And afterwards you have to wait until it is your turn to leave, a few rows at a time. Masks, entry times, leaving afterwards is all in the supporters' code of conduct which you sign up to by buying a ticket. It's a trial and the club need people to be sensible, then next season we might be able to do what we usually do.
In blocks 304, 305 and 306 at the back of the Kop, with each block served by a separate stand-access gangway, the Club, in their wisdom, have decided that the whole of 305 needs to arrive around 90 minutes early, and the whole of 304/306 needs to arrived around 60 minutes early.
A more sensible approach would have had those in the centre of rows going in first, people either side of them 10 minutes later, and so on.
The allocation of seats is pisspoor too. For the most part, they have used every 5th seat on alternate rows, leaving the intermediate rows largely unused. That increases the likelihoood of people passing each other on a row.
In the main, they have allocated seats like this:
----X----X----X----X
---------------------
----X----X----X----X
---------------------
----X----X----X----X
... when they could have done:
X---------X---------X
-----X---------X-----
X---------X---------X
-----X---------X-----
X---------X---------X
Not only do fewer people have to pass one another on the row, they are also slightly further apart.
From what I could see, the intermediate rows have only been used towards the end of a row where there wasn't a multiple of 5 seats left.
Back to the staggered entry times: the only real requirement if for everyone to arrive sufficiently spaced out so that there is no congestion on the stairwells or bottlenecks at the turnstiles. It is actually advantageous if a small proportion arrive after the designated entry times.
