Is Ashton Gate big enough for top flight?

[bristolcitysweden]

4 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Big enough in some respects- e.g. bigger than Hawthorns, Burnley and others.

However- where we differ to these clubs. Yes, they are higher than us now and yes arguably a lot of them have a bigger history- where we diverge however is:

• Big city with a lot less serious football competition around it (compare it to the Midlands and North West for example).
• Reasonably- not outstandingly but reasonably- wealthy city and surrrounding area. (Compare to the North West, North East, Midlands- plus of course London which although wealthy, has a hell of a lot of sides).
• Sleeping giant- yes yes we've all heard it before and it's a label that can be applied to plenty of clubs around not just here but Europe arguably. Focusing on purely the UK though, we have a lot more advantages over other places in UK for this.; (Population, relative wealth, lack of major competition around).

Currently for all but the biggest 6 or 7 games and maybe post first season yeah,  probably big enough- but if we start to do well in the PL- say emulate Southampton of recent times- well fair to say we could really grow the fanbase and even if not necessarily diehards, the attendances. Easily- 35-40k maybe? 2 tier Atyeo or have it as a huge 'End' for a start- provided we got green light with planning etc.

My main worry though, would be traditional fans being priced out to new money,  atmosphere could be vastly diluted and we could have a pretty sterile environment. Which would be shit.

Newbies will have to sanction the ticket price for traditional fans. No current fan should be allowed to be priced out.. 

[t_b]

We are somewhat fortunate Reading only brought 1.1k yesterday.

If we had hit 25k gate then with Man United, Reading & Wolves we would have breached the any 3 out of 5 consecutive games and we’d be implementing a match day parking zone...

I wonder if we made Reading fans have all ticket with no POTD to reduce that likelihood....?!

[One Team In Keynsham]

4 hours ago, bristolcitysweden said:

If England was not robbed of the 2018 World Cup I'm sure the 40,000 seater at Ashton Vale would have come through. One way or another.

When corruption stole the competition there was no chance we would build a stadium with any more than 30,000 seats.   

To be honest, if the choice was 1) host the 2018 World Cup and get a bowl-by-numbers 40k stadium that we would all be rattling about at some point in the future or 2) have the Russians steal the tournament and stay at a redeveloped, but smaller, AG, then "да к варианту два" every time.

 

[View from the Dolman]

2 hours ago, tommy_b said:

We are somewhat fortunate Reading only brought 1.1k yesterday.

If we had hit 25k gate then with Man United, Reading & Wolves we would have breached the any 3 out of 5 consecutive games and we’d be implementing a match day parking zone...

I wonder if we made Reading fans have all ticket with no POTD to reduce that likelihood....?!

We don't do POTD for any visiting fans, Burton included and I don't think they were likely to trouble the Atyeo capacity. 

[Bar BS3]

4 hours ago, Red_Nine said:

Ridiculous 

What’s ridiculous..?! 

 

[awbb]

15 minutes ago, One Team In Keynsham said:

To be honest, if the choice was 1) host the 2018 World Cup and get a bowl-by-numbers 40k stadium that we would all be rattling about at some point in the future or 2) have Russian steal the tournament and stay at a redeveloped, but smaller, AG, then "да к варианту два" every time.

 

It was a few years ago now but I remember the intention was a 30k stadium come what may. The World Cup configuration would have added a temporary 6k 2nd tier on both ends taking the capacity to 42k which would be removed after the tournament.

There were included plans for those 2nd tiers to be made permanent if there was sufficient demand for City.

It is old news, but I always thought the accusation of Ashton Vale design being a ‘soulless bowl’ was probably unfair. Yes, there was a lower tier of seating that ran right around the pitch, but each side had a distinct shape and design that certainly raised it well above the usual suspects when it comes to modern stadium architecture.

The ends were nothing much to look at but would have probably been duplicates of the current South Stand at each end.

[t_b]

12 minutes ago, View from the Dolman said:

We don't do POTD for any visiting fans, Burton included and I don't think they were likely to trouble the Atyeo capacity. 

Do we not? How bizarre, especially with how large a capacity it is and how we don't net off the ends either way.

[Southstandoriginal]

6 minutes ago, tommy_b said:

Do we not? How bizarre, especially with how large a capacity it is and how we don't net off the ends either way.

It is surprising, and the ticket office behind the Atyeo is still there too.

[Maesknoll Red]

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/BS3/Ashton-Road.html

 

Some recent house sales, but no detail of who bought them, not sure if that info is available from the land registry.

[Lanterne Rouge]

12 minutes ago, Maesknoll Red said:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/BS3/Ashton-Road.html

 

Some recent house sales, but no detail of who bought them, not sure if that info is available from the land registry.

Even if it was we`d probably be none the wiser, it would all be done through agents and third parties.

[downendcity]

If the gorge could be extended towards AG and the bridge moved accordingly, an upper tier  could then be built on top of the Atyeo, the new upper tier being supported by steel cables fastened underneath the bridge holding up thesinale span steel span on top of the upper their roof, thereby enabling it to live up to it's name - the Suspension Bridge. 

I have carried out a feasibility study to ensure the viability of this plan, based on my years of engineering experience building massive civil engineering projects using nothing but lego. The issue of the houses right to light would be solved by using the clear perspex lego bricks in the upper tier extension, so the extension would not block the flow of daylight through to the houses behind /nbelow

The fly in the ointment us that this would struggle t past planning, because of the traffic disruption caused by  the changes that would have to be made  to accommodate the bridge re-location.

 

[View from the Dolman]

44 minutes ago, tommy_b said:

Do we not? How bizarre, especially with how large a capacity it is and how we don't net off the ends either way.

Agreed. Even with POTD I don't think we'd have struggled to handle the Burton masses.

As per the website for the Burton game: "The match is pay on the day for home supporters only ... The match is all-ticket for visiting supporters."

 

[semblar]

39 minutes ago, Maesknoll Red said:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/BS3/Ashton-Road.html

 

Some recent house sales, but no detail of who bought them, not sure if that info is available from the land registry.

I work with somebody who lives in that rank of houses and they have not had any approach/offer to purchase from them...

[Maesknoll Red]

4 minutes ago, downendcity said:

If the gorge could be extended towards AG and the bridge moved accordingly, an upper tier  could then be built on top of the Atyeo, the new upper tier being supported by steel cables fastened underneath the bridge holding up thesinale span steel span on top of the upper their roof, thereby enabling it to live up to it's name - the Suspension Bridge. 

I have carried out a feasibility study to ensure the viability of this plan, based on my years of engineering experience building massive civil engineering projects using nothing but lego. The issue of the houses right to light would be solved by using the clear perspex lego bricks in the upper tier extension, so the extension would not block the flow of daylight through to the houses behind /nbelow

The fly in the ointment us that this would struggle t past planning, because of the traffic disruption caused by  the changes that would have to be made  to accommodate the bridge re-location.

 

The simplest solution would be to build a two tier stand where the Atyeo is currently, to get round the light issue, the stand would be built in a pit, on hydraulic legs.  We could also build an underground station there at the same time.  The stand would be lowered to allow the houses to get light at all times except within 30 minutes of KO when it would rise from the ground and provide the extra seating required.

[miser]

4 minutes ago, Maesknoll Red said:

The simplest solution would be to build a two tier stand where the Atyeo is currently, to get round the light issue, the stand would be built in a pit, on hydraulic legs.  We could also build an underground station there at the same time.  The stand would be lowered to allow the houses to get light at all times except within 30 minutes of KO when it would rise from the ground and provide the extra seating required.

If we employed the same architects who worked on the Thunderbirds island, no problem. 

[awbb]

No idea where the club stands re: purchasing housing around the stadium but I am pretty sure 8-10 houses (4 or 5 sets of semis) on Raynes Rd (including Shedman’s) should be of just as much interest as those on Ashton Rd.

Putting a second tier on top of the South Stand would be doable. Would be in the 5 to 6k capacity range. I doubt that it would be linked up with the Lansdown initially, unless there is a trick that can be done supporting the truss like what was done on the Dolman and the weight there would be significantly more.

This would probably be cheaper than buying the required houses on Ashton Rd. and building a new Atyeo from the ground up in the 10k capacity range.

To be honest, unless steps have already been taken the cost seems prohibitive to buy the houses.

[Fiale]

6 hours ago, jaydee=inspiration said:

Love threads like this, all about dreaming big, nothing wrong with that!!

My four penneth would be - get into bed with the council and knock down the dolman and the flats behind, make one big development with the stand and affordable housing merged in to one like chelski. Purchase the houses round the back of the SS (I’m sure it’d be way more than the two mentioned) and join up with another tier on the SS. Happy days.

The only objection to this I can imagine would be the nimbies trying to get the flats registered as ‘listed’ buildings due to them being part of the cultural heritage of the uk, with their link to Only Fools and Horses Mandela House. Cushty!!!

 

Problem is a lot of those flats are private properties properties now, they are pretty decent flats with great views.

 

 

[pillred]

8 hours ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

This has 'Clasics' thread written all,over it Tommy

Wouldn't it be easier to shove the stadium over a bit (Towards Winterstoke Road) thereby allowing more room for development of the Atyeo

I don't know if you are saying that in jest bob but I was surprised they did not do just that, I realise they would of had to reconfigure the dolman but with the fact they were going to demolish the Williams anyway why not, they would only of needed to move maybe 20 metres, would have made a hell of a difference at the atyeo end. and in the long run maybe would have worked out cheaper, though that's easy for me to say as it isn't my money.

[ashton_fan]

When we were in the top flight before (I know it was a long time ago) we had a ground capacity of around 39,000 but we rarely got over 30,000 for league games although it did happen a few times when we played the top sides like Liverpool or the Machester clubs. We normally averaged around 20,000. You have to take into account the fact that we'd be losing on a regular basis at that level and that puts a lot of people off once the novelty of playing the big teams has faded, the crowd was made up of the hard core City fans and quite a few from the general south-west area who either went to watch the opposition or they're just neutrals going to see a top game. To summarise I don't think we'd have problems with capacity if we had the upper Lansdown open for every game.

[Homer Simpson]

10 minutes ago, ashton_fan said:

When we were in the top flight before (I know it was a long time ago) we had a ground capacity of around 39,000 but we rarely got over 30,000 for league games although it did happen a few times when we played the top sides like Liverpool or the Machester clubs. We normally averaged around 20,000. You have to take into account the fact that we'd be losing on a regular basis at that level and that puts a lot of people off once the novelty of playing the big teams has faded, the crowd was made up of the hard core City fans and quite a few from the general south-west area who either went to watch the opposition or they're just neutrals going to see a top game. To summarise I don't think we'd have problems with capacity if we had the upper Lansdown open for every game.

The late 70's was a bad time for football crowds. Compare the crowds from this link to the present day crowds of teams still in the top flight. I think we would easily average above our present capacity if we had a larger stadium.

 

http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/eng-premier-league-1976-1977/1/