Text at top (next game etc)

Next Game: Away At Leamington In The League On New Years Day At 3.00pm

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Mansfield Capacity Cut Again

Mansfield have had the capacity at Field Mill cut again following the latest problems with the ground at the weekend.

The club issued more tickets than allowed under their safety certificate, and allowed 200 ticketless fans into the ground as well, for their derby match with Chesterfield. Now the club, already operating on only 70% of the capacity of Field Mill, will see the capacity dropped to only 4,684 until the Safety Advisory Group are happy with arrangements at the club.

A spokesman for the SAG said: "We are still investigating what occurred at the recent Chesterfield match, and are working with Mansfield Town to help them build on the safety improvements that have already been made.

"We have decided to reduce the capacity of the whole ground to 50% until the club can restore our confidence in the computerised turnstile monitoring system, which is currently unable to accurately determine the number of supporters coming into the ground. The club are also aware of the problems with the turnstile system and share our concerns. Once this problem has been rectified, we will raise the capacity back to 70% in line with ongoing improvement measures."

The capacity at Field Mill was cut to 4,684 in the summer, prompting speculation that the club would not meet Football League criteria and be booted out of the League. They gained the increase to 6,557 on the eve of the season but have now lost the extra capacity until further notice.