‘Empty’ end of the West Stand

This would be costly, but if a new west stand were to be built, I wouldn't object to the current (heritage) stand to be moved to the side of the training pitch so we still have our history and something modern as well.

 

That would be a good idea.

 

I once tried to move my shed once, woodlice everwhere

 

Erm .....most football grounds in England /UK/Europe/The world have Standing......

 

Unless I've missed something (which is possible) standing areas are banned in the top 2 levels of English football. So if the west stand needed replacing before legislation changed it would have to be all seating.

 

Bristol City have installed it, presumably in anticipation of a change in the law, as have Shrewsbury.

 

I think we might be talking about two different things. To answer your question; No - it's not banned. Under current rules you can have standing in both the Premiership and the Championship. A period of grace (4 years) to replace it - if promoted to the Championship and presumably three if you then go up to the Premier League.

My post was about a different matter:

- Standing (let's not call it safe standing) is coming back;
- fans should get the choice whether to sit or stand;
- If there's talk of developing the West Stand (which I think was the gist of this thread) then we ought to plan for that in any development. Merde mentions Bristol City and Shrewsbury as Clubs who are developing their grounds with this in mind but it's a bit wider than that; Tottenham's new ground has been designed to replace seating with standing as have Wolves and Manchester Utd.

At Celtic Park, I've stood up with a crowd of 60,000 in the stadium. In more advanced countries standing is seen as part of the football choice/experience. I'll be glad when it's common among the top divisions here.

Though my knee is giving me a bit of gip so I might have to sit down.

 

East Stand Boys and West Stand Girls
(sorry pet shop boys)

 

I've just looked and the last planning details on the planning site were from April 2019. Been a while, wonder what the latest is!

 

Imagine...

The ownership dispute for the ground is sorted out.The school site behind the west stand is bought out, and a new club shop/ box office is built on it. This frees up the existing box office to become a bigger Redfearn's bar.

They build a new west stand that is taller but has a similar gable roof with a gantry thing like the existing one. Capacity is kept similar to what it is now, although we'd actually be able to use the whole stand! It keeps a similar character. The changing rooms are back in there, with the original tunnel still in the centre. New media facilities and some boxes at the top. Stuff for the kids to do inside. Shiny new toilets...

A big lick of paint for the rest of the ground. The corporate hosting areas in the East Stand are given a refurb to host events. A more permanent set of structures for the fan zone. A bigger scoreboard, with the existing one moved to the corner stand.

A year of Prem money might make this all affordable....

 

The land behind the west stand would be great as a hotel/bar complex similar to Gateway Plaza and Glass House. The bar can have plenty of outside space and a couple of floors so along the same lines as Bramahs. The hotel would make a tidy sum as well. You can have new signings and loanees stay there until they find somewhere else. Get a deal in with Barry Hearn so all those involved in his Darts and Snooker tournaments he regularly has at the Metrodome can stay there. Business conferences. Our away opponents. Fans who don't want to go home the same day such as away fans who don't want a long distance trip home at 10 pm after a night game.

The bar would be busy most of the week, not just when we have a match and it would be better than being in a makeshift drinking area. Our current box office as fine as it is.

A new west stand should be a few thousand seats bigger than our current one. We should be ambitious by having the seats ready to use when needed. With the extended capacity we could try to offset the cost by getting some concerts down to Oakwell. Keepmoat has gigs so I am pretty sure Oakwell can manage. The stand would need balconies for the corporate boxes.

 

I think some folk are getting a little carried away. These owners are all about return on investment. They won't spend a penny of their own money without a guarantee of return.

 

It would actually be less if we were to go up again. They aren't going to bother splitting the north stand as most of the clubs in the premier league would sell it out with an away following no problem.
I don't see the issue with the other half of the west stand being resolved any time soon either so the capacity would be a couple of thousand less than last time.