New Stadium?

[Speakasyoufind]

And yet still held in quite high esteem by some who post on here, baffling to say the least

[Mr.Fish]

I was at the ground earlier today dropping off some chicken. Noticed that there are two blokes in high vis marking up the floor by the away end. They had plans in their hands and seemed to be looking up at the stand. I think they are planning on expanding the away end to look like the big one. Might be nothing in this…

[Speakasyoufind]

I see a flaw in the statement, Mr Fish dropping off chicken ?? You don’t fool me Mr

[Peel85]

I recently drove past and can confirm there was workers in Hi Vis jackets but looked like they were doing a survey on the drainage system to me.

[Willenhallsaddler]

Im sure plans were drawn up when we were in the championship and lodged with the council to extend the stand similar to the home and grants were available to fo it.

Im sure more knowledgeable folks on here will put me right.

[Timiwhites]

I remember that too. It would only work if we were either in the championship or pushing for it. If we were the income from visiting supporters would be tremendous, tickets, food, hospitality packages etc. Could see some clubs such as Sunderland bringing 4 to 5,000 to a game. Also remember there were some objections from the neighbouring housing. But the club was there first and expanding the stadium was always on the cards. I don’t think their objections were successful and permision was granted but our fortunes since then made the project irrelevant.

[TheBostedSlab]

When I was last at the ground behind the away end, I was approached by two people in hi-viz jackets who were conducting a survey into how effective surveys were when conducted by people in hi-viz jackets. I told them that they would possibly be more successful if they carried their survey paraphernalia around in matching hi-viz drawstring bags to create a really fetching combo.

Nothing to do with a new stadium, but I thought I would just put it out there.

[warsawpact]

The idea on the away end improvement was to have a large billboard on the back facing the motorway. The revenue from the billboard was intended to help pay for the stand.
In the event of course, we got the free-standing billboards but not the stand. I’m sure the money generated since then has been saved up to pay for the new stand upfront…

[Scooby2167]

Surely there wouldn’t even have been conversations about expanding the away end until we get into a league where the away teams will sell out most weeks.Like the championship for example.

[longdogs]

I’d guess that the best time to do it would be when the fewest away fans are using it, and therefore minimum disruption is caused. At the moment, if the away end was out of use for re-building we could easily accomodate most away fans elsewhere in the ground.

[JumboTrudgeon]

@longdogs

we could easily accomodate most away fans elsewhere in the ground.

Yes, the end block of the family stand for most teams, or the away dugout when we are playing Salford.

[Speakasyoufind]

Can’t the Salford possie go up in the TV gantry, should be enough room for him…

[chunkster]

They would only have to worry about parking their Fiat 500 then

[Fish]

I think that there were (also) plans approved to take the family stand back several rows and cantilever it. Even though the houses were now behind it. Presumably the permission has now lapsed.

[Fish]

@Stretch

I’m sure that in the Simon Inglis book on football league grounds it notes that we ended up with Stanton’s because it saved somewhere in the region of 250-450k I’ll dig the book out to check

Years ago, I used to work at Stanton’s Bakery in Hednesford, part time nights at Easter, packing hot-x buns. Wrapping and slicing was good as was playing football with lumps of uncooked dough.

[chunkster]

@Fish

Years ago, I used to work at Stanton’s Bakery in Hednesford, part time nights at Easter, packing hot-x buns. Wrapping and slicing was good as was playing football with lumps of uncooked dough.

My brother in law Roy Brown was manager there for a few years, until him and his mate left to open their own bakery in Cannock town centre.

[TheRedPrince]

If you’re Chunk, he’s not Chubby is he?

[chunkster]

Is he F**K

[Scooby2167]

That’s a very good bloody point

[philthesaddler]

@Stretch

I can’t remember what the cost reported to take out the main stand central supports in the early 2000s was. I’m sure it was a couple of hundred thousand. I don’t think removing them will happen because it’ll never generate any revenue. Shame because it would look fantastic.

I’ve no idea how much it would cost to remove the stanchions on the 3 stands that have them, but they wouldn’t need the Anfield-style truss over the top - the span isn’t big enough to require that.

It just needs to be re-roofed with modern, lighter materials, and simple cantilevering. The Main Stand would be the problematic one as there’s no room to the rear of the stand to cantilever the roof.

Another benefit of removing the stanchions would be that it would allow the club to build a much better camera position, which in the age of streaming would be a massive improvement.