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Post by bluebiro on Nov 13, 2022 19:50:49 GMT
cant remember that happening. What season would that have been? When they installed the family stand. They were going to install it on the hardstanding and fit it on the away end too but deemed it that it would block the sightline from the east stand. They aborted and put it on the terraces instead and it was mocked by many. They eventually gave up on the Family Stand and we are where we are today. would there be no problem with sightlines if they copied the east stand though with a flat front to the standing areas?
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Post by Topper Gas on Nov 13, 2022 19:52:10 GMT
Plenty of other clubs have redeveloped their stadiums without moving to complexes with hotels and restaurants incorporated or adjacent. Burnley, Preston and Charlton spring to mind. We were going to do the same to the Mem in 2008 but apparently now it's just not viable. For us, anyway. In my opinion there is not the finance available or being sought to fund a new stadium, and the reasons given not to rebuild the Mem are just convenient excuses and a smokescreen to hide the lack of money and perhaps ambition. Just because someone from the club says it's not viable, when it's viable for dozens of other clubs in godforsaken Northern hellholes (sorry Northern hellholes), doesn't mean we have to take this as gospel. Things are said for many reasons, not all of which are totally truthful. That's a similar opinion to CheltenhamGas' whether it's correct is really anybody's guess but if it was correct then what logic is there in Wael ploughing £m's of his own money into the club each season plus funding The Quarters? Surely nobody is that wealthy they can just write off £3m+ each season, year after year? What do you think Wael's long term plan is, spend upwards of £50m then just walk away? If Wael had real no intention of funding a new ground wouldn't it make sense to spend some money updating the Mem each season.
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Post by Tilly's Thighs on Nov 13, 2022 20:07:50 GMT
OK this explains things very well. Surely the answer going forward would be to allow away fans the entire South stand and home fans get the away terrace. For example Plymouth brought 850 terrace 300 seats total - just under 1200. However : this reduced capacity to around 9300. Alternatively we could of given Plymouth 1000 only south stand and increased capacity to just under 10500 by utilising away terrace for home fans. By giving away fans an extra 200 tickets (terrace / seats) means the capacity is reduced by 1000 plus. Surely this makes no sense giving away fans terrace / seating split if it reduces overall capacity by over 1000. From now on 1000 south stand seats should be the maximum for away fans sorted !. All good, however, even giving whole South Stand to away fans only md therefore no loss to segregation still gives maximum capacity of 9,800 as Rovers are self reducing capacity by 700 due to not wanting to overcrowd areas. Which seems utter madness when we are already suffering from the bottom step not being available in all terracing areas. Adding seats to west enclosure would allow guaranteed home seating and a known figure and we could keep South stand as away only but assume West enclosure capacity would be reduced by about 600 if seats added, so conversely this could see capacity max at about 9,200. All very frustrating. The stadium can easily accommodate 10500 so hopefully Rovers will stop self reducing soon and also at somepoint hopefully SAG will allow pitchside use in the terracing also. Bottom line us, a new stadium is massively needed. Circa 18000 available and we would be hitting 13 or 14k for many games and higher in successful seasons at this level. They have closed the South West Stand for the Boreham Wood cup game, as BW want the South Stand, so Rovers have to keep that end of ground free for them. Not sure how it will work if they decide to start selling West Terrace tickets for that game.
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Post by aghast on Nov 13, 2022 20:31:53 GMT
Plenty of other clubs have redeveloped their stadiums without moving to complexes with hotels and restaurants incorporated or adjacent. Burnley, Preston and Charlton spring to mind. We were going to do the same to the Mem in 2008 but apparently now it's just not viable. For us, anyway. In my opinion there is not the finance available or being sought to fund a new stadium, and the reasons given not to rebuild the Mem are just convenient excuses and a smokescreen to hide the lack of money and perhaps ambition. Just because someone from the club says it's not viable, when it's viable for dozens of other clubs in godforsaken Northern hellholes (sorry Northern hellholes), doesn't mean we have to take this as gospel. Things are said for many reasons, not all of which are totally truthful. That's a similar opinion to CheltenhamGas' whether it's correct is really anybody's guess but if it was correct then what logic is there in Wael ploughing £m's of his own money into the club each season plus funding The Quarters? Surely nobody is that wealthy they can just write off £3m+ each season, year after year? What do you think Wael's long term plan is, spend upwards of £50m then just walk away? If Wael had real no intention of funding a new ground wouldn't it make sense to spend some money updating the Mem each season. It's just my opinion, based on the total lack of progress and news. Maybe Wael can't put a financing package together in a way which gives him the control he wants? The Quarters is of course a great asset for the club and will allow us to at least compete, and I am eternally grateful to Wael for that and covering debts, but a redevelopment or a new stadium is a whole different ball game. I don't doubt his wish to support the club, just question his ability to move us on to the next level. I'm not suggesting it will come to it, and I am NOT like Chippenhamgas suggesting he will sell up to get his money back, but the debts he has incurred are so far covered by the value of the Mem with pp for housing, so it's an investment which can be recovered and therefore relatively safe from the family's point of view. A new or redeveloped stadium will of course involve £ms in loans or some kind of part ownership or leasing. Maybe that's where Wael can't progress beyond. Just speculating. How long will it take before finally everyone starts asking the same questions?
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Post by Topper Gas on Nov 13, 2022 20:52:24 GMT
That's a similar opinion to CheltenhamGas' whether it's correct is really anybody's guess but if it was correct then what logic is there in Wael ploughing £m's of his own money into the club each season plus funding The Quarters? Surely nobody is that wealthy they can just write off £3m+ each season, year after year? What do you think Wael's long term plan is, spend upwards of £50m then just walk away? If Wael had real no intention of funding a new ground wouldn't it make sense to spend some money updating the Mem each season. It's just my opinion, based on the total lack of progress and news. Maybe Wael can't put a financing package together in a way which gives him the control he wants? The Quarters is of course a great asset for the club and will allow us to at least compete, and I am eternally grateful to Wael for that and covering debts, but a redevelopment or a new stadium is a whole different ball game. I don't doubt his wish to support the club, just question his ability to move us on to the next level.
I'm not suggesting it will come to it, and I am NOT like Chippenhamgas suggesting he will sell up to get his money back, but the debts he has incurred are so far covered by the value of the Mem with pp for housing, so it's an investment which can be recovered and therefore relatively safe from the family's point of view.A new or redeveloped stadium will of course involve £ms in loans or some kind of part ownership or leasing. Maybe that's where Wael can't progress beyond. Just speculating. How long will it take before finally everyone starts asking the same questions? I can't see his investment is safe as there's no way he can sell the Mem for development until he locates a new ground.
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Post by gaelgas on Nov 14, 2022 14:30:13 GMT
As others have pointed out the South stand used to go all the way and there is probably room to extend it back a bit as well and even wrap around to meet the SW stand, that would add a few hundred, and, copying Carlisle, place stand extensions either side of the east stand, another few hundred. With segregation changed could easily add 1500 to the capacity. It seems the club could do a bit more to extend the capacity.
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Post by peterparker on Nov 14, 2022 14:41:37 GMT
As others have pointed out the South stand used to go all the way and there is probably room to extend it back a bit as well and even wrap around to meet the SW stand, that would add a few hundred, and, copying Carlisle, place stand extensions either side of the east stand, another few hundred. With segregation changed could easily add 1500 to the capacity. It seems the club could do a bit more to extend the capacity. The South Stand has never gone the whole way to my recollection
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Post by eric on Nov 14, 2022 14:51:58 GMT
As others have pointed out the South stand used to go all the way and there is probably room to extend it back a bit as well and even wrap around to meet the SW stand, that would add a few hundred, and, copying Carlisle, place stand extensions either side of the east stand, another few hundred. With segregation changed could easily add 1500 to the capacity. It seems the club could do a bit more to extend the capacity. The South Stand has never gone the whole way to my recollection I thought the same. The aerial shots someone else posted may have been deceptive and it also looks different because some partitions, temporary buildings, portable bogs etc are now filling the empty space.
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Post by Colyton Gas on Nov 14, 2022 14:54:32 GMT
Attachment DeletedOnly other tented stand I ever came across-although much posher than ours- was Stafford Rangers.Replaced many years ago by a permanent shed.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2022 15:01:19 GMT
As others have pointed out the South stand used to go all the way and there is probably room to extend it back a bit as well and even wrap around to meet the SW stand, that would add a few hundred, and, copying Carlisle, place stand extensions either side of the east stand, another few hundred. With segregation changed could easily add 1500 to the capacity. It seems the club could do a bit more to extend the capacity. The South Stand has never gone the whole way to my recollection It was increased in width paid for by the rugby club at the same time as the south west stand was first installed. They wanted extra seating to provide extra income but the capacity of the ground was never increased. They council permitted the additional seating as long as the capacity stayed the same.
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Post by Tilly's Thighs on Nov 14, 2022 15:05:04 GMT
As others have pointed out the South stand used to go all the way and there is probably room to extend it back a bit as well and even wrap around to meet the SW stand, that would add a few hundred, and, copying Carlisle, place stand extensions either side of the east stand, another few hundred. With segregation changed could easily add 1500 to the capacity. It seems the club could do a bit more to extend the capacity. The South Stand has never gone the whole way to my recollection The aerial photograph has 14 roof panels, this photo has 11.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2022 15:07:31 GMT
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Post by darkbluegas on Nov 14, 2022 15:18:13 GMT
That makes for very depressing reading. Imagine being told 16 years ago that would be the pinnacle of the ground's upgrade. No matter who's been in charge for however long it's pretty disgraceful. This is a large, popular city and thats the best we can manage. It's almost as though we've got no sense of pride in our surroundings.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2022 15:35:44 GMT
That makes for very depressing reading. Imagine being told 16 years ago that would be the pinnacle of the ground's upgrade. No matter who's been in charge for however long it's pretty disgraceful. This is a large, popular city and thats the best we can manage. It's almost as though we've got no sense of pride in our surroundings. As I said in an earlier post, this extra seating was applied and paid for by the Rugby Club with the agreement of the owners, the Football Club. They could charge three times the price for a seat against a terrace ticket and also sold hospitality to some of the seat holders for even more income. Rovers were allowed to use the seating at no cost as part of the deal. There was no increase in the stadium capacity. Attachment Deleted
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Post by Colyton Gas on Nov 14, 2022 17:01:57 GMT
That makes for very depressing reading. Imagine being told 16 years ago that would be the pinnacle of the ground's upgrade. No matter who's been in charge for however long it's pretty disgraceful. This is a large, popular city and thats the best we can manage. It's almost as though we've got no sense of pride in our surroundings. Agree.Total Embarrassment and well over twenty years old.Makes I cringe.
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Post by wertongas on Nov 14, 2022 17:18:15 GMT
The South Stand has never gone the whole way to my recollection It was increased in width paid for by the rugby club at the same time as the south west stand was first installed. They wanted extra seating to provide extra income but the capacity of the ground was never increased. They council permitted the additional seating as long as the capacity stayed the same. I did raise the fact that the south stand use to be larger with TG, he didn't realize that and would I think have added on the extra blocks of seats if it wasn't for the fact that the electronic score board is now in the way and stopping any extension. As I have said before a larger pre fabricated L shaped metal stand could go in where the South west and South stands are. I did think about contacting TG to suggest this and other things.
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Post by wertongas on Nov 14, 2022 17:19:48 GMT
View AttachmentOnly other tented stand I ever came across-although much posher than ours- was Stafford Rangers.Replaced many years ago by a permanent shed. crawly have a tent running down one side of the ground.
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Post by A Source (aka Angry Badger) on Nov 14, 2022 17:20:28 GMT
Regarding the south stand I thought there were limitations due to its proximity to Alton Road.
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Post by wertongas on Nov 14, 2022 17:23:52 GMT
When they installed the family stand. They were going to install it on the hardstanding and fit it on the away end too but deemed it that it would block the sightline from the east stand. They aborted and put it on the terraces instead and it was mocked by many. They eventually gave up on the Family Stand and we are where we are today. would there be no problem with sightlines if they copied the east stand though with a flat front to the standing areas? You are right there are companies that will design bespoke temporary metal stands to follow the contours of the existing stand, some of the modern prefab stands like the one at Watford can look very smart are difficult to tell them from a permanent stand also some can be big, Blackpool's has a capacity of 4,600.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2022 17:26:56 GMT
It was increased in width paid for by the rugby club at the same time as the south west stand was first installed. They wanted extra seating to provide extra income but the capacity of the ground was never increased. They council permitted the additional seating as long as the capacity stayed the same. I did raise the fact that the south stand use to be larger with TG, he didn't realize that and would I think have added on the extra blocks of seats if it wasn't for the fact that the electronic score board is now in the way and stopping any extension. As I have said before a larger pre fabricated L shaped metal stand could go in where the South west and South stands are. I did think about contacting TG to suggest this and other things. The critical point is though, by just increasing the size of the stand will not increase the capacity as the previous planning application shows. To increase the capacity there will need to be additional turnstiles and toilet facilities to comply with safety issues. A piecemeal development that the planners are not keen to support and that is why they granted us permission for a complete redevelopment.
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