The Chair Maker wrote:
your somewhat wrong re the open concourses claim. I never said they were genius, just that on a pleasant summers day it would be better than a stifling concrete box, or words to that effect.
I did say the following though
"It also means fans in the West and East will have a reasonable amount of weather protection. A four meter high wall will pretty much protect you from wind and rain when combined with the large roof overhang. Certainly when i was there last week when it was chucking it down, all the concourses were dry.
This would certainly not be the case if we just had a fence around the edge of the ground."
Now this was based on what i had seen in summer. However having spoken to builders/security guards in September/October when the weather was worsening they confirmed that the concourses, particular the West stand concourses were getting very wet under heavy rain and wind. Clearly i was wrong and the concourses needed more protection.
The club have therefore themselves identified this and come up with an innovative solution re the perforated cladding. This in itself may prove to be a great move or just window dressing that wont really solve the weather protection issue.
With regard to Turnstiles, it seems purely a British thing to hide them away. In other countries they make features of them.
Couple of things. Firstly, on your concourses point earlier in the therad, I actually agreed with you about it potentially being a pleasant experience.
My main issue is that when you praise something on this ground, you then often feel the need to criticise other grounds, as though this is a revolutionary build and that even things that don't necessarily look great are much better than other grounds. IIRC you have criticised enclosed concourses and enclosed turnstiles in this way, when in fact I expect they are built like this in this country due to the weather!
On the many examples of grounds you highlight, well you look to have selected the main entrances of most, and the couple you haven't look pretty terrible.
I feel that picking US stadia for comparison isn't a great source either.
