Overview

As a young Sheffield United fan I want to travel to away matches to back my team and Chesterfield was next on the list! I am unfortunately confined to a wheelchair and away grounds can sometimes seem daunting experiences: where is the accessible parking, where are the seats, are they accessible, where are there disabled toilets etc.? Supporting your team is a great feeling (especially when you win) and with an understanding of the problems you might encounter, I want to share my experiences of football grounds with you so you can feel a bit more confident about stadium accessibility in the future.

Transport & Parking

If you don't plan to take the train or coach to The Proact and you have access to an adapted vehicle, personally I would use it to get to stadium. If you phone customer services at the Tesco right next to the ground and talk to them nicely, they will let you park in the disabled parking there. The car park there is very accessible for a tail or side lift and the walk to the entrances takes only two minutes maximum.

Access

All disabled away fans enter by the Co-operative/ East Stand and once you enter the ground there is a large concourse area. The disabled seating is at pitch side and quite low in the Co-operative/East Stand but in the Whittington Moor End, which is the main away section, there is a lift to elevate your view of the pitch. To me (I was sat in the pitch level section) it appeared a bit awkward to get round other wheelchair users also positioned there but it did give a much better view than what I had! There was also elevated seating in the Karen Child/South Stand for the Chesterfield home supporters.

Toilets

Disabled toilets appeared in both stands and were very modern and well equipped for wheelchair users. They were well organised to provide a lot of space and make it easy to transfer if that is what you require. They were undeniably the best disabled toilets I have seen at a football ground in my time of following the Blades in the lower leagues. The only issue was the automatic light turned off on several occasions and you have to keep moving to keep the lights on!

Staff

The steward on the door was very clueless and needed help directing my mate and I into the stadium but eventually someone helped him out and I thought I wasn't going to get my ticket back to add to my collection (don't worry - I did in the end!). Nothing particularly to point out about the people working there on the day.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

The access at the Proact Stadium were the best I've experienced at a football stadium! If you are a football fan in the local area to the ground or an away supporter do not hesitate to visit. P.S. Sorry this review is late!