East stand

seasideone said:
Kids left home years ago and you can only have so many friends.

The point is we don’t need a large stadium - we just need a full one that’s bouncing - and at our level I would personally be happy with 16k - 20k where all of it is useable, which would also cover us for the Championship.

I’ll worry about the prem when we get there!
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If
 
Northstandsinger said:
Heard the new east stand will only hold 3600 if true the lack of ambition is so disappointing and underwhelming, the temp east holds
Over 5k, to replace it with a tiny tinpot stand is embarrassing and so short sighted putting us the same bracket as teams like Doncaster and rotherham. How are we meant to grow as a club ?
I remember 20 years ago when Brighton used to get 3k fans at an athletics track then they built a state of the art stadium and now they’re getting over 30k
Is 18/20k really unreasonable if we sustained ourselves as a championship club and could give away fans 4K like blackburn,wigan and Preston do leaving 14/16k seats for home fans.
Where is the ambition, it stinks of little Blackpool and it’s not good enough.
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Maybe the club needs the room for all the new groups they talking about.
 
FY4Representer said:
I haven’t seen anything to suggest this is the case but I’ll still Chuck my two pence in.

If it is true, it really is poor from the club. I honestly think building a grandstand with a decent capacity (8k-ish) would be a great start in trying to grow the club and give the town something to be proud of. Even though we won’t fill it regularly initially, it’s ready for the future. The problem is, if we were to somehow become a successful championship club and then suddenly decide we need to expand, it’ll cost more in the long term to build a smaller stand now and subsequently expand in future. Not only that, a bigger stadium could be used out of season for things like concerts etc. Multi-purpose stadiums are the way to go.

That being said, it’s just a rumour as far as I’m concerned so I won’t stress about it until it’s actually confirmed.
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Got to clear Henry street first
 
7YearCritch said:
Walked down there yesterday out of interest and still clearly a lot of residents haven't packed up!
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But it is only on the stadium side though that's being knocked down. Just checking you weren't looking at both sides...

There is still some do it seems but they had a fair few done 2nd Aug, both on Henry street and back Henry street.

"Deals have been agreed for numbers four, six, 10, 12 and 28 Henry Street, and for rear 10 to 16 Henry Street, rear 18 to 20 Henry Street and rear 24 and 28 Henry Street."

So you'd think by now a lot more would have been done too.
 
The minutes from last week's supporters meeting have clarified the situation.

The club have asked 4 different architects to come up with designs based on different budgets with a 'bare minimum' of 3600 capacity.

The minutes also state that because of likely tweaks to building design, the planning application (presumably outline) may have to be re-submitted.
 
aquaduck said:
The minutes from last week's supporters meeting have clarified the situation.

The club have asked 4 different architects to come up with designs based on different budgets with a 'bare minimum' of 3600 capacity.

The minutes also state that because of likely tweaks to building design, the planning application (presumably outline) may have to be re-submitted.
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That’s a very different scenario than what the rumour at the top made it out to be.
Fingers crossed the architects come up with a stand with significantly more seats than 3600.

I do wonder if the 3600 came from the original master plan the Oyston drew up for BR which included an East stand smaller than the west and with few other facilities that would have fit into the existing parcel of land.

Also I do wonder if the safety certificate or similar legislation only allows for a certain capacity for events at the current time without applying for special dispensation.

Either way I suppose the 3600 must have come from somewhere but it really is too small in my opinion. As a minimum we need to replace like for like and release the seats currently lost due to segregation issues.
 
aquaduck said:
The minutes from last week's supporters meeting have clarified the situation.

The club have asked 4 different architects to come up with designs based on different budgets with a 'bare minimum' of 3600 capacity.

The minutes also state that because of likely tweaks to building design, the planning application (presumably outline) may have to be re-submitted.
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Why waste the architects time starting at that base, the minimum should at least match the west stand, which includes hospitality, but for me I'd be doing a minimum of the mirror stadium block layout at maximum 24 row height, which I think gives closer to the 4600 for the East alone, no corner, which we get the indication now doesn't seem to be on the cards with this build.
 
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Northstandsinger said:
Heard the new east stand will only hold 3600 if true the lack of ambition is so disappointing and underwhelming, the temp east holds
Over 5k, to replace it with a tiny tinpot stand is embarrassing and so short sighted putting us the same bracket as teams like Doncaster and rotherham. How are we meant to grow as a club ?
I remember 20 years ago when Brighton used to get 3k fans at an athletics track then they built a state of the art stadium and now they’re getting over 30k
Is 18/20k really unreasonable if we sustained ourselves as a championship club and could give away fans 4K like blackburn,wigan and Preston do leaving 14/16k seats for home fans.
Where is the ambition, it stinks of little Blackpool and it’s not good enough.
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Naa, bring back the temporary scaffold for me. I like my away fans like prisoners of war. Used to love watching them get drenched.

In all seriousness though, I think it will be fine.
 
3600 is plenty, and if it wraps round the corner to join the north it’ll be more.
There’s not many ground with an atmosphere like ours, I’d rather have a full looking stadium than an empty looking one with thousands of empty seats, look at mk dons, Coventry etc just too big.
Can’t see there being any exec boxes in the east, they’d be looking directly into the sun during match games for a certain number of games
 
Seasidestevo71 said:
3600 is plenty, and if it wraps round the corner to join the north it’ll be more.
There’s not many ground with an atmosphere like ours, I’d rather have a full looking stadium than an empty looking one with thousands of empty seats, look at mk dons, Coventry etc just too big.
Can’t see there being any exec boxes in the east, they’d be looking directly into the sun during match games for a certain number of games
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If it has the corner it would be a higher figure.

A 3600 stand and the capacity that gives could mean were pushing up on thre limit within almost no time at all and it's meant to last decades.

1 good season could be all it takes and we're leaving very little room for growth and having to make decisions on less away fans vs more home fans.
 
JJpool said:
If it has the corner it would be a higher figure.

A 3600 stand and the capacity that gives could mean were pushing up on thre limit within almost no time at all and it's meant to last decades.

1 good season could be all it takes and we're leaving very little room for growth and having to make decisions on less away fans vs more home fans.
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if its at minimum 3600, then that sounds like "Here is the area earmarked, what can you fit in there"
 
SMB_BFC said:
if its at minimum 3600, then that sounds like "Here is the area earmarked, what can you fit in there"
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The east stand seats are packed in a bit more than in the permanent stands.

But a basic mirror of the west with that max row height as mentioned can fit more in than the west.

There's probably other things they could do too.

It depends on their brief.

It does say for a range of budget options, so I guess we'll have to see.

They did also say they'd consult fans for feedback.
 
JJpool said:
The east stand seats are packed in a bit more than in the permanent stands.

But a basic mirror of the west with that max row height as mentioned can fit more in than the west.

There's probably other things they could do too.

It depends on their brief.

It does say for a range of budget options, so I guess we'll have to see.

They did also say they'd consult fans for feedback.
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As long as it isn't a matchstick mock up of the ground.. .
 
LA1 Seasider said:
That’s a very different scenario than what the rumour at the top made it out to be.
Fingers crossed the architects come up with a stand with significantly more seats than 3600.

I do wonder if the 3600 came from the original master plan the Oyston drew up for BR which included an East stand smaller than the west and with few other facilities that would have fit into the existing parcel of land.

Also I do wonder if the safety certificate or similar legislation only allows for a certain capacity for events at the current time without applying for special dispensation.

Either way I suppose the 3600 must have come from somewhere but it really is too small in my opinion. As a minimum we need to replace like for like and release the seats currently lost due to segregation issues.
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I was at the meeting and I don't remember him saying 'minimum' it was 3600 both TK and MSG told him it was really unambitious. I think he looked shocked at our reaction. I pressed him on extension/adding a tier, he didn't sound too sure but said it was an option/possibility. Sorry @JJpool i forgot to ask about your beloved NE corner.
 
koudo said:
I was at the meeting and I don't remember him saying 'minimum' it was 3600 both TK and MSG told him it was really unambitious. I think he looked shocked at our reaction. I pressed him on extension/adding a tier, he didn't sound too sure but said it was an option/possibility. Sorry @JJpool i forgot to ask about your beloved NE corner.
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I must admit, I’m quite surprised that they would not have anticipated that reaction really. Whether it’s a case of them having based the requirements on more recent attendance figures, I’m not sure, but it’s certainly very tight.

I’d kind of resigned myself to maybe 4-5000, which seems like a sensible compromise and barring another trip to the Premier League, ought to meet our needs as well as capitalising on a reasonable away following.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
I must admit, I’m quite surprised that they would not have anticipated that reaction really. Whether it’s a case of them having based the requirements on more recent attendance figures, I’m not sure, but it’s certainly very tight.

I’d kind of resigned myself to maybe 4-5000, which seems like a sensible compromise and barring another trip to the Premier League, ought to meet our needs as well as capitalising on a reasonable away following.
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If they actually let away fans within 200 yards of away fans because our segregation is mental.
 
koudo said:
I was at the meeting and I don't remember him saying 'minimum' it was 3600 both TK and MSG told him it was really unambitious. I think he looked shocked at our reaction. I pressed him on extension/adding a tier, he didn't sound too sure but said it was an option/possibility. Sorry @JJpool i forgot to ask about your beloved NE corner.
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It was obviously said as 3600 and they seem to have added the extra bit in the notes to clarify, but why send to architects a task of doing from that minimum?

It says for different budgets, but most fans would rather something meaningful that will last and finish the stadium with some room and not having to make decisions in a short time between home or away fans.

Also its not my beloved corner, just makes sense in a stadium like ours, to complete it like the rest, it needs a corner. Also our most popular areas is the north, the best way to attract fans is to have some additional capacity there too.

Not sure why he'd be shocked at the reaction as its been constantly discussed by fas on here etc and also basic calculations, based on where we could be after a good season or 2 and where most fans want to be and know we can grow to under the right conditions, makes it limiting after not much time at all.
 
Why are people obsessed with increasing capacity? Last time the ground was regularly full was in the prem….full ish in the championship under Holloway…now it’s half empty with the numbers bolstered by ST holders regardless of whether there in attendance…..
The only way to increase the fan base imo is entertaining football, never gonna happen under critchley is it…don’t think we’d fill the stadium if they gave the tickets away under the dull one’s management….🤦‍♂️
 
If they were building just a basic East, to be similar to the size of the west seating then it would be around 3600. However, if you are adding a floor at the top for media and additional hospitality type functions (similar to West), it would be an additional 500 or so (reducing it a bit for media) . If you built a NE corner similar to the NW corner it would add another 700 or so. So, that would total 4800 (about the capacity of the temporary East, when full) . There are 3 options there and they have asked for 4 options.
Because they are using the additional land on the west side of Henry Street I think they will go for more than the basic option, especially if the rest of the land through to Central Drive is to be subsequently developed and with potential additional footfall in the area. It also far more efficient to complete the remaining NE corner at the same time and offers more options for flexibilty on the North as well.
If they did all that the reality is it will cater for most or our likly needs, even as a regular incumbent of the championship. We would have a decent stadium and I would rather have one full than one half empty. The other reality is that the availability of the land around BR isclimited, so the capacity of BR could not be much more anyway. To build capacity upwards would also mean more land would be required behind structurally, and for additional catering / access / health and safefy. We would have to move to materially increase capacity.
We will just have to see what they come up with. It would be good to get a proper update from the council as well
 
Killingmesoftly said:
Why are people obsessed with increasing capacity? Last time the ground was regularly full was in the prem….full ish in the championship under Holloway…now it’s half empty with the numbers bolstered by ST holders regardless of whether there in attendance…..
The only way to increase the fan base imo is entertaining football, never gonna happen under critchley is it…don’t think we’d fill the stadium if they gave the tickets away under the dull one’s management….🤦‍♂️
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Why? Because it's not easy or quick to build stands and you want something that's going to meet potential demand.

You need to be able to accommodate when the demand is there. Not limit who can go when the good times do come.

Back under Holloway was under all sorts of limitations too, like the owners and we've grown since then comparatively.

Not every ST holder can make every game, of course their seat is counted.

Looking at the manager we have now is shortsighted, he could potentially gone in a few games, if not then might not be here anyway when the east is finished.

We're planning for decades ahead here and also should have a plan to grow the fanbase, which we haven't done enough in that area.

We could be very quickly having to make decisions between home or away fans and losing revenue.
 
bfcpete said:
If they were building just a basic East, to be similar to the size of the west seating then it would be around 3600. However, if you are adding a floor at the top for media and additional hospitality type functions (similar to West), it would be an additional 500 or so (reducing it a bit for media) . If you built a NE corner similar to the NW corner it would add another 700 or so. So, that would total 4800 (about the capacity of the temporary East, when full) . There are 3 options there and they have asked for 4 options.
Because they are using the additional land on the west side of Henry Street I think they will go for more than the basic option, especially if the rest of the land through to Central Drive is to be subsequently developed and with potential additional footfall in the area. It also far more efficient to complete the remaining NE corner at the same time and offers more options for flexibilty on the North as well.
If they did all that the reality is it will cater for most or our likly needs, even as a regular incumbent of the championship. We would have a decent stadium and I would rather have one full than one half empty. The other reality is that the availability of the land around BR isclimited, so the capacity of BR could not be much more anyway. To build capacity upwards would also mean more land would be required behind structurally, and for additional catering / access / health and safefy. We would have to move to materially increase capacity.
We will just have to see what they come up with. It would be good to get a proper update from the council as well
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The west holds 3684 and you have the dugouts and also the balcony not included, if there's no need for the balcony you may as well run seats all the way up. If you're doing that then you have a corner at that height too, which would hold about 1k, but might need a big tunnel for equipment to get in, so maybe 900.

Looks like they had a building on the area plans in the NE corner so that why I've questioned if it's happening as it's also never been mentioned.
 
JJpool said:
Why? Because it's not easy or quick to build stands and you want something that's going to meet potential demand.

You need to be able to accommodate when the demand is there. Not limit who can go when the good times do come.

Back under Holloway was under all sorts of limitations too, like the owners and we've grown since then comparatively.

Not every ST holder can make every game, of course their seat is counted.

Looking at the manager we have now is shortsighted, he could potentially gone in a few games, if not then might not be here anyway when the east is finished.

We're planning for decades ahead here and also should have a plan to grow the fanbase, which we haven't done enough in that area.

We could be very quickly having to make decisions between home or away fans and losing revenue.l
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It’s also not easy to pay for all of it…..
 
JJpool said:
It's going to cost a bit regardless.

I can't imagine it being a huge difference between building the same size stand but in 1 you limit rows to 21 and the other you go to North stand height of 24.
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At an educated guess you’d expect the seats in the rows 21-24 to cost less per seat than the first 21 rows. There will of course be a critical point where the stand needs split level exits, so logically it would make sense to max out the seats up to that point ?
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
At an educated guess you’d expect the seats in the rows 21-24 to cost less per seat than the first 21 rows. There will of course be a critical point where the stand needs split level exits, so logically it would make sense to max out the seats up to that point ?
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Which someone once said 24 rows was that limit, so for me you've got to do that.

Yes we want our own fans in there eventually and we need to do all we can to grow it, but until that point milking away fans could help pay for it. In the championship lots of sides can bring over 3k regularly, it wouldn't take much growth on our end to be hitting the maximum on big occasions in only a few seasons and the stadium is meant to be for decades ahead.
 
Northstandsinger said:
Heard the new east stand will only hold 3600 if true the lack of ambition is so disappointing and underwhelming, the temp east holds
Over 5k, to replace it with a tiny tinpot stand is embarrassing and so short sighted putting us the same bracket as teams like Doncaster and rotherham. How are we meant to grow as a club ?
I remember 20 years ago when Brighton used to get 3k fans at an athletics track then they built a state of the art stadium and now they’re getting over 30k
Is 18/20k really unreasonable if we sustained ourselves as a championship club and could give away fans 4K like blackburn,wigan and Preston do leaving 14/16k seats for home fans.
Where is the ambition, it stinks of little Blackpool and it’s not good enough.
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When was the last time we had over 20 k ?

Probably the mid seventies......nearly 50 years ago.
That's why they're not going to make it a 10k stand, it would be a complete waste of money.
 
A limited capacity stand of 3,600 isn't enough in my opinion.. it adds nothing! You only get to build new stands once every 50-60 years so why are they so uninspired. Our full potential was realised when over 15,000 home fans turned up for the Southend game. This alone should be a pointer to Simon Saddler. Add the potential for 4/5,000 away fans we're suddenly over 20k. It would be really poor if the club doesn't rise to this one off opportunity.
 
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kuriousoranj said:
A limited capacity stand of 3,600 isn't enough in my opinion.. it adds nothing! You only get to build new stands once every 50-60 years so why are they so uninspired. Our full potential was realised when over 15,000 home fans turned up for the Southend game. This alone should be a pointer to Simon Saddler. Add the potential for 4/5,000 away fans we're suddenly over 20k. It would be really poor if the club doesn't rise to this one off opportunity.
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Yeah needs to be more if we've got ambition of growing and goals of being an established championship club.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when all the properties are bought up as it seems it's almost there now.

Will they then be flattened in double quick time...? 🤔
 
kuriousoranj said:
A limited capacity stand of 3,600 isn't enough in my opinion.. it adds nothing! You only get to build new stands once every 50-60 years so why are they so uninspired. Our full potential was realised when over 15,000 home fans turned up for the Southend game. This alone should be a pointer to Simon Saddler. Add the potential for 4/5,000 away fans we're suddenly over 20k. It would be really poor if the club doesn't rise to this one off opportunity.
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It's a similar capacity to the West, which has 3,700ish. The original quoted figure was 4,600. That seems more like it.
 
Ginge 2 said:
When was the last time we had over 20 k ?

Probably the mid seventies......nearly 50 years ago.
That's why they're not going to make it a 10k stand, it would be a complete waste of money.
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When was the last time we had over 20k?
Is that a serious question?

Throughout the Oyston reign until the South was built the ground wasn't fit for purpose and couldn't hold more than 9k. In fact it went below 6k for a spell. Karl was scared to death of even going over 12k due to an agreement with the council over parking.
There would have been plenty of occasions in the Prem when we would easily have had over 20k, home areas sold out several times and probably at least a dozen teams would have taken up allocations of over 5k instead of the 2k if we'd had the room. So in answer to your question it was an impossibility anyway.

Just down the road the Nobbers have shown ambition with their stadium. When we went there back in 2010 on Tom Finney day and Charlie got the winner there was a crowd of 21k with 5,500 Seasiders. That was their biggest league crowd for over 30 years since and again that was for our visit.

They had a 20k crowd again against Rovers Saturday fair play for them for showing ambition and being able to offer cheap season tickets and freebies and being in a position to accommodate over 5k away fans. It'd be good if we were capable of doing that.
 
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onlyonepool said:
When was the last time we had over 20k?
Is that a serious question?

Throughout the Oyston reign until the South was built the ground wasn't fit for purpose and couldn't hold more than 9k. In fact it went below 6k for a spell. Karl was scared to death of even going over 12k due to an agreement with the council over parking.
There would have been plenty of occasions in the Prem when we would easily have had over 20k, home areas sold out several times and probably at least a dozen teams would have taken up allocations of over 5k instead of the 2k if we'd had the room. So in answer to your question it was an impossibility anyway.

Just down the road the Nobbers have shown ambition with their stadium. When we went there back in 2010 on Tom Finney day and Charlie got the winner there was a crowd of 21k with 5,500 Seasiders. That was their biggest league crowd for over 30 years since and again that was for our visit.

They had a 20k crowd again against Rovers Saturday fair play for them for showing ambition and being able to offer cheap season tickets and freebies and being in a position to accommodate over 5k away fans. It'd be good if we were capable of doing that.
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You can't run a business on cheap tickets and freebies. PNE who have had 20k twice so that proves it's a waste of money.
We took nearly 40 years to return to the top division and we only sold out our entire home seats on a couple of occasions, the East always had empty seats!!
There's ambition and blind stupidity.

We will NEVER be a so called big club. We are a provincial town club with Fleetwood, Kirkham and the nobs within 20 miles......it's not even a radius because we have nothing except sea on one side of us.
 
Ginge 2 said:
You can't run a business on cheap tickets and freebies. PNE who have had 20k twice so that proves it's a waste of money.
We took nearly 40 years to return to the top division and we only sold out our entire home seats on a couple of occasions, the East always had empty seats!!
There's ambition and blind stupidity.

We will NEVER be a so called big club. We are a provincial town club with Fleetwood, Kirkham and the nobs within 20 miles......it's not even a radius because we have nothing except sea on one side of us
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Ginge 2 said:
You can't run a business on cheap tickets and freebies. PNE who have had 20k twice so that proves it's a waste of money.
We took nearly 40 years to return to the top division and we only sold out our entire home seats on a couple of occasions, the East always had empty seats!!
There's ambition and blind stupidity.

We will NEVER be a so called big club. We are a provincial town club with Fleetwood, Kirkham and the nobs within 20 miles......it's not even a radius because we have nothing except sea on one side of us.
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To build a stand that takes the capacity up to 18-20k is not being unrealistic at all if we have any ambition of ever getting back to the top flight.

Were you actually around for the Prem season? It was a shambles due to the capacity, there was a waiting list of at least 1700 for season tickets because we couldn't sell due to the fact that there had to be a certain number available for match day sales. I had family visiting several times a year who wanted tickets for individual matches and didn't go as you had to buy a block of 3 tickets at a time which was always made up of one of the bigger teams with 2 lesser teams all down to the size of the stadium. Giving 2k tickets to City, Liverpool, Everton, Spurs, Arsenal etc was costing us fortunes not to mention United's 1800 allocation, laughable.

The Oyston's stifled growth for the best part of 30 years and hit lucky with Belokons investment. We averaged 14k for 3 years after the Prem even under the O's, a 14k stadium as you seem to want gives no room for growth at all.
 
Northstandsinger said:
Heard the new east stand will only hold 3600 if true the lack of ambition is so disappointing and underwhelming, the temp east holds
Over 5k, to replace it with a tiny tinpot stand is embarrassing and so short sighted putting us the same bracket as teams like Doncaster and rotherham. How are we meant to grow as a club ?
I remember 20 years ago when Brighton used to get 3k fans at an athletics track then they built a state of the art stadium and now they’re getting over 30k
Is 18/20k really unreasonable if we sustained ourselves as a championship club and could give away fans 4K like blackburn,wigan and Preston do leaving 14/16k seats for home fans.
Where is the ambition, it stinks of little Blackpool and it’s not good enough.
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I can recall Brighton only bringing 25 fans in 1988
 
seasideone said:
Kids left home years ago and you can only have so many friends.

The point is we don’t need a large stadium - we just need a full one that’s bouncing - and at our level I would personally be happy with 16k - 20k where all of it is useable, which would also cover us for the Championship.

I’ll worry about the prem when we get there!
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Spoke to a WIgan fan. He said exactly the same. The JB has no atmosphere when there's only a small crowd.
 
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