Bescot - How big does it need to be?

I agree with most on here our stadium is not the worst in this league or in fact the league above but bit does have its faults , stanchions etc .
As others have said there is a steady increase in fan base and the club need to encourage this by getting better in the catering side for food , drinks etc and get people wanting to come back and spreading the word how good it is at the Bescot and how it has improved on and off the pitch .
If we can steadily improve the stadium as we go and get the place full and if we were to ever think about a new stadium I would love it to be like Doncaster Rovers Keepmoat , very symmetrical with the corners all filled , a lovely looking stadium in my opinion .

I can’t see it ever being built in the town now if it was ever to happen but I dont think its in that a bad place where we are now and lets face it its only a stones throw from the old fellows park .

Personally I would replicate the home end and replace the away end. It will soon pay for itself and we will never have to give up sections of the family stand again. It will also offer lucrative advertising adj the M6. Even it its full occasionally whilst we are in Division 4 it would be worth it. And if we do make the championship it would sell out almost every game.

I would also remove all stanchions in the main stand. It wouldnt be thay difficult.

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Won’t the big sign between the away end and M6 pretty much negate that?

No I dont think it would. The big sign remains the premier sign but fixed advertising behind it will still be very popular for companies. There are multiple signs either side of the big one too.

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Ps … if we do or do not rebuild can we next time we relay the pitch have undersoil heating so we don’t lose anymore games … :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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I’d forget about expansions etc and have undersoil as a top priority.

Fixture pile up could end up costing us at the end of the season, and Tuesday night games aren’t as well attended.

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Like every other club, our crowds increase when we are doing well and drop off when we aren’t. Good result against Leicester, move into the top 7 (and especially top 3), and we’ll be looking at 7k+ - more if it’s a bigger club also in the promotion race.

That level may well stay there and possibly even increase if we storm through L1, but unless we can hold our own in the Championship home support will drop off again.

Our core support who will always go through thick or thin is still only around 4k tops. Need to double that to make expanding our capacity a sensible option. Success will bring more people in while it lasts, it’s converting them to be part of our core when it stops that is the key.

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Well if this plan would have gone ahead 70 years ago we would not have had to worry about big gates.:innocent::wink:

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Fascinating.

Bit confused why the Southend director was involved though.

Southend themselves re-located to Roots Hall, built on a landfill site, in 1955, so depending on the date of this report, I guess he was either looking to get some tips (pun intended) if this was around the time they purchased their site in 1952, or if a bit later, was giving advice to our board. Incidentally Roots Hall was built for a capacity crowd of 35,000, although the record for a cup tie against Liverpool, was just over 31,000. Current capacity is 12,000.

@cookyskid @Andy_Petterson Yes I don’t see what the connection would have been with a Southend director. That newspaper cutting was from May, 1953.
About 10 years ago someone showed me the newspaper report from around 1947 which I never photographed. The plan was to have around 35,000 seats and 15,000 standing.

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The next mention in the press was July 1953. No more was heard this season by the looks of it.

The guy on the left with the glasses pointing is saying …" that little bastard there is one day going to do something like this but on a much smaller scale and rob the club blind mark my words …"

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I love a good spreadsheet myself, but YYYY-MM-DD is the way to go. :grin:

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Probably not the right thread and not worthy of a new one, but I went to St Andrews today for a football fix.

Only ever sat in the railway end when we’ve played there and went to a blues villa derby once. Anyway sat in their main stand, to say it was out dated would be an understatement. I like old grounds/stands like that rather than the sterile never grounds but the toilets were flooded (sounds familiar), no catering was available at all in that area once inside the turnstiles and all the seats in the row are all attached to one sort of metal frame on the old terrace which was loose so as people move about the whole row moves lol. The other three sides I’m sure are fine (apart from being at risk of collapse and half shut) but that main stand there took me back lol.

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Feel sorry for blues fans deserve so much more.

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How did Mr Deeney play?

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I don’t pay much attention to football outside of walsall and league2 so when I saw him I was shocked, he’s about 2 stone over weight. He was very ineffective, won a few headers here and there and can hold the ball up but didn’t do much else. Talking to the chap next to me he’s scored something like 10 in 50 games and half of them have been penalties and he was saying how poor he’s been relatively. They made 3 subs at once and I was surprised he wasn’t hooked at that point.

Isn’t that a set of fans, pre-internet, looking at how many blue dots there are before smoke signalling everyone in the local area that there are only 52 single seats left? :smiley:

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Yes, I think you’re right :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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