For all the talk of the Hamil End as a home stand, completing the Lorne St stand should come first
Rob Fielding says that opening the unused portion of the Lorne Street stand is an easier task than switching home ends and should be given top priority.
Rob Fielding writes…
By all means organise and promote other, great fundraising initiatives and look at the Hamil Road situation, but for me, top of the list should be an attempt to complete the Lorne Street concourse as soon as possible…
There’s been a lot of debate recently about switching the home end to the Hamil End. It certainly makes sense as it has better facilities, better acoustics, a larger capacity and would enable an extensive home fanzone stretching from the ticket office to Tommy Cheadle’s bar.
However, there are hurdles to overcome to make the Hamil End home. Season tickets have already been sold for the Bycars, the club will need to persuade Bycars regulars to move and then there are logistical and safety concerns about how to get the away fans into the Bycars safely and where to park the cars and coaches. Those things are going to take time to resolve.
So, while the club should be exploring the possibility of a home Hamil End, I think there is a missed opportunity in not completing the Lorne Street stand.
The end of season fixtures revealed a much reduced home capacity at Vale Park stadium. It’s not exactly clear what the revised capacity is due to, but the reductions have taken place in the stadium’s older stands – the Railway and Bycars with the newer Lorne Street stand unaffected. With that in mind, perhaps it’s now worth a concerted effort to raise the money to enable the Lorne Street stand to be fully opened.
To recap the situation… in the summer of 2020 an additional 1,500 seats were installed in the Hamil End side of the Lorne Street stand, making the whole structure seated. However, as the concourse in that half of the stand remains uncompleted, the stand cannot be opened for matchdays as essential features such as turnstiles, exit gates, toilets and refreshments are not in place.
The news prompted a call by the Supporters Club to raise the £100,000 needed to complete the concourse work and allow the stand to be fully opened. However, due to the Covid pandemic and other initiatives such as the John Rudge statue fundraiser, fundraising for the concourse seemed to have largely stalled.
While the fundraising for a deserved statue of Rudgie is undoubtedly a good idea, I wonder if it’s best for fans to approach these various initiatives in order and not start another fundraiser until the previous one is finished? While the John Rudge statue will be warmly celebrated when it is unveiled, I would suggest that the priority should be the concourse fundraising.
The work on the concourse isn’t going to happen ahead of the new season but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t come as a welcome boost when it is completed. After the club triumphed through the play-offs, they can now expect higher attendances and more issues for high profile games, unless the number of seats for home fans can be raised. Not only that but the plans are to make that half of the Lorne Street a family stand and it makes sense for the future of the club for facilities for youngsters (currently housed in the Bycars) to be as up-to-date as possible.
So, by all means organise and promote other, great fundraising initiatives and look at the Hamil Road situation, but for me, top of the list should be an attempt to complete the Lorne Street concourse as soon as possible.
For those who want to contribute a link to the fundraising page is here –
https://www.gofundme.com/f/port-vale-stand-together
What do you think? Share your opinion by posting a comment through the link below.
HAVE YOUR SAY ON THIS FEATURE – CLICK HERE TO POST A COMMENT