Oakwell Developments

First sentence - me paraphrasing Flatman. Second sentence - Merde Tete's flimsy conclusion.

 

Big west stand with loads of Office space for hire/ storage space.

 

They were all slagging it off on here... "Arrs standing up going to do owt for atmosphere" They try it and......

 

I’m intrigued to see how such things pan out. The council own the lot now. And so I’ve more faith in them delivering and improving the assets.

We’ll see.

But, the suggested improvements are fluff to me. I’m one of those who knows for a fact that a new West Stand would be a real sign of forward thinking, of intent, actual progress. Costly to implement, but 10000000% an earner as time goes on. As well as being a positive outside of financial parameters.

Time will tell.

 

Wouldn't say Connell & Phillips are mediocre

 

I'll ask you. Who should pay for it. ?. If the council. Would the ratepayers kick up a fuss. If the club. With a 30yr lease it may be a disaster for em. If it became a white elephant..A way could possibly be to incorporate a hotel seeing as Barnsley is lacking in that dept..apparently. But who would benefit from the income. ?.
You know as well as anybody. Are the facilities already in place used to their full potential. ?. For me that has to be the first goal.

 

West Stand if it was a car.

 

Personally and only my opinion I'm not fussed how the West stand looks and what opposing fans think, I do think some of our fans are more interested in aesthetics than the squad.
Yes it needs something doing but we're not in a position to

(A) fill the ground to have a need to use it
(B) The cost Vs a payback period
(C) wouldn't want to see cuts to the academy or playing side to fund it.
(D) how much more commercial revenue would it drive (1 boxing match a season isn't great)
(E) Atmosphere could be worse having 10k fans spread even more.

Just think our focus should be getting out of this league, being able to build season on season with a secure sustainable club.
Do we need additional revenues and commercial activities? Yes but not at further huge outlay.

 

I would be willing to contribute to the cost of a new west stand. Obviously I’m not talking about chucking many thousands of pounds at the thing, but if there was a fundraising effort then I would gladly chip in. What better legacy to leave than helping drag your club out of the dark ages and improve its image?

 

Positive exposure on 'and finally' news articles around the world. Hugely reduced police costs because it is physically impossible to cause aggro when a dog is wagging its tail. Summert warm to cling to on those freezing winter matches. A guide dog for the ref. It needs to happen.

 

Oakwell doesn’t belong to BFC remember.

That’s what makes the future interesting.

 

A) Why does filling the ground matter with regards to the west stand? It's not fit for purpose.
B & C) it's the council's ground, they don't contribute to the squad.
D) l think it would be much more than 1 boxing match a season.
E) the atmosphere is lost due to how low the west stand is, it's half the size of the rest of the stands and the noise travels over it.

 

(A) if we're not filling the ground its pretty pointless at thus moment in time

(B&C) point taken but the council wouldn't do it without some return on investment from the club

(D) you'd probably empty a good portion of the East stand, live games would show more red seats, if any fans from the ponty were lost then you'd definitely hear lower atmosphere levels, having a higher roof/new stand but spreading fans out wouldn't increase noise

 

Sit daaaarn..!

 

Replace the west stand with one that looks identical to the east stand but with maybe 3 rows less in the upper tier to make it narrower for the road (not that it needs to be narrower as it actually fits) and you have only added about a thousand onto the actual seated capacity of Oakwell.

But what you've done is opened up about 3000 extra seats due to the 2000 that it's illegal to use because it has no basic hygiene facilities in it and the few extra rows.
You've also increased the comfort level for those who use the stand.
And increased the atmosphere massively by not allowing the sound to escape out like it currently does over the low, far back, roof of the west.
You haven't got 3 or 4 sell outs a year like we currently have where people are turned away from Oakwell*
People aren't put off attending the bigger games because the only seats left are in the shithole that is the west.
Advertising revenue can be increased with two rows of advertising boards instead of one.
Naming rights can be sold.
Hospitality capacity can be doubled.
There's an opportunity increase commercial revenue from incorporating units into the back of it that can be leased out throughout the year. A shop, cafe, a doctors surgery, a office space etc.
Big opportunity to attract money making ventures to Oakwell more often. It's one boxing match now because of the state of the west but solve that and why can't it be two or three concerts, a couple of boxing matches, England under 21s, England womens games etc? Oakwell used to be used for those fixtures around here until the west stand started to drag us down and we got replaced by Rotherham and Doncaster as the go to grounds for these events.

Oh and the big benefit is that maintenance costs will drop significantly as it's abundantly clear the west stand costs more to keep open than any other stand.


People often say "we aren't filling the ground so it's pointless" but firstly that's just not true. We are filling the ground occasionally with our artificially low capacity due to the state of the west and fans are turned off attending bigger games because of the poor stand they'd be forced to sit in but regardless that argument is only focused on one small aspect of what a 21st century football stand does or can do.

 

Good post, l couldn't be arsed responding, it's been done to death. To not see the benefits of replacing the West is so short sighted, it's holds 4,500 - it would be replaced with something of a similar size. At least now you won't get the standard "I'd rather spend it on the team..." response now the council owns it.

The council are into modernising things at the minute, lets hope Houghton's comments were off the cuff and after seeing the boxing event, the council now realise they have a decent sized arena to hold events. I know they've had meetings since raising how much revenue it brought into the town from outside and highlighting the lack of hotel rooms.

 

B%£#%£#@ i had to make do with a Ford Capri brown vinyl roof

 

Completely agree. Very well put. Personally I'd rebuild the West Stand as a modern one-tiered structure like the John Street stand at Bramall Lane, with plenty of modern press and TV accommodation. But that's just a matter of personal taste.

 

Maybe not a priority, but it’d be nice if Oakwell had a brand new sound system in each stand.

Proper get the place rocking with a bit of bass etc and be able to hear the announcer properly.

 

Funny you say that, l thought exactly the same yesterday - l was in the West Stand though, with the worst speakers in any football stadia. Although you can't really compare, on a recent trip to the San Siro they had the stacked ones like at music concerts - not my genre but some type of rap tune was blaring out and the LED boards around the stadium were lit up with flames, didn't half get the crowd going. We've got rid of our boards though....