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​​Union FS & Foxestrust - Safe Standing at Filbert Way
Joint Proposal, November 2024

Further to the first FAB meeting and LCFC’s posted update on the 1st November, Union FS and the Foxestrust submitted the following formal proposal to LCFC, detailing standing section options at Filbert Way the same day. We are committed to working with the club to ensure the smooth implementation of this transformative project. We hope that this collaborative spirit is replicated, and the club’s actions match the words of Chief Executive Susan Whelan:​

“Our renewed commitment to enhanced fan engagement means ensuring our supporters’ voices are heard on the topics that matter most to them.”

“We feel the time is right to bring the conversation forward and look at complementary options that may be introduced quickly in parallel to our longer term plans.”

- Susan Whelan, Nov 1 2024

LCFC will be sending out a survey to season ticket holders this week to gather further feedback, alongside the FAB and FCC sessions that UFS and the Trust have been attending on the topic over the prior weeks. We encourage as many supporters as possible make their voice heard and complete the survey before the deadline.

Our Proposal

Prior to submitting the proposal to LCFC, we developed a number of options that varied in location and scale. Before we list each option and the size and potential pros/cons, there are a few points to make that are applicable to all 3 options. 

As a group we are unanimous that a safe standing area should be positioned at the Southern end of the stadium. The reasons for this include:

-   The South Stand has been the spiritual home of LCFC’s vocal support for over half a century
-   We anticipate resistance from Leicestershire Police if we lobbied for an area in the North Stand for example, due to the proximity with visiting supporters.

We understand that not everyone shares our views here, and that there is a contingent of fans that would hope to see a standing area positioned next to the away fans. We feel there are two key hurdles that would make this impractical in the long term:

-   We know that as part of the stadium development masterplan, a new row of executive boxes will be positioned between the existing East Stand and the second tier. Having standing fans in front of executive boxes isn’t going to be something that the club would entertain, based on our experience.
-   Again visible on the masterplan drawings, the away end is proposed to move around slightly, getting closer into the North stand, taking up the existing P block, and ending around where a the current FA Cup away allocation ends in the north stand. This cuts into the north stand quite significantly, and leaves only around 3500 spaces sandwiched between away fans and the current West Stand, which we feel is far from ideal and as we will detail later, will not match the demand for standing spaces either now, or in the future. This would also mean the full relocation of the family stand, meaning more disruption.

That being said, we know that there is appetite for a standing area close to the away end, and the back and forth this generates. Our founding members were almost all based in L1 before forming the group, so a lot of us have enjoyed this first hand over the years. If any individuals or groups wish to lobby on behalf of a standing area in the east or north stand alongside our proposals, please reach out to us and we are happy to share our contacts and experience gained over the last decade.

Sight lines (IE the views of fans in seated areas not being blocked by standing fans next to them) are a key consideration during this implementation and each of the following options will need at least a small amount of adjustment of the hardware immediately either side of the sections, like we recently saw at Southampton away. Unfortunately this may lead to losing a small amount of seated capacity in the short term, but we are confident that this is something that the club will have legislated for.

Finally, and this is perhaps the most important point of all, this implementation will only hit its full potential, if the ticketing and relocation process is handled correctly. As we saw with the current SK1 singing section, doing a half job in this regard will kill the potential of this stone dead. Between the fans and the club, we simply have to agree to a full clear out of whatever section is decided upon, giving all those currently in that area time to move out of the affected area, and then a full period to move interested, motivated fans back in. Otherwise we will go through a lot of effort and the club will come in for a lot of criticism, and the result will be underwhelming. We are happy to meet LCFC as much as needed to assess the impacts of this and remedial actions as appropriate. Alongside the FoxesTrust, we have gathered examples of how these mitigations have been put in place at other clubs.

Demand

We have done in depth analysis of the data that has been collected over the years by UFS and more recently the Trust, combining this with accessible information and our knowledge of the stadium on match days.

Based on the availability of data, we assess the demand for standing spaces at Leicester City at between 13% and 17% of the total home end capacity. With the current home end capacity around 29,000, this places our estimate at between 3,770 and 4,930 standing spaces to meet the current demand.

If the stadium were to be expanded to the proposed 40,000 total capacity, this would take the required home fan standing capacity to between 4,810 and 6,290. We know from both our own surveys, and that conducted by the Foxes Trust, that members (those able to purchase the new season tickets that would be made available via the expansion), want to stand in similar numbers to current ST holders, so any expansion to the stadium would swell the demand for standing spaces proportionally.

We are aware that rail seating needs to be placed in the away end at the same ratio or higher than home areas. We will defer to the club’s decision on this matter.

The above interpretation is based on the following data, of which was taken from each of our own surveys.

58% of people who took the foxes trust members survey said they support safe standing with 44% wanting to stand and a further 30% saying they would support it based on its location.

58% of the wider fanbase who took the foxes trust survey also said they supported safe standing with 42% saying they would like to stand at home games and a further 26% also saying they would support the introduction of safe standing depending on location.

The results also include fans who voted that they wouldn’t use safe standing so don’t have an opinion on it, rather than being ultimately against safe standing areas.

Only 8.72% of the public survey and 5.59% of the members surveyed stated outright that they did not support the introduction of safe standing.

87.3% of respondents to the Union FS survey stated that they support the introduction of safe standing, with 85.5% also believing that it would improve the atmosphere.

Only 71.4% of those surveyed were season ticket holders, meaning that a good proportion of those who support safe standing were also members. With the prospect of the east stand expansion happening in the future, it is important that the size of the standing area meets the demand of the increased attendances, of which a proportion of the new fans attending will also wish to stand at matches.

If the demand is not met it could cause people standing in seated areas causing conflict and potential issues with SAG. The club have repeatedly raised the issue about "migration" in the current singing section, IE people from outside of the section moving in and crowding the area. This shows us the current section does not meet demand. The only way to prevent this happening in the future is to cater appropriately for standing fans.

Interestingly 61.3% of the 1267 respondents come from fans who currently sit at home games with 821 also saying that they wished to stand at games both home and away but were not able to due to those around them sitting, this shows us that the safe standing area created needs to have ample capacity, not just cater for those who are currently in standing areas at home games.

Foxestrust Survey Data

The Options:

Option 1: Full width, full height South Stand. Capacity: 7200.

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This is our ideal option, a direct copy of what Southampton have just implemented at St Mary’s, so we know it can be done in a ground like ours and a fanbase of a similar profile. This would emulate the Spion Kop of Filbert Street, with a full end of standing fans for the home side to attack and rely on the support of. This would be simply transformational for the matchday experience and we are convinced it would unlock a new level of home support for the team.

Option 2: Full width, half height South Stand. Capacity: Circa 4000.

 

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This is our second place option. This would be the full width from SK1 to SK4, but starting only from the vomitories upwards. This option would cause no sight line issues due to the curve of the stand in the corners, and the existing barriers/staircases. The benefits of this mean that we have vocal, standing fans behind the goal, albeit further up than the first option, but we also have the option to keep fans in their seats in the blocks directly behind the goal. This would also give the option to shift fans who do not wish to stand directly down the stand into very comparable seats in the same block.

It would also give the option of further expansion of the standing areas in the future, row by row until the desired capacity is reached. An example of a similar stadium with this setup is Stoke City. This option would cater for our calculated demand almost perfectly.

Option 3: SK1/G1 corner. Capacity: Circa 2500.

A).

B).

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This final option would put the section in the curve between the South and East stands. This would keep the standing fans close to each other, mirroring the existing away end. This option would also solve any sightline issues due to the curve in the stadium. We do feel however that this would not meet the capacity of the demand for standing areas, and we would still have issues with fans migrating into this area from seated areas. There would however be the option to expand into the Kop in future, as indicated in the second image.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have presented sound options to the club based on data collected over half a decade. This proposal builds upon the groundwork that we set with our very first standing proposal to the club all the way back in 2020 that resulted directly in the current SK1 singing section trial, and our 36 page document over the summer of 2024 that detailed the state of play of every Premier League side’s standing plans.

This is the single largest opportunity to re-invigorate the home support at Filbert Way, which after 20 years of stagnation has nosedived alarmingly in recent years. LCFC have the chance to future proof our stadium and to reignite the passion and support that drove the club to its most successful period in 140 years.

We urge them to take that chance.

Union FS
FoxesTrust