Swindon Town

I am a powerchair user and my husband is a white cane user. We visited as away fans travelling in our Club’s official away travel accessible minibus. We have visited the County Ground on a number of occasions. Little has changed since my last review below written in 2012. In view of this I will restrict this review to additional things/changes.

Tickets
Swindon is one of the few Clubs that do not issue a separate ticket for a carer (entry for both is with one ticket). We did hear that this caused one disabled fan no end of stress, as they thought they had lost their carer ticket!

Seating Area
Same shelter for wheelchair users as previously with some fixed carer seats and a range of free standing seats. On a windy afternoon the shelter was much appreciated but it is certainly a case of non-wheelchair users beware. The roof on the shelter is just at the right hight for non-wheelchair users to hit their head either when leaving or jumping up to celebrate a goal! Even though we repeatedly warned people, one person still saw stars by hitting their head, it is so easy to do. I agree with previous reviewers that if there are not many of you in the shelter in will feel quite lonely as you are really isolated from the rest of the away fans, they cannot see you or easily get to you and you cannot see them. We got no visits from our other fans at any time during the afternoon as we usually do, so I think they didn’t know where we were. Sadly our view of the game was impaired throughout by the subs from both teams, standing in front of us watching the game in between them exercising. On a few occasions several of us shouted to ask them to shift which they did but only one it seemed got the hint that we meant stay out of our view permanently! It sounds petty but we had paid to watch the match and could not move elsewhere. We did not mind them so much running up and down but just standing watching the game, they could have just stood the other side of the corner flag, then we could have all watched. As it was, we nearly filled the shelter to overflowing particularly when an ambulant disabled fan and their carer joined us at half time as they said they had found the main away stand a little loud for them to cope with. I think there was a small seated area going up from pitch level to the left of the main bank of away fans where those requiring quieter seating were located. Seating for the majority of the away fans commenced halfway up a steep block of steps going up from ground level.

Audio Match Commentary
LPF’s website says this is available and to email reception at Swindon, which I did, to get an email back saying I had to email their DLO James and giving me his email. Could they not just forward my email to him? When I emailed James, he responded saying that the commentaries have not been available since lockdown. I emailed him back to say he needs to get Swindon’s details updated on LPF’s website!

Accessible Toilet
No change to my previous review. Radar locked but it seems to be left open as only the wheelchair fans can easily get to it.

Catering
It seems the kiosk at pitch level that I previously referred to has now completely gone, not just closed. This means that to purchase refreshments you have to go up the steep steps right to the back of the stand then down about 8 steps to then go through a door. You need to be nimble. My husband made it up with his white cane but had to ask a steward for help to get back down. I only sent him up for a pasty which I saw another fan with and they looked so good. £5 but nicest pasty I had had at any ground and soo hot and large. We shared one. Took our own hot drink as my husband could never have carried a drink down as well. The accessible away fans bar at the stadium after saying it was looking forward to us visiting, announced the previous evening that it would be closed due to unforeseen circumstances.

Club Staff
James the DLO who I exchanged emails with said he would come and say hello to us during the match. Had he done so he would have seen the problem with subs standing in front of us but he never arrived and has not emailed about his absence. Stewards were efficient in getting us into the ground. My husband overheard one telling another carer where they had to go to get refreshments. Noted no one checked if all the carers were able to climb a very steep set of steps and carry refreshments down. A system of taking orders and bringing items to people in the wheelchair area is much needed given how many carers have mobility issues themselves or maybe unable to leave the person they are caring for.

Leaving the Stadium
Having our bus so near to our exit was much appreciated, although due to the crowds in the area, it was actually quite difficult to walk across them when they were all going north to south and we needed to get across. Given the number of stewards around the bus leaving the ground we felt very safe and appreciated them stopping the traffic on the first roundabout outside the stadium so we could get away without delay.

Overall
Nothing terrible but as I have detailed a few small changes would vastly improve the experience for away wheelchair fans. We would not hesitate to go again and would encourage other away wheelchair fans to go.

I attended the Wolves match as an ambulant disabled fan with limited mobility but not a wheelchair user. Blue badge parking was available for £5. It was quite a walk from the car park around to the away stand. The stewards were very friendly and helpful. We were approached and taken to an accessible entrance without having to ask and were led to front row level access seats. The view of the pitch was reasonable only a small area was obscured by the dug outs from a seated position. The stewards were very supportive and even took our drinks orders at half time. An accessible toilet was close by. A lady who I think was the chair of the DSA came and checked that we had everything we needed before kick-off. A very good experience, thank you Swindon!

The car park is at the opposite end of the ground to the away supporters section.

Wheelchair spaces are at the front of the stand and if there is not many away supporters be prepared to feel a little cut off, as the rest of the support tend to gather in the upper part of the stand. There is a dedicated disabled toilet adjacent to the stand and a catering kiosk for children and disabled use only (does not have a low counter however). It is not possible (in a wheelchair) to get to the catering facilities beneath the stand so I was unable to have a beer with my friends either before the game or at half time, which again, makes you feel a bit cut off…………..

The stewards were helpful, it rained heavily throughout the match and although we were in the covered stand, cover didn’t extend very far, resulting in us getting wet, however a steward came along with plastic ponchos for us to wear and they were a godsend, so thanks to STFC for that.

Unfortunately our view was blocked by stewards & police congregating around us and a steward who stood up throughout the whole game, with that in mind I think it was wrong of STFC to charge £17. I don’t think we’ll be visiting again.

There is now a shelter in front of the stands (pitchside)for Wheelchair supporters, this was supplied by the Swindon Town disabled supporters group. The bar has been installed inside the eastern corner of The Arkell’s Stand in the room formerly used by the Lifestyle Services. Away supporters will be able to use the room each matchday from 12pm with a range of alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and other refreshments on sale. Matchday programmes are also be on sale inside the room which will have a capacity of up to 200 people each matchday. I think that if any disabled supporters require refreshments at half time ask a steward as I’m sure they’ll be able to help

As has been pointed out, there is now a dugout type of shelter almost on the touchline – which whilst keeping out the worst of the weather and even the cold, doesn’t stop the occasional stray ball from being heaved in (it happened 3 times when I was there). Also if you are on your own or just a couple you do feel very cut off from your fellow away fans – on the plus side players doing their warm-up may obstruct the view a bit , but at lest tend to have a chat/inquire if you’re ok, etc.

The away bar is fully accessible, however there’s no way to get yourself (or even the steward who tried) a half-time cuppa , or whatever. So it’s advisable to bring your own flask and sandwiches if you’re likely to feel a bit peckish Although one steward was kind enough to bring me a cup of tea from somewhere (?) but it was unfortunately as good as cold when it arrived. I can’t comment on the parking as I’m able to travel by coach which was parked exactly opposite the away gate – which has a bit of an incline to enter through the double gate.

There is also an adequate accessible toilet All in all, they have made an effort at Swindon, but until the stand is redeveloped – hopefully with a wheelchair platform inside of it – then the facilities will be (although better than some of the worse grounds) still be far from being perfect.

Visited as away supporters in our club’s official away travel wheelchair accessible mini-bus which was allowed to park close to the away fans entrance without any problems. Stadium appears to be on the edge of a residential area that leads onto out of town trading estates but not obviously near to commercial outlets apart from one pub. The ground has car parking on 3 sides of it and the area is all flat. In the 2 years since we last visited Swindon’s FC we were pleased to see they had opened a flat access away fans bar at the away end and had built a “dug out style” weather proof shelter for away wheelchair fans and their carers adjacent to the corner flag and in front of the away stand, I would guess about 8 spaces and some additional ones at the actual front of the away stand that previously were the only wheelchair spaces for away fans. This shelter was reported on positively by all the away wheelchair users who without the shelter would have got very wet on the day of our visit. I emailed the Club to let them know this and in their return email they explained that they had been eager to improve the facilities for away wheelchair users and were pleased to have this acknowledged. Credit to Swindon FC also for providing headset commentary for visually impaired home and away fans. My husband who finds this service invaluable found that the commentary was difficult to hear as on this particular day there was interference from another commentary that was obviously happening nearby in the commentary box. As he suspected the commentator he was listening to was not aware that this was happening we included this in our feedback to the Club and they said they would pass it on to be sorted, so hopefully future visitors should not find this a problem. On our first visit there was a designated children’s and disabled supporters drinks/snack counter close to where we sat, on this visit this was closed but stewards told us they were happy to go on our behalf to purchase anything we required. Accessible loo close-by of typical design and standard. Supervisor No 4 (sorry didn’t catch his name), deserves special mention, as he was lovely, upon our arrival came onto our mini-bus, he told us all we needed to know and made us all feel really welcome. Would happily visit again.