There is no doubt we will have a stadium to be proud of thanks to Steve Lansdown. Sadly thanks to the Mayor and City Council getting to the ground or parking anywhere near it will be a nightmare! Can't wait for the season to begin though, could be special!
Saw it today on a lightening stop over from Bezier. 2 sides of Bristol City-one a magnificent, top stadium, the other a shack from Div 4 I really hope we can develop the Ayteo sometime because we want Steve's creation to be a dream stadium, Citry's ground to sit as a proud jewel in the south west. As it stands I think the Ayteo will stick out like a boil on the arse. The name deserves a stand that does it justice
It will stick out like a Carbuncle but the reasons for it are well documented on here. I'm sure there will come a time when SL owns all of the houses behind it, they get demolished or whatever and the Atyeo will be in keeping with the rest of the ground, pushing the capacity to around 32,000
Let's hope the football and the crowds do it justice - or our 13k fans will have 3 seats each whilst watching us slog it out with Grimsby on a wet Tuesday night.... (No disrespect intended to Grimsby)
Given that Grimsby are 3 leagues below us I think that's a little unlikely... We will get 15,000 plus in the Championship I reckon and if we do well we might sell out a few games
I would use it from BS8 as I do buses heading that direction to Bower Ashton UWE regularly - Often empty buses passing within metres of Winterstoke road. On a matchday I have been only person on a bus from Clifton to Ashton and the cost is hardly steep - £1.50.. The Mayor is supportive of an Ashton Gate station but the numbers do not stack up presently. There has been a report by consultants for Bristol City Council and it won't be used enough to gain government funding. Bristol Sport themselves could take on transportation to the stadium by running services like the A bus.
The problem with Ashton is the planners are allowing every old building to be redeveloped into apartments without any parking spaces, the police are putting down more and more yellow cones every match day, unless we get buses to take us to the park and ride or town it will be gridlock around the gate, railway station would be good but it will take years, we need forward thinking right now!
It's all about perception. I reckon Bristol City could get large crowd in if they look the part. The Championship isn't a small-time league, so if we can be constantly pushing towards the top end of the table, we could probably bring in a large crowd with a stadium that looks the part.
During the season when we went to the play-off final we were consistently getting crowds close to capacity (18/19,000) and see no reason why we would fall off that pace this coming campaign. How do the renovations impact on our ability to attract those kind of crowds and presumably the top limit will rise next season and beyond?
we have to get a new sort of fan coming regulary - the type that uses places like the o2 arena etc frequently, and wont settle for stinking toilet facilities ankle deep in urine, and expects good food,drink, and service when there paying top dollar,we should also be looking to keeping people in the bars and lounges after a game instead of watching them leg it to the nearest pub / restatraunt. they might be fickle but they will spend.
Forward planning or using some imagination ? by those in power within Bristol City Council ? That'll be a first.....!
