Segregation Banner in Roseburn

[Nerja Jambo]

This eyesore is a real bug bear of mine. Surely the club could come up with something better than this and by doing so make more seats available. I noticed with the Hibs European game they had the away support in one section with a line of stewards in the row next to the passage way from the top to the bottom of the stand and on the other side of that passage way in the first row another line of stewards from the top to the bottom of the stand. That was taking out 2 rows of seats as to the at least 4 we lose. It used to be only 2 rows we lost until an idiot of a DU fan tried to cross over and start a fight. Then on top of that there is the bottom right hand corner sectioned of as well. Surely a perspex screen would suffice at that corner and another at the main stand. What a waste of seats and what an eyesore.

[Jambo-Fox]

I agree it looks awful!

 

And the loss of so many saleable seats is bad business. Probably one of the worst stadium set ups. Someone somewhere must be able to come up with a simple low cost solution. Even if away fans got allocated seats currently covered it would be better than leaving things as they are.

 

Surely identification and implementation of a solution is the accountability of the stadium manager (have Hearts got one?).

 

I’m sure Tony Bloom will have noticed how bad it is. And as a well travelled football fan he will have seen what other clubs have done with their stadiums. Perhaps he (TB) has already had a word ….. changes on their way …

[The Wrinkly Ninja]

Is it not all to do with changes in legislation / rules about safe exit from the stadium and number of seats to egress points? 

[Nerja Jambo]

2 minutes ago, Jambo-Fox said:

I agree it looks awful!

 

And the loss of so many saleable seats is bad business. Probably one of the worst stadium set ups. Someone somewhere must be able to come up with a simple low cost solution. Even if away fans got allocated seats currently covered it would be better than leaving things as they are.

 

Surely identification and implementation of a solution is the accountability of the stadium manager (have Hearts got one?).

 

I’m sure Tony Bloom will have noticed how bad it is. And as a well travelled football fan he will have seen what other clubs have done with their stadiums. Perhaps he (TB) has already had a word ….. changes on their way …

I hardly go to any away games these days, but I don't recall seeing anything at any ground as bad as this. 

[The Gorgie]

It surely it can't be too hard to get a protective screen put up instead, even it that means making the away end slightly bigger.

[Italian Lambretta]

It’s the bit in the corner that bugs me. No need for it when we play teams outwith the Irish sister act.

Sevco fans are not an issue and neither is the smaller teams.

utterly fecking pointless and we are losing revenue.

[Smithian]

It's totally odd and I'll never understand how Hearts as a big club in a capital city can't find one architecture firm close by or in a city with a direct flight that doesn't have a solution to the question of, "How do we set segregation since some matches may have different requirements than others, and a couple times a season our crosstown rival gets the whole stand."

 

In an otherwise beautiful stadium, it's an utterly tinpot look. I had a Hearts business team member who eloquently explained the architecture of the Main Stand and blending the hotel and the restaurant and the team facilities and the other facilities around the ground who looked like I had asked him an advanced algebraic equation when I asked about the banner. Odd.

[kila]

43 minutes ago, The Wrinkly Ninja said:

Is it not all to do with changes in legislation / rules about safe exit from the stadium and number of seats to egress points? 

 

That seems to be the story now

[Craiglockhart No.9]

Out of interest is Keith Hogg still at the club?

[Nerja Jambo]

Seems coincidental that it was erected soon after that DU fan tried to leap over the 2 row barrier. Plus how are other clubs not required to do the same. 

[77Mackay77]

Will be different for us as away grounds as we will take a higher support so less need for some kind of random segregation. I suspect the cost to install some kind of movable barrier is to high relative to the lost revenue. 
 

Although talking about lost revenue. Really bugs me how pretty much everytime a game is on tv there are loads of empty seats that were not made available for resale. Given its card readers and barcodes the club should be insisting that people not attending make their seats available. Stops other fans attending and the club loses revenue on the resale and food sales etc (ticket holder also loses out) and  of course more fans generally means better atmosphere. 
 

it’s not anything go like Hibs level of reading up as seats but it’s bug bear of mine. 

[Craig_]

Something like this would be better:

 

[Dallas Green]

14 minutes ago, Nerja Jambo said:

Seems coincidental that it was erected soon after that DU fan tried to leap over the 2 row barrier. Plus how are other clubs not required to do the same. 

Different stadiums, different stands, different amount of exits, placement of roller barrier inside school end etc.

 

There is loads of reasons

[Phil D. Corners]

20 minutes ago, Nerja Jambo said:

Seems coincidental that it was erected soon after that DU fan tried to leap over the 2 row barrier. Plus how are other clubs not required to do the same. 

Yeah, I remember that Budge was frustrated that we had to spend a load money due to fan behaviour. I think this was bigger segregation and more CCTV cameras. 
 

If we don’t react to trouble in the stands, the police will not give us a licence or something like that. So her hand was forced to spend 100k IIRC. 

[Ribble]

1 hour ago, The Wrinkly Ninja said:

Is it not all to do with changes in legislation / rules about safe exit from the stadium and number of seats to egress points? 

 

We have 5 sections and 4 vomitories/egress points. Each vomitory has a capacity of roughly 1.25 sections so with 1 vomitory for the away fans we can only ever sell 3.75 sections to home fans

Edited August 5, 2025 by Ribble

[Red Card Ref]

Was there ever any sort of closure or at the bottom corners of the Roseburn twenty years ago when Hibs or the Old Firm came? My memory is terrible, but I don't think there was. Probably wrong.

 

A net like they put up during shooting practice on game days would surely be all they need at the end sections?

[davemclaren]

Just now, Ribble said:

 

We have 5 sections and 4 vomitories/egress points. Each vomitory has a capacity of roughly 1.2 sections so with 1 vomitory for the away fans we can only ever sell 3.6 sections to home fans

We need movable vomitories. 😎

[luckyBatistuta]

13 minutes ago, Craig_ said:

Something like this would be better:

 

This🤣

[All roads lead to Gorgie]

8 minutes ago, Craig_ said:

Something like this would be better:

 

 

Surely some netting at the bottom between the two stands would stop objects being thrown at section N and stop the need for the smaller white covering. There could be an access tunnel there though come to think of it now. 

[Serge Pizzorno]

Not to go completely off topic, but did this not all start when Budge closed off Lower N and G for some games? Utterly cringeworthy stuff

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47899224

[chrystaf]

1 minute ago, davemclaren said:

We need movable vomitories. 😎

That's enough to make me throw up.

[soonbe110]

1 hour ago, The Wrinkly Ninja said:

Is it not all to do with changes in legislation / rules about safe exit from the stadium and number of seats to egress points? 

And toilets. 
Been done to death over the years.  Stand, for some reason, wasn’t built to be easily segmented. 

[Bender]

Perhaps its part of the sponsorship deal with the security company.

[davie1980]

1 hour ago, Nerja Jambo said:

This eyesore is a real bug bear of mine. Surely the club could come up with something better than this and by doing so make more seats available. I noticed with the Hibs European game they had the away support in one section with a line of stewards in the row next to the passage way from the top to the bottom of the stand and on the other side of that passage way in the first row another line of stewards from the top to the bottom of the stand. That was taking out 2 rows of seats as to the at least 4 we lose. It used to be only 2 rows we lost until an idiot of a DU fan tried to cross over and start a fight. Then on top of that there is the bottom right hand corner sectioned of as well. Surely a perspex screen would suffice at that corner and another at the main stand. What a waste of seats and what an eyesore.

 

Lot more than 4 rows mate

 

[Morgan]

26 minutes ago, Craig_ said:

Something like this would be better:

 

[BigStein]

When Bloom fancies building a super stadium I’d like to see the away support put in a cage

[All roads lead to Gorgie]

12 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

And toilets. 
Been done to death over the years.  Stand, for some reason, wasn’t built to be easily segmented. 

It was built to be the home end and was used as such until the Gorgie was built later so I don't think it was planned to be segmented. I think we realised having away fans congregating on Gorgie Road wasn't such a good idea but that didn't seem to be a problem when the terracing was there sometimes upwards of 10k in there. 

[Pasquale for King]

Considering how money oriented the board is we don’t half have an unnecessary amount of seats unsold for every home game, must add up over a season. 

[Nerja Jambo]

16 minutes ago, davie1980 said:

 

Lot more than 4 rows mate

 

Didn't realise it was that big. I never really bothered counting to be fair, plus the stupid bottom right hand corner. I wonder if the club have ever investigated other alternatives. Don't accept there is no way round this. 

[Serge]

Arsenal put up a mural that looked like fans when the North Bank was getting reconstructed. Something like that printed on the segregation banner would look better.

 

This was in the pre diversity awareness days and they eventually got called out because all the faces on the mural were white.

 

[CMc]

Design an Away corner into a rebuilt or retrofitted Wheatfield. 

[Ribble]

2 minutes ago, Nerja Jambo said:

Didn't realise it was that big. I never really bothered counting to be fair, plus the stupid bottom right hand corner. I wonder if the club have ever investigated other alternatives. Don't accept there is no way round this. 

 

Only real option is to create an additional exit to the right of the picture (there's currently a fire exit) but it's something that would be easy to do due to there being a lift there for disabled fans plus there would need to be adjustments to the toilets (or even new toilets built)

[Nerja Jambo]

8 minutes ago, Ribble said:

 

Only real option is to create an additional exit to the right of the picture (there's currently a fire exit) but it's something that would be easy to do due to there being a lift there for disabled fans plus there would need to be adjustments to the toilets (or even new toilets built)

That's my point though , there are ways round it. The additional income from having all these seats sold would eventually cover the cost. 

[old school tie]

They should also brick up the COVID tunnel in the Wheatfield and reinstate the seats.

[Smithian]

I have to think there is a major issue we’re just not seeing. The club commercial side is very good at maximizing returns, they see this eyesore every match. There is some ticket person paid on commission who’s worn out his or her boss. There’s a reason it isn’t fixed. 
 

I’m guessing it’s related to fact that all three stands outside of Main are older and don’t have the infrastructure of more modern stands. 

[The Treasurer]

2 hours ago, The Wrinkly Ninja said:

Is it not all to do with changes in legislation / rules about safe exit from the stadium and number of seats to egress points? 

Think it is something like that, but a simple reconfiguration of the seating and stair locations would be easy and not costly 

[neiljb]

Always thought a removable semi preminant fence would be much better. Take it out for the Hibs games.

 

Would free up a two or three hundred seats.

 

But obviously l'm not an expert in crowd control.

[jambo in iraq]

Put them in a cage, preferably with a high voltage current running through it. 

[The Tackle]

1 hour ago, Serge Pizzorno said:

Not to go completely off topic, but did this not all start when Budge closed off Lower N and G for some games? Utterly cringeworthy stuff

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47899224

A coconut

[Bill Sikes]

Put our Ultras & whoever we're playings ultras in that section with the banner. 

 

Put the banner over the top them. 

 

Lots of problems solved  😜

 

 

[WheatfieldWarrior]

Do we need away fans in the ground? surely they could just watch from home?

[WheatfieldWarrior]

53 minutes ago, CMc said:

Design an Away corner into a rebuilt or retrofitted Wheatfield. 

 

My take is that we need to increase capacity of the stadium, if that means making the wheatfield larger, or even the Roseburn then so be it.

 

I get the points about it being expensive or perhaps not cost effective, but the whole point of foundation of hearts for me was to be able to take on this kind of project.

Edited August 5, 2025 by WheatfieldWarrior

[Hagar the Horrible]

2 hours ago, Craig_ said:

Something like this would be better:

 

This bit with Pies

[XB52]

The wee banner at the bottom does my head in and there is absolutely no need for it at all.

[Craigieboy]

1 hour ago, davemclaren said:

We need movable vomitories. 😎

And suspended ceilings. 

[August Landmesser]

3 hours ago, The Wrinkly Ninja said:

Is it not all to do with changes in legislation / rules about safe exit from the stadium and number of seats to egress points? 

Yes

[CMc]

31 minutes ago, WheatfieldWarrior said:

 

My take is that we need to increase capacity of the stadium, if that means making the wheatfield larger, or even the Roseburn then so be it.

 

I get the points about it being expensive or perhaps not cost effective, but the whole point of foundation of hearts for me was to be able to take on this kind of project.

Get Bloom’s people irking on both the land purchase behind the stand and planning permission to do a retrofit wrap top tier (with actual Castle views). 
 

Hotel on the main stand side is proof of concept. Take the footprint as far west as we can.  
 

And hang a wee away fan cage in the north west corner. 

[davemclaren]

22 minutes ago, Craigieboy said:

And suspended ceilings. 

🥸🤣

[davemclaren]

50 minutes ago, WheatfieldWarrior said:

 

My take is that we need to increase capacity of the stadium, if that means making the wheatfield larger, or even the Roseburn then so be it.

 

I get the points about it being expensive or perhaps not cost effective, but the whole point of foundation of hearts for me was to be able to take on this kind of project.

Raise a motion at the next agm. 

[pablo]

How many seats do we think are unavailable in the stadium as a whole? There's pockets in the Wheatfield around the tunnel and maybe in lower G? The segregation and the corner of the away end in the Roseburn. Is it as much as 500?