One thing the east stand closure has shown me

We paid more than that for Kevin Betsy!

 

Best stand in the country leave it as it is nowhere better to watch football.

 

Other than the seats in the lower, its the same as it was in 1912

 

I'd have agreed in the days when it was all in use, but now it just looks awful from there. I was a huge "preserve the West Stand" advocate for many years, but its time has come. The fact that it's been half empty for over a decade means that it's no longer fit for purpose.

 

The middle section is, but the ends were added a few years later. It is however very cool that the team photo from 1912 features a stand which is still in use in 2023.

 

I don't think any of the 3 'New Stands' have been designed to accommodate safe stranding so the cost of introducing it in any of them would be prohibitive: Safe Standing is part of the West Stands future or nowhere in the ground.

 

I sit west stand lower and wouldn’t say it’s cramped. I get upstairs might be a little bit, they do get the benefit of always being dry though!

Certainly much quicker to get out after the game compared to the East stand when I got moved there last season.

 

It really isn’t, and there really is.

All sentiment aside, it isn’t fit for purpose. The lower tier is open to the elements, the upper tier is too cramped, it leaks, we can only use half of it, you can’t even go for a piss without wading through everyone’s who’s been before you. It has probably cost nearly as much to keep it partially open for the last decade or two as it would have done to have had it replaced and service loan payments to pay for it.

It is a relic. Ok, a sentimental reminder to years gone by. But I’m not suggesting we change stadium altogether. That part just needs replacing.

Liverpool fans would go mad if they left Anfield. Man Utd would never leave old Trafford.

But how many parts of either of those stadiums resemble anything that was there in say the mid eighties, let alone 1912?

It’s not even just that it’s an embarrassment and unfit for a professional football team. It’s that it’s an anchor around the club’s neck, it makes no sense wasting money on it to try and keep it ticking over.

 

Lower West is a lovely place to sit on a warm day. I'm assuming that it must be pretty brutal in a downpour though. At least when it was terracing you could try to move back underneath the roof.

 

I'm pretty sure I read something about this years ago, that there is a height restriction on any replacement for the West Stand, it cannot be any higher than the current structure. Can't remember where I read it but perhaps whitey could confirm (or not)?

 

If I remember correctly that was a light issue when the primary school behind was still open, but it no longer applies. I could be completely wrong though.

 

You’re wrong.

The lower tier is superb. It’s warmer than parts of the other ground as the wind doesn’t swirl in the stand it just goes through. If it pisses it down you can just stand at the back or nip upstairs. At the start and end of the season it’s a lovely place to sit in the sun.

The upper tier is cosy and and the warmest place in the ground.

The bogs are basic. The ones next to the Ponte don’t have piss on the floor. At the end of the day you’re only going for a piss what more do you need. Summat special about pissing in the open air.

I hope it’s still here in 100 years time and if they do renovate it they keep the character like they have done with the stands at Craven Cottage. Not everything has to be a concrete/metal monstrosity like the East Stand.

Long live the West Stand.

 

We sit second row from the back so often get away with it. Those down in front of us move quicker than Mido ever did for us as soon as the rain comes down!

 

no, no, its fine according to some on here, nothing to see, just all superficial.

 

Don't know what others think but a couple of decades of neglect are starting to show.

 

The West Stand Upper tier is essentially a wooden and corrugated sheeting box. That could easily be demolished leaving the lower tier intact. All you'd have to build is a single tier structure backing towards the road with turnstiles incorporated into the outer wall of the stand. The single tier structure and the existing tier would naturally make it a two tier stand. The roof could be extended forward to the pitch to cover the lower tier also the new upper tier/ single tier structure should run the full length of the pitch.

This idea could still retain the heritage underneath the stand as I think that it's in the existing lower tier.

I'd also install safe standing in the corner between the West Stand and the Ponte End.

 

Who is going to finance these grand ideas, when the owners struggle to maintain what they already have?

 

Bob Geldof.

 

Must admit, I love sitting there but there's not a cat in hells chance I'd be taking my kids in. Sentimental it's a link to our history, but it might be time...

 

He`s too busy Lookin after No1.