STADIUM IN BOUNCERS LAY-OFF ROW

2 September 2005

A Third of the bouncers working at the New Stadium Swansea are claimed to have been laid off. Some 45 security staff were taken on at the stadium when the new season began.

They were meant to police the hospitality, VIP area, Riverside Bar and gold and platinum lounges.

Now the Evening Post understands 15 have been laid off.

Stadium managers have refused to comment on the claims.

But one of those who was working at the stadium said he and 14 others had gone.

He said: "I am angry.

"They asked us to go in to work and they laid 15 of us off," he said.

"They said they could not afford to have us there.

"There were too many of us, they said."

He said the bouncers - many of whom worked in pubs and nightclubs in Swansea city centre in the evenings - were offered the chance to become match stewards inside the ground instead.

Security is a serious issue at the new stadium.

Only last month, away fans were attacked with concrete building blocks after a league game there.

Visiting Doncaster supporters were shocked when breeze blocks were hurled through the front window of a van they were travelling in.

Police at the time said a minority of Swansea fans still seemed to think they could get away with yobbishness at the stadium.

The stadium is owned by Swansea Council and leased to Swansea Stadium Management Company, which runs it.

A spokesman for the company neither confirmed nor denied the job cuts.

"It is not the policy of the Swansea Stadium Management Company to comment publicly on staffing issues," said a spokesman