Safe standing at West Brom is 'impossible'
West Brom's stadium boss has revealed that 'safe standing' is impossible at the Hawthorns without completely rebuilding a stand.
Baggies head of facility operations & development Mark Miles ruled out standing areas when he appeared at the latest meeting of the 'Albion Assembly.'
Fans quizzed Miles on the possibility of standing areas returning to the stadium, but he said: "It's illegal, it's not allowed in this country by Government.
"On the back of the post-Hillsborough report, all stadia (in the Premier League) have to be fully seated.
"There is a cost to put any safe or rail seating into the ground, but there is this number circulated through the Football Supporters Federation.
"If you put what they call the safe standing-rail seating system in, then you can get 1.4 or 1.5 (times) people into the stadium.
"That works in terms of space on the terracing, however you would need more turnstiles, more toilets, more exit gates, bigger vomitories, bigger concourses and greater gangways.
"The only way to achieve that is to knock the stand down and rebuild it. So the rail seating system - unless you rebuild a stand, which costs a lot of money - simply won't happen.
"Safe standing as a concept, as championed and sold by the Football Supporters Federation, simply won't happen.
"That's until some government official puts his head above the parapet - on the back of Hillsborough, which is where it came from - to say, 'actually the top two divisions should have standing areas again'."
