Away Seating Section – Wolves, Saturday 20th January

Following some discussions with the club we are going to be trialling a section of seats at away games starting with Wolves on 20th January. Most seem to be in agreement that the atmosphere at games could be so much better and we hope you’ll see it as a positive step. For me, there has always been something frustrating about being at an away game and finding myself away from the vocal contingent. The random allocation of tickets means fans who want to continuously sing are often spread about and this can have a detrimental impact when there is no group to kick-start it.

We’ve witnessed both extremes this year – we’ve had some tremendous, noisy followings and others where it has been lacking. With the latter games it seems to me that people do want to sing but are in the wrong place. And yes, winning always helps but we all know that that can never be relied upon.

There is nothing wrong whatsoever with wanting to attend a game and watch without standing, singing and the rest. But for many there is a desire to be more vocal, ideally without disrupting others. Hopefully this area of seats can help with that.

It will be a small block of 50 tickets to begin with. This may increase if demand is there and if it shows some promise but we’ll see how it goes. It is open to absolutely anyone although there is a clear expectation that those located there by choice do contribute vocally.

The intention of this block is not to lead the rest, it’s not some elite section of fans and nor is there any way you can be located in it automatically every game. If it takes off we might even struggle to get tickets there! What it is is a place for those who want to sing and shout to congregate together. There will be games where it isn’t as important but there will also be times when it can hopefully be a constant source of support and help drive the atmosphere in the entire away section.

Those of you who have been to Molineux before will know it’s very hard to create any sort of sustained atmosphere due to being spread out along the side of the pitch but we’ll try our best to make some noise.

Acquiring tickets in this section

Any fan can acquire a ticket in this block by simply asking in person at the ticket office or over the phone. There is no mechanism to do this online as far as we are aware. Please specify ‘Forza Garibaldi’ when purchasing. We did request that FG was not the code word; we don’t want this to be about us. But that’s what the club opted to use so we’ll go with it for now.

Nobody in this block gets any form of priority; you are still only entitled to purchase tickets as per your level of priority (away membership etc). Where tickets are selling quickly the club will look to start selling generally in this area when they deem it necessary. Nor will this block be located every game in some ideal location. We have specifically requested seats towards the back because that makes it easier to spread noise but there are no guarantees. Each and every game is also subject to approval from the home team – we expect to hear back from Fulham very soon which is the next away game and will update accordingly.

Clearly there will be a degree of trial & error with this. We don’t expect some 100% improvement straight away. It will take time to develop across a number of games but hopefully it’s something that will interest a number of you. Wolves tickets are on sale now (season ticket holders Saturday 6th January). If you are planning to travel and this appeals to you then please consider locating yourselves in this section.