Anybody know if Oakwell's West Stand is the oldest remaining in league football? Built around 1905 I believe, can't be many older.
Possibly but.. ... but it really is just a giant pile of wood and rust. and those bogs!! they are truely medieval.
no because it dont serve any arcitectual importance. i think thats what its got to be to be classed as listed
Wikipedia says main stand Blundell Park, Grimsby 1901 Has that been knocked down yet? They're due to move soon.
RE: West Stand..........problem is this..............me thinks The North Stand is too bigger a percentage of the total capacity 6 k out of a total of 22.5 k is too large So we have to develop the West stand to allow more home supporters in when we get to the Premeirship in 2 or 3 years time
i reckon they dropped a bollock when they built the east stand all that room behind and they didnt move it further back. Now they might well have issues building its twin on the site of the west stand cos of space issues. I dont know - never really measured it but from a visual i reckon it could be tight! Id like to see the corner filled in with seats or something more impressive than the corner stand at the other side.
There's ample room to build a replica stand on the east. I heard we had outline planning permission for a 9k stand. When it could be built..**** knows. Dont think the west stand can get a safety cert for much longer. Maybe plans will be scaled down unless by some miracle we find ourselves in the prem pretty soon.
RE: i reckon they dropped a bollock when they built the east stand is it really worth building a 7,500 seater stand in it's place when there is only a few hundred in each week?
There's plenty of room... ...you have to consider that a modern stand won't need a perimeter wall like the West stand has, a new stand might even have a smaller footprint than what is there at the moment
I reckon we should leave Oakwell and start again somewhere else... ...couldn't bear to see it bulldozed though!
I do have a masterplan for making the club much bigger and attracting more supporters.... Now this is only an idea, and it would never happen so don't worry but in order to increase the number of supporters and make the club "bigger" a relocation to an area on the outskirts of Barnsley over towards Cortonwood. Then maybe rename the club Barnsley Dearne Valley, or something that associates the club with a wider area rather than just Barnsley itself. If this were to happen it would open up the door for football fans from Rotherham, Doncaster and even Sheffield to begin supporting a team that they could also consider local to them, but we would always know it was Barnsley and would always be located in the Barnsley boundary. Rather than build one of these 'flat-pack' stadiums, you build one with a bit of character with different height and size stands...this stadium then forms the centrepiece of a retail and entertainment park run by the club to create extra revenue. It would take time, and would be fairly controversial but its all in the name of progress!
