New Everton Stadium - Hill Dickinson Stadium

[davek]

The pre-game sirens: IIRC it was supposed to be only used for special matches to underline the importance of it - derbies etc.

Now it's played to frighten the life out of Mansfield and Wolves.

 

[davek]

How come they haven't secured any music events?

Gone a bit quiet on this.

 

[If You Know Your History]

South stand- why not safe standing all the way to the back? It is split by the dividing wall and it is effectively a two tier stand. It is not like we thought it would be.

Such a good point. That's literally my only bug bear about our new home.

We were promised a "blue wall", the largest mass of fans in one single tier in the whole country.

 

[If You Know Your History]

In the next few years the west stand and south stand supporters will be able to use a riverside walk into town once that development being prepared for now is completed. It'll be a lovely riverside walk.

Everything about this stadium apart from transportation and the obvious presentation of it exclusively for the ambulance chasers is wonderful.

It's just a pity we have nothing on the playing side worthy of such a stadium.

Spot on.

 

[If You Know Your History]

I was suprised at the lack of police/stewards along the road heading back in the direction of Sandhills. Considering you have all the away fans exiting and heading that way towards their coaches at the same time. There were Wolves supporters mixed in everywhere and a group singing/chanting. Usual stuff about selling our soul and the city being red. No reaction from our fans but the potential for trouble is clearly there.

That sounds like a recipe for disaster tbh.

 

[If You Know Your History]

Not a good look on a state of the art stadium opened barely 6 months ago to have so many empty seats, and I think at base there needs to be a recognition by the facility operators that we've reached that point where core 'customers' have proven to be inelastic with their demand. In short: we have expensive tickets that cant all be sold because much of our fanbase dont have the disposable income to pay for them.

The stadium operators are going to slowly choke off later generations of fans if they carry on down this path. A much more realistic ticket price is going to be needed. Look at the cup game tomorrow where prices against a PL club were held down to £20 - they disappeared when they went on general sale in about 5 minutes. Of course, that cant be the case for actual PL games anymore, but if the club dropped their prices by a tenner or 15 quid for any game outside the elite clubs' visits then that would boost demand.

It's going to be interesting to see the pattern of Everton home attendances over the course of the season. You can be sure the club and its stadium operating company will be looking closely at the undulating picture with next season in mind. As things stand (without European football next season) price rises are simply a fantasy - that's for sure.

Hi Tom, why do you think the design of the stadium restricts the noise? When it was buzzing like at palace at home it was louder than I've ever heard goodison? I think the roof in the south stand compliments the atmosphere effectively.

The park end (when rarely) was going on it was significantly louder than the Gwladys St due to the lower roof and over lapping stand.

[/QUOTE]

Spot on.

 

[davek]

In the next few years the west stand and south stand supporters will be able to use a riverside walk into town once that development being prepared for now is completed. It'll be a lovely riverside walk.

Everything about this stadium apart from transportation and the obvious presentation of it exclusively for the ambulance chasers is wonderful.

Its just a pity we have nothing on the playing side worthy of such a stadium.

Just on this point, I took a photo of the development on the way up to the stadium on Saturday. Just the other side of the canal there'll be a river-front path leading down toward the Pier Head. That'll halve the congestion along Regent Road.

 

[Noggsy blue]

Best stadium in the world when we win…
Should never have left Goodison when we lose…

Should have flattened GP imo

 

[Drico]

Best stadium in the world when we win…
Should never have left Goodison when we lose…

Should have flattened GP imo

Goodison was a soulless library on many a cold winter's afternoon. Blue-tinted glasses at play...

 

[Noggsy blue]

Goodison was a soulless library on many a cold winter's afternoon. Blue-tinted glasses at play...

Fans need to accept we’re never going back….unless you watch the women

 

[Drico]

Fans need to accept we’re never going back….unless you watch the women

Some of our fans will always live in the past. Give them Goodison, Moyes, and 14th place every year, and what's a couple of wooden seats and first round cup exists?

 

[SAFCInPeace]

Best stadium in the world when we win…
Should never have left Goodison when we lose…

Should have flattened GP imo

Here, we still have lads saying the same about the Roker Park 30 years on mate... Nostalgia is a hell of a drug and for some people it'll never change.

 

[The binman chronicles]

The first team pitch at Finch Farm is of the same dimensions as the pitch, alongside the grass. They train on it each and every day.

Instead, the issue is more with how we're trying to play.

If we had the full team out, we would have won at least one of those games and things would seem a bit rosier now.

Hi Tom, why do you think the design of the stadium restricts the noise? When it was buzzing like at palace at home it was louder than I've ever heard goodison? I think the roof in the south stand compliments the atmosphere effectively.

7000k Sunderland fans had no problems at all making it sound loud. It's not a stadium design thing.

Best stadium in the world when we win…
Should never have left Goodison when we lose…

Should have flattened GP imo

Moyes won 3 league games at Goodison out of 10 last season. This was with the crowd trying to make an effort to see the old girl out in style. I don't see why anyone thinks we would be doing better if we were still there.

 

[Tom Hughes]

Hi Tom, why do you think the design of the stadium restricts the noise? When it was buzzing like at palace at home it was louder than I've ever heard goodison? I think the roof in the south stand compliments the atmosphere effectively.

The park end (when rarely) was going on it was significantly louder than the Gwladys St due to the lower roof and over lapping stand.

Spot on.
[/QUOTE]

As I tried to explain previously.... it's basically an issue of "acoustic catchment" and largely due to roof geometry, and perhaps the difference between prioritising the design of a home-end for atmosphere or being more concerned about the barrel roof aesthetic and retention of noise in the "whole stadium". Overall, the barrel roof is great for that, as we've seen when the place does get going, but as regards home-end atmosphere, it first requires a fairly high threshold of fan engagement to get going.

As regards the references to Goodison, the Gwladys street and park end roofs are exactly the same heights. The Park End stand is essentially the same cross sectional profile as continuing the upper Gwladys St stand down to pitch level, as a single tier. The difference (apart from scale) between that and the South stand is that the back row of the Park End Stand finishes just under the roof, as opposed to many metres below it..... plus of course, the much steeper rake (34° versus 24°), means those rows of fans in the new stand also fall away from the noise-reflective-roof much quicker. One of, if not the biggest design feature sold to us was the south stand's comparisons with Dortmund's South Tribune (Yellow Wall)..... but this was watered down from the original design, with less rows and a much larger (and slightly divisive) super-riser (which unlike Spurs super-riser, is an actual wall). Of course Dortmund's is a combination of traditional terrace and rail seats, which (due to the larger treads) effectively doubles the number of rows and capacity in standing mode. Importantly, the roof also has a slight downward slope, which increases that catchment further and the resultant is an almost continuous din.

We haven't seen the best of our South stand yet, and I am quite sure that the atmosphere will evolve and improve over time. A bit like the old Gwladys St, if the culture of downstairs was continued upstairs we would have got derby type atmospheres every week at Goodison. Perhaps if the upper south stand had been marketed (and priced) as a true reflection of the Yellow wall (i.e. one whole safe-standing tier).... then the comparison would be much closer.

 

[Tom Hughes]

7000k Sunderland fans had no problems at all making it sound loud. It's not a stadium design thing.

Yes, away fans are diehards who will nearly always have great unity. They meet the basic criteria of reaching that minimum engagement threshold everytime, simply by virtue of the fact that they'll all sing....

The corner position also means they sing across each other and up to expanses of barrel roof in both directions..... almost an amphitheatre effect. I was hoping our upper corner sections would have a similar effect for the South stand, and it has on occasion. Hopefully with time, that will come more often.