leeds owl wrote:
I don’t think Gary will have gone through many hard hats and laser levels during the stadium rebuild. The footprint of the stadium was always going to be the same and having a certain Mr Caddick on board means it was always going to be a well designed and structurally solid renovation. He only had one decision to make and he got it wrong in my opinion. Do you rebuild the North Stand as a direct replacement (i.e all seater) ? Yes obviously, no decision to make there. Although there are some issues for older people with the steepness of the terrace steps. Do you rebuild the South Stand as a direct replacement of the old one ( full terracing ) ? That is the only decision he had to really make, and in my opinion and probably many others he got it wrong and killed the overall atmosphere in the stadium. I don’t know where you go in the stadium Christopher, and I’d be interested to know if you think it was right to put seats in the South Stand. What benefit is there when we never sell out, because the extra seats aren’t generating extra revenue ? We had two pitifully empty all seater stands again yesterday. So we’ve killed the best atmosphere in Rugby League in the South Stand, for extra seats we don’t actually need, and made a lot of loyal, long standing supporters angry at their opinions being overlooked when he revealed the mixed seating/terracing stand. I had no problem with the old North Stand replacing the standing paddock with seats, and I think the seating/standing East Stand was a great addition to the ground and enhanced the stadium beyond belief. The new South Stand with added seats is the biggest mistake the club could have made.
Yes I think it was right to put seats in the southstand, the alternative would have been a smaller stand with a poorer concourse and poorer facilities, the size of the stand meant it needed two tiers.
Even if they had made it all stranding modern building regs would have meant it wouldn’t have been like the old southstand anyway.
I sit in the East stand but have spent many games in the old southstand, I thought it was a pretty horrible place to watch RL from and it was a crumbling dump.