i would hate to move from carra. i was born in a house next to the stadium(at 2.57 on a sat arvo just as on the ball was being sung ). i seriously doubt we would need more than a 35,000 capacity. imo its better to sell out a slightly smaller stadium than it is to play in a stadium not full. the location of the stadium atm is perfect. speak to away supporters and they will tell you that. we must NEVER EVER move from carra. its a part of the city centre.
i think we'd still get 20-25k attendences even if we were struggling in the second tier, you only need to look at the attendences for the L1 season. But how low can you go on attendence with a bigger stadium so it then doesn't pay for itself. 80-85? interesting debate which will go on for a while.
I hate soulless ot of town grounds. Got to be sensible expansion of CR for me. I think 32K would be about right but when should we do it? If we are still in the PL in 2015 and the demand is still high (ST waiting list and sold out 90+% of games) Then lets do it. My only other thought is whilst we are disrupting the ground with rebuilding should we go slightly bigger than anticipated current/then demand? We do not want DM and DS sitting in the board room (Well actually we do! still at the club) discussing how 32K wasn't quite enough and how we should have gone to 35K+ and then have greater cost and disruption again to expand. I know thats unlikely and I trust the board to be already doing everything possible to weigh up the right solutions to take the club forward. Anyway lets get safe first, further consolidate and then explore our options. As I have no idea how much would a new stand cost? could we with the new TV money put £10-15M aside each season towards the expansion? DM has intimated that all additional funds to go to the playing side which is good but is there a balance to be struck? OTBC Bah!
what capacity would a second tier accommodate? i think adding this first and see what demand there is before re-developing the GW stand would be a prudent measure. the only down side is that it would leave the stadium looking very unbalanced.
As someone who doesn't live in Norwich, the fact Carrow Road is so near the train station if very useful for me. However, the traffic is always horrific on a match-day, so if they could move it somewhere on the edge of the city it might not be so bad.
several options for re-development have occurred to me. firstly, what is the time frame for adding a second tier to the Jarrold. if it can be done in the off season, with maybe the club asking the f.a. to schedule away fixtures for the last two games of next season, and the first two of the following season to allow a greater window for completion. this would allow all the season tickets from the main stand to be accommodated there while the main stand is being re-developed, which obviously would take a lot longer, but can be started at the same time.
Carrow Road can be expanded to meet our maximum need of about 35k. The main problem is the one that caused many other Clubs to move - parking. With increasingly restricted car park spaces available the problem is only going to get worse and it only needs one major development such as County Hall being relocated and the site used for business/housing for the situation to become impossible. If they did move I would suggest Thickthorn mainly because the rail line runs across the back and a new station could be built.
New Stadiums are absolutely soulless, whilst they are functional and usual well planned out they have zero atmosphere and lack the character which old grounds have. In our circumstances adding an extra tier to the Jarrold or re-designing the City Stand, either way a lot of thought needs to go into it, we need to take into consideration road access and realistically forecast how many fans we'll likely get. Does anyone remember the rumours about building a ground somewhere near Diss? It made my blood boil at the time.
Great thread this, with some really interesting opinions. Personally I don't think there's anything on the horizon at the moment to suggest that a capacity greater than 35k is likely to be necessary. The location of Carrow Road for public transport is pretty good, and perhaps if parking was further strangled a match-day park & ride service could help release some strain. In terms of the development itself, the oh-so-reliable wikipedia has pointed me to a site with a comment from "Craig Johnson" (Nope, I've no idea who he is either, presumably a fan) who reckons: "The Club have announced that if they were to stay in the Premier League for the next two consecutive seasons, then they would look at possibly replacing the Geoffrey Watling City Stand, with a new 12,000 seat stand, raising the overall capacity of Carrow Road to 35,000. There is also still the option to add an additional tier to the Jarrold (South) Stand (the foundations are already in place) which would further raise the capacity of the ground to around 39,000" To me, that sounds pretty reasonable. I can't date the quote, but the site was last updated this year, so presumably that means the work would be considered after 3 or maybe 4 seasons in the Premier League. If I was in charge, I'd think the way to do it would be: -Build on top of the Jarrold, hopefully within a summer, or slightly over, which from that statement above would give us an extra 4000 seats. As currently it holds nearer 8000, it wouldn't make the ground look as uneven as I'd feared, as the second tier would be about half the height, I'd guess. Sell the seats as casual only, to make the stadium more accessible to those who can't afford season tickets. After this phase of development we're at ~31,000 capacity. -If the City Stand only holds about 4,400 (I can't find an official figure, but other forums have given this figure), presumably 4000 season tickets would be an over-exaggeration. When it comes to replacing the City stand with this new 12,000 capacity stand, all current season ticket holders could be temporarily housed in the top of the Jarrold, and our capacity would be reduced back to what it is currently. With less time restraints on the build, it could be done over the course of a season (so hopefully more cheaply), without having too great an impact on the fans.
Sounds like a fairly sensible approach as it would be the least disruptive option initially and would test the notion that we could regulaly exceed 30-31K gates. Get on Twatter and tell DM how it must be done!
I occasionally go to watch the Cobblers. They used to share a ground with the county cricket club in a suburb near the town centre called Abington, which has a lovely park loads of pubs, restaurants and shops nearby the ground I'd imagine as an Away fan it would be a great day out, now they are based in a area called Sixfields which is apparently a leisure area if you can call it that...Imagine a ghastly Americanised retail area with a multi screen Cinema, Frankie & Bennies, Gym, Pub, Bowling Place, Maccy D's, Pizza Hut, Bella Pasta, TGI Fridays and a buffet place it's absolute ****e and dull. It's the kind of place Daily Mail reading people who live in new build style housing estates on the outskirts go to socialise with handful of local chavs thrown in just to mix it up. After watching the Cobblers plan Accrington Stanely me and my mates went into the bar at the ground it felt like having a pint in managers office at a Leisure Centre or some sales companies.
Could we on building a 2nd tier on the Jarrold stand incorperate a naughty block. This could be reserved for fans who grumble and moan and persistently shout very stupid things/or winge about getting excited and singing. They could be forced to sit up there in silence and think about what they've done. They may just prefer the near silence of their group mutterings and the players wouldn't hear a thing from them. They could all also compete for who can leave the earliest and we could build an enlarged exit for them to stare out of on their way out!
If the 2nd tier on the south stand were to be built, any idea how quickly it could be done, in terms of months
Superb idea! Then all the people who like to make a noise and back the team would be closer together and generate FAR more passion - those who'd rather moan or knit one, pearl one wouldn't be able to go tut tut within hearing distance
rebuild the city stand and expand the Jarrold? Wow, that would probably cost £25-30m i like the idea of the naughty stand. also install some microphones so a fan can lead the non-stop singing in the non-naughty stands, like in that Montegro v england game recently. create a cauldron of noise (except the naughty tier)
Just make it 30, 301 so it's the biggest football ground in East Anglia. (I bet I've bloody got the size of that ground in Ipswich wrong)
