nd to enable supporters to attend. Any news or views?

[Wild Bill]

It would be great if we can get in to see Barrow. Can't see them being any away fans though.

I just hope the club are ready to go. It would be interesting to see how many can be safely accommodated.

Maybe 700-800 in the main stand. Easy enough to space out as long as everyone gets an assigned seat.

Terracing will be trickier. Maybe just tape out the barriers with a metre gap and only let in enough to cover these. Maybe then an extra 500-600 across three sides?

I think we may struggle with any more than this but will probably just about meet demand.

Catering will need to be improved. Perhaps served old school cinema style at the front of the stand to avoid queues? One way system for the toilets, entry and exit etc.

How much noise can be made in a mask? I have tried and it sounds muzzled. Haha.

[redrobo]

I'm hopeful that our club is ready to go with allowing fans back in with seating to be allocated. After all it's been well over 6 months since we witnessed a live game at our stadium with fans in attendance and the time in between surely has been spent organizing for this return of fans.

It would be ideal if the game v Barrow could be moved 24 hours to the 2nd but maybe Barrow will not agree to this change in date realizing that although we may be small in numbers the reception given to our lads could be a match winner.

The question about visiting fans has yet be addressed but I doubt that away fans will be allowed in at any ground irrespective of what level they are in.

[sandgrown]

unless we get Tier2 on thursday we won't be back any time soon

don't hold your breath !

[RedRedWine]

I'm hopeful that our club is ready to go with allowing fans back in with seating to be allocated. After all it's been well over 6 months since we witnessed a live game at our stadium with fans in attendance and the time in between surely has been spent organizing for this return of fans.

It would be ideal if the game v Barrow could be moved 24 hours to the 2nd but maybe Barrow will not agree to this change in date realizing that although we may be small in numbers the reception given to our lads could be a match winner.

The question about visiting fans has yet be addressed but I doubt that away fans will be allowed in at any ground irrespective of what level they are in.

Surely they will bend over backwards after Rod flew a banner over Barrow welcoming them to bottom table?

Interesting to know if the club are now fully prepared to host games with fans, and if they have an approved plan ready to implement given the last disaster that lead to cancelling a test event? As Jack mentions above - I've not had my season ticket yet, so assume these still need to be issued.

According to Rick Parry, the governments announcement about fans attending sporting events came as a bit of a surprise - ultimately it sounds like stadium capacities are less club specific than previous restrictions, so perhaps there is still some work to do adapting the initial plans (if those plans were ever completed)?

All eyes are on the Local Authority, to see what restrictions Lancashire (sic) Bin Collectors Council decide to impose on a district with amongst the lowest levels of infections across the country. If we are subjected to the same standards as people in East Lancashire that shag chickens I propose that we leave Lancashire County Council immediately #LEXIT (and before anybody asks, leaving tick box slut Lancashire County Council does not mean leaving the historic county of Lancashire the place).

Kind regards.

[marky No.1]

No chance on away fans, travel from all areas would be hopeless and the hunt for a social venue pre match could be somewhat tricky.
I do feel sorry fo those poor chickens
Can minibus and coachloads even happen?

Shame Sky can't spell or be up to date with our stadium, but Rod says we are ready

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/s ... ans-return

[BerlinWaller]

Lancashire County Council will sell their soul for a quid more of Tax Payers money and will stick us in a high tier. Anybody know what they spent the last however many millions on?

[RedRedWine]

No chance on away fans, travel from all areas would be hopeless and the hunt for a social venue pre match could be somewhat tricky.
I do feel sorry fo those poor chickens
Can minibus and coachloads even happen?

Shame Sky can't spell or be up to date with our stadium, but Rod says we are ready

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/s ... ans-return

In the video Rod says the club will be ready, not that they are ready. As always the devil is in the detail, and in absence of this being published I'd say that we are still not quite there yet - understandable given the requirements for hosting games still seems to be changing, which the club have been open and upfront about from the beginning. Good to see Rod looking well all the same.

All of this being ready or not, and the details of what a match day might look like with fans (e.g. in answer to Wild Bill re catering, I'm sure James Wakefield and Charlie Appleyard told fans during the online Q&A that there will be no food concessions, at least initially) is hypothetical for us IMO, because it seems evident that Lancashire (sic) Bin Collections Council are going to knife us all for an extra quid that will be deducted from other areas of their budget. There is no reason for doing this - Lancaster is largely independent from places like Burnley and Blackburn which are both over 30 miles away and not much in-between. We share very little in common with these places (probably why our infection rates are drastically different), unlike Kendal where we are part of the same NHS Foundation Trust for Christ sake..... you know, the very thing that these restrictions are trying to protect!

I admire Cat Smith for raising the issue of science lead restrictions specific to localities at PMQ's (obviously nothing from the Morris dancer yet), but based on the PMs reply we look likely to be grouped with the chicken shagging dingles again (how can infections increase when you're supposed to be in lockdown and contact with others is restricted?!?) whilst neighbouring Kendal (different Local Authority) and Blackpool (part of its own Local Authority and not administered by Preston pricks) enjoy enhanced freedoms in their districts that have higher levels of infection. Crazy. Anybody know if our local council representatives are sticking up for the district in this matter?

[marky No.1]

So eloquently put, Stuart, i think he means they are ready providing the hurdles and hoops havnt changed yet again like they do on a daily basis

[BerlinWaller]

A feature on Lancaster coming up on Sky News now

*An interview with Cat Smith who kept on making the point we are more in line with Cumbria than the rest of Lancashire. She mustn't want to be part of Greater Blackpool.

[BerlinWaller]

Good news?

https://twitter.com/BBCLancashire/statu ... 25506?s=19

[Ego Tripping]

Confirmed Lancaster City Council is Tier 3.

[Wild Bill]

Total joke isn't it.

How they expect people to buy into this daft system when the data is pointing the other way?

[redrobo]

No go once again to live matches .....what a joke. As I understand it the figures for Lancaster and Morecambe are on the way down. So why put the area in the same category as some in East Lancashire.



Whoever has made this ridiculous decision is obviously not aware of the geography of the area and the rural areas between L&M and East Lancashire.

I could understand if the area was close in proximity to EL but the area is more than 25 miles away with little housing between. Even Preston which is also in tier 3 is not on the boundary of L&M.

Once again the Government have made a complete mess of deciding which areas are tiers 1,2 and 3.

As expected London is in tier 2......why....

[cragbankshrimp]

220 cases per 100,000 in South Lakes (Tier 2)
97 cases per 100,000 in Lancaster area (Tier 3)
The downside is we are in Lancashire
Can we not move the home games to Milnthorpe Corinthians

[Phil Anderer]

220 cases per 100,000 in South Lakes (Tier 2)
97 cases per 100,000 in Lancaster area (Tier 3)
The downside is we are in Lancashire
Can we not move the home games to Milnthorpe Corinthians

At 50% of capacity you could attend with me, Mrs A & redrobo, but that's be about the limit! Come the vaccine we'll all be back, but not much before.

[Wild Bill]

Maybe play a few home games up at Kendal Town?

[redrobo]

Would be interesting to work out which clubs in EFL2 are allowed to have fans back to live games. I suspect that this will only make a financial compensation package to clubs like ours even more of a distant dream.

Just hope that this isn't the final nail in our coffin....

[tim-sanchez]

Barrow, Cambridge, Cheltenham, Colchester, Crawley, Exeter, Forest Green, Harrogate, Leyton Orient, Southend, Stevenage and Tranmere are all reportedly in Tier 2. Newport obviously dependent on Welsh rules.

Colchester away could be our first match in front of fans.

[RedRedWine]

220 cases per 100,000 in South Lakes (Tier 2)
97 cases per 100,000 in Lancaster area (Tier 3)
The downside is we are in Lancashire County Council :(
Can we not move the home games to Milnthorpe Corinthians

I have corrected for you. Lancashire County Council is a Local Area Authority that administers public services in some areas that forms the historic county boundaries of Lancashire (and also some places that are actually part of Yorkshire) - ancient boundaries that have never changed despite the reorganisation of local government in 1974. Blackpool and Blackburn are not part of Lancashire County Council, but you would never say that they are no longer part of Lancashire. It's never a bad thing to be in Lancashire the place.

We must leave Lancashire County Council, they provide mostly terrible services to local people - most notably education - and do so along lines that clearly don't reflect the needs of local people. Today's decision demonstrates that. In addition, administering such a large geographical area means that people in places like Burnley are not getting the very different services that they clearly require. This does not mean leaving Lancashire the place - that would be ridiculous.

Terrible news for the club and the local economy, that illogical restrictions will now be enforced upon the district despite infection rates that are half the national average and falling. It has been revealed that these decisions are based on things like hospital bed availability in the locality - which is absolutely logical. For most places I assume that frontline health provisions are roughly the same boundaries as Local Area Authorities, but that's not the case in Lancaster and the surrounding areas. We are now in a ridiculous situation where people who use services provided by the Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (which these restrictions ultimately try to protect) are placed in different tiers , e.g. Bentham (part of Craven, North Yorkshire tier 2). Also, because of how hospitals are organised locally (as a region) you have the situation where people in South Lakeland (Kendal - tier 2) with higher infection rates per 100k need to travel to Lancaster for treatments (and vice versa) because not all treatments are catered for at Lancaster Royal Infirmary and Westmoreland General respectively. This is stupid, and not very well thought out in my opinion - but perhaps convenient for tick box sluts in central and local government.

[Wild Bill]

Good point about Health Care Trusts. Surely this is a better indicator to use as ultimately it's all about avoiding these becoming overwhelmed. My wife works at the RLI and I believe the number of Covid patients is relatively low at the moment compared to earlier on in the pandemic.

I am not sure it is Lancashire County Council's fault though as I believe that all decisions on local restrictions come straight from No10. Someone also linked on this thread that LCC suggested putting East Lancs and Preston in tier 3 and the rest of the county in tier 2. That request along with that of Cat Smith's must have fell on deaf ears.

Not heard anything from Morecambe's MP. Has he said anything at all either way?