Julie Anne Quay has hinted at Oakwell being used for concerts on instagram

You don't accept there will be live music events if they've not been held there before. It would likely require a planning application too, I should think (FreddieL ?)

 

I'd pay to see that

 

I would expect a Football Club to hold other events than football occasionally, yes.

The Fun Fair is there twice a year at least for example.

I wouldn’t say a music event would be that much different to a busy evening match - although will be a later finish and noisier. Obviously it’d need planning consent I’d guess.

But the point still sticks - the club/ground has been there longer than any current resident.

 

If the Keepmoat can do it Oakwell can, regardless of when that was built. My front room holds more.

Simpson fight could be this summer.
https://www.barnsleychronicle.com/article/26984/2024-preview-simpson-aiming-to-conquer-uk

 

A step up from Glastonbury then.

 

Too soon?

 

Concerts are possible and I encourage it wherever they can sort it but the argument that they have them at donny rovers so we can too is a bit daft. You’re comparing apples and oranges.

The nearest residential property to the Keepmoat (eco power as it is now) is a heck of a lot further away than the terraced housing on and around Grove Street is to Oakwell. Unlike Oakwell, it was designed and built for other activities over and above sporting events to be held there. Planning for such events is therefore much easier to grant.

It has decent transport links, it has access to parking that doesn’t all have to leave via one small exit road that thousands of people are all also walking on, or that is shared by a town centre - and has a number of out of town hotels and eateries within walking distance.

It is also a soulless bowl football wise but which provides great acoustics for music events.

Oakwell is a logistical nightmare. Getting to games is getting more and more of a chore. They for whatever reasons have made it progressively harder to get to and from the ground in one way or another, be it Beevor Court access, fixing the fence(!!), shutting the car park well before games, holding traffic back in the car park when bottlenecking most of the foot traffic through it after - it might sound petty but I know of a number of people that have been put off by these things.

It’s also old and crumbling. (Modern 90’s stadium? We are aware that the 90’s ended nearly a quarter of a century ago? There’s nothing modern about the east stand - it was done on the cheap and hardly to ‘modern’ spec when it was built - and that was over 30 years ago now; they can’t even get the TVs or the tannoy speakers to work consistently - and the north stand, the newest of the main four, is still the best part of 25 years old; and it doesn’t meet current standards satisfactorily enough for us to be granted a safety certificate to fill it more than 75% of its intended capacity). The open corners will do nothing to assist acoustics and so they’d probably need to amp the hell out of all the stands and the pitch area to make it viable. The existing infrastructure and staffing makes it impossible to both have a pee and grab a drink/bite to eat during a fifteen minute half time period; you either have to go before half time, miss the start of the second half, or just do one of those things. How they going to cope with full stands and a pitch of people?

Nothing much about Oakwell is modern or inviting. I condone the ground to watch the games. It has not been looked after or modernised in the same vain as some other clubs have by either moving or improving - though the club neither owned it nor had the funds to sort it in the last couple of decades - I’m not moaning, it is what it is, it has its charm of course - but it is far from an appealing location for a music gig from an act big enough to fill it. There are numerous reasons to not use it. And local alternatives are more viable.

If the arena in Sheffield isn’t big enough then acts would surely look at the eco power in donny or the New York in Rotherham as better options unless they are tied to Barnsley. They are newer, better designed for music and easier to get to and from.

Oakwell does of course have a lot going for it. It’s only a steady wander from the rail and bus station. Similarly it is close (and comfortably walkable for the majority) to a nicely redeveloped and modernised town centre which boasts a heck of a lot of food and drink options. It’s not all doom and gloom. There are selling points. But it isn’t really hugely attractive on balance, and none of the plus points are really anything to do with the ground itself.

JAQ will have to use her contacts and name to get anything over the line. Hopefully she does so.

 

To be honest l don't know why you bother going, and l only skim read it ...

 

Any band that would fill the Stadium based on the size of their fanbase hopefully. Why just Barnsley acts. Fans will travel far and wide to see their favourite artists. And bands shouldn't be uptight about the venue.

 

To be honest I don’t know why you bothered commenting if you haven’t actually read it

 

As in another post on the subject. Most bands or acts will have an idea of the size of fanbase they have.
Acts have appeared at stadiums surrounded by housing. It's not just for new stadia.
Anfield . And especially Bell end rd are both antiquated on the viewing front. We have parking facilities. Transport links from the motorway. And trains. To comfortably cope with 20k.

 

Let's be honest here. It's a brilliant idea BUT it requires the shithole of a west stand to be knocked down and rebuilt with a large stand like the east that would keep sound in and increase the capacity to a level that can justify concerts.

It's a none starter with the relic taking up a quarter of the space. Apart from it looking terrible and vastly limiting the capacity of a concert it also means the sound simply sails over it abd out across the housing estate.

 

They put up with the Fair. Which I would imagine is worse. They didn't choose to live there without taking football crowds into account.

 

Imagine putting something on that would attract customers from outside the Borough then subjecting them to the appalling catering

 

??? You have the stage on that side, facing the East.

Then you can use all 3 new stands and the pitch.

Bet you’d be 25-30k including pitch.

But you would need that many i to make it a success.

 

I think if pitched right it would work as more and more small and medium venues close.

 

Playing fast and loose with the word "new" there...

Even the slightly less old stands are pretty crap when compared to actual modern stadiums.

I think without the corners being filled in it's just pointless to try and host concerts. Boxing events, maybe. But concerts would just sound awful I think.

 

The problem with that is it would be extremely wide and short if that makes sense. I think generally events are held the other way? Could be wrong though, I usually am.

Then there's still the problem of the stand not being very high to keep the sound in.

Ive just decided a new west stand could include a retractable lower tier. That would really make the stadium multi purpose. Because the lower tier is currently cut into the ground anyway they'd just have to dig that section out abd put retractable bleacher style seats in. It's pretty much impossible to put any facilities there anyway so wouldn't hurt anything. Fold them back and you've got a great flat area for a stage or anything else putting onto.

In fact my ideal west stand would have a lower tier that's the same size as the current one is but would be retractable line I described. Where people currently stand now when it rains would be a disabled row because it's at street level. That would be the back row of of the lower tier

Then it would be a row of exec boxes or some form of hospitality. That would be roughly the height of the current wall between upper and lower tiers I imagine. Then on top would be a upper tier as big as they can do. If it's only the same depth as the current upper tier then fine because a modern stand could be steeper and get in a few extra rows, even just 3 extra would be an extra 600 seats or so. But the key thing is that after the back row would be a back wall of the stand (obviously) that would be tall. As tall as the east stand. Doesnt have to be deeper and cut into grove street but it would be a tall wall to keep the sound in and make the stadium look big even if it isnt a huge capacity stand.
Something like that would be absolutely ideal for making the stadium multi purpose going forward.

I'd also build an identical copy of the corner stand between the ponty and east. Office space or something in the back that can be rented out, or a hotel, or a restaurant , anything really, and a big scoreboard on the front.

Between east and north I'd build another one that looks the same from the front. Big scoreboard but otherwise identical to the current corner stand. This one though would extend back into the big space in the north east area of the clubs grounds. It would be a supporters kids club in the upper floor with access directly into the family stand and on the ground floor a bar that goes out into an open area for the fanzone.


It's easy this stadium design.

I may have got a little off track...

All four

 

I think they successfully got the club to pull the plug on car boots in the carpark in the last couple of years didn't they? Moaned about the car parking arrangements and that there's additional noise from it.

Pathetic if you ask me but I'm sure it happened

 

Simpsons promoter put a post on socials a few week back saying fight news pending and then sort of teased with oakwell in the summer? Not sure if you saw it but the callum simpson fight at oakwel would be great and do some good numbers I would hope.