Blagdon red

3 hours ago, Wealwayseatcheese said:

Hertha BSC are a basket case at present, 8 managers in last 4 years and almost 400million euros investment have bought nothing but a slide into Bundesliga 2 , which has been on the cards for the last 3 years. 
i have been there a couple of times in last 3 years and it’s a fantastic club and City but I fear that it may be a couple of years until they bounce back again.

Their finances are indeed in a mess. So much so that they may not be granted a licence for next season for the second division. The German licensing system is very strict on clubs being able to show their ability to fund their operations for the coming season. Hertha could well end in the third tier.

3 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Yes, incredible. They were top of the league Sept/Oct too from memory?

Kit Holden's book on Union, "Scheisse! We're going up!" is supposed to be a good read.

Yep, they were top for a while, indeed.

Have heard mixed reviews of Kit's book. Some say it's just a reworking of all the well-known stories you hear alluded to in every UK TV commentary on Union games (the fans who bled for the club, the fans who built their own stadium, etc., etc.).

I liked Christoph Biermann's 'access all areas' account of the 2018-19 promotion season ('Wir werden ewig leben'). Unfortunately for most UK footy fans it's available in German only (although I did offer to translate it for him!).

Yep, it's been an exciting season. I hope BVB do it. Bayern constantly winning gets boring.

Meanwhile, my German club, Union Berlin, will qualify for the Champions League if they win at home on the final day next weekend (a draw or even a defeat may also do). Quite an achievement given that they were in the third tier when I started following them in 2008 and, being a 100% members' club, have no sugar-daddy benefactor.

1 hour ago, phantom said:

Good to see this is all just Chinese Whispers, out of interest @Blagdon red what is happening in "Summer '24"?

Possibly nothing. What I meant is that IF anything is done structurally to accommodate standers in E34, I can't see it happening before next summer. That gives time to plan, consult, relocate, etc. But even if it's agreed that it might be desirable to have standing fans in that block, the restraints posed by the narrowness of the rows and the fact there would be seated fans in the directly adjacent block whose view would be impacted will make finding a suitable solution a big challenge.

2 hours ago, Ska Junkie said:

Is adding rails 'structural' BR? I've no idea.

Yes. Rails are structures.

I also believe that the rows in the Dolman are too narrow to facilitate a replica of the installation on the deeper rows in the S82 corner. The space left between rails and seats on the narrow Dolman Stand rows is highly unlikely to comply with the safety regulations for standing.

I can't see anything happening there before summer '24.

My understanding is that no structural changes will be made in E34 this summer.

38 minutes ago, pride of the west said:

Do the same with our ground over the fruit market land. Include the car parks. Be interesting to see as they are looking at a stadium with the same footprint. 

Here you go. AG fits nicely, with plenty of space for parking (if that's what they wanted to use the space for).

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

How many Brisbane Roads can you fit on the site?

I presume that any new stadium would be intended to have full all seater stands, fully roofed and with integrated concourses. I also presume that takes a bigger footprint than tents and temporary bleacher seating?

Two.

Brisbane Road, including flats, x2 on the fruit market site.

21 minutes ago, pride of the west said:

Do the same with our ground over the fruit market land. Include the car parks. Be interesting to see as they are looking at a stadium with the same footprint. 

Coming up shortly...

5 hours ago, ExiledAjax said:

Like Leyton Orient with the flats in the corners?

Brisbane Road has a capacity of 9.2k. Much better suited to Rovers given their current gates. Model it on Brisbane road and they might be able to squeeze a tidy little 9-10k seater in amongst the flats and commercial use stuff.

For a bit of fun, I just had a look at the site on Google Maps and copied and pasted aerial shots of the Mem (also from Google Maps, same scale) onto it.

As you can see, the site is actually quite large (assuming my yellow lines correctly demaracate the boundaries), with space to spare even if you put two Mem stadiums onto it.

20 hours ago, Dollymarie said:

Bump, to remind anyone who hasn’t yet voted  

Yep, voting closes at midnight on Monday.

Nearly 3,500 votes so far, the most for many years.

If you've still to cast yours, please do so via the link below.

1 hour ago, robinforlife2 said:

I would sign up, but personally, I like to keep my personal details personal. Reluctant to have many companies knows my address, etc. If there was a way just to send £5 by Paypal, to an email with the username as a reference I would ask a friend to do that for me. I'm sure I'm in a minority, but I feel the idea of a forum is so you can post and do so, without it being known who you are etc. I appreciate most people wont care. 

Please try this link: https://app.moonclerk.com/pay/2oyolrukmz3v

Not 100% sure that it will work, so let me know how you get on. Cheers.

1 hour ago, LondonBristolian said:

Out of curiosity, what's roughly the average number of votes you usually get? 

2.5k

Just over 3,000 votes now.

Deadline extended until 3rd April.

20 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Scrapping the 18-23 price band and making anyone over 20 pay full price seems incredibly short-sighted.

Especially as it is that age group that will have been largely responsible for creating the good home atmosphere that has helped them to gain so many points at home this season. Very short-sighted indeed.

18 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I remember when I went to Palace away in 2011, relegation clash under Millen.

Stewards seemed quite keen to enforce the all-seater rule with us but to our left there was a small group of noisy fans. They were left alone, I guess that was the early days of their ultras, Holmesdale Fanatics to give them their self-proclaimed correct title.

Would that have been in Phil Alexander's time? They certainly seem to have encouraged their vocal fans.

Yes, the HF grew considerably durng PA's time at Palace. Also encouraged not least by Steve Parish, who felt their non-stop vocal support gave Palace at that time a unique home advantage.

9 hours ago, Robbored said:

Done.

As I’ve never seen a Bristol City women’s match I’m not qualified to vote on their section.

That's why the voting system enables you to skip those questions.

Now, over 1,600 votes.

Keep them coming!

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Over 1,250 votes now cast.

Thanks if you've cast your vote already. If you haven't done so yet, please do. And please share the link on your social media.

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Over 1,000 votes already on day one of voting.

Let's make this a bumper year.

If you've not yet voted, please vote now via the link below, and share it with your City mates on social media.

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8 hours ago, ExiledAjax said:

Brilliant point made that when people in positions such as the Chief Constable pedal these misconceptions, when they misconstrue correlation and causation, or when they draw links between event A and event B, they fire up those stereotypes, reinforce that behaviour, as well as reinforcing their misguided belief in it.

Believe in the best in people, give them a real and honest opportunity to prove themselves, and invariably they will do so.

@Blagdon red is another who would find this interesting.

Glad to see Mr Roberts put in his place. He is very much in a minority of one.

Just now, Carey 6 said:

Fwiw I don’t even think the south stand corner is a designated standing area. It was previously a designated unreserved area, but they changed that a couple of seasons ago. Think the club just take a relaxed approach towards both of those things happening.

Correct. Ashont Gate has no areas of 'licensed standing'. To get such a licence, a ground has to provide some safe standing for away fans too.

The S82 corner is an area where it is recognised that fans will stand persistently in breach of ground regulations, so it has been made safer by the installation of barriers.

Despite the steepness of the Dolman Upper, I know of no reason why similar infrastructure could not be installed there as well (rail seats or barriers behind existing seats are now allowed in stands of a gradient of up to 35 degrees, the top limit for standard seating).

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

I mean that...seems fair?

"Do it in accordance with the rules."

Yep, very fair.

What I missed, however, was something along the lines of "We appreciate that fans moved to this area to try to improve the atmosphere at Ashton Gate. We share that objective, and intend to meet with fans' representatives shortly to discuss how this can be achieved."

2 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Fair response.

Firstly any kind of fans moving into seats of others be they season ticket or matchday ticket sold won't be acceptable so I don't see that occurring.

It does seem that it is difficult to please everyone, the club probably should have planned things differently on redevelopment. Any shift around surely would require significant consultation and high levels of uptake. Albeit some fans in existing parts of the ground might appreciate sticking around and being part of the atmosphere.

Next season is a good point for them although in theory if some of them buy tickets in E34 who knows. Season tickets in E34 for some maybe. Any type of attempted block invasion would cause issues without doubt.

I don't think the Singing Section is in an ideal location though but what the solution is well I don't know.

IF one were of the view that the S82 corner is a good place for vocal home support, and one wanted to expand it, the logical place is the full width of the rear of the South Stand, coming down to in line with the Heineken and mirror-image terraces. That way no sightline issues would be created for fans sitting lower down the South Stand or in the South Stand / Lansdown corner.

Personally, if I was CEO and had a magic wand, I'd make the entire Atyeo a standing home end and charge my architects with finding a solution for housing away fans. That would not be an easy task, but nothing is impossible.

21 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

One for @Blagdon red as he seems to know a lot about Safe Standing etc. Apologies if you've already covered these in part.

Basically if the club became a bit more willing and perhaps assertive in this regard, what sort of hoops woukd they need to jump through for a bigger Safe Standing or similar area, what are the regulatory issues, timeframe etc? I know it can vary or again sticking the away fans (subject to minimum allocation requirements) in a corner of a side stand...two blocks in Dolman say to fit with the 2k v 10 pct of capacity regs.

In simple terms, the club could configure any part of the ground for safe standing. One key criteria, however, will always been maintaining clear sightlines for seated fans in adjacent blocks.

That's why a 'cheese wedge' shape in a corner works well, and why individual blocks of a rectangular stand don't.

Due to illness, the fans booked in for our Fans for the Future seats for tomorrow are now unfortunately unable to come to the match.

So, 8 free tickets are now available. Details here: https://www.bristolcitysupporters.org/kids-be-our-guests-take-4/