Had a real nice long talk with him tonight on facebook, seems like a hell of a nice guy. Think he was one of the guys that worked hard to get the KC built and was instrumental on putting money into the museum section as well. Very passionate about Hull, turns out he used to be the lord mayor too. Anyway I get to have lunch with him while I'm home and he will tell me all about the ins and outs of getting the KC built seems a real gentleman do any of you lot know him personally? I know he lives in Hull and don't seem stand offish at all and he loves city too, honary alderman now whatever that means but if I remember rightly he was the one who said 12,000 seater stadium was no where near big enough and fought tooth and nail to make it 25,000 with a design so that it could be expanded to 35,000 quite easily.
The elephant In the room regarding k.c. expansion is the supporting infrastructure rather than the k.c. footprint. Certain short sighted councillors with little vision never saw city in the premier league. The same short sighted fools with vested interests in relation to Hull's second sport are doing everything they can to limit development. Hence the hostile relationship between the current ownership and specific myopic foolsin temporary positions of power. Having said that. If I were to have a heart attack and needed emergency treatment. I'd be praying to god it wasn't at 4.45 pm on a Saturday afternoon with a full house at the k.c. Therein lies the unspoken problem. Cost ****ing millions to sort out. They always saw 25 k as a theoretical maximum. If city are successful that could easily be 40k but due to RL francise agreements and spending on infrastructure the political will will not be there any time soon. Mark my words.
It was 15,000 that Sport England wanted, until it was pointed out to Brooking that Hull has a larger population than Middlesbrough or Sunderland. One councillor asked Brooking if he remembered getting beaten by City at BP in front of over 30,000 (the last time there was a crowd of over 30,000). Mr Larsen used to keep everyone updated on the Amber Nectar site. He wrote a very good article about the building of the stadium entitled something like "The grass isn't always greener" in which he was absolutely scathing about the HDM and its reporting of the whole thing. Well worth reading if you can track it down (maybe someone has alone to it?). There are some small-minded people with no sense of vision who are RL fans who have been shown to be complete idiots with their predictions of 15,000 being big enough as City would never get a larger crowd than that if you read some of the articles from that time.
I would suggest that Hull City not only need to stay in the PL for the next 3 years but also have sell out crowds. Then pressure will mount for an expansion. OR turn part of one stand into a safe standing area if the law gets changed. I also suspect that if the LibDems ever take control again Dr Allam will get his wish of ownership.
Not wishing to sound like a stuck record but the future of stadia is within cities not out of town - the KC does ok on matchdays - people having many options to get there and the dispersal is not at all bad. I live east side of town and park on Princes Avenue - no problem at all. If the KC doesn't have the infrastructure (?) perhaps someone should remind the owners of Liverpool FC that to expand Anfield is folly and that OT should not be expanded any further - both are hardly easy to get to. A railway halt at the KC would help people coming in down the Bev Cott line though. PS Could do with the likes of Trevor Larsen and Pat Doyle on the Council now rather than ****** Geraghty.
Erm infrastructure ........all I can say is Hull Fair....If you have a heart attack at the KC you will get down Walton Street just the same as any rush hour. But Hull Fair is a different kettle of fish, you stand no chance. I work 500 yards from St Mary's a 35k stadium in an inner city industrial area that has the main road closed on match days. Several emergencies have taken place and there isn't a problem. It is nonesense to think that you need new roads ect just to cope with volumes of traffic. A rail halt sounds great but in practice it does not work. Brighton has its own station and you have to wait for ages to get a train. Reading has about thrity buses lined up for the fans to use, it takes ages. The best solution is not to worry about it, let supporters disperse via a myriad of transport methods and from dozens of points. Common sense dictates the best way.
Its a fairly short walk from paragon station and it gives you a chance to stop at a pub on the way to a match, you can leave via Anlaby road over the flyover, across west park to Walton St, across fair grounds to Spring Bank or over the footbridge to Londesbrough St. I think access to the KC is very good indeed and its a great location meself
Since being back in the area for a few weeks and getting to the last few games of the season, I have to say I am suitable surprised how quickly the crowds disperse. Considering that the KC not far from the City Centre it is reasonably easy to get away from games.
Spot on Mel.. I went to St Marys all three times in the NPC before 2008 and access is far worse than the KC and Soton's capacity is 32k. Getting in and out of it was no different to the KC. Went down to Wembley for the Palace Watford Final and 82000 managed to get away fairly easily from our National Stadium thats hemmed in on all four sides in a heavily built up part of London. Wherever you build a new stadium there will no problems of egress. As far as I'm concerned the KC is in a great spot.
