Tom Glick showed some of his astute marketing skills in announcing a no-rise price for next year's season ticket.

It's obviously a very sensible move given our dire season and fans need to be repaid for their loyalty and not kicked in the teeth. I have one caveat – it will all be seats. There will be no standing.

My view it is time to review the status quo and learn from the Germans. They have stadia that have a mixture of seating and standing. Why can't we do the same?

Week after week, the camera pans to the crowd and they are almost always standing. What actually happens is that there are always people who stand up, who like standing up, and who want to stand up. And then everyone else has to stand up too because of those who want to stand up. Let them - I say. And then the rest of us can sit down for most of the match.

‘Rest of us'? Yes, I like sitting down, and an occasional stand up when it gets exciting. Why? Because I'm short at five foot five and often cannot see properly when everyone is standing up. I loved the atmosphere on the old Baseball Ground Popside but as I couldn't see anything often, I gave it up as a bad job.

Surely it is time that the powers that be learned from this – you cannot force people to sit down if they don't want to. And rather than eject people who have hard earned cash to watch for standing why not let them stand up in controlled conditions and then everybody benefits. Including those of us who are short, old or not very mobile, we'd be in the seated areas enjoying the increased atmosphere from the standing areas.

Of course, it is beyond Mr Glick's control to actually designate one bank of Pride Park for standing, but if he were allowed, I would hazard a guess that we would reach the desired number of season tickets sold. The Germans do it – so why can't we?

I'm trying not to be paranoid but allowing standing room would actually help smaller clubs far more than the big clubs. The big clubs operate a sort of membership scheme that allows you to buy a ticket now and again. I call it exploitation. Imagine if you went into Marks and Spencer and they charged you for getting in! But that's how it works and so they don't need to fill up their stadia, they are mostly full week in and week out with a lot more people outside with their tongues hanging out.

But for us, and other clubs, being able to offer a choice would probably actually mean that we could put on another two or three thousand on the gate. Why? Because there are people who want to jump up and shout and enjoy the sensation of bodies around them – safely, naturally. And that would help us to get extra revenue. There's actually a pretty good video on YouTube that sums up the arguments perfectly.

So if you want to support the campaign for safe standing – and get some atmosphere into Pride Park while increasing revenue, then join the campaign on www.standupsitdown.co.uk.

Photo: Action Images

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