Shrewsbury Set To Install Safe Standing
Shrewsbury Town Football Club is set to become the first English club to introduce safe standing at their ground after successfully reaching crowdfunding targets.
The League One side raised £65,000 to pay for the alterations at the Montgomery Waters Meadow Stadium on crowdfunding platform, Tifosy. More than 1,000 fans donated to the cause, with online betting company, FansBet, bolstering the donations.
The club has applied to have rail seats installed for more than 500 fans at the 10,000-capacity ground, and hope to have it installed before the end of the current season, although plans remain subject to ground safety authority licensing.
Safe standing at Celtic Park
Standing areas in grounds have been banned in English football since the 1990 Taylor Report into the Hillsborough disaster, after 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives as a result of overcrowding at the 1988/89 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday’s home ground, Hillsborough.
Clubs that have played for three seasons in the top two tiers of the football league are required by law to provide all-seater stadiums. Shrewsbury do not come under this condition and are supported by the Football League.
Brian Caldwell, chief executive of Shrewsbury Town, said: “We are delighted that Shrewsbury Town will be the flagship club in addressing this issue, which is so important to so many fans.
“We will now continue to work closely with our local safety advisory group to gain the necessary certification for the safe standing area within the Salop Leisure Stand at the Montgomery Waters Meadow, and we hope to have supporters watching home games from the safe standing area before the end of the season.”
Jon Darch, operator of the Safe Standing Roadshow which campaigns for safe standing areas across the country, said: “This is a major milestone for safe standing. They can now look forward to a ground-breaking launch of their safe standing area early next year. Celtic have shown that safe standing works in Scotland. Now Shrewsbury are going to show that it will work in otherwise all-seater grounds in England and Wales too.”
