The Fence

[brett]

OK firstly - i'm not going to make a big deal out of nothing here. I dont see the fence as a major issue or problem and the less said about it the better really.

Froggy has made the suggestion that we approach the stadium regarding the fence, and the few senior marinators i spoke to agreed with the idea.

We think we should at the very least OFFER to pay for half of the cost to repair the fence.

This would be paid out of the Marinators fund, and i think any decisions regarding the spending of our money should be a group decision.

To make a few points:

- We're not suggesting that the Marinators are at fault for the fence breaking. Obviously it wouldnt have happened if there was no one leaning on it, but there was a photographer that coaxed the marinators into a frenzy and the fence should have been strong enough to hold people leaning on it anyway.

- It's more of an offer of support to the stadium, to show them we want to co-operate and work with them in what they do. If we make the first move, it should set the ball rolling in the right direction so that eventually we can enjoy a great relationship with them and especially the security.

My reason for supporting this idea is this- The marinators fund is set up to help us achieve our goals, and i see this as a great opportunity to make our life as supporters easier and better in future. It seems to me like one of the most productive ways we can spend our cash.

So feel free to have your say, even if it's just 'I agree'.

[omni]

I said it on the day and I'll say it here too, bloody great idea to put the offer in, many parties responsible and we are one of them we should make the offer.

[kevrenor]

I'll leave others who were there (me not seeing it happen) to deal with the details of 'why' and 'how' - however my first thoughts:

1. Approaching the stadium about it with an attitude of cooperation to ensure that safety is ensured for the future is a very positive one
2. Offering to contribute half - a) when it may cost quite a bit more than we can raise, b) there may be insurance funding - may be premature. Not saying we don't but that may depend on what we find out.
3. In similar situations over the years I have never seen a stadium fence collapse, even the wooden picket one at NSO - was it substandard?

wyomingtiger said:

We think we should at the very least OFFER to pay for half of the cost to repair the fence. This would be paid out of the Marinators fund, and i think any decisions regarding the spending of our money should be a group decision.

[omni]

Chris: Seems that it was a bit substandard, it wasn't built for that kind of thing (given that a team playing out of that stadium has never won anything). There needs to be some sort of offer made, financial or not, I can't see it costing too much mind you. I'm sure we have a fencing person here!

[brett]

kevrenor said:

I'll leave others who were there (me not seeing it happen) to deal with the details of 'why' and 'how' - however my first thoughts:

1. Approaching the stadium about it with an attitude of cooperation to ensure that safety is ensured for the future is a very positive one
2. Offering to contribute half - a) when it may cost quite a bit more than we can raise, b) there may be insurance funding - may be premature. Not saying we don't but that may depend on what we find out.
3. In similar situations over the years I have never seen a stadium fence collapse - was it substandard?

I didn't see it first hand either so i'll stand with you on this one. from what i've heard the force exerted on the fence wasnt even that excessive and im sure it would be supposed to hold a lot more than it did, i'd almost say definitely substandard.

in regards to your 2nd point you are right, so lets say rather than approach them saying we'll pay half, we see what the total coast will be and offer what we can offer. we have around $200-300 in the kitty at the moment to my knowledge, with shirts still to sell.

I think the most important thing is making the first move, as i reckon the stadium would probably decline our offer anyway (since i reckon they feel at fault for having a shoddy fence). they would however still appreciate our gesture.

[Rowdy]

Send a letter, with the Marinator logo on it, has a far greater effect than a phone call or inperson chat.
Set up a thread with a poll for an 'elected representative' to sign on belf of all Marinators and express our willingness to assist in costs to repair fence and discuss how to avoid such a thing happening again.
Hate to see some little kiddies, as quite a few sit down near the fence, get hurt if something similar was to happen in the future.

[DJ]

I agree we should offer to pay half to keep the peace but the fence should have been stronger in the first place!

We should also chat the stadium about the police saying that they had instructions from stadium management to kick people out if they swear, to me that is just a joke!

[Yellowbeard]

Storm in a teacup. I don't have any dramas though if you feel the need to make an offer to the stadium people. I know 1 marinator had his finger pretty badly cut up by the fence when it fell. No doubt it should have been stronger.

[Rowdy]

What, Marinator injured on the job!
I fear a Workcover investigation.
Perhaps he's entitled to worker's comp?

[sealpup]

Roddy, the Marinator injured cut his first finger either side of the nail. Having recently done similar I can tell you those injuries are painful little buggers. Omni had a look at him and we got him some water while he sat down for a while before leaving Stadium. If he's on this forum, I hope the you're feeling better today mate!
WT: 100% agree with your comments, but feel that the Stadium should look at the workmanship of the fence, and a possible insurance claim there too. Maybe the posthole was too shallow and little to hold it in place under pressure.
Agree that it is a storm in a teacup and that a working party should be able to fix it in no time. Just worried that the assembled media would have screamed 'Marinators run amok!' with action shots and footage.

[person]

i agree, the marinators should make an approach to the stadium even if it is out of good will in showing cooperation with them. And what is this, we get kicked out by the police for swearing??? Also agree there, it is a bloody joke, if the stadium did issue these instructions to the police to remove any persons swearing maybe this should also be addressed to the stadium managemnet as a point of issue. As well i couldnt help but notice 3 things one that the chants at the games are tsarting to get repetitive, that not all the songs are used that are in "sea shanties", and that some top chants bagin out the ref were missing, ie: "He drinks he smokes, he lends his mum to blokes referee" etc. personally i thought that the englisgh dudes had the right idea sat night with good old fashioned english football songs that we could adapt to. its stupid but like do a different rendition or swap lyrics of youll never walk alone

[omni]

Seemed fairly shocked about the whole thing though, think he was more shocked about the fence than his finger, looked lot worse then it was, I said if he was worried he should get it checked out by a doc on Monday. The refs didn't come our way at training (they've figured it out) so they didn't get the serving!

Should we have a few Marinators meeting up with the stadium management, if we think that is neccesary.

[Fish]

We should be going through the club and that will be done tomorrow.

[omni]

Good idea Fishy!

[Fish]

Mate I just hope they all see it for what it was and not portray us in a negative light

[MrCelery]

The stadium was built for a ARL tenant, who's fans are usually quite content to sit on their seats and not move! ;D

While the fence clearly was not up to the slightest pressure from one row of people leaning on it (maybe they are designed that way on purpose to prevent crush injuries), there is a trend to stop standing in stadia full stop - certainly in Europe.

We should consider ourselves lucky that the A-League and police have not enforced the no standing rules here yet.

Any incident of this type has the potential to wreck the great atmosphere we've created through 'standing for the Mariners'. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

I was impressed at the immediate response to the incident, no one lost their cool - not the Marinators, not security, not the police.

Spooky that this happened within days of the Heysel Stadium disaster documentary being on TV. Not that you could really compare our incident to that tragedy, although the potential for injury was clearly there.

I doubt that we would need to give over any money, but the gesture is a noble one.

I agree with WT's very first sentence.

[omni]

Celery: They weren't used to winning either, let alone a bit of SILVERWARE, SILVERWARE, SILVERWARE!

Fish: Mate, I just thank God the worst injury was a cut finger!

[DJ]

It was an accident, it's not like we all ran on the pitch after it was the reverse in getting everyone away from the fence to avoid any danger. I was very disappointed at the swearing thing thou

[Auburn Mariner]

Person,

I can see how people are beginning to find the songs repetitive. There were two instances on Saturday where Marinators tried new songs, and it was difficult for them. One was Heart Attack, who had some of us slow hand-clapping to a song where I couldn't understand a word he said, and I'd had one lite beer!! Then, that M-A-D fella who used to wear a Villa shirt to games had a chant going about the Central Coast ("Central Coast you are wonderful") and again it was difficult for him to be heard.

The time might have come for all of us to be in a tight-packed group, and to print some copies of our songs (especially for the youngsters who don't frequent this forum). Some of the ex-Poms have some great songs (Sacko, Red Vedder, DJ, etc), so maybe we need to make a bold move against the Paper Aeroplanes on Sept 4 and sing some new stuff, at the risk of having many D%^&head calls!!.

[Ursus]

The fence incident was a storm in a teacup.
Congrats to Froggy and others for keeping it under control.
The fence is prolly designed to give way before crush conditions occur. Reassuring.
What is needed is a letter and meeting with stadium officials. Do not offer payment. Offer a guarantee that the fence will not be rushed in future and hopefully they will allow us to continue to stand. All it needs is a gesture showing that we are not idiots (dooh!).
I think we can control ourselves until the end of the season when we win the premiership then who knows .