BoysInBlue
Player Valuation: £50m
This is often suggested as part of a solution to our stadium woes. Whilst it most likely wouldn't really address our main issues, it's something that should have been done a long time ago. The original plans for the Park End were for it to be a two tier stand, until Peter Johnson nixed the idea and went with the cheaper option. A two tier Park End would at least boost capacity by a few thousand, and probably even more crucially increase our executive box facilties (double or tripling our revenue in that area, at least), something the club is crying out for.
Anyway, I bring this up after visiting Wolves yesterday, and basically seeing for myself what they have done - adding another tier on to their own version of the Park End. These are two photos of the same stand, one from March 2010 when we played them, and one from yesterday:
There wasn't much space taken up behind the stand either, by construction. There was a small construction area, but nothing major. The ticket offices had been moved to the side, in temporary portacabins. As you can see, the lower tier was already open, with the top tier opening in August. The new stand is costing Wolves £18m to build, and includes new museum, supporters bar and megastore. Capacity is being boosted from 27000 to 31000.
Just thought this was interesting. Obviously there's no new stadium on the horizon. So rather than continue to do nothing, which is effectively what the current board is doing, and us continuing to follow the model of selling one star each summer to keep the banks sweet, and rely on Moyes' managerial abilities to keep us in the top half, I think doing something like this would be of far greater benefit in the long run. I'm sure most people would rather we have a super duper new stadium, but if we can't have that, we should be settling for the next best thing in stadium redevelopment - which is possible (as shown above, being done by other clubs), no matter what Elstone says.
Anyway, I bring this up after visiting Wolves yesterday, and basically seeing for myself what they have done - adding another tier on to their own version of the Park End. These are two photos of the same stand, one from March 2010 when we played them, and one from yesterday:
There wasn't much space taken up behind the stand either, by construction. There was a small construction area, but nothing major. The ticket offices had been moved to the side, in temporary portacabins. As you can see, the lower tier was already open, with the top tier opening in August. The new stand is costing Wolves £18m to build, and includes new museum, supporters bar and megastore. Capacity is being boosted from 27000 to 31000.
Just thought this was interesting. Obviously there's no new stadium on the horizon. So rather than continue to do nothing, which is effectively what the current board is doing, and us continuing to follow the model of selling one star each summer to keep the banks sweet, and rely on Moyes' managerial abilities to keep us in the top half, I think doing something like this would be of far greater benefit in the long run. I'm sure most people would rather we have a super duper new stadium, but if we can't have that, we should be settling for the next best thing in stadium redevelopment - which is possible (as shown above, being done by other clubs), no matter what Elstone says.