The meeting then moved on to discuss the pricing of tickets of away fans at the Ricoh in light of what happened at Stoke last month where the home supporters were charged significantly less than the Sky Blue supporters, unlike Watford away last year where to their great credit the Coventry support were charged the same as the home fans. The club are looking into ticket pricing as a whole both for the remainder of this season and with an eye on next season too as any move of the away support could carry some financial impact.
On the subject of the proposed away support move, it was announced that the Safety Monitoring Group had concerns about ensuring that the away supporters exited the Arena as quickly and directly as possible and had suggested that this could be achieved if the corner between the Evening Telegraph and NTL stands were used. The SCG agreed with the football argument that it would be more advantageous to have home support behind both of the goals but felt that moving the away fans into the scoreboard corner would be better, and would be more likely to generate more singing and vocal support than that which is already enjoyed inside the Arena. The club continue to look into the possibility of this move which as reported last month would be popular initiative.
Other discussion topics were match day mascots, of which there are 3 per match with a waiting list of 2 years and ideas on how these might involve the JSB's more. Smoking and the possible use of ‘coralle' areas so that smokers may be able to smoke outside of the Arena, the installation of the PSL seat covers which are hoped to be completed in time for the Burnley match at the weekend, changes to how the half and full time scores are displayed on the scoreboard so that they are more visible to those in the evening Telegraph and NTL stands, and that the club are exploring the possibilities of having a clock installed inside the Arena.
Finally the group discussed the forthcoming 20th year anniversary of the FA cup final victory and the 40th anniversary of the clubs promotion to the top flight, and what could be done to commemorate and celebrate these significant events. It is hoped that a working group will meet in the very near future to discuss the ideas that were put forward in more detail.
That's it for SCG meetings for 2006, with the first meeting of the new year penned for Moday 8th January at a start time of 6pm to allow previous attendees who have suffered work pattern changes the chance to attend.