CHESTER FC - CLUB STATEMENT

Chester Football Club has confirmed that the operational capacity of the Deva Stadium has been increased to 4,361 with immediate effect.

The increase follows a mid-season meeting of the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) and will apply from this weekend’s Vanarama National League North match with Banbury United.

This will enable the club to give fans the option to pay at the turnstiles (card/contactless payments) for the Harry McNally Terrace on Saturday, with the remaining stands to follow from the next home fixture.

At this stage, the stadium kiosks will not be reintroducing alcohol sales, however the club is exploring the introduction of a Fan Zone on matchdays, with a view to staging trial events in the near future.

Over the past six months, we have worked hard to implement an action plan that has strengthened our safety operations and are grateful to SAG stakeholders for recognising this improvement, together with their cooperation in ensuring the Leap76 Stadium provides a safe, welcoming environment, reflecting the values of our supporter-owned, community football club.

The Board of Directors is committed to upholding this improvement and this increase forms part of an agreed phased return to normal capacity, which we hope to complete at the end of the 2023/24 season. It is imperative all supporters continue to behave responsibly and play their part in helping us achieve this.

The club had been subject to a reduced capacity of 3,368 since the summer, following a review of the crowd disorder at the Brackley Town match on May 7.

While this has been a challenging period for the club, and one that has come with significant financial costs, we now wish to look forwards together and focus on giving Calum McIntyre and the players our total support from now until the end of the season, starting on Saturday.