Disabled fans not being catered for in stadiums
If this article came out a few months ago I would probably be on my knees in agreement with him. But then I made my trip to Barcelona for my birthday and the hassle about wheelchair access tickets would have been enough to discourage any regular fan from going.
Never mind the translation problems with a Cork-meets-Catalonia accent, the whole concept of disabled access over there is nonexistent.
The staff on grounds weren’t sure where one entered and, as the disabled tickets were sold out, my father decided as I was carryable I would sit on a regular stand seat and hope for the best.
Now, 18-year-old me was very excited, sitting in a stand for the first time and the Athletic Bilbao fans were enjoying minding the chair, even though they were unsure what it was in its abandoned state.
To me, that’s what you’d call a flawed system for disabled fans because, even though all the tickets were sold out, there was no other wheelchair user in sight.
I came across a survey by the BBC and Level Playing Field, a charity promoting the interests of fans with disabilities, which listed the top English stadiums for access and only three Premier League teams made the grade. Outraged, I scrolled to the comments section and saw a very valid point. The top ranked stadiums were newly built and designed when wheelchair users started going to matches. Back to the Camp Nou in Barcelona, which was constructed in the 1950s, was there ever a wheelchair user around? But I feel this shouldn’t be an excuse.
Stadiums such as Croke Park do have a mighty wheelchair area until you get some tall person sitting in front of you. You obviously cannot tell every spectator to stay sitting. I think the wheelchair section should be placed in the front or at the front of the second tier — it should never ever be in the back.
To the guy who wrote the article, thanks for highlighting this issue, but once you go outside of Ireland you will soon realise Croke Park is just another dot in the ocean. But to all future builders please imagine yourself in a wheelchair and think of ways that some building can be made more accommodating to everyone.
