Anyone can go. Starts at around 4pm. Crowds will be building now. I remember at the beginning of 2003 when we started taking the rugrats down, there was usually only about 200 people there - if that. The kids could jump the fence at the end of training and run up to their favourite players and there was no hassle getting a spot on the fence for autographs and such. All the players would move across the whole spectator group along the fence and the kids could have a chat with pretty much every player every week.
Now there's a few thousand there, they have a "host" introducing a different staff memeber each week who tells what their role in the club is, 92.9 broadcasts their afternoon show there sometimes - or at least they have a crew there making a crap-load of noise, sponsors are often there flogging their stuff (like Reebok), different areas are roped off so the kids can't get too close at certain times, each player only signs autographs in certain areas (say along 10-15m of the fence line) - and good luck getting a spot on the fence, especially for the smaller kids like mine. A couple of weeks back I had my 6 year old sitting on the fence with her legs dangling over and leaning back on me - and I got told to bring her back over on the other side of the fence. That has never happened before and the poor thing could hardly see anything.
Anyway - it's certainly a big event, and I guess with those crowds now they need to be more organised to manage the numbers. I won't be hurrying down with the kids quite so often now; too much hassle trying to keep an eye on them. Aaah, but I remember how it used to be...
