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#Post#: 143524--------------------------------------------------
OT - Twickenham Stadium blocked from lifting cap on concerts
DIR By: Lock5
Date: October 16, 2025, 7:07 am
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A bid to lift restrictions allowing only three concerts to be
held annually at Twickenham's Allianz Stadium has been refused,
seven years after issues at an Eminem gig saw them imposed.
Owner Rugby Football Union (RFU) had asked for the restrictions
to be scrapped in a new licence application for the stadium,
which has been the home of England Rugby since 1909. But
Richmond Council decided to only grant the new licence in part
after a recent hearing, where residents outlined their concerns
about the plans.
The new licence allows the stadium to extend the hours of
smaller events, but still restricts the number of major
non-sporting events it can hold annually to three and only
allows one concert to be held on a day other than Saturday. In
2018 concert-goers at an Eminem gig reported a crowd crush and
waiting two hours to collect bags.
The decision is a blow to the RFU, which wants to hold 15 major
non-sporting events every year at the stadium, which was renamed
from Twickenham Stadium under a sponsorship deal with insurance
firm Allianz in September 2024. to tackle financial pressures.
This is being considered under a separate planning application
to the council, which also requests an increase in the permitted
capacity of these events from 55,000 to 75,000 spectators and
permission to hold more events on weekdays.
While the number, size and type of events held at the stadium is
a planning decision, the RFU submitted a new licence application
to simplify and modernise the venue's current licence -
including removing the cap on concerts.
Solicitor Ewan McGregor, representing the RFU, said the licence
was originally granted with the number of concerts capped to
three a year, but it was restricted so that only one event could
be held on a day other than Saturday after the Eminem concert in
2018. He said that while the RFU accepted then that "this
concert presented particular challenges, the concert market, and
the world even, has moved on since 2018".
He said: "There is an increasing demand for stadium bowl
concerts. The UK is the world capital for these events and, in
the UK, London is at the centre. The licence restriction is out
of step with the market and, as a consequence, promoters and
artists are turning their back on Twickenham.
"Any local resident who would like to go and see an artist of
the calibre that we would like to attract to the stadium have to
travel into London, go to Wembley Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur
Stadium, the O2 and the London Stadium."
Mr McGregor told the hearing on September 30 the RFU would
invest in the local community and grassroots music through funds
raised by hosting concerts.. He added the licence overall would
have improved conditions and better protect the local community.
The plans have drawn fierce criticism from residents, however,
who said they were already plagued by crime, antisocial
behaviour and disruption from drunk attendees, road closures and
overcrowded streets on match days.
Objectors told the meeting the issues prevented them from
leaving their homes for hours at a time, including during
medical emergencies, while they were disrupted by people
urinating in their garden, shouting, fighting and vomiting. They
opposed the licensing application, while also raising concerns
about matters that are being considered separately under the
planning process.
Eamon Delaney said: "We regularly suffer the indignity of
drunken adults urinating on our property, shouting, swearing and
sometimes fighting in the streets in full view and earshot of
our children. When problems arise, the response from the RFU is
inadequate. Complaints are raised, dealt with to the
satisfaction of the RFU and things do not improve. Today, the
RFU is a bad neighbour."
HTML https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/twickenham-stadium-concerts-cap-b1253241.html
#Post#: 143525--------------------------------------------------
Re: OT - Twickenham Stadium blocked from lifting cap on concerts
DIR By: FrostAndFire
Date: October 16, 2025, 7:22 am
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Not exactly a pretty picture of rugby fans who go to Twickenham,
there.
#Post#: 143526--------------------------------------------------
Re: OT - Twickenham Stadium blocked from lifting cap on concerts
DIR By: poorfour
Date: October 16, 2025, 8:00 am
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--- Quote from: FrostAndFire link ---
>
> Not exactly a pretty picture of rugby fans who go to
Twickenham, there.
>
--- End Quote ---
Not a particularly accurate one either, though. While I assume
these comments were based on actual incidents, I don't think
they are representative of the vast majority of the crowds. It
must be annoying as a resident to have these crowds going past
their door a dozen times a year, but they're generally well
behaved and spend a lot of money in the town
#Post#: 143529--------------------------------------------------
Re: OT - Twickenham Stadium blocked from lifting cap on concerts
DIR By: Yareet
Date: October 16, 2025, 9:14 am
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--- Quote from: poorfour link ---
>
> Not a particularly accurate one either, though. While I assume
these comments were based on actual incidents, I don't think
they are representative of the vast majority of the crowds. It
must be annoying as a resident to have these crowds going past
their door a dozen times a year, but they're generally well
behaved and spend a lot of money in the town
>
--- End Quote ---
Friends live opposite the stadium and now have security on their
drive for every game. Whilst that shows something of what the
rfu is doing to minimise issues, I’ve no idea how long the
security stay after a game.
#Post#: 143534--------------------------------------------------
Re: OT - Twickenham Stadium blocked from lifting cap on concerts
DIR By: never sleep
Date: October 16, 2025, 12:00 pm
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Yes Yareet. That can be the issue.
After the women's world cup final, there were still people
leaving the stadium after midnight. Generally they were very
refreshed. One couple were walking in the wrong direction and
having a row. I could easily imagine them stopping for a pee at
some point.
The security at this time has long since left.
#Post#: 143539--------------------------------------------------
Re: OT - Twickenham Stadium blocked from lifting cap on concerts
DIR By: Bod
Date: October 16, 2025, 3:18 pm
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I guess it's a bit like all of us when we apply for a mortgage?
Know your manor before you buy?
#Post#: 143544--------------------------------------------------
Re: OT - Twickenham Stadium blocked from lifting cap on concerts
DIR By: Quinky
Date: October 16, 2025, 10:12 pm
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--- Quote from: FrostAndFire link ---
>
> Not exactly a pretty picture of rugby fans who go to
Twickenham, there.
>
--- End Quote ---
The article, and presumably the issues, cover rugby fans and
concert goers. It could be that the vast majority of incidents
are from either, or both, of these sets of people.
The bigger picture for me though, is that this is emblematic of
society in general. The UK is going down the drain, rapidly.
#Post#: 143550--------------------------------------------------
Re: OT - Twickenham Stadium blocked from lifting cap on concerts
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: October 17, 2025, 3:28 am
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How many neighbours to the Big Stoop moved into their houses
before there was a chuffing great Stadium there?
#Post#: 143554--------------------------------------------------
Re: OT - Twickenham Stadium blocked from lifting cap on concerts
DIR By: poorfour
Date: October 17, 2025, 3:59 am
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--- Quote from: deadlyfrom5yardsout link ---
>
> How many neighbours to the Big Stoop moved into their houses
before there was a chuffing great Stadium there?
>
--- End Quote ---
Well, it's had 20,000 capacity since 1929, and has been 75,000+
capacity since 1995. The redevelopments that built it to that
size started in 1978 (after a 13 year battle for planning
permission). So anyone who bought their house before the plans
to develop the stadium were public would be at least 78 now.
#Post#: 143558--------------------------------------------------
Re: OT - Twickenham Stadium blocked from lifting cap on concerts
DIR By: never sleep
Date: October 17, 2025, 5:07 am
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--- Quote from: deadlyfrom5yardsout link ---
>
> How many neighbours to the Big Stoop moved into their houses
before there was a chuffing great Stadium there?
>
--- End Quote ---
A lot of people bought houses in the area when their view of the
stadium's usage was 5 Nations matches which typically happened
at either 2:30 or 3:30 on a Saturday afternoon, or the Autumn
internationals that happened at 3:00 on Saturday afternoons in
November.
So, they had to bunker down for a few hours on Saturday
afternoons a few times per year.
They didn't consider that the demographic would change from
groups that would travel from their rugby clubs on a Saturday
afternoon to watch a game in the 80s and 90s who after the game
would go into town and frequent the pubs - - to the current
situation where the rugby game is just an excuse for a lot of
corporate types to feed their clients as much beer as possible
in an afternoon and then to continue on long after the game has
finished.
Also - games also now happen on Sundays (and sometimes Fridays.)
They also didn't appreciate that the stadium would be used for
gigs on Fridays and get 50,000 all trying to get to the stadium
at the same time as kids are trying to catch the bus home from
schools or commuters are trying to drive down the A316 out of
London.
All of these changes could work - but the issue is that the
stadium development is out of step with the local improvements.
E.g. has Twickenham Station been improved to cope with an extra
50,000 passing through on a Friday afternoon. In my opinion, the
answer is "no".
On suggestion that was made was for having no road closures for
a Friday event and feeding the people down the existing
pavements to the station.
The existing pavements on that route are very narrow. It is
difficult to walk 2 abreast. Could you image though that if you
could get people walking 2 abreast on both sides of the road and
they were on average walking 2 metres behind the people in
front, then the queue of people leaving the stadium would be 6
miles long which is difficult to achieve on a 1 mile walk.
In summary - we knew that there was a big stadium. Rugby games
on a Saturday afternoon = good. Events during the week = bad.
Sunday events = not great. Post hospitality drunks = bad.
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