Quote roader="roader"On a match day I can't see people being allowed to wander from one concourse to another as on Friday.'"
The stadium design means fans have to be able to move between certain parts of the ground.
For example there are no turnstiles in the West stand, instead there is a joint turnstile block for the South stand and the West stand. There is therefore no way of separating fans out. At the very least therefore fans in the South and West stands will be able to mingle.
I suspect in certain games when clubs with fans who have a more negative reputation turn up there will be limitations placed on people moving from the East (away) terrace, however in general i suspect it will be pretty much open season.
If you look at the stadium design, the concourses are way above legal specification in terms of design capacity. This is particularly the case with the North stand. So to me that indicates that the club have taken into account the likelyhood of fans wanting to meet up at half time for a chat.
For example the North stand concourse size to meet legal requirements concerning capacity should be 1169 metres squared, yet actually is 1641 square metres in area. The West concourse legal requirement is for an area of 973 metres squared , yet actually has 1334 metres squared.
The rules on new stadiums is that they should accommodate in their concourses no more than 20 people for every 10 square metres of room, with the concourses total capacity being 50% of the stands actual capacity at a minimum.
Hence for the west Terrace it should be able to hold 1946 people, which would be what you would expect from a stand designed to accommodate 3800 people
The West stand concourse has been designed to hold 2668 people which is more in line with a stand capable of holding 5200 people.
Similarly the North stand needed to have a concourse capable of holding 2338 people as thats around half of the total stands capacity in seats, however it actually has a capacity of 3282. Which is more in line with a stand holding around 6400 people.