Oldham ticket allocation for EFC may be significantly more than LFC fans received

BoysInBlue · February 2, 2013

Just seen this on the Oldham website:

http://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/news/article/20130202-statement-634220.aspx?

Latics in talks with police

Oldham Athletic are currently in discussions with Greater Manchester Police (GMP) over the ticketing allocation for the FA Cup with Budweiser, fifth-round tie against Everton on Saturday,February 16th.

GMP have advised the club that in light of instances of public disorder against Liverpool, both inside and outside the ground and the pitch incursion at the end of the game, that the whole of the Rochdale Road Stand be allocated to Everton in the interest of spectator safety.

The club is aware of its duty to ensure the safety of supporters whilst wanting as many Latics' fans as possible to be given the opportunity to attend the match.
Final details of the ticket allocation for the game will be announced at the conclusion of these discussions.

Basically, LFC fans received 2700 for their game, and shared the Rochdale Road stand (behind the goal) with 1600 Oldham fans, with a lot of stewards and columns of empty seats in between the two sets of fans in the same stand. But LFC also had fans in the home ends too (unofficially), which is what the police are trying to prevent.

They want all the away fans in one stand, contained, so they can micro-police us. The upside to that is that potentially we might get 4500+ tickets for the whole of the Rochdale Road Stand.

Given Oldham's capacity is only 10,638, there could potentially be almost a 50/50 split in terms of fans from both clubs, which is mad for an away game, but very welcome for us.

Brennan · February 2, 2013

Would be ace but i can't see it happening.

BoysInBlue · February 2, 2013

Brennan said:
Would be ace but i can't see it happening.

Police want it to happen; reading between the lines, Oldham are probably fighting it (understandably so).

Police usually get what they want when it comes to these things though, when you think of the times kick off times have been moved 'on police advice' etc.

TraffordBlue · February 2, 2013

BoysInBlue said:
Just seen this on the Oldham website:

http://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/news/article/20130202-statement-634220.aspx?

Basically, LFC fans received 2700 for their game, and shared the Rochdale Road stand (behind the goal) with 1600 Oldham fans, with a lot of stewards and columns of empty seats in between the two sets of fans in the same stand. But LFC also had fans in the home ends too (unofficially), which is what the police are trying to prevent.

They want all the away fans in one stand, contained, so they can micro-police us. The upside to that is that potentially we might get 4500+ tickets for the whole of the Rochdale Road Stand.

Given Oldham's capacity is only 10,638, there could potentially be almost a 50/50 split in terms of fans from both clubs, which is mad for an away game, but very welcome for us.

Would be good if it happens. Don't know if Oldham will allow that though, but I imagine after the trouble with our fans getting in the home sections at The Reebok in the last round, they will want to have us away from the home fans. I doubt Oldham would want that many of us in the ground though so I reckon they might give us about 2/3 of that section and no home fans in the end. That way, they would have us away from the home fans but not give us the whole end for the split to be almost 50/50 with home and away support. It depends if Oldham have the mentality that Bolton did in that they would rather sacrifice making more money at the expense of giving us more tickets.

BoysInBlue · February 2, 2013

EFC78 said:
Would be good if it happens. Don't know if Oldham will allow that though, but I imagine after the trouble with our fans getting in the home sections at The Reebok in the last round, they will want to have us away from the home fans. I doubt Oldham would want that many of us in the ground though so I reckon they might give us about 2/3 of that section and no home fans in the end. That way, they would have us away from the home fans but not give us the whole end for the split to be almost 50/50 with home and away support. It depends if Oldham have the mentality that Bolton did in that they would rather sacrifice making more money at the expense of giving us more tickets.

Totally see what you're saying mate and that could easily happen.

The Oldham chairman seems a bit of a hard nosed businessman, what with his talk of getting rid of Dickov, and Oldham are desperate for cash. Their debt is smaller than Bolton, but they don't have Eddie Lewis bankrolling them. They may go for the big payday (from an EFC perspective, fingers crossed).