Stadium Development

[YES Blade]

Much rather go to a dump with character, than a soulless bowl with zero atmosphere.

Why is it that all new stadiums are labelled as “soulless bowls”?

You do realise that stadium design has massively improved since the likes of Leicester, Derby and Southampton built their stadiums in the 90s/00s.

Just look at what Luton are planning to build! That’s Luton FFS! I’m sure we could manage to build something as good, if not better.

 

[NewyorkBlade]

Thats outside my areas of expertise but imagine it would be costly but if we got to a position where we were looking id imagine the cost wouldnt be a restricting factor

 

[NewyorkBlade]

bin told weer moving to Waverley.

fucking fight me

FUCK THAT

 

[wak1889]

Inserting the disclaimer was interesting - were you concerned one of those clubs might have announced and built a new stadium by the time you’d finished?

Villas new ground looks bang on finished just in time for the Liverpool game tonight, they throw them up these days you know

 

[CrookesBlade]

That would involve moving to someone else's stadium for at least one if not two seasons.

I'm not necessarily against that and I think the ideal compromise is redeveloping into a 40-45k seater stadium. We don't need any bigger so i think there is no point of relocating and spending 100s of millions on a 60k seater that we will never fill.

I wonder, if we had to, where we’d temporarily relocate to?

Obviously a number of London clubs have ground shared and Coventry have played at Northampton and St Andrews but are there any other examples in the last 40/50 years?

I can’t imagine many places with a stadium big enough would relish a local “rival” of our size pitching up for a few years and the issues that may come with that.

Obviously Swillsborough and Elland Road obvious non starters.

Donny, Rotherham and Chesterfield all way too small.

Barnsley a more realistic shout but can’t imagine the police would be too happy with loads of Blades taking their town centre over every fortnight given there has always been more needle with them. Also the big away end would prove a problem as we’d want some of that capacity for our fans.

Huddersfield - decent size ground and can’t see much aggro but rail links are terrible and roads would be a pain in the arse.

Derby would probably be the best shout, easy enough by rail and road. Similar size ground to BL and ground out of the way on an Industrial estate to make it easier to bus fans in from Sheff and not have too much aggro to deal with in the city centre.

No option straightforward though.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Did you ever go to Filbert Street? The Dell? Burnden Park? They were complete dumps! I struggle to see how you can suggest the old falling to bits stadiums were better.

The old stadiums have character and history, but that’s it.

Yes. I much preferred Filbert street and the Dell to the soulless bowls that have replaced them. Bolton's current stadium is better but it's a middle of nowhere job. It's one of the better "new" builds though. The day out was far better at the old stadium.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Been to Sunderland’s stadium a few times and yes they always get a good crowd but it does seem very tinny they made it so if they can get the big crowds of yesteryear they can build on reasonably easy and cheap unlike when Liverpool re developed Anfield apparently that cost a fortune Fenway wanted to move but in all fairness you can understand the fans wanting to stay there.

The main stand was fairly cheap and has already paid for itself. The Anfield road development is more of a vanity project but will pay for itself eventually. FSG lent the club the money they weren't "gifts".

 

[Booker4]

Anyone suggesting we should leave BL is crazy in my view. We don't need a new ground, the one we've got isn't even looking tired but it's the Kop that we all know needs redeveloping. A capacity of about 35,000 is about right too unless we push on into the top half of the PL which if we do we can consider further redevelopment to the south stand most likely.

But definitely no need to leave BL. The reason the likes of Everton ate leaving GP is because the stadium is totally surrounded and it's very difficult to redevelop although saying that they could do that to one stand behind the one of the goals in my view. The longer time goes on the more stadiums like BL, Elland Road and date I say Hillsborough are going to be standout stadium's.

 

[jt64]

Much rather go to a dump with character, than a soulless bowl with zero atmosphere.

Fortunately at BL you can get both a dump and zero atmosphere at the same time!

 

[nopigfansintown]

The last three stands at United have been built despite obvious ROI - and when not in the Premier League. McCabe makes this point in his book.The academy and the purchase of the land in Dore have also happened outside the PL. There'll always be arguments against; always. If you're in the Champ "you need to focus funds on Promotion". If you're in the Prem "money needs to be focused on the team's survival". You're never safe in the Prem.

The reality is that unless you are a big six club you need a benefactor to pay for it.

There's maybe 12 clubs in the top two leagues who would fill the Lane end before you consider additional Blades and corporate guests that would want to use a new, modern stand. There's also any new fans that would take advantage of a more Liberal attitude to home tickets ( this problem would now be resolved by away fans having the full Lane end).

 

[metalblade]

What actually are the advantages of Bramall Lane? The area it sits in is a proper shithole of student accommodation, nowhere to park cars without walking into town or halfway up Norfolk park. Public transport well yet again a 15min walk to the rail station or a now largely disused bus station the pubs closest to the ground are probably as old as the club itself and not really fit for purpose.
Crack on if you are into 15min cities and all that crap but then you put significant barriers to people with limited mobility or of older age. If they can't sell out the Leeds game there is a reason. Who in their right mind will pay top dollar for a restricted view seat (and let's be fair we have loads of them) when the game is a late kick off on TV where you stay warm and dry and get a better view. Maybe if you live in Sheffield you could be home by11pm if not it is more like midnight at least if using public transport.

 

[Danetheblade]

Much rather go to a dump with character, than a soulless bowl with zero atmosphere.

Drove past the new Everton stadium this week. Looked quality from the outside. Think architecture has come a long way from the soulless bowls.

 

[KeyffSmyff]

I suppose that a stand could also be built behind the south

 

[SRBlade]

Surely now we can get the Scarborough Group to build these stands?

For years they announced something was 'coming soon' and I'm sure it wasn't the fanzone.

 

[jimmymuir]

Fortunately at BL you can get both a dump and zero atmosphere at the same time!

There's very few if any good home atmospheres in England nowadays (aside from Leeds/Pompey). Safe standing on Kop would certainly go a long way to fixing the latter though!

 

[jimmymuir]

Drove past the new Everton stadium this week. Looked quality from the outside. Think architecture has come a long way from the soulless bowls.

Does look very nice from the outside, but looks like a larger version of MK Dons inside.

 

[metalblade]

Drove past the new Everton stadium this week. Looked quality from the outside. Think architecture has come a long way from the soulless bowls.

Apparently big problems with access to the stadium with just 10,000 on a trial run. Next trial game set to be 25,000 before they even consider a full trial to get a safety cert.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Well one of the stands on a road (John st) had no problem previously when knocking down a whole stand and building a new one from scratch so it shouldn’t be a problem were it to happen once again. Granted the Bramall Lane stand is the problem but if we had the money to build a completely new L shape on one side or even three sides (with John st) then we would certainly have the money to go all the way and build a whole new stadium, and the very simple solution for the Bramall Lane end is to rotate the pitch giving a much larger building footprint and making it easily doable for the Bramall Lane side.

Unless there is a billionaire lurking in the background we can only dream.

Isn’t the issue with John Street height restrictions?

 

[ancientblade]

Isn’t the issue with John Street height restrictions?

yes dont think we are allowed to build any higher because of the houses on john st

 

[Sheffsteel]

Surely now we can get the Scarborough Group to build these stands?

For years they announced something was 'coming soon' and I'm sure it wasn't the fanzone.

Until recently Scarborough used to own the 2 bits of land on the Kop corners and they were always threatening to build student flats there.

Assume the “coming soon” banners were a tactical move by McCabe to show they were still the owners and could easily build something on those plots putting pressure on the Prince to pay a higher price if he wanted to sell the club.

Anyhow the Prince bought the land and sold it to the US consortium, now they have the green light to do what they want cutting ties with Scarborough.

In the original plans we were supposed to be building on the back of the South stand with an extra 6K tier with modernised facilities under the stand with the current superstore being moved to a much bigger separate building on that corner plot.

 

[South Sea Blade]

Isn’t the issue with John Street height restrictions?

Yes. The answer is to buy the houses on or around John Street...but lets get the SS and kop done first eh?

 

[Danetheblade]

Apparently big problems with access to the stadium with just 10,000 on a trial run. Next trial game set to be 25,000 before they even consider a full trial to get a safety cert.

Can believe it. Has three roads onto the same road to get out the ground. Will be absolute carnage.

 

[Torrix1889]

It will all come down to money.

Cost of redeveloping BDTBL to a 40K plus stadium
Cost of a new purpose built stadium capable of generating significant additional income by hosting other events apart from football
Value of the BDTBL site for city centre redevelopment

I've been going to the Lane for over 45 years, it's home and I am as traditional as the next fan........but....... I am not too blinkered to accept and understand we need to move with the times. If we have any ambition of being an established, Premier League side for years to come, competing to win domestic trophies, qualifying for European competitions, then my gut feeling is our future belongs away from our current location.....

 

[metalblade]

Yes. The answer is to buy the houses on or around John Street...but lets get the SS and kop done first eh?

That's what Liverpool did for their expansion

 

[Berkshire Blade]

That's what Liverpool did for their expansion

Didn't they do that for years beforehand so eventually it became a bit of a ghost town

 

[HarryHaslam]

Isn’t the issue with John Street height restrictions?

yes dont think we are allowed to build any higher because of the houses on john st

Didn’t know that.

But don’t see how it would be a problem with a new ground though. Hypothetically speaking if we had the money to build a new ground we wouldn’t be having really big two tier stands all the way around the ground. If what makes sense and the pitch was rotated I’m sure we could come up with something like Everton’s have for the away end that is smaller than the other stands and that would hopefully fit with the current John street stand height, I’m sure the architect could come up with something.

 

[JayGreen17]

We need either a complete rebuild of BL to move its position, or moved to another ground altogether. It staying at the lane we could relocate to Derby for a couple of seasons, would be my preferred option. Tinkering with the stands won’t be substantial enough to financially make it viable.

 

[JJBlade]

Why is it that all new stadiums are labelled as “soulless bowls”?

You do realise that stadium design has massively improved since the likes of Leicester, Derby and Southampton built their stadiums in the 90s/00s.

Just look at what Luton are planning to build! That’s Luton FFS! I’m sure we could manage to build something as good, if not better.

Because it takes their minds away from the soulless, odd shaped, old fashioned Bramall Lane with more restricted view seats than decent ones, that they are convinced is a fantastic stadium because it's got lots of pubs nearby.

 

[S64 Blade]

The only semi-viable place I wouldn’t mind us moving to would be down off Neepsend Lane, where Arthur’s Skips is. It’s the only site big enough, that’s central-ish, that I can think of.

Would of course need lots of infrastructure with the roads. But, it’s still close enough to town/Kelham-Neepsend pubs etc.

I’d sooner us play at say, Pride Park for a couple of years though and just totally redo the Lane, if it was ever an option.

 

[JJBlade]

We need either a complete rebuild of BL to move its position, or moved to another ground altogether. It staying at the lane we could relocate to Derby for a couple of seasons, would be my preferred option. Tinkering with the stands won’t be substantial enough to financially make it viable.

The club already owns the land, or most of it.
The best outcome would be complete demolition and rebuild
All hypothetical of course, but......

Cherry Street and John Street being the ends of the stadium, and Shoreham Street and Bramall Lane being the sides, in other words a 90 degree rotation.
The Cherry Street stand could be built on the car park and John Street could be built around about where the centre circle is giving old Albert and Ethel the only remaining residents on John Street plenty of light. Bramall Lane to extend over Bramall Lane creating a tunnel for the traffic which they will stop on match day anyway just in case some poor passenger on a bus has to see the awful sight of a football fan or hear a word that their precious existence has never heard before.

If we build for 50,000 seats, we will get it about perfect for when SYP and the City Council close off seats to allow for at least a 20 yard segregation to the left, right and above of the wonderful and nice people that are sat in the away section, this has the added benefit for them of bringing capacity down to less than Hillsborough.