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Latest On The Stadium Redevelopment/ Ashton Vale (Merged)


Longacre_red

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As a club, we have rarely, if ever, made the most of what we've got. The facilities, resources, etc. Perhaps only 74-79, under AD. A boom time we failed to capitilise or build upon. Quite the opposite, in fact, as we know.

A revamped AG will be more than adequate for us for the next 15- 20 years, to make a go of being a competitive, championship club. That must be the first goal.

If we ever make the most of this, and end up outgrowing a 27, 000 capacity AG, and think, bugger, we could really do with another 5 or 6, 000 seats, and a hotel, and a McKFC, then something seriously RIGHT will have happened down there, we'll be so beside ourselves in disbelief and ecstasy, that we'll not care a hoot. Be too busy inducting another dozen legends into our hall of fame.

If we ever get TOO BIG for a revamped AG, it'll be something to celebrate. Massively. Statues will be in commision, stonemasons will be smiling. Let's see if we can get anywhere near this before getting our kecks in a twist over missing out on a 21st century bowl, with all the banality that will probably entail.

Just so long as the new AG's got a bit more legroom. And everyone can get in on time.

What else can we fret and obsess over?

Sensible post sir, probably agree with you 95% ( 5% = good food n booze )....sort of reminds

me when i used to have a piss take with an old rovers mate of mine, we would argue over all the obvious stuff

 

then it would come down to the grounds, he would always laugh and say " you telling me that ? it's like saying i have a lovely birdcage.............and no friggin bird ! "   Mmmmm

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2m5ximg.jpg

Williams is going to be a big old stand. New EE same height as Dolman.

Still annoyed by the fact it is silver...love walking down that hill and seeing the old red girl (even if she has faded to pink). It's a very identifiable feature, and should remain imo. Would go some way toward preserving our identity, and would help to fend off the wrath of the identikit.
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Still annoyed by the fact it is silver...love walking down that hill and seeing the old red girl (even if she has faded to pink). It's a very identifiable feature, and should remain imo. Would go some way toward preserving our identity, and would help to fend off the wrath of the identikit.

Think yourself lucky, if the nimby's and tree huggers interfere it might end up looking like the Morrisons distribution centre 

just off the M5 at Bridgewater !!!!!!!!!!! Noooooo !

 

Bridgwater%2061-file024521.jpg

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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.

I tend to agree with BS34 here.

 

Yes as has been stated between 76 and 80 we rarely attracted crowds of over 30,000 I know I was in most of them as was NTB, however that was not a particularly golden age when it came to football support.

 

In 2013 football (I dont mean to offend anyone here) has become the replacement religion of the country. Millions are glued to any number of games on TV/Sat, where as the 70's boasted two football shows post 5:00pm on a Saturday. The appetite for football is now completely different. 

 

I agree about the growth of the City. Clearly if any city grows it is on the basis of new people coming to the area, however I have personal experience of new people coming to the City and becoming City fans. It is really not that much of a stretch.

 

The problem is City have served up far to much third rate/tier football in the last 33 years and this is the main issue when attracting new youngsters/old'uns to the ground. This has been under pinned by players simply not wishing to come here and the club having to pay, Super premium wages to get anyone half decent to come and ply their trade at tired old AG.

 

Yes a revamp of the Gate is a decent enough second best, but I am tired of second best and so are many at the club and in the City. AV will attract visitors and eventually new fans as the transients become part of the vibrant infrastructure of the City. This will impact on players to support the current and first class policy of development from within.

 

We as a club have an opportunity! We may never have a benefactor that is prepared to put so much of his personal wealth on the line again. So I stand firm that AV is the best option and hope the club push for this option until there is no place further to go!!

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Tend to agree rather emphatically with all those bemused by the apparent lack of foresight with qty of corporate boxes and capacity. Perhaps, as one poster suggested and I previously, this is merely a stepping stone to a larger version at a later date. However, that still leaves the decision to go with the miniscule 30 odd boxes a baffling one.

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From the images released so far and displayed at the public consultation, the proposal is to have four completely different stands.

The popular objection to bowl-like stadia is that they are uniform all the way round and therefore have no character. Regardless of whether some or all of the corners are joined up, a stadium with four distinctly different sides definitely does not constitute a bowl. I think it looks like it will have character, in the same way that the redeveloped Hawthorns or Bramall Lane do, for example.

Not saying it's necessarily better than the AV model mind, but it will have its own look and personality, definitely not your 'crisp bowl'.

At the public consultaion the architect described the design as having bowl like characteristics. The Bristol post go further and says its been designed to look like a bowl.

The design is generic.

The Wedlock design. Which one? It is, or was uniform. The design has been changed since the paper thin consultation.

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Putting it bold doesn't make it any better a figure.

37 boxes is hardly the financial knight in shining crusader armour, is it?

What's the profit on those? 370K?

Is a box at AG going to generate 10k each a year? Not a hope.

 

Be lucky to get 5k each- we are in L1 don't forget. Now 165k isn't to be sniffed at, but surely the whole point of this was to attract "corporate" income - and we are only building 37??

 

Not having a pop at you mate - thanks for the info, but not building as many as possible, when you have a once in 50 years chance is madness.

 

I'm very surprised this hasn't got much more attention on here.

 

 

No offence taken

Was merely trying  highlight the fact that there are more thank 18 boxes in the redevelopment.

The problem with limited room an the Ashton gate site means balancing capacity against boxes.

More boxes = less capacity.

How many boxes would there have been at the vale ??

 

 

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Interesting point made in response to application from Network Rail. They don't appear to be interested and have no plans to re-open Ashton Halt Station. They are still committed to supporting the Metro-West Portishead Corridor line and mention the Rapid Transit from Ashton Vale park and ride. There letter is dated 18th Oct on the list of docs on The planning site.http://planningonline.bristol.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=MQQTQYDN00J00

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Yeah but they have no requirement to show intent for something that is still hypothetical.

First they need two, possibly three things to happen: the portishead line to open, and the stadium to be redeveloped, and also a certain capacity threshold being surpassed regularly.

Then when a case is there, and with the help of red trousers (who it we would no doubt also benefit), things would happen.

EDIT: this is in reply to NYTRAM

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Think yourself lucky, if the nimby's and tree huggers interfere it might end up looking like the Morrisons distribution centre 

just off the M5 at Bridgewater !!!!!!!!!!! Noooooo !

 

Bridgwater%2061-file024521.jpg

 

This is inevitable. Lansdown won't just give up he owns this land. Lansdown will either build something similar to this or masses of houses. NIMBYs will lose either way

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I think the figure for boxes is bang on personally.

Ashton Gate is not a large ground, and do we really want boxes galore? It would look silly.

On top of that, you don't want loads of empty boxes on a match day. It isn't healthy, and lack of demand would affect the going rate.

Forest are a club who we should aspire to, stadium included. They have 36 boxes.

I am convinced that the atyeo will be developed in the next 15 years (not long in football terms), and I'm sure it will incorporate more boxes.

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From what I can see, there is absolutely nothing on offer for parking and the public transport improvements are pitiful. If we ever regularly attract crowds of over 25,000 - there will be people parking three miles from the ground - especially when you bear in mind that the Mayor likes to put residents parking zones wherever possible. If he ever manages to extend his zones, Ashton Gate could be strangled by lack of parking and access.

 

 

But isn't this what most grounds around the country are also like?

Very few allow parking at the ground and if they do there is certainly never enough space

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public transport in the city is crap full stop, butting in a halt at ashton gate wouldn't solve this,

When the portishead line is reopened (and it will be just a matter time) AG may not be included but that doesn't mean it will never be built, it would be one platform about 120m long and would cost about 50k max to install Signalling wouldn't have to change to much as theres already signals around the old halt site which are used by freight trains,

 

I we as a club should be utilising is the park and ride areas near avonmouth and long ashton, they could use those car parks and put on extra buses to shuttle people in and out of the ground and if the club were savey about it, could included as an added option on the season ticket,

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public transport in the city is crap full stop, butting in a halt at ashton gate wouldn't solve this,

When the portishead line is reopened (and it will be just a matter time) AG may not be included but that doesn't mean it will never be built, it would be one platform about 120m long and would cost about 50k max to install Signalling wouldn't have to change to much as theres already signals around the old halt site which are used by freight trains,

 

I we as a club should be utilising is the park and ride areas near avonmouth and long ashton, they could use those car parks and put on extra buses to shuttle people in and out of the ground and if the club were savey about it, could included as an added option on the season ticket,

Of course you are right. You also might have expected the "head in the sand" directors to have thought of something like this.

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I assume that away following could be reduced if we get a lot of new home fans? 5,500 seems an awful lot.

 

The boxes on the other hand - 18 seems ridiculously small. Why bother with just 18?

I went to game in a box at Carrow Road, they had loads of them, each ranging from 20 - 100 people. Easily 100 boxes.

If AG just went for 18, then I truly would think the club has finally lost the will to live.

 

I would hope the boxes are the first concern - if we can fit 200 in AG, build 200. International Rugby Union and League are a given after the redevelopment, and the club would be chasing all kinds of events surely.

18..no,no,no, that's crazy.

 

200 boxes?! Settle down.

 

We are proposing 37, my bad, and Norwich have 41 so not exactly a big difference.

 

Also I may have capacity of Atyeo wrong, someone else said it's only 4,200 and would leave in excess of 22,000 seats for home fans.

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Yeah wrong way round kitr. EE has 5,500, atyeo 4,200.

Question:

Regarding the postponing of Ashton Vale enquiry...when is it rescheduled for? I keep hearing that it was postponed until after the ag planning hearing which is a week today, but when exactly? Does anybody know?

Will the board make a decision to drop the av enquiry if pp for ag is granted, or will they hear it out before making a final decision?

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Yeah wrong way round kitr. EE has 5,500, atyeo 4,200.

Question:

Regarding the postponing of Ashton Vale enquiry...when is it rescheduled for? I keep hearing that it was postponed until after the ag planning hearing which is a week today, but when exactly? Does anybody know?

Will the board make a decision to drop the av enquiry if pp for ag is granted, or will they hear it out before making a final decision?

a date will be announced once we know the result of our planning application for AG (due 27th Nov), I think I read somewhere it was postponed until the 29th Nov back in oct,

 

I think they are waiting on the out come and objections (which there has been 4 so far) before they decided whether to ditch the stadium at Ashton Vale,

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I drive up from Taunton now I have retired - but before that I used to drive from London in a people carrier with a bunch of London and M4 based fans. Parking was frequently a cause of stress because it was difficult to always arrive early because of the traffic. A later than normal arrival often meant parking a very long way from The Gate - very frustrating. Just imagine this situation made worse by more and increasing parking restrictions and traffic congestion due to the rapidly expanding population. Just because parking zones finish at a certain time does not mean there will be lots of parking spaces there. The bigger car parks are only part of a solution. Park and ride might help if there were very frequent match day shuttles and the rail option could be very helpful if there was parking near the stations that would feed Ashton Gate.

A train from Taunton to Parsons Green would be helpful if only the times of the trains fitted in with match times (including the odd instance of late kick offs and extra time in cup games). This would entail our visionary board of directors to have sufficient insight to negotiate with the Rail company. Do they care? Can they be bothered to ask a staff member to sort it out? Answers on a postcard...

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I drive up from Taunton now I have retired - but before that I used to drive from London in a people carrier with a bunch of London and M4 based fans. Parking was frequently a cause of stress because it was difficult to always arrive early because of the traffic. A later than normal arrival often meant parking a very long way from The Gate - very frustrating. Just imagine this situation made worse by more and increasing parking restrictions and traffic congestion due to the rapidly expanding population. Just because parking zones finish at a certain time does not mean there will be lots of parking spaces there. The bigger car parks are only part of a solution. Park and ride might help if there were very frequent match day shuttles and the rail option could be very helpful if there was parking near the stations that would feed Ashton Gate.

A train from Taunton to Parsons Green would be helpful if only the times of the trains fitted in with match times (including the odd instance of late kick offs and extra time in cup games). This would entail our visionary board of directors to have sufficient insight to negotiate with the Rail company. Do they care? Can they be bothered to ask a staff member to sort it out? Answers on a postcard...

 

Sounds like you don't know the local area too well Bat.

 

As I say there are plenty of parking spaces available within 15 -20 minutes walk of AG.

 

All in favour of P&R, rail shuttles etc. as an alternative but there's really no necessity for a huge car park.

 

By the way there will be parking spaces in the zoned areas, my road - chock - a - block all week - is often half empty at weekends when there are no commuters filling it up.

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