Vale Park stadium improvements

[robf]

6 minutes ago, Conrad said:

I realise these things cost money but if we keep selling out sections of the ground it could soon pay for itself to do up the old family stand and have it as a continuation of the bycars or railway, or both.

I personally think if things keep selling out the obvious thing is to raise the money to complete the LS concourse. That's a brand new facility. I would imagine there's a host of work for the old Family stand - turnstiles, concourse, toilets, new seats etc etc... that's if it's even safe for people to sit in anymore.

[Guitar Ray]

3 minutes ago, Conrad said:

I realise these things cost money but if we keep selling out sections of the ground it could soon pay for itself to do up the old family stand and have it as a continuation of the bycars or railway, or both.

I’d agree fully with this but can’t see why we’d do it when we’re intending to swap ends.  The ideal world for me personally would be, new scoreboard in Hamil/Lorne St. corner, new facilities in Bycars to allow alcohol to be sold, toilets revamped, old Family Stand (somehow) developed to allow it to be retained, for historic reasons, and the Railway fully linked with Bycars via old Fam Stand, then actually promote the Bycars to get fans using it.  Pipe dream, I know.

[NellyTheValiant]

47 minutes ago, jjvale_03 said:

The staff at those kiosks simply don't have a clue what they're doing.

The processes aren't in place to make it efficient. It took someone nearly 5 minutes to serve me two beers at 14:00 (one hour before kick off), and that was after queuing for 10 minutes.

Still true that this is outsourced to a third party and run by agency staff?

I got up to the ground at about 20 past 2 and was considering getting something but the queues were massive so didn't bother.

In relation to the running of them I beleive that it is all run by the club, they were advisertising for staff last week so whilst they would have had some training I guess that it wouldn't have been particulatly extentive.

Missing a trick here with reduced sales and at half time I felt that it was pretty dangerous trying to get down to and from the toilets.  There certainly wasn't any room for social distancing.

[robf]

Yeah, it makes sense to keep that corner empty as a "buffer" between the Railway and the Bycars when the ends change over.

If every seat is available in the existing stands then we should be somewhere near 17k* which we clearly are not anywhere near right now - so perhaps the priority should be to bring the stands back to full capacity which should be enough without even the need to re-open that corner. 

* not even including the 1,500 which the unopened half of the LS would add

[Fosse69]

3 minutes ago, Guitar Ray said:

I’d agree fully with this but can’t see why we’d do it when we’re intending to swap ends.  The ideal world for me personally would be, new scoreboard in Hamil/Lorne St. corner, new facilities in Bycars to allow alcohol to be sold, toilets revamped, old Family Stand (somehow) developed to allow it to be retained, for historic reasons, and the Railway fully linked with Bycars via old Fam Stand, then actually promote the Bycars to get fans using it.  Pipe dream, I know.

Isnt the Bycars Stand planned to become the new Away Stand?  We  will be having a  safety check once the turnstile and exit work etc have been completed? This should restore some of the lost capacity of the Railway areas?

[chickensteve]

Yeah, it makes sense to keep that corner empty as a "buffer" between the Railway and the Bycars when the ends change over.
If every seat is available in the existing stands then we should be somewhere near 17k* which we clearly are not anywhere near right now - so perhaps the priority should be to bring the stands back to full capacity which should be enough without even the need to re-open that corner. 
* not even including the 1,500 which the unopened half of the LS would add

Even with my eyesight it's plain to see the rust in the steelwork of the corner stand and it can't be a coincidence that it's that end of the railway stand and paddock that don't get sold. A reduced capacity must be in place in that area due to safety concerns of the steelwork. Also from last year's discussions on capacity I read that the allowable capacity is based on how quickly someone can get too and from there seat to/from turnstiles and exit gates including pinch points. I am sure there will be a plan. There were lots of empty seats in the ls stand on Saturday.

[MelbourneValiant]

Maybe the old family stand can be a test for safe standing. Many places convert. One seat into 2 standing spaces.

Longterm if we move to the Hamil it wont work as it would too close to the away fans and would attract the more vocal folk. 

I would give anything to bring terracing back 

[robf]

16 minutes ago, chickensteve said:

23 minutes ago, robf said:

Yeah, it makes sense to keep that corner empty as a "buffer" between the Railway and the Bycars when the ends change over.
If every seat is available in the existing stands then we should be somewhere near 17k* which we clearly are not anywhere near right now - so perhaps the priority should be to bring the stands back to full capacity which should be enough without even the need to re-open that corner. 
* not even including the 1,500 which the unopened half of the LS would add

Even with my eyesight it's plain to see the rust in the steelwork of the corner stand and it can't be a coincidence that it's that end of the railway stand and paddock that don't get sold. A reduced capacity must be in place in that area due to safety concerns of the steelwork. Also from last year's discussions on capacity I read that the allowable capacity is based on how quickly someone can get too and from there seat to/from turnstiles and exit gates including pinch points. I am sure there will be a plan. There were lots of empty seats in the ls stand on Saturday.

Definitely. You may have been close to me as I was in that section. I took a selfie of myself and my daughter and it looked like we were in an empty stand not a sold-out one. 

[chickensteve]

Definitely. You may have been close to me as I was in that section. I took a selfie of myself and my daughter and it looked like we were in an empty stand not a sold-out one. 

I took a selfie as well but it was about 15 mins before kick off. I thought the stand would fill up but it didn't. In fact I don't remember ever seeing so many empty seats around me.

[Guitar Ray]

18 hours ago, Fosse69 said:

Isnt the Bycars Stand planned to become the new Away Stand?  We  will be having a  safety check once the turnstile and exit work etc have been completed? This should restore some of the lost capacity of the Railway areas?

Indeed it is.  I’ve no idea if the reduced capacity is just down to turnstiles and exits, or whether there are additional factors.  My point isn’t to increase capacity as such, rather it’s to see the old steelwork of the Family Stand somehow retained for posterity whilst at the same time utilising the stand, and I think it’d be great if we could have a swathe of fans running right around that corner, which would involve a great deal of work, so, like I said earlier, it won’t happen.

[Guitar Ray]

18 hours ago, chickensteve said:

18 hours ago, robf said:

Yeah, it makes sense to keep that corner empty as a "buffer" between the Railway and the Bycars when the ends change over.
If every seat is available in the existing stands then we should be somewhere near 17k* which we clearly are not anywhere near right now - so perhaps the priority should be to bring the stands back to full capacity which should be enough without even the need to re-open that corner. 
* not even including the 1,500 which the unopened half of the LS would add

Even with my eyesight it's plain to see the rust in the steelwork of the corner stand and it can't be a coincidence that it's that end of the railway stand and paddock that don't get sold. A reduced capacity must be in place in that area due to safety concerns of the steelwork. Also from last year's discussions on capacity I read that the allowable capacity is based on how quickly someone can get too and from there seat to/from turnstiles and exit gates including pinch points. I am sure there will be a plan. There were lots of empty seats in the ls stand on Saturday.

Most of the empty seats in the Railway were towards the Family Stand side but rather than being not available to buy it could possibly have been fans choosing not to sit there, or just not sitting in the specified seats.

There’s always been a gravitational pull towards the Hamil End of the Railway and it’s been years since we’ve witnessed the exodus to the Bycars side at HT as the team switched ends.

[robf]

For those who don't know the heritage of the old Family stand, here's my article - 

The quiet centurion of Vale Park... - onevalefan.co.uk

WWW.ONEVALEFAN.CO.UK

 

[rob1983]

I took a selfie as well but it was about 15 mins before kick off. I thought the stand would fill up but it didn't. In fact I don't remember ever seeing so many empty seats around me.

Probably alot off season ticket holders were on holiday that's why the ground had so many empty seats?

[vallyunt]

Thought that myself. There was a big patch across two rows looking at Lorne street from the railway side.which is usually full the closer you get to the tunnel.

[toyahw]

3 hours ago, rob1983 said:

Probably alot off season ticket holders were on holiday that's why the ground had so many empty seats?

I think so. Tried to get four tickets for the Lorne St on the Wednesday and there were only about a dozen single seats left. So went in the paddock instead from where you could see there were quite a lot free in the Lorne St.