Possible Changes at St Mary’s

A few weeks ago, we were invited to meet with Mr Cortese and Brendan McGlinchey (Operations Director at SFC), and representatives of the SDSA accepted the invitation.

The meeting was to outline possible “improvements” to St Mary’s, and how they may affect disabled supporters.

The main improvements discussed were:

• Consolidate the upper raised areas around St Mary’s into 1, 2, or maybe 3 new raised areas, probably within the Kingsland Stand.  This would have the following benefits;
• Allow a new refreshment area to be created for the new raised area, similar to the Dell Cafe (or maybe the Dell Cafe), so that disabled supporters can meet fellow supporters before, at half time, and after the game, and remain dry if wet outside, and have access to food and drinks.
• Dedicated fully trained stewards would be assigned to this section of the ground.
• Investigate other areas of the stadium, to see what improvements need to be made e.g. the disabled toilets, concourse refreshment and bookmaker service areas, pitch-side wheelchair seating, etc.

We were assured that no decisions have been made, and as the discussions progress, the SDSA would be fully involved, so we would have the opportunity to ensure that nothing is done that will affect the match-day experience of disabled supporters in a negative way.

Any changes that are made, will be most likely phased in over a few seasons and not done all at once.

We need your thoughts on the above, and also any thoughts as to what you think needs to be done at St Mary’s to make the experience for disabled supporters better.