SGSA Approval Received -- Crowdfunding Campaign to Begin on 2nd August
Following months of hard work and consultation with a number of football governing bodies, the Supporters Parliament in conjunction with Shrewsbury Town Football Club has great pleasure in announcing that the club is now in a position to formally apply for changes to its Safety Certificate in respect of bringing a "Safe Standing" area to the Montgomery Waters Meadow stadium.
This means we are a big step closer to our dream of becoming the first English Football League club to have a safe standing area with rail seats installed in a (currently) all-seater stadium. The application has been approved by the Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA) and the football club have now received written confirmation of the approval.
Many football fans across the UK and Europe will already be aware of how popular and successful rail seating has become amongst supporters and how having a safe standing area can increase the atmosphere inside stadiums. Many clubs across Germany have rail seats, for example Borussia Dortmund whose fans form a "Yellow Wall" during games, while closer to home Celtic FC installed 3,000 seats before the 16/17 season - a major success for the club. Over the recent weeks, we have received huge support for what we are trying to achieve for Shrewsbury Town, including from our local MP Daniel Kawczynski who has written to us to give us his backing from Westminster.
Being a supporter-led project also means that the cost of installing the rail seating will be fully funded by the supporters of Shrewsbury Town, assisted, we hope, by supporters of safe standing from all over the country. To help us achieve this funding we have acquired the services and expertise of Tifosy, the global leaders in sports crowdfunding. By pledging your support to the campaign you will have an opportunity to secure one of a range of exclusive rewards, some of which will be specifically designed for Shrews fans, while some will appeal to fans across the UK and hopefully beyond.
The campaign will launch officially on Wednesday 2nd August. Before we launch on a national level we will hold an exclusive launch night on 1st August at the Montgomery Waters Meadow Stadium, tickets for which will be available on a first come, first served basis. The launch night will give everyone who attends the opportunity to hear from those people involved in the project: Roger Groves and Mike Davis from the SP, Brian Caldwell, CEO of Shrewsbury Town, Jon Darch from the Safe Standing Roadshow and James Pollock from Tifosy.
This really is an exciting project, not just for our football club but for our supporters too. The publicity we have received so far has gone beyond our wildest dreams so we urge every supporter of our football club to get behind us, back us by pledging some money and play your part in helping Shrewsbury Town become the first club to introduce Safe Standing in the EFL.
If you are interested in coming to the launch event, please email your name to shrews@tifosy.com. Please also visit www.tifosy.com/shrews to register your email address to receive the launch announcement.
Mike Davis & Roger Groves
Supporters Parliament
Contacts:
Mike Davis, STFC Supporters Parliament mike@davisitc.co.uk
Roger Groves, STFC Supporters Parliament rogermgroves@btinternet.com
Brian Caldwell, Shrewsbury Town FC Brian.Caldwell@shrewsburytown.co.uk
James Pollock, Tifosy james@tifosy.com