Kombi seating Report
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FOOTBALL LICENSING AUTHORITY

REPORT ON THE "KOMBI" SEATING – VOLKSPARKSTADION, HAMBURG

23 & 24 FEBRUARY 2001

 

FOOTBALL LICENSING AUTHORITY

REPORT ON THE "KOMBI" SEATING – VOLKSPARKSTADION, HAMBURG

23 & 24 FEBRUARY 2001

Contents

Paragraph

1. Introduction

7. Background

10. Description of the ground

20. The "Kombi" seat

32. Crush barriers

41. The standing accommodation

48. Match day observations

53. Safety systems and safety management

56. Conclusions

Annex

A. The inspecting team

B. Technical drawing of the "Kombi" seat

C. Photographs

1. External view of the Volksparkstadion

2. Conversion of "Kombi" seat from standing to seated position

3. "Kombi" seat in seated position

4. Removable crush barriers

5. Crush barrier fixing and bracket

6. Crush barrier layout

7.  Home standing terrace in use

FOOTBALL LICENSING AUTHORITY

REPORT ON THE "KOMBI" SEATING – VOLKSPARKSTADION, HAMBURG

23 & 24 FEBRUARY 2001

Introduction

  1. The FLA visited the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg on 23 and 24 February 2001, to assess the "Kombi" seating that has been installed in two areas of the ground. Details of the FLA inspecting team are attached as Annex A.
  2. The remit of the FLA was to assess whether the "Kombi" system could reasonably and practicably be installed at Premiership or Football League grounds in England and Wales. Its analysis of the Volksparkstadion was directed solely to this end. It was conscious that ground requirements, approaches to crowd management and spectator behaviour differ between England and Germany.
  3. This report does not address the general arguments for and against all-seated grounds, which include not merely safety but spectator comfort and well-being and crowd control. These fell outside the team’s terms of reference.
  4. On 23 February, the FLA spent 4½hours at the Volksparkstadion. It examined the ground in great detail and discussed its history, design, and management at length with:

Herr Kurt Krägel – Event Manger of the Volksparkstadion;

Herr Cay Dingwort – Commercial Manager of Hamburger SV (the club); and

Herr Kurt Pfefferle – the engineer from Max Maier Metallbau, the company that designed and installed the "Kombi" seats.

  1. On 24 February the FLA observed the ground in use, over a period of some 4 hours, before, during and after the match against VFL Wolfsburg, from various vantage points around and within the standing accommodation. A member of the team also discussed the ground and safety management arrangements with:

Polizeioberrat B Överdieck – Hamburg Police;

Herr R Bade – Hamburg Fire Service;

Representatives of the Hamburg Ambulance Service and Red Cross;

Power Security – the company responsible for stewarding.

  1. The FLA team is grateful to all those whom it met for their warm welcome and for their willingness to speak openly and frankly. This made the FLA’s task much easier. Particular thanks are due to Herr Pfefferle, with whom discussions continued after the visits on both days. Save where specifically indicated, the opinions expressed in this report are those of the FLA.

Background

  1. The Volksparkstadion (see photograph 1) is situated in a large open area in Altona, some five kilometres from the centre of Hamburg. It has sufficient parking space for 11,000 vehicles. It is one of the few grounds in Germany owned by the football club, having been purchased from the city of Hamburg for 1 DM in the early 1990s.
  2. The original ground opened in 1925 with a mostly-standing capacity of almost 42,000. After having been rebuilt in 1953 with 75,000 mainly standing places, it was again extensively re-developed for the 1974 World Cup, with a capacity of 60,000 (25,000 seated and 35,000 standing).
  3. By 1998, the ground had become fairly run down and was in generally poor condition. In 1998 the Club began the total re-development of the ground, including turning the pitch through 90 0. This work is now almost complete. The club has borne most of the cost itself with some assistance from the City.

Description of the ground

  1. The Volksparkstadion is a three-tiered ground constructed of steel and reinforced concrete with a cable stayed fabric roof. It forms a complete bowl. In plan, it consists of two side stands and two end stands with single facetted corners at 45 0. Each of the four main stands is gently curved to improve sightlines.
  2. In its normal domestic configuration the ground has a capacity of 56,000 including 9,500 standing places. In its international mode, the capacity falls to 51,000, all seated. These figures include 50 hospitality boxes, accommodating 580 spectators, and a further 1800 premium seats.
  3. The main East stand contains the club administration offices, team and hospitality facilities. The lower tier of the North Stand consists of 4300 special seats, known as "Kombi" seats, which convert to form some 8500 standing places for home supporters. There is a similar but much smaller area for visiting spectators (500 seats / 1000 standing) in the corner of the South and West Stands. (Further seated places are provided for visitors on the tier above to meet the Bundesliga’s ten per cent requirement).
  4. The standing capacities are calculated on the basis of one spectator per 50cm along each step. The equivalent in England and Wales would be one spectator per 55cm, a reduction of 10 per cent.
  5. The gradient of both standing areas, at 20 0, is acceptable for standing. Although there is no running track, the spectators are still some distance from the playing area. The pitch is surrounded by a paved surface, the width of which varies, due to the curve of the stands, from approximately 3.5 metres to 6 metres. It is a further 4 metres from the inner edge of this surface to the touchline. Moreover, the front row of spectators are raised 1.4 metres above pitch level.
  6. The standing areas are normally separated from the pitch by a 2.25 metre high pitch perimeter fence. This has 2.7 metre wide outward opening gates at the foot of each radial gangway and steps down to the pitch. The upper part of the fence is removed when the seats are in use.
  7. In addition, the home supporters’ standing area is subdivided by three 2.25 metre high radial fences. Further such fences segregate the standing areas from the adjacent seated areas. While each sector has a nominal capacity, there is no means of enforcing this, or indeed of determining how many spectators are in each sector at any one time because of the open concourse at the rear. This would need to be designed out were the system ever to be installed in England or Wales.
  8. The concourse runs continuously and on the level behind both the home and visitors’ accommodation on all but the East side, without any form of segregation. It is not less than 12 metres wide. It contains spaces for 60 wheelchair spaces in the South Stand along with toilets, mobile catering points and access stairs to the upper levels. The rear external wall of the concourse (and those at the upper levels) are open to the elements.
  9. The upper two tiers of spectator accommodation are continuous and are served by a single concourse and lateral gangway, which runs all around the stadium. A further concourse is provided at a mid level position on three sides. The gradients of the tiers are 30 0 (middle) and 35 0 (top). The middle tier cantilevers approximately five metres above the lower tier.
  10. Pedestrian access into the ground is through gates in the outer perimeter. These are stewarded and act as ticket checking and searching points. There are no turnstiles. Spectators (other than for the executive areas) then proceed via a series of gently sloping ramps and small flight of steps onto the main concourse where they may circulate freely. While these arrangements may affect how spectators use the standing areas in Hamburg, they would not apply in England and Wales.

The "Kombi" seat

  1. The "Kombi" seat is manufactured in Germany by an established company named Max Maier Metallbau, based in Karlsruhe, well known to the FLA. The company’s main product comprises telescopic and demountable stands, which are widely used in Europe. The "Kombi" seat was specifically designed for use at Hamburg and is currently unique to that ground. It has recently been patented.
  2. The seat is ingenious and well engineered . It consists of a fold out steel and aluminium structure that forms a simple fixed seat and backrest when opened and hinges forward to form a flat standing tread on the rear half of the tread in front when closed. The seat itself is made from tubular steel and has a perforated shaped bottom and backrest. Seats normally come in pairs but single seats are available. These units are fitted together in rows and are fixed to the terrace deck. A copy of the technical drawing is attached at Annex B, along with photographs of the seat in both its open and closed formations ( photographs 2 & 3 at Annex C).
  3. Unlike the seats typically in use in the football grounds of England and Wales, this seat, along with the permanent ones elsewhere in the ground, does not tip up. To achieve the necessary clearway (the distance between the foremost projection of one seat and the back of the seat in front) requires a greater row depth. The size of the clearway determines how safely and freely spectators and other personnel such as stewards or first aiders can move along rows of seats.
  4. The "Kombi" seat is designed to be installed on a pre-formed concrete deck with a 900mm seating row or tread depth and 325mm risers. The manufacturer advised that, while it might in certain circumstances be possible to install it where the row depth was 850mm, it could not be fitted to a tread of 700mm – 760mm (the norm in England and Wales). The FLA is not aware of any Premiership or Football League ground with a tread depth of 900mm.
  5. Because of the row depth required, the system takes up considerably more space than existing non-convertible seating in England and Wales. In other words any English or Welsh club wishing to install it would not only need to build a new stand, this would need to be significantly larger, and hence more costly, to produce the same capacity. Alternatively, if this were not practicable, which might often be the case on restricted city sites, the club would have to settle for a lower capacity.
  6. In general terms, the "Kombi" seat is wider than a typical British tip up seat (albeit not as wide as those installed elsewhere in the ground). However, it is significantly shallower from front to back and has a slightly lower backrest. While the FLA party was unable to observe the "Kombi" seat in use, it appeared reasonably comfortable. The legroom and width were quite generous and the clearway, at 440mm, exceeds the minimum recommended in England and Wales for new construction.
  7. The manufacturer confirmed that the price for supplying and fixing the number of seats provided at Hamburg was approximately 270DM (approximately £90) each. This compares with roughly £21 for a typical British tip up seat.
  8. From its seated configuration the seat needs to be closed and locked in position to form a stepped aluminium standing tread. This operation can be undertaken by one person. It involves unlocking the backrest, folding it down, then raising the seat from the rear and turning the whole assembly which is hinged at the front until it forms the new standing tread and finally locking the treads in place. The folded seat then remains out of sight underneath the metal standing tread until the seat mode is next required when the operation is then reversed. The ground management indicated that it normally takes between two and three days to convert the ground to all seated.
  9. The FLA understands that it has been necessary to improve the design of the hinge because of damage in use. Some of the metal treads exhibited a degree of bounce, probably due to imperfect fitting. The anchor bolt fixings were longer than for ordinary seats and were more difficult to drill in the reinforcement concrete slab.
  10. When the system is in its standing mode, both the metal and concrete treads have a nominal tread depth of 450mm and risers of 162mm. The tread depth exceeds the maximum of 400mm recommended in the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds. This figure is designed to prevent spectators standing behind each other on the same step. The FLA noted that this did not appear to be occurring during the match at Hamburg.
  11. Radial gangways (3 metres wide and approximately 13 metres apart) for both seated and standing configurations are formed from the same profiled aluminium sheet that constitutes the standing treads in the standing mode, but are permanently fixed in place.
  12. Where the plan of the area changes through 45 0, a number of permanent transition treads have been installed. These have likewise been individually manufactured to fit from the profiled aluminium sheet. It appeared that a number of these had been damaged and had been replaced by timber inserts, which were themselves also suffering from damage.

Crush barriers

  1. A further important and integral element of the overall system, but manufactured and fixed by others, are the crush barriers (in Hamburg in a staggered formation) that can be removed when the seats are in use. This eliminates the restrictions on sightlines posed by such barriers in the convertible standing / seating systems that the FLA has previously observed elsewhere in Germany.
  2. Like the "Kombi" seats, the crush barriers are of an ingenious design(see photograph 4).The FLA was informed that they satisfy a 5Kn/m (Kilonewtons per metre) loading whilst also being removable.
  3. They consist of galvanised steel I -section uprights (100x50mm) at 1 metre centres with a horizontal 50mm galvanised steel tube forming the horizontal rail at a height of 1.1 metres above the tread. They are generally in 3 metre lengths to suit the crush barrier layout but there are a small number of longer versions, which serve to make up the non-standard parts of the layout. These small sections also serve to make the barriers capable of being manhandled when they are removed.
  4. The barrier uprights are attached to the terrace by brackets, which are cast into the concrete treads and risers (see photograph 5). As a permanent fixture, the bracket must align with the pre-determined positions of the "Kombi" seating. The crush barrier uprights then slide into the bracket. The structural integrity of the bracket and the barrier is extremely important. A number of bracket positions and concrete treads were observed where some spalling of the concrete had occurred only a year after the system was installed.
  5. The barriers are not dissimilar to those used in England and Wales and satisfy the same maximum loading of 5Kn/m. Depending on the spacing of the barriers and the gradient of the terrace, the barrier loading requirement could in some cases be reduced below 5Kn/m in England and Wales. However, the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds recommends that, for safety and comfort, the top rail should be flat and should measure 100mm in vertical depth.
  6. The crush barriers on both the home and visiting terraces are laid out in a staggered pattern with no overlap (see photograph 6). The barriers are generally in lengths of 3 metres at 3 metre intervals. Each line of barriers is four standing treads (1.9 metres as measured up the slope) behind the offset row in front. Hence the distance up the slope from one barrier to the one directly behind it is eight standing treads or 3.8m.
  7. This layout and spacing is at variance with the Government’s requirements, based on the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds, for crush barriers at grounds in the Football League Second and Third Divisions that are not all seated. The clubs concerned must provide continuous barriers between radial gangways of the height, spacing and strength appropriate to the gradient. However, the FLA considers that it should be possible to modify the Hamburg-style barriers to achieve such a layout.
  8. In addition, where there is a gradient of 20 0, as at Hamburg, rows of barriers should be no more than 3.4 metres behind each other. To comply with British requirements, a standing terrace with a 900mm tread and a 20 0 rake would need either continuous barriers with a loading of 3Kn/m on every fourth standing tread (1.9 metres) or continuous barriers with a loading of 5Kn/m on every sixth standing tread (2.85 metres).
  9. The lower tier at Hamburg, on which the removable barriers are installed, is ground bearing, not suspended. While it might be possible to install such barriers on a suspended tier, this would be technically difficult and correspondingly more expensive. This would effectively rule out installing the system on an upper tier, even if the gradient of this did not exceed the 25 0 maximum for standing accommodation laid down in the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds.

The standing accommodation

  1. When it began redeveloping the ground in 1998, the club took a conscious decision to continue providing low price standing accommodation for its younger, less affluent and most committed supporters. Prices for standing range from 17 DM to 25 DM for standing accommodation (10 DM - 15 DM for students and young people) compared to 35 DM - 82 DM for seats.
  2. The ticket price also includes free bus travel from the city to the match and back again. The club also provides free shuttle buses between the ground and the local suburban railway station. These services are heavily used by supporters. It is estimated that only a fifth of the supporters travel to the ground by car.
  3. The club decided to install the "Kombi" seat system, despite the considerable extra cost, not merely of the seats themselves but of providing both seats and barriers, because it wished to be able to stage UEFA and other international matches, in particular in the 2006 World Cup. So far, this has only been used in its seated mode on one occasion. The spectators occupying it all stood.
  4. The club indicated that it was not considering extending the "Kombi" seats to other areas. It considered that it had already provided as many as it could sustain on commercial grounds. It said that it had an understanding with supporters that they would not stand in seated areas. Nevertheless it recognised that there was nothing to prevent supporters who had purchased tickets for seats from going into the standing area. This was known to occur. Indeed there was some evidence of this during the match against VFL Wolfsburg.
  5. The standing accommodation is undeniably popular with supporters and is sold out for every match to season ticket holders (see photograph 7). These are mostly young men, with very few women and children. Save for international matches, the ground as a whole is never full. The attendance for the match against VFL Wolfsburg was 35,288 against a capacity of 56,000.
  6. Both the club and the police indicated that the supporters were generally well behaved. With a couple of exceptions there was no hostility (either physical or verbal) towards supporters of visiting teams. There were no problems from racist or politically extreme groups. Such problems as there were arose in the standing areas, but incidents during matches were few and minor. Trouble was confined to the cities in the evening. Various unflattering comparisons were drawn with the English!
  7. The fire and ambulance service representatives indicated that the standing accommodation did not present them with any particular problems. There had been no crushing incidents and the crowd does not surge. Injury rates in the standing areas are no higher than among seated spectators.

Match day observations

  1. The FLA observed the standing accommodation in use during the match between Hamburg and VFL Wolfsberg on Saturday 24 February. This confirmed many of the comments by the club and other authorities, which are accordingly not repeated.
  2. The supporters entered and left the ground in an orderly and self-disciplined manner. Many, in particular those with tickets for the standing area, arrived up to two hours before kick-off. There was no English-style last minute rush. The supporters of both teams congregated in the open concourse, mixing freely.
  3. Low alcohol beer was on sale in plastic cups and was taken into the viewing areas. This apparently causes no problems. The FLA saw no drunken, aggressive or anti-social behaviour apart from some urinating in the top concourse. (Apparently the outer fence of the ground is much used for this purpose.)
  4. As anticipated, the central sector of the home standing area attracted more spectators than those on either side. It appeared to be filled above its official capacity. The gangways in this sector were almost completely occupied. No obvious efforts were made to keep them clear. Spectators also stood, in places up to three to four deep, in the concourse behind both the terrace and the seats.
  5. There were no signs of any uncontrolled movement or surging, though, from time to time, spectators jumped up and down in unison to the beat of a drum. Since the structure was ground bearing, this had no dynamic implications. However, this could eventually be expected to damage the aluminium treads of the "Kombi" seats.

Safety systems and safety management

  1. The FLA examined the ground safety systems and the club safety management procedures in some detail. These have been fully recorded but are included in this report only insofar as they have a bearing on the club’s decision to introduce the "Kombi" seat system.
  2. The club operates strict controls at the entrance to the ground, where tickets are checked thoroughly, and at the pitch side. Security staff, with guard dogs, patrol the sterile zone between the seated spectators and the playing area. The home standing terrace is fronted by a perimeter fence. Between these inner and outer cordons, however, the club, through its contract stewards / security staff and the police adopt a much more low key approach. The police only intervene if called upon by the club.
  3. The crowd management is geared to the club and police’s perception of likely spectator behaviour. While each agency (club, police, fire and ambulance) has its own control point and performs its own functions, there is no integrated management system. The six CCTV cameras are run from the police control room and are largely used for controlling the traffic outside the ground. Overall, crowd management relies on the structural integrity of the ground and the self-control of the supporters.

Conclusions

Having regard to the detailed comments set out above, the FLA's main findings may be summarised as follows:

  1. The combination of "Kombi" seats and removable barriers is an ingenious and well-engineered system that overcomes most of the disadvantages, in particular inadequate seats and restricted views while seated, of the standing / seating conversions installed at other German football grounds.
  2. This system could, with certain modifications, comply with the safety standards required in England and Wales. For this purpose, it would be necessary to ensure that:

the barriers were repositioned to run continuously between radial gangways; and the load bearing strength of the removable barriers complied with the relevant section of the Green Guide.

  1. However, even with these modifications, the Hamburg "Kombi" seat system could not physically be installed in any existing Premiership or Football League ground, primarily because of the 900mm row depth required. (English and Welsh row depths are normally between 700 and 760mm.) The manufacturer concurs with this statement. Accordingly the team did not examine other possible physical impediments to the installation of the system in existing grounds, such as entrance / exit capacities and the angle of rake.
  2. It would be possible to design a new stand capable of taking the "Kombi" seats and removable barriers at an English or Welsh ground, provided that the club concerned took account of the following factors:

Because of the row depth required, the system takes up considerably more space than existing non-convertible seating or standing arrangements in England and Wales. In other words, the club would need to build a significantly larger and costlier structure to obtain the same capacity. Alternatively, for example if this were not practicable because of a restricted site, the club would have to accept a smaller capacity.

The system works best if it occupies the whole of a lower tier or single tier stand. At Hamburg the "Kombi" seats occupy the whole of the lower tier at one end and in one other corner (some 8,500 and 1,000 standing places respectively). Any seated accommodation behind the "Kombi" seats would have to be elevated because of the spectators standing in front of it. This would have implications for the rake, C values (viewing standards), distance from the pitch and overall size and design of the stand concerned.

While it might be possible to install removable crush barriers on a suspended deck, this would be technically difficult and correspondingly expensive. At Hamburg, the decks concerned are ground bearing. The concourses are behind, rather than underneath. This approach requires a considerably larger footprint, which may not be available at sites within a city.

The cost of installing both "Kombi seats and removable barriers is inevitably significantly higher than providing only either normal seats or fixed crush barriers. Moreover the manufacturer quoted an all in price (including installation) of £90 per "Kombi" seat (in Germany). By comparison a typical British tip up seat would cost some £20 – 21 to buy and install.

  1. Any club that wished to provide standing accommodation would need to consider whether it wished to bear the additional cost of installing the combination of "Kombi" seats and removable crush barriers. In practice, this would only appeal to those clubs that were likely to compete regularly in a UEFA championship.
  2. In Germany, the issue of standing / seating areas is inextricably linked with that of the clubs’ pricing and marketing strategies and the composition and behaviour of the crowd. These, however, have no bearing on the particular technical solution adopted.
  3. The FLA considers that the development of the "Kombi" seat system in Germany does not affect the key arguments for or against the retention of the Government's long-standing policy on all-seated grounds.

Annex A

The FLA inspecting team comprised:

John de Quidt , Chief Executive

Chairman of the Council of Europe Standing Committee on the European Convention on Spectator Violence at Sports Events; member of the Council of Europe teams inspecting football grounds in Spain, Portugal and Turkey; adviser to 1998 World Cup Organising Committee on introduction of stewarding; author of European guidance on stewarding; part author "Sport and Safety Management" (Butterworth Heinemann); contributor to Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds ("Green Guide").

Jim Chalmers, Inspector

Former Chief Superintendent and ground commander, West Midlands Police; author of guidance on contingency planning and briefing / debriefing; main contributor to football authorities’ guidance on safety management at football grounds; HNC in stadium management and safety; contributor to Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds ("Green Guide); contributor to Football Stadia Development Committee guidance on stadium control rooms; co-author (with Jim Froggatt) of report for Guatemalan government on the Mateo Flores Stadium disaster in Guatemala City on 16 October 1996.

Jim Froggatt , DipArch, DipCons, FBEng, RIBA, Inspector

UK representative on the Comité européen de normalisation working group on spectator facilities; chairman of the sub-group on separating elements; contributor to Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds ("Green Guide); contributor to Football Stadia Advisory Design Council guidance on standing terraces; member FLA technical working group on standing accommodation; co-author of the report on the Mateo Flores Stadium disaster.

Annex B

Technical drawing of the "Kombi" seat

This drawing, not reproduced here, is the copyright of

Max Maier Metallbau

Ohmstrasse 8

76229 KARLSRUHE

GERMANY

 

Annex C

Photograph 1

Photograph 2

Photograph 3

Photograph 4

Photograph 5

Photograph 6

Photograph 7


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