‘Why not a beer?’ Fans raise a glass to Bristol City Women’s alcohol pilot | OneFootball

“If you can take a coke out there, why not a beer?” was the verdict of the Bristol City season‑ticket holder Andy Payne as he attended the game against London City Lionesses at Ashton Gate on Sunday. It was a historic day as the club, together with Southampton, became the first to pilot alcohol in the stands at a Women’s Championship game.

Drinking in view of the pitch is not allowed in the top five men’s leagues in England. That ban is backed by the Sporting Events Act of 1985 but it is understood women’s football is not included in the legislation. If the pilot is successful, the initiative could be rolled out across the top two tiers of women’s football in England. The pilot – which is being conducted at Birmingham and Newcastle too – is being carried out across the clubs’ remaining home league games of the season with some derby fixtures exempt.

“In women’s football there is no tribalism like there is in the men’s game, it’s a lot easier to police something like that,” Payne said. “There are less people in the stands as well. It’s not like anyone is coming here to get drunk, we’re coming here to watch football. It’s a good thing, I think it’s really positive. I hope it is a success. It works in rugby so there is no reason it shouldn’t work in [women’s] football.”

Bristol City’s head of women’s football, Romaney Pinnock, is on board with the project. “We want to give fans the choice to consume what they want in a healthy, safe way. We are used to it with the rugby [Bristol City’s home ground Ashton Gate is also Bristol Bears’ stadium], they can come here and choose to drink or not.

“It’s more about us saying: ‘What is your match-day experience going to be while you’re here?’ The benefit is more for our fans than for us. I don’t think there will be a massive surge in revenue from alcohol but more the case of our fans being able to say: ‘Oh that’s nice, I can have a beer.’ I don’t think we can shy away from revenue when you are selling more products but I think we are leaning towards [fans] having choice.”

The majority of the 2,643 fans at Ashton Gate seemed positive about the pilot going ahead. One supporter remarked some season-ticket holders had gone for a pint at half-time in previous games and missed early goals in the second half because they were finishing their drinks before coming back to their seats and said the pilot would fix that.

But not all of the supporters are on board. “It’s not needed,” Carol, a London City Lionesses season‑ticket holder, said. “You don’t need people sitting there with drinks under their seats, where they’ll get up and kick it all over you.” Another London City Lionesses fan, Sue Kitchen, agreed: “You get people getting up in front of you. We go to cricket as well and that’s the problem, people get up and go to the bar. It seems a little bit forced, I’m not sure [about it].”

There was no shortage of atmosphere throughout the match, which saw the visitors leapfrog Bristol City into second in the table with a 1-0 win. The nerves and excitement were palpable as the hosts fought for an equaliser. In particular there was a group of little girls whose voices echoed around the ground with a constant chorus of “come on you Reds” and “Bristol City are the best team ever”. The introduction of alcohol in seats did not harm the match‑day experience and there were no negative incidents reported at the ground as a result. Pinnock said she is not concerned about behavioural changes to fans.

“It doesn’t feel like a worry because our fans are different. I often think our fans are very similar to the Bristol Bears fans; family groups. If we haven’t seen major behaviour shifts for them, I doubt we are going to see major shifts within our crowds for women’s football games.

“You never know but we will see, it is a pilot. We have five games to work through and if we see that sort of change or see things that are not looking great we get to nip them in the bud each step of the way. And being a pilot, we’re not really committing to anything, we’re testing something.”

The loss means Bristol City are third in the table, three points behind the leaders Birmingham City with 11 games of the season left to be played. Only one club are promoted to the Women’s Super League and fans of these two teams will be hoping they can raise a glass in celebration come the end of the campaign.

Header image: [Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian]