With Norwich having such a great and loyal fan support and a long waiting list, I was wondering if anyone knew what the clubs plans were for increasing the ground capacity? I think that Norwich should show ambition by increasing the stadium to 40K, what do you think? Then we could easily hold our own in Premier League and compete with teams like Everton and Aston Villa.
I know the Jarrold Stand was built with the capability of adding another tier on top in the future. I think we should look at the City Stand it's the smallest stand of the lot and with the road behind it is some space for redevelopment. One of the biggest problems with stadium expansions is the area around it as well, often that will have to be altered which costs a lot of money I would imagine.
Not convinced we could sustain a 40k stadium. The current plans of expanding to 30,000 and then maybe 35,000 seem very realistic and should see us in a good position to compete with other established clubs. I would much rather have a slightly smaller full stadium than a large 3/4 full one.
From what has been said there will be 800 extra seats added in front of the hotel before next season starts and if we stay up after next season they will look at increasing the capacity to 35,000 by redeveloping the City Stand. In a conversation that was had on the old Main Site message board Joe Ferrari ( who works for the club) said the City Stand was built with foundations to build a second tier but to save money the Jarrold Stand wasn't. Even though the foundations are in place it looks as if they will pull down the City Stand and build from scratch, I would imagine this would be to enable the club to have a bigger and better Canary Store at Carrow Road and have better catering outlets and toilets, anyone who goes in there now can tell you everything is to cramped. Just because the Jarrold wasn't built with foundations for a second tier doesn't mean one couldn't be added in the future, I'm no architect but I'm sure there must be a way to build a structure behind the Jarrold for it to sit on.
Sorry Harry but I thought that it was exactly the opposite - the Jarrold (South) Stand has the foundations for expansion whereas the Main (City) Stand doesn't
I'm just passing on what was said by a club employee on their official site, none of us fans really know, we can only go by what we are told or assume.
i can state as a matter of fact that the jarrold stand has the infrastructure to add a further tier on top if required, but the city stand needs to be knocked down and rebuilt. seen the plans with my own eyes
My first post on not606 although i've followed it for some time. Interested in the proposed developments for Carra Rud. Good if the jarrold stand can be developed with minimum disruption to fans. Does anyone know what the added capacity of another tier would be and if main structure could be done end of season in time for the new season without losing existing seating (even if top tier not ready)? Added to the proposed 800 seats in front of hotel, I estimate this would give us a 31K capacity. Would this not be ample for now except for occasional game? In the longer term, why would the existing City stand need to be completely demolished and not extended at the back with minimum disruption to present seating (if club could buy the road)? Also could the back of stand not be built over the road so allowing the road still to be used. I'm not an architect or construction engineer so probably good reasons why this can't be done. Interested in your views.
I remember the city stand going up in 1985 (or was it 86?). At the time the belief was that a tier could be added on top if/when required. At the time, and with the old south stand and no corner infills I think the capacity was around 20k. We weren't filling it so nothing was ever done. It wasn't until circa 2001 that we started to sell out the ground on a regular basis, by that time money was an issue and with the stand getting on a bit I believe the decision was made that in likelyhood it would be knocked down and replaced. This would give the club the chance to increase the conference facilities on that side of the ground, upgrade the supporter facilites under the stand, improve the dressing rooms etc, expand the club shop and get rid of the supporting pillars on the city stand side of both the Barclay and River End Stands (any new design would incorporate a structure to support that end of the two roofs). I know little about the foundations of the Jarold, but IMO it is big enough for now. The city Stand is by far the most pressing redevelopment. You could add a lot more seats on that side while maintaining a decent viewing distance from the pitch. I did hear rumours a while back of a stand plan with a lower tier of similar size to the current one, but with a much larger upper tier which would overhang Carrow Road with supporting pillars coming down onto the 'island' between the old Carrow Road and the new road. This is now possible because of the redevelopment around the ground and the fact that Carrow Road itself no longer forms part of the ring-road and so height clearence issues are not now a concern. Not sure of the truth in this but sounds feasible and could look great!
please log in to view this image Here's a little pic I did a while back, looks magnificent doesn't it? Would definitely much rather build another tier on top of the City stand as opposed to knock down and total rebuild. I would assume that a rebuild of the City stand would be desinged to mirror the Jarrold, and possibly make our beautiful stadium look like a generic pre-fab bowl (i.e. Cardiff, Donny, Coventry etc). In terms of the size of crowd we could support, I think about 30-32k is a reasonable estimate, obviously the bigger matches we could comfortably pull 35k (and the Old Farm Derby (if it ever happens again) we could fill 40k PROBABLY). My old man remembers that the City Stand was build with adequate foundations for an additional tier, and I'm pretty confident that the Jarold was too. The club own the old Carrow Road, therefore expanding outwards would not be a problem. Here's a pic of Fulham's (McNasty's old stomping ground) proposed stadium expansion, which would ensure no loss of seating during the season. please log in to view this image
unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to remove the stand supports at either end of the ground. the reason, at least as i understand it, is that they are there because neither stand is cantilever - without them the roof would fall down! they looked at putting another tier on top of the city stand but found it it was more cost effective and better long term to knock the whole stand down and start again.
1 Add another tier to the Jarrold 2 Demolish the City stand and move the fans into the new Jarrold tier 3 Rebuild a larger City stand. No loss of capacity during rebuild and a larger stadium at the end of it all.
although it would, in an ideal world, be the best way forward, the main problem is that the club would need to spend practically double the money they need to and end up having a bigger capacity than the club probably requires, meaning empty seats in a ground holding nearer 40k than 35k. can't see it happening but you never know. i think the board are realistic and won't spend a penny more than necessary nor will they increase capacity to an unrealistic expectation level but i fully expect it's being considered!
For me it has to be the City stand first to even the ground up even if it blocks the frankly beautiful view from the Jarrold of the sun going down over the city (literally - this is not a metaphor). If the Jarrold was expanded the stadium would look hugley lop-sided. Assuimng we stay up geting the capacity to c 30k is plan A and then if all goes well then up to 35k.
Be interested to know what plans you've seen, because Doncaster definitely confirmed before he left that the Jarrold Stand was built on the cheap and couldn't take another tier. The City Stand can apparently and I believe McNally has confirmed that, but the club would rather start again and build a new stand with updated facilities in place.
that's total nonsense. the jarrold stand was built with the option to increase its capacity with another tier, absolutely no question about it. it wasn't built on the cheap at all - it cost £8m and was the middle option (cost wise) of the three final designs they were presented with. as i say, it isn't impossible to build on top of the city stand - the foundations are there to add a 2nd tier but the board feel that it would be more cost effective to knock it down and start again.
From a post over on the Pink-Un last year... So this person saw the same thing I did, which is the club confirmed that the foundations hadn't been put in place. Unfortunately the official site message board was taken down a while ago so I can't link directly to it. I'm sure Doncaster also came out with confirmation about it as well. I'll keep looking for that...
