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Buh

New stadium - careful what you wish for

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Been following what''s going on at West Ham and irregardless that they are awful on the pitch the new stadium has been an unprecedented disaster! Just makes me think about the possibility of a move one day from Carrow road. Probably to some out of town emotionless business park and part owned by paddy power or something.

Some seem in favour of this but when you look at the problems the hammers have had - awful stewarding, breaking up of established supporter types, banned or severely restricted from services around the ground, piped crowd noise in the stadium! £8 popcorn and padded seats! Thousands of plastics with literally no idea.

Just brings 2 things to mind for me

1) let''s never move from Carrow road, it''s an honest to god classic stadium with character. It''s not perfect and it''s right that it evolves and expands but it''s a beautiful grand stadium and sometimes we don''t appreciate that.

2) bring in safe standing. It''s proven to work and there''s demand for it. Bring it in in certain pre-defined areas there it''s not fair that fans are not allowed to enjoy the football in a manner they want to.

Nice, uncontroversial thread.

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I''m not sure I agree with you, I would love a new purpose built stadium like St Mary''s, it''s lovely, loud and would be an improvement on CR.

West Ham moved into a stadium designed for athletics, not football so has lost any intimidation Upton Park used to have.

To move this club forward I''d love a 36k stadium with safe standing, it would certainly move us up in attraction to some players.

But each to their own.

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I would auggest transport problems alone would stop any move away from Carrow Road to some industrial estate. The hideous almost non  existent transport links to places like Reading and Brighton highlight the dangers of such a ridiculous idea. West Ham can well claim that the transport links to the former Olympic Stadium are actually better than before.However I would also suggest that the move had more to do with ''what to do with the OS''  than any real need to move away from Upton Park. Still, they do have Chelsea at home in a night match (league cup) coming up. They maybe able to keep them segregated in the ground..... but outside, oh dear.

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I''ve not seen footy at the Olympic stadium, only athletics. But from what I saw that stadium was in no way suited to football, Upton Park was a pretty intimidating place to go, that''s a big advantage to throw away. Serves them right as far as I''m concerned.😀

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Whenever I hear "it would eliviate traffic congestion" I just think of a pie chart and hurt a little inside.

You can model traffic movement and measure footfall but you cant put a number on character and you''ve only got to talk to opposition fans that come here to see we''ve got a classic stadium and it should be treasured.

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sad thing is I don''t think it is those who deserve to suffer, who are suffering.It is the average pie and mash, knees up mother brown types who are losing out.The club have filled the ground with any old one based on exceedingly cheap tickets, who will simply melt away if West Ham get relegated or they are subjected to a bit of punch up as our cock ernee lads ''give it some''.

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[quote user="Indy"].

To move this club forward I''d love a 36k stadium with safe standing, it would certainly move us up in attraction to some players. [/quote]I don''t think even you believe THAT old twaddle.

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Why not? Training, club medical and playing facilities have to be an attraction, I''m sure it has an impact.......who knows but it won''t harm by growing can it?

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Just a question, just imagine if we hadn''t moved from the nest, where would we be now?

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Was listening to a piece on five live aboutit earlier. An official statement from West Ham said that all CUSTOMERS seat numbers should be noted down who are persistently standing

Customers

Not fans

Customers

Matches there and at many larger stadiums are run like rock concerts or baseball. Total lack of understanding of what football is and what it means to the fans.

Saddest thing they said was "most clubs don''t require fans for revenue the tv money is enough" really sad, horrible, sobering thought.

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The nest was unsafe I thought?

Didn''t they fill in part of the pitch that had collapsed with railway sleepers?

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unlike upton park, there''s enough room around carrow rd to expand without having to move.....either a new tier on the city stand or knocking it down and building a completely new one could in itself increase the capacity to 34k?.....putting a hotel in the corner was always bad mistake as there should be another 1500+ there now.

dont know if the South/Jarrold/Galway roast??...was built with the capability of expansion?

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Don''t often agree with you Buh but I do here. I love Carrow Road, love it being walking distance from the City and a number of decent pubs, love that it still feels part of the city. A souless bowl outside of the city is my idea of hell.

Stay at Carrow Road, keep expanding it as and when we need and keep some of that character.

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yes, why should fans have to sit in the corner, we need a new stand... although it still won''t answer why there has been a number of empty seats at the ground recently.

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I''ve always thought that for a new stadium we wouldn''t need to leave Carrow road. There must be enough space that the club own behind the stadium to build a new ground, if a new ground were what the club wanted

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[quote user="Indy"]Just a question, just imagine if we hadn''t moved from the nest, where would we be now?[/quote]

Playing football in the middle of a housing estate

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Urgh, St Mary''s. Soulless sh1tehole, literally cannot think of anything worse! Redevelop the City Stand, it can still be done 👍

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We had this exact conversation yesterday, on the way to the game.

We felt that we need to stay at Carrow Road, rebuild the City Stand, to make it a bigger stand, say an extra 5k crowd.

The only problem we thought was an issue, is the traffic/parking currently, but that is a consequence of being in a City, and, of course, extra crowds would exacerbate this, but would be the price to pay for keeping where we are, and not moving to an identikit stadium. We talked about Coventry/Colchester etc and what their stadiums (do not) offer.

Safe standing is, I am sure going to a hot topic, over the next few years, so we will wait and see.

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You''re probably right, but the point not well made on my behalf was we always need to be looking to move forward as a club.

As for moving to outside Carrow road, why? As Spuds, there''s enough land around the ground to build a new ground next door, the sell or utilise the land.....yes I know it''ll never happen, but could be done.

I''m not in love with our ground as much as some, having been to Boro & Southampton, their new grounds when full are pretty noisy.

I wouldn''t move away from where we are just would be great for a new build purpose built with areas of safe standing.

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Btw does anyone know if that story about the nest true? I always heard it was basically a chalk pit and one day part of the pitch collapsed and they just filled it in with railway sleepers and sand and the FA said "uh, no..." Even in 1920 or whenever.

Also heard there was a giant wall feet away from the end of one of the wings so if you overran into the corner you''d just run into a concrete 10ft wall. Place sounded like a death trap.

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there''s been empty seats because for some Burton,Wigan and Bristol C aren''t as big a draw as Arsenal,Chelsea and Man United.....but be rest assured ,if we''re still at the top moving into the run in, tickets will be hot property.

I happen to think that our current capacity is about right for the league that we''re in at the moment, that''s purely because of the severely reduced numbers of away fans that appear to travel to carrow rd in this league, you could only really think that ipswich,leeds,newcastle,villa will definitely take their full allocation. in other games when the unclaimed away tickets are put on sale to home fans ,there seem to be more than enough to satisfy demand.

34k in the premier league.....I''m not "entirely" convinced we''d sell out every week even then?

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Cannot see NCFC Board ever thinking about spending money was at the AGM when McNally was questioned about extending main stand and he quoted figures of each seat costing thousands. Someone will probably quote the figure he gave.

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[quote user="Buh"]Btw does anyone know if that story about the nest true? I always heard it was basically a chalk pit and one day part of the pitch collapsed and they just filled it in with railway sleepers and sand and the FA said "uh, no..." Even in 1920 or whenever.

Also heard there was a giant wall feet away from the end of one of the wings so if you overran into the corner you''d just run into a concrete 10ft wall. Place sounded like a death trap.[/quote]They were tougher in the old days. Bloody reckless if you ask me[:D][url]http://canaryseventyninety.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/ask-aitch.html[/url]Image result for the nest norwich

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I do remember the board saying a few years ago saying that the club would need to have a sustained amount of seasons in the premier league before considering expanding/replacing the City stand.

However to build a side stand would surely take a good 12 months wouldnt it?...however it was done ,it would be encroaching into half a season....thats half a season with a reduced capacity. Ironically it is probably in a season when we''re not in Premier League would be the best time to do it, as mentioned before, there are some fairly low away followings at carrow road in this league, its now that would cause the least amount of disruption to home fans and minimise the risk of not accomodating everyone.

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Which would mean that had we embarked on this lunacy a year or so back, it would be losing even more than were we have to stayed in the PL.I suggest you check how much is earned from each spectator ie divide the income by the attendance.... it works out less than £400 a seat. Far less than the interest alone would cost, to add another 5,000 seats. So instead of putting all the money to get back into the PL we would nowbe paying up £ 0r 4m a season for around 6000 empty seats ! And if we didn''t get up. imagine that burden a few years down the line when we don''t have parachute payments.That doesn''t factor in the loss of around £2m plus during the rebuilding. Assume it would only take one season. Or the problem of where to put these 4000  season ticket holders whilst this is all going on.Some folk need to recognise that the ticket income is a very, very small part of the overall income. What you are suggesting is driving your car across the county as it is a penny a litre cheaper there !ps I though the draw was Norwich City, not who the opposition are.

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Always loved the idea of adding a 2nd tier to the existing stand, i heard many times City high ups say not only the cost , but the disruption, would be a big issue. As for disruption, if well thought out and planned, it could be built in a time frame with only a small handful of home games being affected. Only need to see that at Anfield right now to see its possible. as soon as last season was ended work began and, with the added help of a pre arranged fixture list, Liverpool are playing a bare minimum of home games in the first few months of this season.If Liverpool can organise such a working schedule to expand home seating, then why cant we?

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Interesting piece Herman, thanks for posting.

I do remember my grandad telling me that he went to the Nest when he was a boy. Would probably be just after the First World War I would guess. He described being high up above the concrete wall behind some railings looking down onto the pitch and when we scored the railings would rock back and forwards.

Guess he was just a lad then so probably felt high to him, but sill, quite a thought.

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assuming this expansion has to be done......although as i said, I''m not convinced we would sell out a 34-35k stadium each week even in the premier league, when is the ideal time for it to be done?

We didnt after 3 consecutive years in the Premier League a few years ago....so we have to wonder when it might??....6 consecutive seasons?....eight???.....ten?.

I''m not convinced anything will be done with the City stand for a long long time. If a big screen can be put into the barclay /south stand corner, then blocking the view of hotel guests is clearly no longer a concern.

I''d reckon the next step will be to put some seats into that corner, which might at least increase capacity up to 28k?

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The stadium will just naturally evolve with the times it always has and always will. I don''t think there''s any need to argue too much about it. It''s kind of a living breathing thing.

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you say it will naturally evolve with the times...but the question is how?

.

The stadium as it is now holds less than it did in the 80''s when we had standing in the Barclay and River End...but we now have seemingly more people that want to get in than did back then.

Would safe standing in the lower Barclay increase potential capacity?....or would it be literally one standing place for each current seating space?

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