Not for me, just as well I don't go anymore. Without the seats I much preferred the old East End. It's been replaced, for me, with a plastic substitute. There will never be the same passion and backing that came from the East End. The replacement typifies Mark Ashton, Lee Johnson and the game with highly overpaid prima donnas. Plastic.
I'd agree with you that most of the time atmosphere was kind of flat, but that night against Palace in the East End must have compared with anything that came before it! Love that first video, bit eery mind.
I don't and won't go to a match whilst Johnson is in charge, I dislike the style of football he advocates, I never liked him as a player, he is dull,the excitement and atmostpheric value at most home games is dead, there has been a couple of occasions of joy but rarely, the truth is the overall team performance and progress has improved gradually during his tenure, we have shed relegation fears which was a constant threat and we are at present 7th in the Championship with 9 games remaining, I support our team and at present they and LJ are doing well and I hope he and the team continue to do so, circumstances have put a complete halt to our current campaign and I can't lay that one at LJ's door, so we await developments. I think our stadium, it's facilities and design has taken us into the moderm era and caught up with the 21st century, I'm not going to knock what we had but it was built for a time long gone, we have all got to move on, thank god Ashton Gate stadium has in my view. Great memories from the past, I hope sometime in the future I can reconnect.
Besides the brilliant atmosphere of the East End at it's best, the over-riding memory of the stadium I have is the concrete men's toilets behind the stand!! No roof on it, so you were trying to have a pee in all winds and weathers!!
And the night against Hartlepool in the League 1 Play Off and the LC Semi 2nd Leg against Forest on the mud-bath of a pitch.
Back in the days before the Atyeo was built and we had the quite flat Open/Park end terrace, I used to always think what a great ground we'd have had if we could only have had something like the open end at Eastville there instead. That terrace was steeply banked and was great for watching football and speedway from.
All generations look back and prefer times gone past . The truth is the facilities are much better now , I do miss the old east end as a lad, but would today’s generation of kids want to put up with those conditions, I doubt it.
I agree the entertainment over the last 18 months at the gate had been poor, however LJ also oversaw probably the most entertaining football I’ve seen for many seasons previous to that, you had already decided to stop attending , so to suggest that’s the reason you’ve chosen to stop going is not really accurate. I hope you do reconnect at some point as you obviously still have a passion for our club.
I accept that comment but LJ , his mantra and style is the original reason for my departure and that is accurate, it was not the team, solely the individual. Ashton Gate is a great place always was and it has been developed into a magnificent stadium, it will become the sports centre of the West Country if all of the future developments come to fruition, I genuinely hope our team has the same bright future to match it.
I am always saddened when someone does something / did something and cannot accept that time moves on especially when there is an admission that things are generally better. [ in any aspect of life ] I can only hope that in the next 2 years we get to the prem would be nice to be playing there in 2022/23 my 75th anniversary as a fan/supporter/spectator ….
I agree, it's called progress. But a cold midweek winter game at Ashton Gate under the 4 huge individual floodlights was magical when I was a kid, as was the atmosphere for the big cup games. Of course, the ground is now much more modern, accommodating and comfortable for fans with better access, food and drink (at a price!), but something has also been lost at the same time.
I think today's kids would love the EE and terracing just as the kids of before did - this idea that they're all pampered is a narrative that isn't true for most! I'd take the old EE any day over today, though I must admit I don't miss the old Dolman toilets
A lot of kids would love the old East End and did love the Eastend (not East End) from 2008. You had freedom it was colourful and noisy. Things Ashton Gate now isn't. The atmosphere is **** but its got better toilets !!! the showcase has better toilets than Ashton Gate.
I used to be transfixed and amazed by the plumeting columns of smoke skyward bound and totally illuminated by those 4 floodlights, the smell of tobacco and booze,plus the unmentionables, that corny prematch music of red, red robbin sung by the Johny Sammes singers or such like, magical memories, I won't mention the bus journey home and queuing up for a 6dneth chips and the good ol' green 'un but oh those bloody toilets.
Bit harsh. They have no hand its design and direction. Martin Griffiths did as ordered by Steve Lansodown. The plasticity of the stadium reflects Martin Griffiths and his desires. Its conservative, functional and corporate. Reflective of Martin Griffiths background in conferences and hotel chains.