Portsmouth's Fratton faithful face Milton End wait - but Bristol Rovers & Co offered alcohol boost

More than 2,000 Bristol Rovers fans are expected in the redeveloped away end on Saturday for the League One curtain-raiser.

Once completed, it will possess a 3,000 capacity – and able to accommodate Blues supporters and travelling followings at the same time through segregation.

Chief executive Andy Cullen previously revealed home season tickets may be sold in the Milton End once it is completed.

That remains on the agenda, yet with one of the stand’s proposed two entrances currently built, the Blues are unable to allow members of the Fratton faithful inside.

It means that until its November completion, solely away supporters can use the facilities.

Cullen told The News: ‘There are actually 3,000 seats in Milton End, but we can’t fully use all of them just yet until we have two entrances.

‘There will be entrances in the north-east corner and the south-east corner. At the moment, just the south-east entrance is fully open.

‘The north-east corner is the most complicated part of the building project. That will wrap around to provide more seats in that corner.

‘It will also provide an elevator which will take wheelchairs and supporters who are less mobile up to the upper reaches of both the Milton End and North Stand, and be home for a new safety control room for the stadium.

‘At the minute, because we have one entrance and exit access point into the Milton End until November, we can only put away fans in there.

‘Once finished, away fans will enter from the north and home from the south, then we are fully compliant, but we can’t do that until we have that entrance, while cannot properly segregate until that point either.

‘Football League regulations for league games state you have to provide up to 2,000 seats or 10 per cent of the capacity, which gives us the potential to look at the south-east section being permanently available for home supporters.

‘That may mean we can start to explore the potential of season tickets in that area should they want to take advantage of rail seating.

MORE: Biggest Fratton End changes in 26 years underway as Pompey launch £250,000 'pioneering' project

‘However, we must wait until November until we get both entrances.’

Currently three out of the four new kiosks are operational in the Milton End, enabling visiting fans to drink alcohol at Fratton Park for the first time.

Cullen added: ‘I believe the Milton End is serving alcohol for the first time.

‘We saw a definite increase in revenue from the kiosks last Saturday (Bristol City) compared to when Sheffield Wednesday visited in March with a similar 1,800 away fan attendance.

‘The revenue was very encouraging, which is exactly what we had hoped to see.

‘We made really good revenues from our kiosks across the ground last year, with a 65 per cent increase in kiosk revenue due to all the improvements made.’