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Originally Posted by shermanator
Just had a very encouraging phone call with the club. Nothing to share yet in terms of procedures or anything like that, as we still have more discussions to come, but it sounds like the club and supporters are on the same page.
We're looking to have things sorted by the next home game on Wednesday. Not sure if I will have time to write up things before then but I will as soon as I can. I know people are curious.
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Okay, so the club and myself and another support had lunch to continue the discussions around Wednesday night's situation and how we move forward. Not everything is complete, but we have enough dialogue going into tomorrow night's game.
I had to duck out early to go to a meeting, but here is what we talked about
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1. The most important thing. The club does not have an issue with the supporters group. While there are a few smaller groups (looking at you Foot Clan for ants), the club sees the supporters as one group, which is kind of where the blanket comments from last week came from. A downside in this thing growing so fast is that I don't know everyone in the group by name anymore, and every game there are dozens of new people I've never seen, many who will not be there for the next game.
We did discuss how over time certain people will want to support the club in different ways (eg. ultras groups forming), and that there will need to be a distinction between the groups eventually.
2. The club will be briefing security on what the supporters section is when having their game ops meeting before the game. This is where security is educated on what that section is about.
3. We are going to set up a security liaison, and a supporter liaison, that will work together during game days. The idea is that if security notices something that may need addressing, they can alert the supporters right away. Conversely, if a supporter notices something that security may need addressing, they can alert security right away. Having a specific security person will help build trust between the two.
4. Any issues that occur during a game and need addressing will be done so outside of the game. The situation last week is what we want to avoid, as security makes accusations in the heat of the moment, and people like me respond in the heat of the moment as well.
5. We are still figuring out what to do for smoke. There will be no smoke tomorrow to ensure people are not more confused about it.
Personally, I think we're on the right path, and I don't see any reason to boycott the game tomorrow. I likely will end up missing the game anyway, but it will be unrelated to what happened last week.