Fans United are a group of the following : Stretford End Flags, Pete Boyle & Reclaim United who have secured permission from Manchester United to do a singing section trial at Old Trafford on 23 October for the Real Sociedad game.
Fans United met up with representatives from the club last Friday. United reiterated their support to helping fans to establish a permanent singing section at Old Trafford. The first step is a test to see if we can generate enough fan interest and to demonstrate that we can self-police a successful singing section during a match. For a number of reasons, the club are not able to permit this test for the Capital One Cup game against Liverpool (not that we should need a boost in atmosphere for that one). The most important thing we need to ensure is that this first test passes off without major incident. It was thought best to choose a game that could best ensure this.
To make sure we don’t lose momentum, the club have instead offered the current away fans section [South East Quadrant/L Stand/Blocks E230 & E231] for the Real Sociedad match on Wednesday 23rd October.
It is our responsibility to now make this work. The club will offer help and support, they will work with us with regards to allowing flags into the section, help with the arrangements around a march to the ground, find areas for us to put up banners in the section – but it’s up to us, the fans, to make sure it is a success and that we work with the stewards to self-police.
In consultation with the club we have agreed to limit the singing section to a manageable number. We will therefore keep the number of fans in the singing section to a maximum 1,400 fans. We now need to all pull together and get 1,400 fans to fill the section and make it a great atmosphere. The way it will work is as follows:
1) Season ticket holders and members should immediately register their interest to be in the singing section by emailing their name, season ticket/
2) On Monday 30th September, interested season ticket holders will be asked to call the ticket office and confirm that they want to transfer their current seats to singing section for this game. This will be sorted over the phone.
3) The club have agreed to honour upgrades and downgrades. Therefore the club will refund the price difference to fans moving from more expensive seats and not charge the extra for fans moving from less expensive seats.
4) If the full allocation of 1,400 seats are not taken by existing season ticket holders, the remaining seats will be made available to non-season tickets holders as long as they are members and who have registered their interest at the email address.
The club seem very committed to helping us make this work. Now it is up to us.
We will be publishing further answers to questions over the next few days, but the key first step is for you to register your interest at otsingingsection@hotmail.co.uk
