I'm not sure that increased capacity would be the result as Health & Safety will still apply. The days of heaving masses standing or more accurately swaying and moving around are gone. So probably only 6,000 seated OR standing in the current Wedlock.
Not sure anybody says the Eastend/Wedock should be built the same as that is a mite silly. The club are wiping out the chances of re-creating the goods bits of that charachter e.g atmosphere. Saw what happened with the Atyeo? Atmosphere - Poor. What the club are proposing doesn't keep up with aspirations of fans who like a bit of intensity [noise] with their football. It is poor again and will at best damage, maybe wipe out what is a vibrant part of he club.
More thought needed by City. Look at lastest plans for the Eastend/Wedlocks. Corporate boxes, fans from Atyeo mixed with fans from Eastend [who sits/who stands], bowl type end of stadium AND then a safe standing area wedged in! Increased capacity in the same space can lead to less noise if clubs do not thnk about what they do. No disrespect to the Atyeo, but they outnumber the opposite end 3-1 and make less noise in general.
You have to remember where the fans decide to make their special bit of the ground can change over the years in the days before the Dolman stand was built the Majority of the vocal support was from the terraces that were there not from what became the East End, You have to also remember the majority of fans who go to home games at clubs outside the top premiership sides tend to be older nowadays, thats been the adverse side of the saturation tv coverage of football, or should say 'Premier League Football' as seen in any smaller City/Town Look at the number of kids who wear Chelski, Man City, Man Utd and to a lesser extent Arsenal and Spurs football shirts rather than their home teams colours the Exceptions to this being Liverpool, Newcastle and Sunderland though they have premier league clubs of their own. It's not so many years ago that you rarely saw a footie shirt in Bristol that belonged to anyone other than City or Rovers, unless they had family connections to other places or were visitors, but how times have changed. The club has to move on and find a way of increasing their revenue or we will end up staying in a little footballing backwater with no real ambitions to be anything more than the biggest fish in the pond that is the West Country. If that has to mean some changes thats life we have been through them all before to be honest the biggest mistake that was made was to transfer the away supporters from the old Park/Atyeo stand to the East End perhaps the club could consider moving the travelling support back to the Atyeo stand after the redevelopment and have the East End for home fans againespecially if safe standing could be adopted for the East End that would cut down any possability of crowd trouble in a standing area which should reduce any objections from the police. Perhaps this could be suggested to the board at some time also, especially as I can't see Corporate Boxes being sold out if they are placed in areas of the ground where they would be likely to get abuse, especially from visiting fans.
Good points Hawk. My case perhaps highlights the reason why so many more mature/older/elderly go in the Atyeo. As the male of the species gets older, then the great majority of us begin to have problems with the waterworks; can't start followed by a trickle and then can't stop. Thus I use the Atyeo because it is the only modern stand with enough toilets where I can take my time at half time. But at least a damn sight more than every other part of the archaeological site we use for our home ground. (Perhaps someone could get the East End declared as a grade II listed building) Thus if the Dolman is renovated or the Williams is rebuilt that is where I would go. Spread all us old buggars around the stadium instead of all in one place. But above all, let us never forget, that the atmosphere in a stadium depends 95% on how the team are performing. We've now had four to five seasons of abject failure so that in itself does not encourage the "Atmosphere" that all of us, young and old, want at Ashton Gate. Whatever the accoustics, there will be a lot of noise if we were winning all the time.
Check club details mate. Plan B away fans in Atyeo/ Eastend. Corporate boxes in Eastend. I am hardly young and very aware of history. More into shouting/atmosphere/the cameraderie than the football. I have posted enough, but here again I go. Plan B is small time. Mediocre and a bit ****. No better Eastend, no kop, no ambition its just boxes for the rich. We are losing sight of why some started going to football, and looking at the age of some in the Eastend are starting in the same journey. As a kid in the seventies I was drawn to a football club because of a noisy end full of blokes singing not a commercial avenue. Sorry for monopolising the thread but the club should be doing better than this.
Under Wilson City were winning most of the time. I was up in the dolman then season upon season. Left 2007 for the Eastend win or lose it is miles better than the Dolman for atmosphere. The age of fans by the mural for years now is middle aged to OAP. Quite a community feel to it. Special even. Arsenal win all the time, hardly noisy, lattes when they win trophies CIty fans block west street with a party when they avoid relegation. Don't lose that fire. That really was my last one ..
So we're just following the lead of every other money grabbing club in the top 2 divisions basically. The sport (if you can call it a sport any more) isn't about supporters, loyalty, or sometimes even about players. It's about money and nothing much else. It would be very easy to get quite disillusioned with it all to be honest
What happens about the £20m plus we would lose if we stay at the gate......Can't be that greedy.....
No you're not monopolising it. Keep going because unless we debate this to the full, we don't have a chance of putting some very valid points to the Club about Plan B. As you say, Plan B is nowhere near as good as we should be aiming which is Plan A at 42,000. If we don't set a target for where the club is in say 10 years, we will never be there. Like I've said elsewhere, clubs like Forest, Leicester, Middlesboro, Wolves, Leeds and quite a few others regard it as their right to be in the Prem. For BCFC it's always "well we'd like to be there, yet doing sod all to achieve it"
If we are not spending the proposed £90m on a new ground and only £45m on a revamp then presumably that pays for itself.
What I said was the will not sell the coporate boxes if they are in areas that would be subject to abuse several other clubs disovered this and had to rejig where they placd away fans which is one reason why there should be NO away fans in the redeveloped EE this is something the club needs to look at again. ps as I ive in Blackpool and am currently in London ts hard to read the Post on my mobile phone.
Not heard about that as of yet but it would make sense especially as the ground has to be fit for both shaped balls during the winter
If the Ashton Vale bog can be termed a "village green" then listing the East End should be no problem Cidered!
