Time to think about a new stadium?

[geosname]

I would prefer a new team

[Vital Spark]

I have a little experience of demolition and construction procedures and costs through my job and believe me redeveloping VP would not be a cheap option.

 

Let's look at the Railway Stand, the Family Stand and the Bycars. Each of these stands is built on a mound of earth which was formed in the original VP plans. To demolish or reposition any of these three stands would involve the removal of 100,000s tons of spoil which cost an absolute fortune to process, remove, transport and dispose of. There are regulations and red-tape to consider for such disposal and removal which gets further complicated if the spoil is contaminated which is often the case. You could easily spend several million £s simply on demolition and ground work costs for these stands without even accounting for the construction of any new facilities. Therefore, comments such as 'just move the stand closer to the pitch' or 'just make the stand steeper' are not financially practical.

 

All new arenas and stands have their steelwork constructed on flat ground instead of on a mound like ours are. Building upwards from flat ground gives the advantage of lots of free space underneath the stands for concourses and other commercially attractive facilities, again something we don't have in these stands.

 

The point I'm trying to make is that the demolition of the mentioned stands plus the necessary preparation and groundworks would not be financially viable against the cost of a new smaller stadium on brownfield land. I'm sure that most of the clubs that have new stadiums all went through the exercise of comparing costs for upgrading existing grounds with the costs of a new build and hence most of them moved.

[NLVMalc]

I'm pleased that Wildes is not interested in building a new stadium. Vale Park is an asset not a problem. To suggest we need a new stadium to solve a problem of poor atmosphere is a bit like 'using a sledgehammer to crack a nut'

 

Here is what Wildes said about his plans for Vale Park:

 

"Can you give more details on plans to develop the ground?

 

We had our architects at Vale Park last week looking at how to best use facilities we've got.

 

We'll figure out how to develop them and try to understand how that would make a better match-day experience. I've not seen their report yet.

 

The wider development of the land and buildings is something we'd like to look at over the coming months.

 

It needs to become a leisure hub, so the stadium is part of a much wider development based around leisure and making people come to surrounding areas of ground daily basis.

 

Hopefully, that leads to more interest and bigger crowds"

[Caz or caz123]

I'm sorry but we are going to have to agree to differ on this. That is your opinion and I respect that, but if their is one thing that grates with me is the 'we can't do that attitude.' How do you think smaller clubs than us have moved on because they explore all possible avenues to raise finance whether it be from help from local authorities to governmental and European grant aid. Rotherham have gone from being in administration, evicted from Millmoor, playing in Sheffield to playing in a brand new stadium in the space of four years so don't tell me it can't be done.

 

I'll go with that :D

 

I'm not actually saying that we 'can't do that', it's that, right now, i'd prefer that we spend any cash that's available on the team. I'll be really interested to see what Mr Wildes plans are for the stadium. Perhaps something that would satisfy both visions for success at the Club?

[Conrad]

For one, the police would never agree to the hamil being given up for home fans,

two, the atmosphere died at vale park when the singers moved to the railway, the bycars has always been the home end.

three, we need to make better use of the facillities we already have, i went to buy a pie [bycars end] yesterday at 3.25 pm, and they had'nt got any left this must be loosing 100s of pounds per game.

Those saying the stands are too far from the pitch, i dont recall it being a problem at wembley stadium.

[Fosse69]

Simple solution over a few years and more realistic than a new ground. Replace the railway with a 3-4k capacity stand, bring it much closer to the pitch, designate the Hamil (great acoustics) the home singing end at 15 pound admissio and Rob is your mum's brother. Unfortunately it would probably cost about £4m that we don't have. In the absence of new stands, at least encourage fans to return to the bycars and generate some atmosphere. Agree it was like a morgue testerday.

At last a bit of sense, but the team is the priority at present, success will bring money in and the facilities will improve. Moving to a new ground at £20M will not improve the atmosphere, only spirited play does that. I remember in the 60s, with a 10/12k gate most would give a good shout, but big games with lots of casuals in seemed to dampen thinggs. I put it down to being a group thing, if all about you are singing/shouting all is great. but intermingled with quiet people the noise never takes off.

[Werrington]

A new stadium usually means fresh investment.......Was it a bad decision from Billy Bell to reject that council offer all those years ago and continue with ( still unfinished ) developing Vale park ?

 

Many Vale fans agreed with his decision i seem to recall but i wonder with that new stadium offer and the investment that goes with it where Vale would of been today?

 

A Walsall size stadium would be ideal for Vale with a view to building extra tiers depending on success

[Andy Proctor]

the selling out of food and drinks at the game is poor they should have known there would be a bigger gate there yesterday.

[Werrington]

you should have qued up for a dictionary instead.

 

pmsl

[llcoolj]

the selling out of food and drinks at the game is poor they should have known there would be a bigger gate there yesterday.

 

Anyone got an idea what the new owners are doing about it. Trivial as it is I'm sure it's one of the first things that could be sorted.

[Conrad]

Anyone got an idea what the new owners are doing about it. Trivial as it is I'm sure it's one of the first things that could be sorted.

 

Agree, this could be sorted at NO extra cost and would bring in many hundreds of pounds extra per game.

I could be wrong here, but i seem to recall PW/Smurf saying they are going to review the catering contract when it expires at the end of the season.

[blackdog]

I could not agree more I would happily move to a purpose built stadium, why should we worry about the effect on Burslem, it's the effect of not moving and putting Vale in jeopardy that worries me. Look at the superb playing surface at Rotherham on Boxing Day during a downpour and compare it with the surface at Vale Park yesterday. Also we are all too far away from the action at Vale Park and cannot generate an atmosphere even with an extra 1000 on the gate. It's time to move and anyone who says not is a typical unambitious, negative, backward thinking resident of Stoke-on-Trent.

 

I have to agree although it wont happen in my life time,its alright for those in the Lorne street somewhere to congregate before the game in comfort,tarmac finish outside the stand,try walking behind the Bycars in the dark come and sample the year 2013 in the Railway,freezing cold queuing up in the rain for a hot drink pushing past folk drink going everywhere, we must miss out on hundreds of pounds of sales its old fashioned out of date and typically Stoke on Trent

[tommytunstall]

The lack of atmosphere is down to the way the team perform at home, not the stadium. We will not attract part time or neutral fans with the way we have played at home lately.

[Conrad]

I could not agree more I would happily move to a purpose built stadium, why should we worry about the effect on Burslem, it's the effect of not moving and putting Vale in jeopardy that worries me. Look at the superb playing surface at Rotherham on Boxing Day during a downpour and compare it with the surface at Vale Park yesterday. Also we are all too far away from the action at Vale Park and cannot generate an atmosphere even with an extra 1000 on the gate. It's time to move and anyone who says not is a typical unambitious, negative, backward thinking resident of Stoke-on-Trent.

 

Vale park is a "purpose built stadium"

[Rudge's Flat Cap]

Having a 12k stadium would basically say that we would always be a league 1 and 2 team. Vale Park is big enough to redevelop by the new owners over a sensible time frame without getting the club into massive debt again. I would rather the new owners invest in the team first of all and get the product right on the pitch and then gates will slowly increase. The main priority at present is to get out of this awful league and the rest will follow.

 

Exactly.