Grimsby Town

I am a powerchair user and my husband is a white cane user. This was at least our fourth visit to Blundell Park as away fans. As we wrote a lengthy review just 6 months ago, we will restrict this to just the changes between our two visits which were significant even though nothing had physically changed at the ground.

Arrival and Entry to the Ground
I should have read my last review before this visit, as even though I am writing this the day after our visit I am still unsure if the entrance we used was for all away fans, we think it was, it was certainly down the second right hand turn after we had left the coach.

Seating Area
Despite our positive comments in our last review, the first indication we had that actually there is not enough space at the away end for wheelchair users was that there was not enough room for a manual wheelchair to be pushed past my 6-wheel powerchair when I was in place. When we equalised at the beginning of the second half and a load of our fans surged to the front, it was clear that should we score again and take the lead we would be in danger of being swamped and at risk of physical harm (it has happened to us at other grounds). My husband went to explain this to the stewards and told them such a situation has often caused him to have a seizure. They reassured him they would keep us safe. 4 minutes later what we predicted happened and we were not adequately protected, the stewards were reactive in standing over us once they had seen us swamped rather than being proactive in preventing it happening. This left my husband dazed and struggling to prevent a seizure. As the stewards solution to this was to say they would relocate us to the home stand, NO!, we made our own risk assessment, that we could not trust the stewards to protect us and immediately left the game, thereby spending the majority of the second half sat back on the coach waiting for the game to end, so we could go home. We believe this was the right decision for us as were told the situation after the third goal in stoppage time was even worse. In a further attempt to keep us in the ground the stewards did offer that we could move further along in the away end or watch from the tunnel but by then we simply had no reason to believe that we would be protected from harm. As we were leaving a police officer spoke to us. He told us he had witnessed what had taken place, agreed that we were not given adequate protection and said he would be informing our home club of what had taken place. This is a situation which will continue to happen where there is a significant away crowd and there is no protected dedicated spaces (either raised or recessed) for wheelchair users. We were told at one ground that having wheelchair users sat at the front of the seats is now in contravention of fire safety regs as they are restricting evacuation routes. I did notice that the wheelchair users in the home end were positioned immediately behind the hoardings round the pitch so no one could get in front of them.

Catering
The kiosk that we used last time was not open, we were told due to a “mix-up”. This meant you had to go into the away bar for hot drinks which my husband found very congested and difficult to negotiate. A coffee cost £3, an increase of 50p from 6 months ago.

Stewards
We place responsibility for what happened entirely with the stewards not our own fans, as fans will always surge forward at key moments in the match. We cannot believe that this is the first time this has happened and would therefore expect the stewards to be discussing this with visiting wheelchair fans before the game to assist them to make informed decisions about where they are happy to sit. In contrast to our last visit 6 months ago, given how friendly the stewards were then, not one spoke to us before my husband spoke to them as I have detailed. No offer of blankets as there were on our last visit despite it being “a bit nippy” and at one stage threatening rain, wheelchair users are not undercover if it rains unlike all the non-disabled fans. We thought it significant that the stewards were not actually located in the away end but in the tunnel between the home and away ends of the stand behind the goal. It seemed the only time they entered the away end apart from walking through before the match was when they had to stand over us to protect us. The DLO was called and did arrive when we were leaving the stadium but did not speak to us. As we have spoken to many lovely DLOs at various grounds around the country we did think this was a bit odd.

Leaving the Stadium
Given when we left, this was easy for us and we had the advantage of leaving in the light.

Overall
We would go again if our team was playing at Blundell Park but we would be speaking to the stewards as soon as we arrived to ask them about their plans to keep us safe. We would sit in the wheelchair spaces furthest away from the goal, albeit these make it more difficult for my husband to follow the game through his binoculars.

I am a powerchair user and my husband is a white cane user. This was at least our third visit as away fans to Blundell Park over the past decade or so, travelling in our Club’s official away travel coach, albeit it seems I have not previously written a review and this one has got delayed by other things, so my recall is not as detailed as I usually manage.

Arrival and Entry to the Ground
Having been twice to evening games at Blundell Park in the dark, arrival and entry to the ground is probably the worst bit. The stadium is in Cleethorpes not Grimsby, easy to get to at the end of a dual carriageway that goes from the motorway but its location feels very cramped. It is an area that appears as if the passage of time has not been kind to it. It is adjacent to an area of long straight, narrow housing streets, not designed for modern day match traffic and coaches. The pavement from where the bus dropped off was interesting as it was two paving flags wide with a third, nearest the road at a 45-degree angle to the road. In our book, very odd and not good for wheelchairs & white canes, particularly as it seems this is the road where all the Blue Badge parking is for the ground. At first, I thought the road was closed but then discovered that it wasn’t! You need to be vigilant! Entry seemed to be halfway down the long side of the stadium, adjacent to the parking. In the dark I got totally disorientated and I can’t really say whether we entered where all the away fans entered or not. I think certainly at some point we went a different way to the non-disabled fans but we were close to them. We went along a pathway inside the ground but outside the stand if that makes sense, turned right where away fans were standing about (which I think was the back of the away end) then had a big gate (wall sized) opened for us to pass through which I think actually took us into the home half of that stand but then as we approached the pitch we turned right, back into the front of the away end.

Seating Area
Away wheelchair fans are located pitch side in front of the away fans. I think we counted spaces for 11 wheelchair users with adjacent carer/companion seats. See photo. Space in front of us was good and so was the view of the pitch. As non-wheelchair users entered and left a different way we did not get overwhelmed at any time. Prior to the game there was some passing traffic of Club officials, youth teams etc but this stopped when the match started and did not trouble us. We were kindly offered blankets by the stewards and when we declined, they told us if we needed them at any time to ask for them. Away fans were able to come and chat to us both before the game and at half time. The away end was comparatively small and not high. Overall, we were very impressed by this area.

Audio Match Commentary
We understand that this is only available for home fans as the headsets plug in at specific seats.

Accessible Toilet
Accessible toilet next to the Ladies in the away end on the right as you enter and on the left if you are approaching from the wheelchair seating area, just beyond the “big gate”! Clean and well lit. Sorry can’t clearly remember about whether there was hot water etc but I know I didn’t complain about it, so all good!

Catering
A small serving area on your right as you entered. Coffee was £2.50 which showed on our bank statement as “The Tall Fish Guy”! We did ask if they did chips but we were told no as frying would result in “the whole place going up”.

Club Officials
All the stewards we met were friendly and helpful, a credit to the Club. Each one that passed us shared a friendly word with us and checked that we were ok. Even the young woman who’s task all night was to open and close the “big gate” as we went to the loo etc, did so with good humour, although she admitted she was freezing and looking forward to getting home for a warm.

Leaving the Stadium
I noticed as we were leaving round the back of the stand we headed the opposite way to the rest of our fans. Retracing our steps back to the coach, given the challenges we had getting into the ground, were repeated so we were very grateful for assistance from fellow fans. Using the ramp into the coach from the road with passing traffic, let’s say was an interesting experience.

Overall
Impressed by everything and everyone in the ground, the challenge for us was getting in and out of the ground but we would still happily go again.

The disabled provisions at the ground are like the stadium itself years out of date. One disabled area in the whole of the ground is laughable, no seating next to wheelchairs, no low level food counters, not many ramps anywhere, club shop included and no access possible into the newest stand in the ground where bizarrely the player of the year awards are held. The only redeeming factor is the willingness of the stewards to help where possible and the fact that myself and my dad who goes with me are made to feel most welcome does help. Get it sorted town, better still let’s get the new ground up and running. Up the mariners.