Time for a new west stand

The cost to replace it completely might cost a slightly smaller fortune. Personally I think that keeping a historically important structure would be worth that difference between a small and slightly smaller fortune.

 

I'd rather invest in players! Not got much problem with the West Stand tbh, might be my age I suppose but when I look at it it brings back a lot of nice memories.
That being said a bit of sensitive restoration to smarten it up wouldn't go amiss and surely wouldn't be expensive

 

It looks terrible though, even if it was done up like Fulham's, it looks odd compared to the rest of the ground and ruins the atmosphere. Two similar sized stands:

<img src = "http://www.footballgroundguide.com/images/image/product/property/craven-cottage-fulham-fc-johnny-haynes-stand-1416847412.jpg">


<img src = "http://www.footballgroundguide.com/images/image/product/property/county-ground-swindon-town-fc-don-rogers-stand-1418551206.jpg">

 

The money we've have made and the amount we spend on transfers i.e Angus 100k, Yiadom, Roberts - Free, Moncur 500k etc etc we'd be have more bundles of cash knocking about than Pablo Escobar.

 

Assuming we replace it with a stand that can hold 5000 more, and assuming that we increase season ticket prices to £500, and assuming none of those are concessions we stand to make two and a half million quid per season. Given we'll only need the extra capacity in the Premiership it's not worth bothering with. As for ruining the atmosphere a stand that is practically empty will be far worse.

 

Just shows how daft these clubs are for developing their stadia. How could they get it so wrong?

 

Don't get me wrong, I love looking at the west stand, but for us to move forward it needs either a major redevelopment, or a replacement....but I would love it if it could be done as close to how it is as possible. I'd ideally love a new terrace back at the bottom and new seats above it for fans, media & board members etc

I'm convinced once the East and the Ponty is sold out, people don't really fancy coming, family's etc. I'm sure more people would come, especially to big games. It wouldn't even have to hold as many people if needs be, but I'm sure some design could be done to make it modern but without changing it completely!!

 

I think we should do whatever is needed to bring the whole of the current West Stand into play. Filling the East Stand and Ponty to capacity unnecessarily, gives some supporters a poor view for their money (bottom rows of the Ponty) and maxes out the facilities for everyone (making it uncomfortable in the concourses, toilets, refreshment bars etc).

 

Excellent point, crammed in like Sardines and the Sally Army, the bloke from Sky and two ball boys spread eagled over the other side of the West Stand.

 

I've been told that the safety certificate for parts of the ground has been revised meaning the capacity of the North Stand has effectively been reduced by around 10%, something to do with the concourses not being safe for the number of people it can seat which is strange as I've sat in there when it used to be split when it first opened and it's quite wide compared to a lot of away grounds I've been to...for example at Wednesday, Leeds and Sheff Utd it does actually feel unsafe when exiting, I'm not a small bloke but I always feel like I'm being carried out rather than walking out.

The West Stand is absolutely f**ked, most non-season ticket years I've sat in there 3 or 4 times at least (bottom tier is good on a nice day), but the facilities are ridiculously bad, apart from the bogs obviously. I know it holds a lot of nostalgia, is somewhat unique, but only really unique in that you'd be hard pressed to find another example of something so past it's use by date at the high end of professional football.

Essentially the only part of the 'stand' as such is the upper tier, you could leave the lower tier in place, reskim the steps and build up from there, but then again if you're building something to last another 100 years you might as well do it right.

Unfortunately there seems to have been little appetite in doing anything to the ground since John Dennis left, if he had remained in charge the West Stand would be long gone, rightly or wrongly that would have been at the expense of a transfer budget but the day for that had to come, most other clubs have had to put up with that scenario at some stage.

Trouble is though it would have to be the "main stand", we all want to see the players coming out from the traditional place in the middle, the media would need modern facilities (where would they go during redevelopment?) and you've got new board rooms to build into it etc so you could do what, say, Blackpool have done and literally gone flat pack one side of the ground.

You're probably talking upwards of £15m, but that could be paid over a period of time, I wouldn't go too long though as you don't want it to become a burden. Promotion from the Championship is unlikely with the way football is at the minute but I'd like to think we have firmly established ourself in the Championship this season so rather than start feeling like we have to go barmy on wages to compete, put the money into bricks and mortar. You'd get a few more through the door, people like going to nice grounds, cold Tuesday nights might not feel as cold, better facilities would attract Sky more often and bring in more cash, it would definitely be an investment rather than a running cost anyway.

There is a stumbling block with the complicated ownership of the ground and the land and it might be like building an extension on a council house but if you're going to stay in that house forever then that doesn't really matter.

 

I thought the concourse looked quite narrow when a YouTube video was posted by Leeds fans recently. I went in there a few times when the stand was split and I can't remember thinking so at the time.

 

Is that the case? The last I heard the Northern end of the West Stand was closed because it was unsafe

 

They said it was because of policing/stewarding costs when they wouldn't open the lower tier for the Walsall game last season. If you remember they opened a couple of blocks in the upper tier.

 

They won't build a new one if they knock it down though.essentially the stand is only there to facilitate the upper tier.

the seats at the front will stay and the stand gets flattened. There's your West stand.

 

Why not just build half a stand then.

 

not sure a semi would give the right image

 

I would keep bottom half for seating, then build , building in style of a stand ,in there would have a public gym stretching across area for press , the public can join and seperate area players use, under neath would have players lounge ,board room etc in middle, with toilets and food area either end, the area near to away end would be a free ticket area given to schools, different ones every week

 

The ideal option would see a brilliant modern terrace return for the lower tier with seating up top....but that won't happen at the minute if ever!!!

 

We don't need it is a poor attitude to had. When we had John Dennis building stands and improving ground facilities people didn't see the point in those days either. Waste of money, spend it on players etc. But they were thanks to John in place for when we made the premiership and made a big difference. We shouldn't be waiting to see if we make the top flight again to make changes. They should happen beforehand so if we do ever get back up we can milk the facilities because we wouldn't have to wait for upgrades.

 

The Taylor report forced all seater stadia. It was nothing to do with JD's amazing foresight. As for the North Stand, that fortune spent may have come in handy when we went into admin a couple of years down the line.