Latest On The Stadium Redevelopment/ Ashton Vale (Merged)

[Welcome To The Jungle]

When will we know whether or not we can build AV?

 

When will we see the final plans for AG after the open review thing?

[Bat Fastard]

If the stadium is not built in AV - it would make a great site for affordable housing. They could then be let out to the Roma immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria. The nimby clan should be careful what they wish for....

[BS34Red]

This is what I was talking about earlier, re: molineux. Having researched it further, it was even more remarkable than I remembered.

From commencing demolition by ripping out the first seats on may 23rd, it was actually open to supporters (lower tier) for a match on the 1st oct. That represents an incredibly quick turn around. Six weeks into the new season, or 4 home games missed.

I'm not saying the east end will necessarily be the same, as it obviously depends on construction technique (particularly the roof), but it illustrates what can be done.

If work began in feb/march, then I'm sure there's a good chance that it would at least be partially open at some stage during the 2014/15 season.

Images courtesy of wwfc live webcam, and skyscrapercity forum.

if we started work in January then I would expect the new stand to be open by the first game of the season in some form. The EE is a tin shed so wouldn't take long to be knocked down, however I do remember reading a while ago that the land under the EE is contaminated, if this is true I don't know bit could slow things down.

I visited Wolves during their reconstruction and your right it's an impressive stand, has a huge club shop in it which gives it a unique wolves feel. You look at it and you know it's the Stan culis stand. It sort of reminds me of Old Trafford.

Our plans will be nothing like Wolves unfortunately ours is being done one the cheap compared. The point I'm trying to get at is following their redevelopment they have suffered two relegations. Had they built a new stadium would they really have suffered the same fate?? The effect a new stadium can have shouldn't be underestimated, Southampton now back in the premiership doing well, Swansea went from the brink of non league to premiership, carling cup winners and now playing in Europe, Cardiff also in the premiership, Brighton now a solid Championship club, Rotherham got promoted etc, Man City have grown into a massive club and their new plans for the surrounding areas are amazing.

What I'm trying to get at is a new stadium in most cases leads to a promotion, it gives the whole city a buzz, it gives the club momentum and brings in a air of positivity. A redevelopment simply does not do that.

Tbh in our history we have mainly been crap, call me superstitious but maybe Ashton Gate is on some cursed land orsomething. A fresh start aat a new stadium is exactly what we need to push this club forward.

Redevelop Ashton Gate and in 20 odd years were gonna need to do it all over again. I don't see the point really.

[Jesus]

If the stadium is not built in AV - it would make a great site for affordable housing. They could then be let out to the Roma immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria. The nimby clan should be careful what they wish for....

This is exactly what will happen. Housing will be built on the land which will have to include about 40% social housing. Any housing development these days have to have a certain amount of social housing to obtain permission.

[Mr Mosquito]

This is exactly what will happen. Housing will be built on the land which will have to include about 40% social housing. Any housing development these days have to have a certain amount of social housing to obtain permission.

 

 

If the stadium is not built in AV - it would make a great site for affordable housing. They could then be let out to the Roma immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria. The nimby clan should be careful what they wish for....

 

Indeed, with Lib-Lab-Con EU traitor politicians having signed us up to the EU project I doubt if little or any of the social housing at Ashton Vale with be allocated to local Bristolian families.

[Bat Fastard]

With the stories from Sheffield about Roma trying to sell babies - it would be thoroughly unpleasant for local AV residents and worthy Bristolian social housing tenants to have to live with a big concentration of Roma on the new estate. However it may be a cheap way for BCFC to enhance the youth policy ;-)

[beaverface]

This is exactly what will happen. Housing will be built on the land which will have to include about 40% social housing. Any housing development these days have to have a certain amount of social housing to obtain permission.

 

This is where the club should look to take advantage by trying to get the residents of the "Nelson Mandella" flats behind the Dolman moved to AV !

[Welcome To The Jungle]

This is where the club should look to take advantage by trying to get the residents of the "Nelson Mandella" flats behind the Dolman moved to AV !

 

Can see the headlines now. 

 

Football club destroy iconic TV landmark in search of profits. 

[Philly The Kid]

Can anyone tell me (us), whether the proposed capacity of 27k in the revamped AG, takes crowd segregation into account?
For instance, If we drew a "Big club" in the cup, or even the squatters, would that then reduce the capacity to, say, 25k with segregation?

The capacity as it is now is something like 21,497, but realistically, it's actually about 3k less when segregation is taken into account (I think...)

[Manon]

Wouldn't be a huge difference in capacity. At the moment it is a fairly extreme drop, due to the nature if the East end.

Just guessing, but I'd imagine 27,000 cap would mean around 26,500 with segregation.

[Aizoon]

Can see the headlines now.

Football club destroy iconic TV landmark in search of profits.

"Historic 50's modernist building bulldozed by tax exile millionaire"

[beaverface]

Can anyone tell me (us), whether the proposed capacity of 27k in the revamped AG, takes crowd segregation into account?

For instance, If we drew a "Big club" in the cup, or even the squatters, would that then reduce the capacity to, say, 25k with segregation?

The capacity as it is now is something like 21,497, but realistically, it's actually about 3k less when segregation is taken into account (I think...)

 

The club are on about relocating the away fans back to the Atyeo, so without any remedial work, there will be a reduction in capacity to segregate fans.

 

I would imagine they'd install railings down the middle of the seating at some point to split the fans up, and seeing as the rake of the Atyeo is steeper than the east end, this may just work.

[REDOXO]

Being a supporter of 'Long Standing' This is my two penneth!

 

AG holds many memories for most of us and it will be a huge wrench to move to a new ground if that is the case.

 

Nevertheless a brand new stadium at AV is by far and away the best option for the club, the board, shareholders and its supporters.

 

Much of the funding would come from the sale of the current ground, supported by other sources, which I will assume some of which the Landsdowne family will underpin.

 

AG is largely an outdated relic of a bygone age, under pinned by the Dolman Stand and Atyeo Stand, both of which have there own limitations.

 

A new stadium for The West of England is long overdue. Bristol is one of the biggest and fastest growing City's in the country and it has been stated many times that it is one of the best City's to live in the UK. Yet Bristol remains a backwater in the minds of the many outside of the area and rarely figures in the same terms as other regional powerhouses.

 

A new stadium will give us and the town something to be proud of and I would suggest would help our team as well. Perhaps the next time you see a Man U/Liverpool shirt worn by a local kid, perhaps we should think about what it is about our City and our clubs that those kids can not identify with...?  

[Nogbad the Bad]

Being a supporter of 'Long Standing' This is my two penneth!

 

AG holds many memories for most of us and it will be a huge wrench to move to a new ground if that is the case.

 

Nevertheless a brand new stadium at AV is by far and away the best option for the club, the board, shareholders and its supporters.

 

Much of the funding would come from the sale of the current ground, supported by other sources, which I will assume some of which the Landsdowne family will underpin.

 

AG is largely an outdated relic of a bygone age, under pinned by the Dolman Stand and Atyeo Stand, both of which have there own limitations.

 

A new stadium for The West of England is long overdue. Bristol is one of the biggest and fastest growing City's in the country and it has been stated many times that it is one of the best City's to live in the UK. Yet Bristol remains a backwater in the minds of the many outside of the area and rarely figures in the same terms as other regional powerhouses.

 

A new stadium will give us and the town something to be proud of and I would suggest would help our team as well. Perhaps the next time you see a Man U/Liverpool shirt worn by a local kid, perhaps we should think about what it is about our City and our clubs that those kids can not identify with...?  

 

There are PL glory hunters in Bristol for sure, but many Bristol kids grow up supporting, and wearing the shirts of, the teams of their non Bristolian fathers who are constantly relocated to Bristol from all over the country.

 

I remember seeing a news story about Newcastle Utd where their local TV station went into Newcastle town centre to interview 6 people at random to ask them their opinions of recent goings on at the club.

 

Five of them (of all ages and genders) turned out to be supporters of NUFC who were able to give in depth answers, the other was a visitor to the CIty. Basically it seems just about everyone in the city grew up there and supports Newcastle. You wouldn't find Man.Utd or Liverpool shirts up there whichever division Newcastle were in - the support for the local club is ingrained through the generations.

 

If you tried that with 6 random people in Bristol city centre you'd be lucky to find a single born and bred Bristolian, let alone one who was interested in either of the local clubs.

 

We may have a big population in Bristol but it is an extremely cosmopolitan and transient one. There will never be 30-40,000 Bristolians who want to watch Bristol City every week, even in the PL.

 

A stadium of that size would simply be providing extra space for neutrals and Bristolian supporters of the opposition. There would also have to be the added intention of giving huge allocations to the away team in order to fill the stadium as much as possible, along with our perhaps 20k max.regulars.

 

Doesn't sound to me like an ideal way to support your local club when we might be close to being outnumbered by non Bristol City fans at our home ground every week.

 

We've never in our history needed a 30-40k stadium on anything like a regular basis, less so than ever in 2013 when the make up of the population of Bristol has altered so much.

[BS34Red]

There are PL glory hunters in Bristol for sure, but many Bristol kids grow up supporting, and wearing the shirts of, the teams of their non Bristolian fathers who are constantly relocated to Bristol from all over the country.

I remember seeing a news story about Newcastle Utd where their local TV station went into Newcastle town centre to interview 6 people at random to ask them their opinions of recent goings on at the club.

Five of them (of all ages and genders) turned out to be supporters of NUFC who were able to give in depth answers, the other was a visitor to the CIty. Basically it seems just about everyone in the city grew up there and supports Newcastle. You wouldn't find Man.Utd or Liverpool shirts up there whichever division Newcastle were in - the support for the local club is ingrained through the generations.

If you tried that with 6 random people in Bristol city centre you'd be lucky to find a single born and bred Bristolian, let alone one who was interested in either of the local clubs.

We may have a big population in Bristol but it is an extremely cosmopolitan and transient one. There will never be 30-40,000 Bristolians who want to watch Bristol City every week, even in the PL.

A stadium of that size would simply be providing extra space for neutrals and Bristolian supporters of the opposition. There would also have to be the added intention of giving huge allocations to the away team in order to fill the stadium as much as possible, along with our perhaps 20k max.regulars.

Doesn't sound to me like an ideal way to support your local club when we might be close to being outnumbered by non Bristol City fans at our home ground every week.

We've never in our history needed a 30-40k stadium on anything like a regular basis, less so than ever in 2013 when the make up of the population of Bristol has altered so much.

But how are we ever gonna convince the non bristolians to adopt us as their club whilst we remain at Ashton Gate?? I don't think a redevelopment would be enough to get these people a long. Look at Preston, a fairly decent modern stadium but it just doesn't do enough to convince non regulars to come along. A new stadium will be all over the news, people will be intrigued and will come along and try it out. Look at Brighton, an area you can say is pretty much like ours but since their move to a new stadium their fans base has grew and grew.

[REDOXO]

There are PL glory hunters in Bristol for sure, but many Bristol kids grow up supporting, and wearing the shirts of, the teams of their non Bristolian fathers who are constantly relocated to Bristol from all over the country.

 

I remember seeing a news story about Newcastle Utd where their local TV station went into Newcastle town centre to interview 6 people at random to ask them their opinions of recent goings on at the club.

 

Five of them (of all ages and genders) turned out to be supporters of NUFC who were able to give in depth answers, the other was a visitor to the CIty. Basically it seems just about everyone in the city grew up there and supports Newcastle. You wouldn't find Man.Utd or Liverpool shirts up there whichever division Newcastle were in - the support for the local club is ingrained through the generations.

 

If you tried that with 6 random people in Bristol city centre you'd be lucky to find a single born and bred Bristolian, let alone one who was interested in either of the local clubs.

 

We may have a big population in Bristol but it is an extremely cosmopolitan and transient one. There will never be 30-40,000 Bristolians who want to watch Bristol City every week, even in the PL.

 

A stadium of that size would simply be providing extra space for neutrals and Bristolian supporters of the opposition. There would also have to be the added intention of giving huge allocations to the away team in order to fill the stadium as much as possible, along with our perhaps 20k max.regulars.

 

Doesn't sound to me like an ideal way to support your local club when we might be close to being outnumbered by non Bristol City fans at our home ground every week.

 

We've never in our history needed a 30-40k stadium on anything like a regular basis, less so than ever in 2013 when the make up of the population of Bristol has altered so much.

Hi! NTB. I will respond to your post just give me a day or two!

[cidercity]

I would I used to live in there during that period. Always remember our first game back in the big time. Aston villa, my old man let them in big mistake, the pub was a wreck come kickoff, they were climbing in through the windows there were so many villa fans trying to get in. He asked the police to try and get some of them out, they just said "you let them in its your problem" and they just walked off.

From that game onwards he always had usually roger pope on the door just letting in the locals.

[Mad Cyril]

As I understand it, once the safe standing is official, there will be room for another 3,000 or so due to the fact that you can get 2 people standing as opposed to one sitting in the safe standing seats (if you see what I mean...). So capacity could be around 30k once safe standing is formally adopted.

While all for safe standing its not likely to increase income streams as tickets will be cheaper than seats.

And unless we are confident of filling the ground every week it could reduce revenue as fans trade down to a cheaper option.

As such I would not be surprised if the board did not persue this option with maximum effort....

[Rowley Birkin]

I would I used to live in there during that period. Always remember our first game back in the big time. Aston villa, my old man let them in big mistake, the pub was a wreck come kickoff, they were climbing in through the windows there were so many villa fans trying to get in. He asked the police to try and get some of them out, they just said "you let them in its your problem" and they just walked off.

From that game onwards he always had usually roger pope on the door just letting in the locals.

 

Ha,ha, I can remember that day. Came round the corner to be greeted by a load of Villa fans with a big flag with "VILLA KILLER" on it. Marvellous.

[Uncle Albert]

Alistair Durden ?@alidurdenBBC17s

BREAKING: Planners recommend Ashton Gate redevelopment plans should be approved. Planning committee will vote Wed 27 November. #BristolCity

[Kid in the Riot]

No surprise. It'll get approved next week, wait 6 weeks to ensure no JR comes in then get building/demolishing early next year. Probably March time.

[Bat Fastard]

Big surprise....NOT

If we go down this route and not AV - it will be seen as a huge missed opportunity in years to come. Lousy access, parking and no room to expand.

[Bat Fastard]

Just because the Mayor owns the Tobacco Factory - we are railroaded into staying at Ashton Gate and having to forgo Ashton Vale, which would have better parking, transport links, facilities and future expandability. If we go down this route - people will look back on the decision for years to come and see it as a BIG mistake.

[Kibs]

Not for me. A shiny new Stadium with all the added benefits would have been great and my preference but this is a very good "next best thing" IMO.

 

I won't be at all disappointed if/when we re-develop Ashton Gate.

[Hillzider]

Not for me. A shiny new Stadium with all the added benefits would have been great and my preference but this is a very good "next best thing" IMO.

 

I won't be at all disappointed if/when we re-develop Ashton Gate.

 

 

Agree

 

I am all for the Vale and my blood boils about how a few people have scuppered it but this is still a good alternative.

If City had never mentioned moving and come up with these plans on day one most people would have been pretty happy with what is being proposed.

[WhistleHappy]

Just because the Mayor owns the Tobacco Factory - we are railroaded into staying at Ashton Gate and having to forgo Ashton Vale, which would have better parking, transport links, facilities and future expandability. If we go down this route - people will look back on the decision for years to come and see it as a BIG mistake.

 

Whatever happens I hope we can incorporate some PUBLIC TOILETS into the development....

Bristols 1st elected mayor Mr George 'Loo-Pee-Loo' Ferguson is taking the pee out of Bristolians everywhere by shutting all the bogs. What a pain in the butt that's gonna be!

[Cider red]

It was always a given imo. Ferguson is behind it so the revamp will happen. Im with kibs on this one, I was all for moving to av but having looked at the ins and outs, pros and cons- redeveloped gate is just as viable and imo still looks impressive. It will be interesting to see if safe standing is still at the bottom of the ee and not the top, as a lot of fans requested a change.

[Super]

Just because the Mayor owns the Tobacco Factory - we are railroaded into staying at Ashton Gate and having to forgo Ashton Vale, which would have better parking, transport links, facilities and future expandability. If we go down this route - people will look back on the decision for years to come and see it as a BIG mistake.

 

He has little influence with these decisions, he has supported UWE and that has gone pear shaped.

[Vincent Vega]

Cracking news,never fancied watching us in a stadium that was over half empty every other week anyway

[Barrs Court Red]

I can stomach a revamped AG over AV but the proposal is shit. Full or compromise to keep potential NIMBYs muzzled.