Think I heard DC say in his post match interview the switch worked and club should consider making it permanent.

100% it should be a permanent move. Logistical it makes so much sense as you can keep exiting fans away from each other and not cause the hamil road bottleneck. Facilities better and more chance of filling it and creating atmospheres like last night

Away fans can park coaches on Dimensions and be escorted up. Keeps em away from the park. Less traffic on Hamil Road. Much easier.

A very enjoyable experience, much better facilities, better access and egress. On last night it works. Oh and great result.

It would be absolute madness to return Vale fans to the Bycars hellhole now. It's got to be easier to police that. 

We could make it the home end regardless of whether the club listen or not, we could go in the Hamil every week anyway and just tell the away fans to budge over to one side.

I was in the Paddock down the Hamil End and it was great having Vale in the Hamil, it made the atmosphere so much better and the paddock also reacted to that noise themselves.

Down the bottom end you couldn't even hear the Swindon fans at all, possibly they were not singing much but if they were it shows how poor the acoustics for home fans are with us in the Bycars.

 

It was fantastic. As someone who's spent the last 20 years in the Paddock and Stand, I would happily move permanently to the Hamil given the opportunity.

The views are far better than I thought they would be. Even with half as many as last night, it'd still improve the atmosphere tenfold. The concourse, the access, the toilets, the sightlines. I could go on. But it's all a million miles better than Railway or Bycars and it's criminal that we've been giving that to 200 away fans whilst we've been getting a 1960's experience in the home ends.

One thing that is so apparent from there is the distance from the Railway to the pitch. It's ridiculous. We stand in there thinking we're making a huge racket and yet none of it comes out onto the pitch because you're half a mile away from it. You could literally build a new stand in front of the existing Railway, without knocking it down. 

For those saying we can't afford to lose the revenue from not maximising away fans numbers, I'd argue that a vocal home end (ie. the Hamil) would genuinely be worth 6-10 points per season to us - which could be the difference between playing in the 3rd and 4th tier. That's far more than important than <50k in revenue by allowing Sheff Wed and Derby 4.5k instead of 3k. 

 

Brilliant acoustics in the hamil but as a one the whole ground was encouraging sky bloke said Vale fans making it sound like 80 000 you can keep your plastic prem clubs that's support everyone on there feet singing all game .
Love the hamil I'd get a season ticket in there that's should be Vales home end UTV

Having away fans park at Dimensions is much better than them coming down Hamil Road. The issues post Oldham were caused by poor policing of hostile fans at a bottleneck. Would largely remove this issue. 

Last night the atmosphere was as good as it's ever been at Vale, but we aren't going to get 4k in that stand every week. A cheaper ticket offering, heavily incentivised towards younger fans, could help this.

Would be excellent for Tommy's and you could put the fanzone in Hamil Stand car park, as it was for the Beamback. You could create a real pre-match hub wrapping around from club shop, fanzone, and Tommy's, with away fans out of sight. 

Was also pleased to see the club had opened a gate by the Paddock and had two extra scanners there. Common sense.

Edited May 20, 20224 yr by Joe B

4 hours ago, Joe B said:

Having away fans park at Dimensions is much better than them coming down Hamil Road

Is that where they put the coaches too? That's not a bad shout if the Bycars is made the away end in the future.

Logically, it would be good to have both the Railway and Hamil as Vale stands. They are both close to the shop, ticket office and the fan zone plus for those who want a beer it would mean Tommy Cheadle's becoming a home pub again. 

I reckon Dazzler will sort it for us and get us a proper end behind the goal instead of us slumming it. 

5 hours ago, Rory said:

It would be absolute madness to return Vale fans to the Bycars hellhole now. It's got to be easier to police that. 

We could make it the home end regardless of whether the club listen or not, we could go in the Hamil every week anyway and just tell the away fans to budge over to one side.

How do you think you will get tickets for the away end!!!

1 hour ago, robf said:

Is that where they put the coaches too? That's not a bad shout if the Bycars is made the away end in the future.

Logically, it would be good to have both the Railway and Hamil as Vale stands. They are both close to the shop, ticket office and the fan zone plus for those who want a beer it would mean Tommy Cheadle's becoming a home pub again. 

Getting to the back of Dimensions might be tricky for a coach, it looks quite quite tight. There's a 90 degree turn involved.

It might be possible for away coaches to park in the gated off bit of Synectics, at the back where the actual building is, and then have a pedestrian gate there to marshall away fans straight to Bycars lane. It would necessitate moving stewards and police to both ends of Bycars lane and around the corner into where the family stand turnstiles are, as otherwise you could have a tight fenced in bottleneck where fans queueing for the railway are enclosed next to away fans.

4 minutes ago, Doha said:

Getting to the back of Dimensions might be tricky for a coach, it looks quite quite tight. There's a 90 degree turn involved.

It might be possible for away coaches to park in the gated off bit of Synectics, at the back where the actual building is, and then have a pedestrian gate there to marshall away fans straight to Bycars lane. It would necessitate moving stewards and police to both ends of Bycars lane and around the corner into where the family stand turnstiles are, as otherwise you could have a tight fenced in bottleneck where fans queueing for the railway are enclosed next to away fans.

You could park the coaches along Scotia Road.  Loads of room there.

Where did they park last night then? I didn't notice them...