I'm pretty sure they have outline planning permissions, unless they were allowed to lapse in the last few years. It's over 20 years ago now, but I was told by a couple of people that Bob Murray had various extension plans drawn up and that extending the stadium would be relatively easy. To paraphrase what I was told it would almost be as if you'd take the roof off the east stand, put up the new structure then put the roof back on, so not as complex as some stadium extensions and redevelopments. This is when the north stand upper was being proposed, and the designs would take the SOL up to about 62-64k, though one of the blokes who told me reckoned that there were plans to go as high as 72k, which I think was him being mistaken. I was also told later that the reason the north stand isn't as high as the west stand is the the highways agency (not the council) wouldn't allow the road behind the north stand to be redirected. If the outline planning permissions are still there, it'll just be a case of putting in a formal application, so it might not be as long as it could be. Added to that, from a couple of my sources, parts of the Sheepfolds should start to be getting cleared fairly soon. They're already taking down part of the Edward Thompson buildings and are supposed to be hoping to start clearing the rest of the site when the remaining businesses there move out. It would be good to get a planning application in now in readiness of that to cut down any possible disruption.
Much improved. Loads of space, massive tvs visible from anywhere, food has gone up in quality, ambience much better. More like a pub now than before. Just wish they'd train the bloody bar staff properly. And if you're going to have a wine list - stock the bloody wine !!!!
Often think about getting a SC in Quinn's Bar, but my experiences of it are that you need to be in there by noon to get a table and I don't think I'm ready to commit 8 hours of my Saturday to the match just yet. Maybe when the eldest is 17 and can drive me home
Maximum is 64k using the existing structure. That is what it is designed for, if you look at the back of East and South Stands it actually looks "half done".It is ready for that and would be fairly simple to do. Anything over that would entail a lot of building work which would be inordinately expensive I think.
Correct. When it was built,it was always in Bob Murray's mind to make it easy to extend up another tier all round,should the demand exist,without the huge costs of construction which would be otherwise necessary. This process was envisaged to take it to 64k. Originally it was 42k and they did activate one of the phases in the Reidy days to take it to 48k. If memory serves me,there were 2 or 3 more options to extend firstly to 54k and then up to 64k,all at a fraction of the cost per seat that we've seen other clubs have to pay....Arsenal,Spurs,Everton and so on. We should consider ourselves very fortunate for Bob Murray's foresight. The stadium will never be a millstone for us as per these other clubs. I never have thought we would be able to fill a 64k stadium on a regular basis,but a period of success at the top level might prove me wrong. The only time I've ever seen it come close was the Man U cup replay in '64.
There's no way we'll spend those sorts of sums tarting up a £20m stadium unless we're awash with PL cash imo.
