Two options for the stadium | Vital Football

Two options for the stadium

Casperimp

Casperimp

Vital 1st Team Regular
It looks as though serious consideration is being given to increasing the capacity of Sincil Bank. Clive and Roger have been talking to The Echo and one of the reasons Clive is over here at the moment is to look at this in more detail.

Given that information on any potential decision on whether to move or not will not be available until at least 2020 I seriously hope that this can be swayed towards staying at The Bank.

I just think that any new stadium is at least 10 years away and something needs doing way before then.

Link: Stay at Sincil Bank or a new stadium
 
Sounds encouraging, something has to be done if we gain promotion, next year could be a nightmare if not. Reading between the lines they're looking at what additional capacity would be achieved if the SW goes back to terracing. My memory's a bit blurred on this but I seem to recall the capacity when it was last terracing wasn't all that different to what it is now, does anyone remember what it was?
 
I wonder whether, given that there's a lot more space at Sincil Bank than most grounds have, it might be viable to do both - install some additional seating that will pay for itself in the medium term and still look at the new ground option as well.
 
The original capacity of the Stacey West stand when it had terracing at either end and seating just in the middle was 2,450 I seem to remember
 
“We are working with people, external consultants, to help us understand what is possible at Sincil Bank, both in the short-term and the long-term.”
hallelujah.
 
monkeyg said:
I wonder whether, given that there's a lot more space at Sincil Bank than most grounds have, it might be viable to do both - install some additional seating that will pay for itself in the medium term and still look at the new ground option as well.
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I think this is probably a good call!
 
The stands we have are such a hotch potch if they'd been built better it wouldn't be such a problem.
Money and the lack of was the problem especially with the st Andrews stand replacement.
Hoping they can sort out the water issue then if they do increase capacity.
 
If your considering the SB option then I would say that you need to knock down the Selenity stand and build a replacement that goes the full length of the pitch.The other 3 stands can remain as they are.What we are lacking at the moment is a big shortage of exec.boxes and other corporate facilities.These need to be incorporated into the new stand.I don't go with the idea of a large increase in capacity-15k is too much and I think 12k - 12.5 K is more feasible.

I do think we are punching above our weight when you look at the attendance in relation to the population,so one needs to be cautious about acheiving large increases in attendancies from our current level.
 
57harry said:
If your considering the SB option then I would say that you need to knock down the Selenity stand and build a replacement that goes the full length of the pitch.The other 3 stands can remain as they are.What we are lacking at the moment is a big shortage of exec.boxes and other corporate facilities.These need to be incorporated into the new stand.I don't go with the idea of a large increase in capacity-15k is too much and I think 12k - 12.5 K is more feasible.

I do think we are punching above our weight when you look at the attendance in relation to the population,so one needs to be cautious about acheiving large increases in attendancies from our current level.
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I think we can get away with Sincil Bank's capacity hovering around 10,000 for a while - average gates this season still give us some headroom, although promotion would probably gobble that up.

But any major reduction in capacity during a rebuilding phase would need to be carefully managed - off the top of my head if we knock down / refurbish the St Andrews, we would basically have space left for current season ticket holders, perhaps a few hundred non-season tickets and the away allocation. That would hurt.

I reckon they'd need to look at ways to increase capacity before anything is actually knocked down / rendered unusable. That would mean converting the railway end to standing (which would add 500-1,000 spaces) and/or adding a temporary block next to the St Andrews.

There is of course the option of extending the St Andrews, which if I recall from previous discussions on here was designed with that in mind.

As for knocking things down, I'd look at the most achievable gains with the least impact - the South Park stand doesn't have much capacity and there is space to extend behind. Replacing with a new stand of say 2,500 standing / seats + exec boxes would probably be the easiest significant initial measure, but it would be costly and the current exec boxes would be lost during construction. After that's done, however, we'd have a little room to manoeuvre on upgrading the railway end and the St Andrews.

Bit of a nightmare, but I think it would be worth it.
 
I think when the Stacey West end was in its original configuration the ground capacity was given as approx. 10,900. I suppose allowing for any reductions in seats elsewhere since those days if it was desirable or allowable to now make it all-standing it would push the total capacity to between 11,000 and 11,500 (guesswork!).
 
Stand to be corrected, but if I remember rightly was it not made all standing the season we achieved promotion to league 1?
 
Scrimp said:
Stand to be corrected, but if I remember rightly was it not made all standing the season we achieved promotion to league 1?
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Actually converted to all-seated with a grant.
 
As a short term measure, I think the key to maximising attendance without losing capacity to a segregation area is to look at the south park/pooh corner area. Combined, this isn't far off the minimum requirement for housing away fans, if we could find a way of adding on to the existing family stand or even knocking it down and putting up a temporary stand then the Stacey West becomes a permanent home end either as seating or terrace with no reduction to capacity.
 
as discussed previously, i would build either side of the selenity, keep the central section but modify the seating within it.

stage one
1] take off the selenity roof and remove all the restricted view pillars.
replace with a new cantilever roof over the full length of the pitch
2] starting with the huge gap side - current premium wasted space. add seating and incorporate additional office/admin/function spaces under seats.
3] build new seating over the existing selenity structure, improving density of seating and incorporating dug outs to remove the other restricted view issues. no disruption to existing office space.

stage two
4] add seats to the other side over the existing changing rooms.

northampton is an example where a roof can be built before filling the interior with seats. ))))
 
Referring to capacity and punching above our weight re population, the other issue though is away capacity. If they want to come we should benefit from that and promotion to league one makes that an issue more often I imagine.
 
Not surprised by this possibility. I think Bob was the one more in favour of a Ground move and now he has stood aside, Clive, and the changed added to Board have different ideas. Maybe the new Training Ground will free up some of the land taken up by the artificial pitch areas, but that still leaves the poor access unless there is space next to the new Police / fire station. They need to be able to attract non playing day income with better facilities / and improved access.
If they do re develop I hope it doesn't take as long as Exeters !!
 
57harry said:
If your considering the SB option then I would say that you need to knock down the Selenity stand and build a replacement that goes the full length of the pitch.The other 3 stands can remain as they are.What we are lacking at the moment is a big shortage of exec.boxes and other corporate facilities.These need to be incorporated into the new stand.I don't go with the idea of a large increase in capacity-15k is too much and I think 12k - 12.5 K is more feasible.

I do think we are punching above our weight when you look at the attendance in relation to the population,so one needs to be cautious about acheiving large increases in attendancies from our current level.
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apparently the capacity of the selenity is approx.1,700. bike shed = 200.

knocking it all down and only increasing the total capacity to 12.5k would mean you have gone to all the trouble to rebuild that side with a stand of only 4,400 seats. 20% smaller than the coop and with the possibility of still having to add to capacity if 12.5k is reached. seems way too cautious. much better to make a bigger leap in one go to say 14-15k, with the knowledge that the stand will never need re-developing, and there will always be seats for all. i wonder what the increased cost per seat is once you are already developing, from a 4.4k stand to a 5.6k coop-sized stand.

better still, redevelop the existing selenity structure with some ingenuity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sincil_Bank
 
nlondonimp said:
northampton is an example where a roof can be built before filling the interior with seats. ))))
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Northampton's new ground when they moved to Sixfields was designed with extending up from the outset. The piles, foundation and below ground infrastructure was future proofed to allow this. Its a very different situation at Sincil Bank.
 
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