Watching the Huddersfield v Blackpool match in mid week I was quite impressed with the John Smith's Stadium design - seems nice and compact, built for a sensible price (estimated cost of construction was £40 million), but probably at only 25,500 capacity perhaps a little on the small size for us. Designed by HOK Sport and was awarded the RIBA Building of the Year award for 1995. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smith's_Stadium please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image "The stadium seats 24,499 people along with hospitality boxes and conference rooms. There are four stands. The main stand, the Direct Golf UK Stand or Riverside Stand incorporates two-tiers of seats, with a row of 26 executive boxes running between them. This stand also houses the offices and suites. The Britannia Rescue Stand, opposite the Riverside and commonly referred to as the Kilner Bank Stand, is a large, single-tiered stand which seats over 7,000 spectators. It was previously sponsored by John Smith's and is still called this by many today. The John Smith's South Stand, which seats 4,054, is usually allocated to away fans. It is built into natural banking and is the most basic of the stands. The Fantastic Media North stand is the tallest stand with two tiers, 16 hospitality boxes and a viewing room for players' guests, built into the leisure centre. The lower tier consists of temporary seating that can be removed for events such as concerts."
I was up there about 12 years ago, at that time there were only three stands and it was the McAlpine Stadium, I didn't think it was anything special then. This is a stadium that is a more modern version of Loftus Road and might be something along the lines of a possible new home - Heerenveen in Holland... http://www.sc-heerenveen.nl/english/stadium
You could pick virtually any new stadium in Europe and it will be good, virtually any one in England and it will be bad. Its has do be double or triple tiered, with steep stands and close to the pitch. Boavista with the corners filled in would do me, not good for vertigo sufferers though!
It is likely to be tight, compact and unlike any stadium you'll see. It doesn't really matter what it looks like on the outside, but inside I think it will more likely look like a smaller scale wembley or the o2, with multiple large open sections for lorry access to the pitch. Probably best if we stop thinking stadium and more Arena, I wouldn't be surprised if we have a retractable roof. Without a roof we are limited to the number of different events we can hold there, we want to compete against the o2, so without a roof we would restrict ourselves to concerts and outdoor sports events. Most of the things that happen at the o2 would require a roof, so I'd imagine we will have one too. Whatever it looks like, it will be a massive improvement on LR and will definitely be somewhere we will all be proud of. But we'll all hold on to the fond memories from LR.
A roof is confirmed which is why we are now going for 40k instead of 30k because theres no way we can expand with a roof.
You only need three sides to operate a roof, so on one side you could add another tier for football with the roof open but the added tier wouldn't be used when it's closed for concerts etc. I still think we're a decade away from it personally...
But what happens when theres a storm and we need to close the roof, we will have thousands of fans unable to see the game. TF has said it will be 40k and have a roof so expansion is clearly not entering his mind.
I hope we are still close to the players. I hated that new stadium in a box - Reading / Leicester / Coventry / Southampton - where you feel miles away..... I know that in the season we went up and in the first season in the PL - the stadium and us fans - helped on some games..
TF has stated it will retain the characteristics of LF so it wont be a soulless bowl although I dont think reading fall into that category, Ive never been there but everyone says its a good ground.
