Empty seats at Oxford

[Broadstaff]

Watched the game on TV and was distraught to see empty seats. Have just arrived back in the country and assumed game would be a sell out. Anyone know what happened? Probably the penalty to pay for Sunday rugby.

[Old Hob]

Attendance of 6,800 ie an increase of 6 or 7 times their normal gate is not bad for LW and the fact that tickets seemed hard to get may have deterred some. I suspect they may struggle for numbers in future as there may have been a novelty factor involved plus the attraction of seeing Tigers

[daktari]

I think those that did go today may never go again - the lack of organisation in the car park was a wonder to behold. The first car park was full but they were still letting people in to it to drive around. After the match not a steward to be seen and so a free for all ...

I would say tigers made up at least 50% of the crowed, that said LW supports were vocal and it was nice to hear the Male voice choir.....beer was only £2.80 as well

[BJ.]

I think those that did go today may never go again - the lack of organisation in the car park was a wonder to behold. The first car park was full but they were still letting people in to it to drive around. After the match not a steward to be seen and so a free for all ...

We arrived in plenty of time and parked outside the front of Frankie & Benny's. I put the car back in our garage in Belper at 17.50 and was knocking back my first pint at the local by 18.05.

Car parking problems ... what car parking problems?

[Pam.B]

I think those that did go today may never go again - the lack of organisation in the car park was a wonder to behold. The first car park was full but they were still letting people in to it to drive around. After the match not a steward to be seen and so a free for all ...

We arrived in plenty of time and parked outside the front of Frankie & Benny's. I put the car back in our garage in Belper at 17.50 and was knocking back my first pint at the local by 18.05.

Car parking problems ... what car parking problems?

No parking problems for us either We parked at The Priory just after 12, food, drink, £2 charity car park all day.

[RWA]

Ditto....didn't arrive until about 1245 and a queue to get into the car park...parked right around the back of Frankie & Bennys.....the parking was FREE by the way, so I have no gripes whatsoever ! Short 2 minute walk to the ground, picked tickets up and had coffee in hand, North Stand Row A halfway line...thank you very much ! I though it filled up nicely and both South and North Stands looked pretty full to me. Oxford United steward commented to me that he had never seen anything like it, 2 sets of supporters getting along with each other, drinking beer and applauding each other !!

[daktari]

Ditto....didn't arrive until about 1245 and a queue to get into the car park...parked right around the back of Frankie & Bennys.!

That is because they closed the first car park after after it was pointed out to them that this would be a good idea...

leaving could have been ok, but there was no organisation.

[Iain]

We parked up in Oxford, had lunch and took a taxi to the ground. Traffic was appalling, quite incredible for a crowd of only 6,000.

And it was simply staggering that for an out of town stadium they provide no shuttle service back in to Oxford. We started to walk back and fortunately found a bus that went back in.

The ground was a soulless dump with unhelpful stewards and no signs anywhere to direct you to where your seat is. The one redeeming feature of the venue is that Oxford is a nice place to visit for an away game. The Thames Valley Taffs should just be allowed to move back to their old home. Then everyone's happy.

[BJ.]

The ground was a soulless dump with unhelpful stewards and no signs anywhere to direct you to where your seat is.

In the South Stand, we entered through one of the turnstles indicated on our tickets; we followed the sign for the block of seat nembers that included those on our tickets; as we came out into the stadium, the number indicating the block was on the wall behind it and then it was just a case of looking on the floor for the right row and at the numbers on the seats.

I agree about the lack of soul in the ground though. I've found this with every football ground I've been to that's been used for rugby.

[trendylfj]

There was plenty of advice about where to park and where not to park on this site before the game and it turned out to be absolutely true. I had no problems at all as i followed the advice given and was back in Market Harborough at 5.15. Out of town football stadiums are souless concrete tombs and this certainly was not any different but how on earth can LW survive on gates of this size. I think that they missed a trick here. They should have been concentrating on the local schools and given them 100 tickets each FOC. Youngsters who enjoy the experience will get dad/mum/the rest of the family to bring them next time.

If they can only attract 6000+ when tigers are the visitors, how many will they get when Sale are the visitors for example.

I did enjoy the rest of it and the priory pub owner must have increased his bank balance just a bit - more than LW for certain

[Brookfield]

We sat in the North Stand which was fair enough. However from one the aisle the rows were in the order of the conventional alphabet but from the other aisle the order was P Q S R T which provided for some light entertainment.
It is to be hoped that the Kassem Stadium is never full because the trafiic problems would be very interesting.

[Pam.B]

The ground was a soulless dump with unhelpful stewards and no signs anywhere to direct you to where your seat is.

In the South Stand, we entered through one of the turnstles indicated on our tickets; we followed the sign for the block of seat nembers that included those on our tickets; as we came out into the stadium, the number indicating the block was on the wall behind it and then it was just a case of looking on the floor for the right row and at the numbers on the seats."[/i]



It wasn't rocket science to follow the numbers on the tickets and in the stadium! We found the stewards very helpful. Oh well, can't please everyone

[BJ.]

It is to be hoped that the Kassem Stadium is never full because the trafiic problems would be very interesting.

Before the match, I was talking with the manager at Frankie & Bennie's. He said, for Oxford United matches, there are always traffic problems around the ground regardless of the gate.

[daktari]

I didn't have a problem inside the stadium and without asking was directed to my seat. Work colleges that went did have some issues and thought it was possibly because it was LW staff (not their fault BTW) rather than Oxford UTD staff. hopefully that can be worked on.

In all honesty,I can't see the ground ever being that full, it looked like Tigers outnumber LW 2 to 1 at least.

[longlivethecrumbie]

We were sat in the South Stand on the back row infront of the corporate boxes (which were all empty bar one, from what I could see). There was a mix of Welsh and Tigers fans in near us but the looks that the vocal ones around us got from both sets of supporters made me wonder if they'd ever been to a game at Welford Road (or similarly atmospheric ground before).

The atmosphere seemed rather dead (whether it being on TV helped or hindered those who were going to travel from the Richmond area, I don't know) and the only other side I can see taking much support there is Northampton.

Good luck to Welsh though, I think they may well need it.