New East Stand

On thd plan shown above it suggests all the properties go right up to the road adjwcent to Revoe park, not just those adjacent to the ground. That would require a CPO. I can see all that taking some time.
Agreed but if the club already own the properties on Henry street, as suggested, there's no reason why work on the new stand couldn't start very soon.
 
Would everybody agree that the aim should be to bring us up to 20k capacity?
Nothing less for me.

If the East stand was built in the same design as the rest, I actually think it would be a small reduction in capacity. I'm not sure that's what SS would want (why would you want to reduce capacity), and that makes me think it might be slightly different. The height and size of it shouldn't be restricted if it isn't backing on to houses anymore.
 
If the East stand was built in the same design as the rest, I actually think it would be a small reduction in capacity. I'm not sure that's what SS would want (why would you want to reduce capacity), and that makes me think it might be slightly different. The height and size of it shouldn't be restricted if it isn't backing on to houses anymore.
It would be a higher capacity if there's no corporate at the back of it.
 
Apparently the football club had no idea about this and haven't agreed to anything, they're surprised by the gazette article and haven't spoken to them about it 😳
 
If the East stand was built in the same design as the rest, I actually think it would be a small reduction in capacity. I'm not sure that's what SS would want (why would you want to reduce capacity), and that makes me think it might be slightly different. The height and size of it shouldn't be restricted if it isn't backing on to houses anymore.
Shouldn't be a reduction in capacity with the infill of the NE corner. And if there are no boxes in the east the seating area could be bigger in a deeper stand than the current temporary one
 
Been on the cards this for over a year. Plans in place and approved by SS back then, along with the Training Ground. Same team doing both. The Revoe bit is a nice addition I wasn’t expecting.
 
This sort of story, and initiative, is very, very encouraging, on so many levels.

I don't think anyone would begrudge the people who live in the Revoe area this kind of investment opportunity. It's been a very deprived area for a long time now.

Its also great to see so many agencies working alongside the Council to make a difference. I've long thought that the town needed a paradigm shift if it was to prosper in the 21st century. This is a start in that direction, hopefully a lot more will follow.

It's especially pleasing to see the football club at the heart of it all. When football clubs first got going in the second half of the nineteenth century they were very often what today we would call social enterprises. That isn't what our club is - or necessarily should be. But it is nice to see some of those socially philanthropic principles in action in a way that will deliver real progress for the club as well as its neighbours.
From what I've read it appears SS wants the club to be a social enterprise and all power to him, this is what clubs should be.
 
Shouldn't be a reduction in capacity with the infill of the NE corner. And if there are no boxes in the east the seating area could be bigger in a deeper stand than the current temporary one

I think it'd be very marginal. Remember, the original plans were for a 16k capacity stadium when complete, which is slightly less than now. If we were to aim for 20k (and I think we should), we'd need the east to be significantly bigger than the rest of the stadium. It would have to have twice as many seats as the west.
 
Theres a house on Henry St thats been on the market since September so the club definitely havent got all the properties yet. Its only 75k so given the time its been on the market it doesnt seem the club are in are in a hurry to buy the houses.
Fair point but looking at the house pics it looks to be on the east side of Henry St which probably wouldn't impact on the stadium development. I expect the claim was possibly just a mix up with the story about the prefab houses though.
 
Looking at the Revoelution masterplan in more detail, I think the new grey coloured building to the right of a new east stand would be a new school. The existing school on the other side of Revoe Park would close and be redeveloped for housing. If it is supposed to be a new school, where is the parking for it? The detailed masterplan confirms that all the existing housing and businesses from Back Henry Street through to Central Drive would all go
 
Looking at the Revoelution masterplan in more detail, I think the new grey coloured building to the right of a new east stand would be a new school. The existing school on the other side of Revoe Park would close and be redeveloped for housing. If it is supposed to be a new school, where is the parking for it? The detailed masterplan confirms that all the existing housing and businesses from Back Henry Street through to Central Drive would all go
I think the School is to be built in the triangle of land that currently has Revoe Library on. The development next to the club is to be a sports/conference facility I think.
 
I think the School is to be built in the triangle of land that currently has Revoe Library on. The development next to the club is to be a sports/conference facility I think.
That would make more sense, but would the library site be big enough for a school? The existing school has quite a big footprint
 
This certainly explains the delay in releasing the East Stand plans. They form one part of a much bigger redevelopment scheme, timed around this press release.
 
I wouldn’t read too much into any of this. There’s no indication the club are behind any of this. It’s just a master plan dreamed up by the council as to what ‘could’ happen. The artists impressions are just the west stand mirrored and don’t take into account the South East hotel etc.
There’s absolutely nothing from the club on this and the article and documents even mention it’s not come from the club or subject to the clubs own plans.
Conversations will have taken place but that means very little.
Remember the ‘master plan’ which showed dome shaped super casinos lining the Yeadon Way?.... this feels like De Ja Vu
 
I wouldn’t read too much into any of this. There’s no indication the club are behind any of this. It’s just a master plan dreamed up by the council as to what ‘could’ happen. The artists impressions are just the west stand mirrored and don’t take into account the South East hotel etc.
There’s absolutely nothing from the club on this and the article and documents even mention it’s not come from the club or subject to the clubs own plans.
Conversations will have taken place but that means very little.
Remember the ‘master plan’ which showed dome shaped super casinos lining the Yeadon Way?.... this feels like De Ja Vu
Swear the council website says funding has been secured from Blackpool football club, sport England and others?
 
Swear the council website says funding has been secured from Blackpool football club, sport England and others?
If I were Simon Sadler and Ben Mansford and I’d agreed on and funded and had a plan for a huge and key piece of infrastructure which would literally be a game changer for the club and quite possibly define my time at the club...
I’d probably be the one releasing the information or at the very least do it in tandem with the council.

There’s not been many leaks on anything so I doubt something so substantial would be leaked too. You’d expect there would be lawyers and NDA’s etc.

Either it’s not what it appears or the council has dropped a major bollock.
 
The masterplan talks about a 25 year vision, though ,of course, elements could happen before. To make it happen though, it would require funding to be in place, detailed plans to be submitted and approved and a Compulsory Purchase Order agreed. As far as I am aware none of that has happened. And there may be some opposition to the plans.
I would certainly like to see if the club's plans fit into this and a question at the structured dialogue meeting may indicate something. Also what is happening with the new training and academy facility, together with timescales
 
The masterplan talks about a 25 year vision, though ,of course, elements could happen before. To make it happen though, it would require funding to be in place, detailed plans to be submitted and approved and a Compulsory Purchase Order agreed. As far as I am aware none of that has happened. And there may be some opposition to the plans.
I would certainly like to see if the club's plans fit into this and a question at the structured dialogue meeting may indicate something. Also what is happening with the new training and academy facility, together with timescales
Training Ground is going to cost £10-12 Million and the club are still working on finalising a location. That £10-12 million is on top of the investments at Squires Gate and the Stanley Park Oval. Just for reference Poolfoot Farm cost Fleetwood £6-8 Million and Liverpool's new facility cost £50 Million (although they are able to offset a lot that with a massive naming rights deal with AXA)
 
Well either way with all that then the Council/Gazette are twats, they've either stolen the thunder from the club or they're about to make the club the bad guys when they have to let everyone down when they're inevitably asked about.
 
For info, this document was published May 2020, so all the work on it was pre-Covid for a start. In the timescales, it's 3-5 years to relocate all the displaced residents.
And thinking about it, the plans include demolishing the retail park where the cinema, McDs and Bannatynes is - but they're currently building a new bingo hall there! I think the whole report is outdated. Not sure where the "Sports Village" fits in. Shows how much can change in 12 months.
 
Hartlepool have done their plan for about £25m from the same government pot.

It's nothing as ambitious as this (£25m is chicken feed to be honest) but they consciously chose not to include HUFC in their plans.

Given the recent history of HUFC you can understand why - after all the problems of our previous ownership we appear to have landed a new owner at just about the right time to benefit from this.
 
Personally I like the east stand been a different height/shape. Obviously can’t wait till it’s replaced but a symmetrical stadium doesn’t do it for me. Am I the only one? 🤔 20k capacity? Feck me I’m excited.
 
Well either way with all that then the Council/Gazette are twats, they've either stolen the thunder from the club or they're about to make the club the bad guys when they have to let everyone down when they're inevitably asked about.
The club have been asked about it....and the club needless to say are not massively happy !

I think these plans actually go back many many years - in fact I'm fairly sure Karl was talking with the council about this sort of development back in the early 2010's.

I can't imagine the club now wanting to build a conference/ event space of that scale given that the Winter Gardens have just built one.

I could foresee the club wanting the pitches etc as that would make sense and tie in with the community trust facilities in the North West - but again this was something mooted by the previous regime too (and credit where credit is due - it does make sense) - and I believe the club/community trust working with the council for the benefit of Revoe was largely instigated and led by the late club chaplain.
 
Personally I like the east stand been a different height/shape. Obviously can’t wait till it’s replaced but a symmetrical stadium doesn’t do it for me. Am I the only one? 🤔 20k capacity? Feck me I’m excited.
What you see is not a 'design' - just a very lazy artists impression of what could have happened.

Bare in mind the South East and the hotel are square in shape - it looks like this could have been drawn up a VERY long time ago.
 
I think it'd be very marginal. Remember, the original plans were for a 16k capacity stadium when complete, which is slightly less than now. If we were to aim for 20k (and I think we should), we'd need the east to be significantly bigger than the rest of the stadium. It would have to have twice as many seats as the west.
I think you're right there, the East Stand is currently our biggest stand in terms of capacity. Mainly because it is only comprised of seats with nothing else, it is literally just blocks of seats with no concourse or anything.

Our current capacity is 17,388, take away the Temporary East and it leaves you with 12,268.

Make of that what you will in terms of what is needed from there. You're going to need at least 7.5k with the permanent East Stand and North East corner to bring us to just under 20k. I'd probably say that's about right in terms of where we should be aiming, I think a bit under that wouldn't be too shabby though.
 
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I think you're right there, the East Stand is currently our biggest stand in terms of capacity. Mainly because it is only comprised of seats with nothing else, it is literally just blocks of seats with no concourse or anything.

Our current capacity is 17,388, take away the Temporary East and it leaves you with 12,268.

Make of that what you will in terms of what is needed from there. You're going to need at least 7.5k with the permanent East Stand and North East corner to bring us to just under 20k. I'd probably say that's about right in terms of where we should be aiming, I think a bit under that wouldn't be too shabby though.
For reference - for the stadium to have a capacity of approximately 20,000 you'd need a stand similar to that of the main stand at Oakwell, Barnsley. That stand also has pitch level vomitories' in the lower tier and a level of corporate boxes at a similar height to those at the rear of the existing stands at Bloomfield Road - so is quite possibly the most realistic model to look at if 20,000 is the aim. We'd be left with a stadium of very similar design to Ashton Gate, albeit scaled back 25% or so, but with a greater level of 'hospitality' / 'executive' offerings. That would also eave room for future expansion into the North East and of the North stand itself too.
 
For reference - for the stadium to have a capacity of approximately 20,000 you'd need a stand similar to that of the main stand at Oakwell, Barnsley. That stand also has pitch level vomitories' in the lower tier and a level of corporate boxes at a similar height to those at the rear of the existing stands at Bloomfield Road - so is quite possibly the most realistic model to look at if 20,000 is the aim. We'd be left with a stadium of very similar design to Ashton Gate, albeit scaled back 25% or so, but with a greater level of 'hospitality' / 'executive' offerings. That would also eave room for future expansion into the North East and of the North stand itself too.
The two tiered East Stand at Barnsley? I wonder if instead of doing that right away the plan would be to build a 1 tiered stand, with the possibility of expansion on top of it if we to ever need it. If we're being realistic we don't really need a 20k stadium at this moment in time, it would take a period of sustained success to build crowds up again
 
The two tiered East Stand at Barnsley? I wonder if instead of doing that right away the plan would be to build a 1 tiered stand, with the possibility of expansion on top of it if we to ever need it. If we're being realistic we don't really need a 20k stadium at this moment in time, it would take a period of sustained success to build crowds up again
You say that but we're currently in League 1 and prior to Covid were averaging gates of around 9500 and regularly getting closer to 11000 for the 'bigger games'. If we were doing well in League 1 we'd likely get closer to the 11000 as an average and for the 'bigger games' we'd be able to sell 3000+ away tickets if the facilities allowed for it. Sunderland, Fleetwood, Bolton etc could easily be 14000+ attendances and most likely closer to 16000. The club plans on making it to the Championship and you'd expect us to be able to average 12000+ gates in the Championship and considerably more if the club was to be successful and even more again if the club had the facilities to accommodate more than 2000 away fans. Then consider the knock on effects of playing against Blackburn, Preston, Burnley etc where even bigger followings are likely, or the occasional Sunderland, Newcastle or Villa dropping out of the Prem.

I think any less than 20,000 would be a mistake and we've really got to look at being able to accommodate at least (and I'd personally look at 6000 if possible) 4000 away fans if the club wants to make the most of the fact Blackpool itself is a major draw for away fans and that we'll comfortably get 50% - 100% more coming here than who would make the same trip to Preston or Burnley or Blackburn etc. Away fans are a revenue stream we as a club really need to milk to the absolute maximum as it's a source of income we can latch on to in a much much bigger way than our rivals.
 
The two tiered East Stand at Barnsley? I wonder if instead of doing that right away the plan would be to build a 1 tiered stand, with the possibility of expansion on top of it if we to ever need it. If we're being realistic we don't really need a 20k stadium at this moment in time, it would take a period of sustained success to build crowds up again
Couldnt disagree more. Thats small time thinking. Oyston thinking. It doesnt work like that because it would never be added to and if do we progress we are always limited in crowds. 20 k is a must.
 
The club have been asked about it....and the club needless to say are not massively happy !

I think these plans actually go back many many years - in fact I'm fairly sure Karl was talking with the council about this sort of development back in the early 2010's.

I can't imagine the club now wanting to build a conference/ event space of that scale given that the Winter Gardens have just built one.

I could foresee the club wanting the pitches etc as that would make sense and tie in with the community trust facilities in the North West - but again this was something mooted by the previous regime too (and credit where credit is due - it does make sense) - and I believe the club/community trust working with the council for the benefit of Revoe was largely instigated and led by the late club chaplain.
Correct, this will come out in the minutes from the SD meeting.
 
Ah so they're going for the BOWL are they - The Bloomfield Bowl. It is going to look even more like the Keepmoat than before. I think its smart just to fill it in for now, we don't fill it at the minute but there is always room for expansion if it was necessary.

Looks like with that structure behind the East they're definitely planning on knocking all those houses down then, must have finally convinced the tenants. I imagine Oyston wasn't too hard pressed to pull out of the plans when the price to buy them out started rising, the "hey, I tried" approach.
Whilst I appreciate the ground needed doing in 2001, finishing the East is looking like it's going to look like a soulless soap dish/bowl. I'm not a fan of bowls like the Keepmoat/Coventry (or was) Leicester/Southampton etc. I understand why they're doing it like that but it would have been nice to do something a bit different with the East.

Overall the plans for the area look fantastic and a much needed boost
 
You say that but we're currently in League 1 and prior to Covid were averaging gates of around 9500 and regularly getting closer to 11000 for the 'bigger games'. If we were doing well in League 1 we'd likely get closer to the 11000 as an average and for the 'bigger games' we'd be able to sell 3000+ away tickets if the facilities allowed for it. Sunderland, Fleetwood, Bolton etc could easily be 14000+ attendances and most likely closer to 16000. The club plans on making it to the Championship and you'd expect us to be able to average 12000+ gates in the Championship and considerably more if the club was to be successful and even more again if the club had the facilities to accommodate more than 2000 away fans. Then consider the knock on effects of playing against Blackburn, Preston, Burnley etc where even bigger followings are likely, or the occasional Sunderland, Newcastle or Villa dropping out of the Prem.

I think any less than 20,000 would be a mistake and we've really got to look at being able to accommodate at least (and I'd personally look at 6000 if possible) 4000 away fans if the club wants to make the most of the fact Blackpool itself is a major draw for away fans and that we'll comfortably get 50% - 100% more coming here than who would make the same trip to Preston or Burnley or Blackburn etc. Away fans are a revenue stream we as a club really need to milk to the absolute maximum as it's a source of income we can latch on to in a much much bigger way than our rivals.
It will certainly be interesting to see what approach the club take if it is going ahead (or eventually goes ahead).

We only averaged just over 12k in the season straight after the Prem in probably are most affluent time in the modern era for support - the main reason I can see for the expansion to 20k is as you say the hosting of larger away crowds but then aside from that it leaves us with a stadium that is nowhere near full the majority of the time. But perhaps it pays for itself over time with those occasional full houses!
 
Agreed but if the club already own the properties on Henry street, as suggested, there's no reason why work on the new stand couldn't start very soon

Other than the fact that the club is losing money hand over fist due to covid and the lack of gate receipts, and the training ground has a budget of up to £12 million. Finding a further £10 million or so might not be a concurrent priority when there is a serviceable stand in place.
 
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