Port Vale owner reveals plans for Lorne St family stand but says immediate priority is the team
Port Vale owner Carol Shanahan has explained that the long-term vision for the uncompleted part of the Lorne Street stand would be the creation of a family area. But she says the club’s immediate priorities lie elsewhere.
Vale are set to add seating to the Lorne Street stand to meet health and safety concerns and increase the capacity for the summer’s Robbie Williams concert. However, any matchday use of the area would require a concourse to be completed.
I desperately want those seats to be the family area and for that to be a family concourse and have the area around it where kids can go. But that isn’t going to just happen…
Speaking to the Sentinel newspaper she explained: “We have a priority to get the Lorne Street ready for the concert. The big thing for the concert is the concourse behind acts as an exit. Your capacity for a concert goes on how quickly you can get people out and having that as an open space to get people out will increase the capacity of the concert by a lot.
“So, we have to do that even if it is just a tunnel. In doing that, we have to have seats in Lorne Street because it’s not a flat surface so it would be a health and safety risk.
“Therefore, you have to have seats here. Having seats there and the concourse as the tunnel is fine for a concert, but it’s not okay for a match. “For a match it has to, not only be an exit, but also a facility. To get that facility right is going to cost in excess of £100,000.
“I want to because I want that to be the family area. I desperately want those seats to be the family area and for that to be a family concourse and have the area around it where kids can go.
“But that isn’t going to just happen. We need funding. If anyone would like to donate, they can. That would be great and we would happily move it up the priority lost.
“But as it stands there are other things we have to do. We have to build the team for next season for whichever league we are in.”