Two options for the stadium | Page 2 | Vital Football

Two options for the stadium

Why can't we just fill the corner in like this as a starter! I know it's a bit of a crude graphic but you get the idea just extend the St Andrew's stand one way as it was originally intended. Pretty quick and you wouldn't need loads of facilities underneath it could be done quickly in steel and would easily add 1200 or so seats in snap.

The turnstiles at the back could easily be tunnelled through to the front and accessed as it currently is leaving enough room in the corner for emergency exit.
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We certainly need to focus on getting a designated away fans section sorted out as part of any modifications so we can sell the Stacey West exclusively to home fans. That would make ticketing a lot easier for one thing
 
I definitely think we need to plan for a bigger capacity than 12,000. The reason being if we did get promoted to the championship (which obviously isn't the given but it is a realistic aim) Without having a capacity around 14 or 15 thousand we would be missing out on approximately 2000 away fans in about Half the home games (i.e half the away teams could potentially sell around 4k). With higher ticket prices and catering add ons its the best part a million pounds in one season. So eventually would pay for itself.
 
Davidimp said:
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.
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Money wasn't the problem with the St Andrews Stand - it cost a million in 1987, and that was a lot for that time. Much of the cost came from Tom Finney's FGIT. The problem was the safety-conscious aftermath of the Bradford fire, and we were one of the first clubs - if not the very first - to build a new stand thereafter. That is why the aisles are so wide and the seat threshold so deep - to only have 1500 seats in an area that size is ridiculous.
 
The Electric Banana said:
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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well the good news is: the club are aware of the situation, and are looking at doing something about it. temporary/mid-term as well as long term. if they choose to extend that side, they will find a developer that can solve the problem even with the restrictions. very interested to see the scheme they come up with.
 
I’m sure I’m not the only one who is privy to this but. There’s a piece of land that the club have targeted for the new stadium that is proving impossible to get.
There are two people claiming ownership of said land. One of them is an in law ish of mine.
We are talking 5 mill I’m told.
No wonder they are looking to build at SB
Which is what I always wanted anyway.
 
The obvious issue with developing any existing stadium is that you normally have a period of quite significantly reduced capacity. Logistics of developing Sincil Bank would be interesting during a period in which demand would probably exceed supply.
 
Skip155 said:
The obvious issue with developing any existing stadium is that you normally have a period of quite significantly reduced capacity. Logistics of developing Sincil Bank would be interesting during a period in which demand would probably exceed supply.
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Just do an Exeter and restrict away fans to 300 for two and a half seasons. Problem solved.
 
As so many have said, SB in its current format is not well configured.

In my view, the South Park Stand was a particularly badly thought-out and delivered project because surely it would not have been difficult to add twice the number of rows when it was built, thus making c. 1200 seats and a comfortably big enough space for away fans. However, despite the views of Graemetheexile (and granted I have no expert knowledge on building works), I don't see how it is feasible for capacity in that stand to be increased without it being knocked down.

From a completely layman's view, I'd have thought a two-stage project on the St Andrews side of the ground was the only feasible and remotely cost-effective way to increase capacity; and if managed correctly, should mean that we lost next to none of the current capacity while the work was ongoing.

Stage 1: Build an extension in the SW/St Andrew's corner, perhaps with some extra corporate facilities at the top of the stand, thus increasing capacity by around 1500?

Stage 2: Knock down the bike shed and build a bigger stand that joins up with the corner of the South Park Stand, thus making a permanent home for the away fans. If the new construction could hold around 600 fans, we should then reach the 10% requirement for away tickets. On the occasions that we play teams who bring well below the 1200 available, we could use the new stand, or part of the South Park for home fans (as we do now with the Stacey West).

I would have thought two stages would be necessary given the issues caused with access on matchdays. For example, would the current Selenity turnstiles be able to be used when building work was ongoing? Perhaps during Stage 1, the bike shed or South Park turnstiles would have to be used to combat this?

There is also the issue of the security pod on top of the bike shed - which I believe holds all our CCTV monitoring equipment. If it was possible to shift that into one of the far end corporate boxes in the South Park Stand while building work was going on (or maybe even permanently given there could be scope for increased corporate hospitality in the Stage 1 Selenity extension), that problem could also be relatively easily overcome.

Over to you Clive & Co.
 
nlondonimp said:
well the good news is: the club are aware of the situation, and are looking at doing something about it. temporary/mid-term as well as long term. if they choose to extend that side, they will find a developer that can solve the problem even with the restrictions. very interested to see the scheme they come up with.
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One would hope the club engage a team of impartial construction professionals intially (not least a structural engineer) rather than a delevoper first who will have vested interests.

With that said hat on, I venture the only stand at SB that could built over (note I use the word over rather than up) without having a stratospheric spend would be the Stacey West. The space exists behind it to cantilever a second tier over it, still not cheap but worthwhile exploring.

As far the St Andrews Stand is concerned realistically the most cost effective option would be to drop it and build a new one.
 
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imp73 said:
I definitely think we need to plan for a bigger capacity than 12,000. The reason being if we did get promoted to the championship (which obviously isn't the given but it is a realistic aim) Without having a capacity around 14 or 15 thousand we would be missing out on approximately 2000 away fans in about Half the home games (i.e half the away teams could potentially sell around 4k). With higher ticket prices and catering add ons its the best part a million pounds in one season. So eventually would pay for itself.
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I'm not completely sure we do. Yes, we are at capacity on season ticket sales, but we don't seem absolutely bursting at the seams for the 'standard' home league games against the likes of Crewe, Bury etc. And I doubt that would change too much in League 1 given the size of many of the clubs there now (Fleetwood, Accrington, Shrewsbury, Walsall to name but a few).

If we did manage to reach the Championship, and crucially consolidate and stabilise there (a massive 'if' given our history, finances and ability to maintain good support through the inevitable lean spells), then maybe we could look at rebuilding the South Park or Stacey West ends; or perhaps by then the ground move to the Western Corridor would be more achievable. But would we still be getting 10-12k Imps in every week if we were treading water in the bottom third of the Championship, or even in mid-table in League 1? Maybe I'm being negative, but personally I think it's unlikely.

Then again, if anyone had said in 2016 that we'd be having a debate like this just two years later, I'd have probably have thought they'd gone crackers....!
 
Casperimp said:
Why can't we just fill the corner in like this as a starter!
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A major stumbling block would be the services in the existing stand, as they run horizontally. Whilst the extension of the stand is not impossible to achieve, on the basis that nothing is impossible if money is no object. The interface would be costly as would be diverting and more than likely replacement of the services in the existing stand. All for perhaps a 1000 extra seats and a modest expansion of the corporate facilities, with similar disruption of building a new stand I can't see it being VfM.
 
Our average attenfance last season and currently is - what? - 8500 or so? So there's at least 1000 seats not being used.

I think capacity is an issue if we get promoted, but not as big an issue as some, I suspect. Even if we were in L1 and had a 15000 stadium, attendances much over 10,000 wouldn't happen *that* often, in my opinion.

*If* we go up, getting out of L1 will be a huge undertaking. From being one of the bigger spenders in L2, we'll probably be firmly mid-table spenders in L1. And money talks in football, so even with DC/NC in charge, another promotion will be a big ask.

I would look at any possible options that could add 1000 - 2000 seats as cheaply as possible, but wouldn't look much beyond that.
 
Casperimp said:
Why can't we just fill the corner in like this as a starter! I know it's a bit of a crude graphic but you get the idea just extend the St Andrew's stand one way as it was originally intended. Pretty quick and you wouldn't need loads of facilities underneath it could be done quickly in steel and would easily add 1200 or so seats in snap.

The turnstiles at the back could easily be tunnelled through to the front and accessed as it currently is leaving enough room in the corner for emergency exit.
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i like that graphic. can you do it the other side as well so we can see what it would look like all the way along.
 
The Electric Banana said:
A major stumbling block would be the services in the existing stand, as they run horizontally. Whilst the extension of the stand is not impossible to achieve, on the basis that nothing is impossible if money is no object. The interface would be costly as would be diverting and more than likely replacement of the services in the existing stand. All for perhaps a 1000 extra seats and a modest expansion of the corporate facilities, with similar disruption of building a new stand I can't see it being VfM.
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I realise this but if we do a steel structure you would only need to service it on the ground floor level and therefore could bring in a separate service run s from the external services. I am not talking about extending all the inner floors simply taking the seating deck over. Take a look at the New Stand at Watford produced by GR structures this is a prefabricated steel structure which was just assembled. We could simply bolt this onto the side of the Selinity. But by keeping the seating deck the same and the roof the same it would look seemless.
 
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