Bradford City Football Club is pleased to support the 2017 Level Playing Field (LPF) Weeks of Action. This annual initiative, now in its 12th year, aims to celebrate access and inclusion for disabled sports fans across England and Wales.
This period of celebration and awareness actually began last Saturday (4 March 2017) and runs through to Sunday 19 March.
Disabled people constitute the largest minority group at around 15% of the population and this number is increasing year on year.
Naturally, a large number of disabled people are football fans too and we are pleased to take this opportunity to thank our own disabled fans for their continued loyalty and dedication to this great club.
This year we are celebrating the ‘Game Changers’ that make a big difference to the match day experience of our disabled fans. We want to shine a light on those who lead and pioneer change that improves access and inclusion, and in many cases changing the lives of disabled people.
Bradford City has many active disabled supporters and #gamechangers, and www.bradfordcityfc.co.uk will highlight the activities they do within the community.
As part of the Weeks of Action, the Club would like to share with fans an away disabled supporters' review of the facilities at the Northern Commercials Stadium.
The review is written by Chesterfield supporter Sylvia Tooley and her carer Gemma Davey following the Spireites' visit to Valley Parade back in January:
Firstly the parking at the ground is mainly street parking, due to the ground being situated in a residential area. There is disabled parking on Midland Road available from 12pm-6pm. Sylvia was parked in this allocated parking, ideal as it's on a flat surface, however my only issue is that the curb is all raised! Now then access to the ground, the visiting supporters’ entrance is on the flat part of the ground. However our entrance was half way up a great big steep hill! Coming back down, required me to have a lot of strength so Sylvia wasn't flying down the hill!
2) Stewards/Staff.
The Stewards were amazing! They were very welcoming and friendly.
A steward kindly pushed Sylvia up the hill to the disabled entrance (having to catch his breath along the way) and took Sylvia directly to our seats. Lovely.
The designated steward to us was lovely. She took time to stand and talk to you. A great laugh too. We also spoke to the head steward for the away stand, she was a lady after own hearts. Made us laugh so much.
The gentleman who gave us access to the disabled toilet was lovely as well. He gave me a hand coming out of the toilet, as the pavement slightly titled the wheelchair.
3) Facilities.
The disabled toilet was very good, one of the best. It was clean, easily accessible and most importantly plenty of room! It's important to have plenty of room so Sylvia can manoeuvre her wheelchair about.
4) The view from our seats.
The view was good, Sylvia was able to see every part of the match. As a carer I like to be right next to Sylvia, this was done so today (7 January 2017).