Oakwell old Spion Kop

Problem with seats there is I doubt we'd ever be allowed to use them due to segregation. Id put a stand like that in that corner (maybe even one that houses the fan zone on the lower floor and area behind it?) and would put a seated or standing section in the corner between ponty and west.

 

No that was dinghies and small boats coming from France.

 

The simple answer is a. An over zealous head of the safety advisory group who is so risk averse that they enforce more draconian measures on BFC compared to similar agencies at different councils coupled with a poor history of stewarding at the club over recent years where for example they have regularly allowed pitch invasions and have been slow to react to trouble in the stands.

 

Someone might turn up with a tin of sweetcorn...

Segregation seemed to work ok in the recent match where both fans were in the North Stand. I can only assume it's linked to cost of having to increase steward numbers or something.

 

Beautiful, just need to bulldoze the West, then job done.

I still have the mock up of the East in place of the West but for some reason the upload a file no longer works.

 

Go to imgbb.com and upload it there, it gives a link that you can paste into the bbs

 

I would also think they had to build a new stand with dressing rooms underneath as the old dressing rooms were under west stand

 

To answer the question correctly - 2 main reasons:

1) The long term vision was big teams coming to Oakwell and packing out the North Stand, bringing cash receipts up. Smaller teams would mean the segregation would be put in place. Therefore, the stadium could always have maximum revenue when the team were doing well, and you’d tweak the North Stand to suit each game. Very clever idea. It is a cash cow that stand. Not many clubs have bigger away ends than us.

2) 1st team changing rooms/academy facilities. The push to improve the Academy and the changing rooms for the Matchday games were the idea behind locating it in the North Stand. Also meant that players/club coaches can securely park behind the North stand and get access straight into the changing rooms etc - not as easy in the West Stand. Also no disruption to the changing facilities at the time, or if the West Stand was ever rebuilt.

A note on the asbestos - yes, the roof is asbestos on the West Stand. No issue as it is - perfectly safe. There is lagging below the stand too - again, no issue. To confirm, both the Brewery Stand and old Ponty were the same with the olds roofs. Removal of the asbestos is not cost prohibitive, as the roof isn’t notifiable with HSE. Fairly straight forward job for the correct experienced contractor.

The West Stand was just the last to be done - I suspect if Richard Wright had not saved Hristov’s header at Wembley, and Barnard had not missed that penalty, thus meaning we’d have been promoted - the West Stand would have been bulldozed and renewed, to match the East Stand pretty much.

 

Looks great. For me the gaping hole between the North and East Stands is probably a bigger eyesore than the West Stand. Plus I think it's one of the biggest single atmosphere killers. I'm still not really sure why the North Stand was built so far from the pitch compared with the Ponty.

 

I would assume that has something to do with player access to the tunnel and dressing room area and possibly to allow emergency vehicle access to the pitch area if needed.