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The Portsmouth Associaton of Disabled Supporters was founded in 1997 to serve the interests of the large body of disabled fans and their helpers who follow the fortunes of their beloved Portsmouth Football Club.

The Official Portsmouth Football Club website

We number almost 60 members - including overseas members in the USA and the Isle of Wight. We hope that an upturn in Pompey’s fortunes isn’t too far away, and that this will see that our membership steadily increase. With a highly ambitious, football-mad chairman - the wonderful Milan Mandaric - and a catchment area of 500,000 people, the sky really is the limit.

PADS have been invited to talks with Mr Mandaric and his directors to improve the lot of disabled fans at Fratton Park and we also aim to make our representations at the planning stage of the new 35,000 capacity stadium that is scheduled to be our new home by the start of the 2004 season.

FRATTON'S WELCOME FOR DISABLED

Besides liasing with the football club about matters which concern disabled fans attending matches at Fratton Park, we also run a hugely popular wheelchair accessable minibus to all away matches. We have travelled over 30,000 miles following Pompey so far, and have taken dozens of our members to matches they may otherwise never have seen.

We obtained our minibus after eight months of fundraising raised £10,000. We had some incredibly generous donations from individual fans, and all our supporters were brilliant when it came to collections. Another event - a memorabilia auction - raised a further £6500, which has kept the bus on the road following £2000 MOT bills and upgrading the bus to make it as comfortable as possible. However, we are hoping for a good season this time around, and more demand to use the bus; in which case it may well prove to be too small. We hope to need a bigger bus in future.

Our Transport Officer and all-round good egg, Brian Atkinson, looks after the PADS bus for us, and he will be more than pleased to hear from you if you wish to travel on the bus to games (we are also sometimes able to help members stuck for a lift to get to home games). He will also be glad to hear from organisations for the disabled wanting to hire our vehicle, and any lovely volunteers wanting to help share the driving. Brian is at 02392 340803.

The minibus is now very comfortable and safety is always our first consideration; for longer trips we try to use two drivers, for example. Disabled passengers (where practicable) can ask to be picked-up and dropped off at home. The atmosphere on the bus is always good, win, lose, or draw; and we have toilet/meal breaks en route on all but the shortest trips. The donations we request are approximately half the fares charged by the supporter organisations on the coaches they charter. We have three price bands; £7.50, £10 and £12.50 :
click on -> Away Travel 2001 - 2002

For general information on away games ground guide CLICK HERE

It is essential to obtain a ticket first, however, as the wheelchair section is sold out to season ticket holders. An allocation of 5 spaces is allowed per match for away supporters. If any of these are unreserved by away fans, they are sold to home fans 24 hrs before the match Admission prices are the lowest in division 1 for wheelchair-bound fans and their helpers - thanks to that man Milan. £5 is charged for a joint wheelchair/helper ticket. For kids under 16, it is free. (Some clubs in our division charge £20; it is £28 at our rivals 20 miles down the road) Telephone Elaine at the club ticket office (023 92 618777) for bookings and concessionary rate details applicable to fans with other disabilities.

For a review of Disabled facilities at Fratton Park, please CLICK HERE

PADS also organise social events for our members and their friends, as well as trips during the long football-less days of summer, we also offer trips to places suggested by our members. Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick Castle have been amoung our trips, as has Longleat Safari Park and the Mobility Roadshow. We also ran trips up to Wembley to see England games, and hope to start these again if we ever get a national stadium, or if there is enough demand to go to a game.

Our President - Mr Ian Brown - has set his sights on us fund-raising for a new minibus. We all hope that a Pompey resurgance will eventually led us to visiting stadiums where we can obtain enough tickets for us to run two full minibuses. There is no doubt that the demand will be there; having won just four away league matches in the three years we have been operating the bus (prior to this hopefully better season)the bus has still been full on many occassions. Perhaps it is the fact that we enjoy ourselves no matter what.

As if to demonstrate just how crazy us Pompey fans are, our former Treasurer Don Russell is launching our fundraising efforts (almost literally) by hurling himself out of an aircraft for a sponsored parachute jump. Following a strict diet, he aims to make his jump after the start of the season.

PADS are members of the >National Association of Disabled Supporters (NADS) and as such wish to assist disabled fans nationwide who already have - or wish to set up - their own groups. This spirit of co-operation was, of course, extended to the SADS (Southampton Association of Disabled Shoppers), who we tried to help, but they couldn’t find a decent football club to support .

Thanks to generous sponsorship from the other pride of Portsmouth - the Gunwharf Quays waterfront development . This is the forth year they have sponsored us, enabling us to provide the service at subsidised rates, thereby allowing our members to partake in the amazing atmosphere generated by Pompey fans at matches all around the country. (Please CLICK HERE to visit the Gunwharf Quays website). We also extend a warm welcome to disabled fans of our opponents at Fratton Park, and encourage them to visit Fratton Park for an amazing football experience. The atmosphere at Fratton Park is at worst excellent; at best it is awesome. Bring earplugs !

We would also like to say a big thank-yo to Jo Cordina and everyone at Atlas Conversions for all their help with up-grading and maintaining the bus for us at minimal cost. Atlas sell and hire out motor cars and larger vehicles beautifully converted for disabled users. Please CLICK HERE to visit their website.

If you have enjoyed visiting this site, then please sign our guestbook or leave a message on our noticeboard. If you are especially good looking - as all Pompey fans are - then send us a pic, and we might post in on the site, if it is appropriate. If you have any questions for us, please email our secretary.

Our Message Board: Please note: date format is month/day/year	Our Guestbook: Please note: date format is month/day/year
Gary Hann, Secretary