Anyone driven past Hillsborough lately?!!! I walked past the other weekend and I actually laughed out loud. Honestly tin pot. Put it this way, our fanzone is “massive” by comparison.
Controversial opinion but I don't think it looks too bad. Seem to be plenty of customers, musician on the balcony, mascots there, made an effort with balloons, not amazing but they covered the basics.
Apart from the rickety trellis holding the fanzone sign and the blue plastic bumper fencing it doesn't look too bad. As others have said it looks like they have live music, mascots in attendance. Could be much worse.
You probably have to see it to believe it. It’s shoe-horned into a corner of a car park right next to the main road. The “Fan zone” sign is bigger than the fan zone itself.
Hillsborough is a really awkward plot though and there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of space to actually utilise. Unless they came to an agreement to partition some of the nearby park or if there is any spare land offsite nearby, they are always going to struggle to find a big enough place for their gazillion fans.
I did spot it the other week and thought it strange to be shoe-horned into that corner. Surely, they should have one in Hillsborough Park, something about the size of Tramlines for the massive numbers they get.
Maybe if our fanzone was smaller that Southampton right back would have been cornered by @Loko the Tyke and wouldn't have escaped. Food for thought.
That’s the thing though. The land directly opposite the ground was owned (or at least leased) by Wednesdayite - their fanzine / supporters group. They operated a car park on matchdays. The locals reckon Chansiri was given the opportunity to buy it but he wasn’t interested. Only interested in buying non existent taxi companies it seems.
Looks ok from the pictures. I'm sure the club could upgrade our fanzone with just a small investment. Obviously it's great what the volunteers have done for ours, but a few more permanent structures would go a lond way. The astroturf, the benches, the solid bar like Macclesfield's.
It may have changed in recent years (say last 15), but I think it was leased. I've not been that way for a good 5-6 years at least now, but there was an effort to build a supermarket on that area of land you're talking about. I doubt they could do anything now with the Sainsburys just up and off the roundabout where part of Fletchers bakery conveniently burnt down. I wonder what makes more money on a matchday after considering any upfront investment cost, a derelict bit of land used as a car park on match days, or a fan zone?
Would stay away from astro turf personally when there's no actual need for it other than looking pretty. Plastic for plastics sake. We have benches, Seating for about 70/80 the last game. Two different bars as well, rather than just one. Sure more will follow over time but given the FanZones I see elsewhere ours is far from as bad as some people make out, and despite those negative comments has 700/800 people through on a match day (or 1,500+ on 'Open' Day). I'm obviously biased, but it's a decent little setup with the live music, the player interviews and linking in with the different supporter channels like Reds Report and Red All Over. Feel like this Wednesday version is getting better feedback which is just bonkers.
