Raith Rovers chief on Railway Stand reopening and engaging with ultras

Rovers director Ruaridh Kilgour told Raith TV: "We looked at the Railway Stand. I've always, even as a fan, have heard that the problem with the Railway Stand is the roof, that's a costly exercise to replace.

"But it's not the roof. There are other aspects of the Railway Stand's safety with the old seating area.

"The idea is to basically fill every second row with concrete and create a terracing area across the whole of the Railway Stand up to the bit where the North Stand section is.

"And we reckon we could possibly get 1,000 supporters in there.

"It does seem possible, at a reasonable cost, we reckon between £60,000 and £80,000.

"It's definitely something we want to do.

"When we put our strategy document out, the most excitement we saw on the document was regarding the Railway Stand.

"I think there is a real nostalgia feeling around that stand.

"It's the first stand that I sat in as a supporter, it's the best view in the whole of Stark's Park.

"I think also being able to have supporters in each side of that end of Stark's Park would be fantastic for the players.

"If we make it into the Premier League then having a packed South Stand, a packed Main Stand and that area full as well would be fantastic.

"It's something we want to do but given the situation with the pitch it's something we're probably just going to have to put the breaks on just now."

After 87% of respondents to a recent survey backed the idea of having an official singing section at the front of Stark’s Park’s South Stand which will lead to its implementation for the full 2025/26 season, Kilgour also outlined the efforts the Kirkcaldy club’s board have made to forge a good relationship with the club’s ultras.

He said: "You can go all the way back to when we first came in (in May 2023) where we've been trying lots of different things.

"I remember that first Dunfermline League Cup game back in that season where we had a singing section over in the Railway Stand and that was the first kind of experiment of it. And a few other experiments ran that season.

"The challenge is you can't run many experiments because of season tickets. When you run these experiments it tends to be during the cup games at home.

"Second season we didn't do many experiments but a new group started to form down the front without the approval of us as a club.

"It's very difficult to manage that when there's no communication there. So we were very quick to say: 'How can we communicate? How can we engage with these guys?

"What we found is while there were a lot of negatives - and we got a lot of feedback from supporters which was completely fair - there was also a lot of positive feedback from other supporters abiut the noise, the atmosphere improving at Stark's Park in the second half of the season.

"The players loved it as well. The players were very vocal in telling us that it makes a huge difference for them at Stark's Park.

"So we were thinking about how we could build a relationship with these guys (Raith Ultras) to stop the negatives that come with a group like that.

"Also it's important to say that it's not just Raith Rovers, there are a lot of other clubs that experiencing similar across Scottish football.

"We have met with two of the guys who are part of that group who are considered the leaders.

"They were very good. They stressed that they don't want to cause any problems at Stark's Park, they just want to build a good atmosphere.

"The angle we went at it is that there are things that they want from the club to help them grow as a group, so we looked at that.

"That's things like getting more flags, drums, merchandise. So we thought if we create a fund for them that we could put a little bit of money into, we could sell the merchandise in the club shop and all profit goes back into their fund.

"But with that fund that we manage, if there was any damage caused or any costs incurred from their group then that comes straight out their fund. So that created a bit of accountability.

"We also made it an official membership, so you had to register to be part of the group. That then meant we could get the names and addresses of everyone in that group.

"The benefit for them is we can now organise them things like bus travel to away games and we can then separate that so anyone going on that bus is part of the group.

"There is a separate section next season, where they were last season but it's going to become an official section. A couple of rows will be shut off behind them to stop obstructing the view of any supporters behind them.

"It's a trial for one season. These things have toi run for a season because you can't trial it in occasional games. And we just hope that it can work well, benefit the football club, maybe attract more support.

"I think it was Iain Latto recently in a video on social media recently when he was bringing his wee boy along to games and the wee boy just stared and watched the ultras the whole game.

"What attracts kids of that age to football is the atmosphere and watching these things.

"So hopefully it can serve as a positive for the club.”