Stadium Expansion

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by CarlosKickaballs, Jun 4, 2015.

?

Which type of person are you?

  1. A dullard

    31 vote(s)
    35.6%
  2. Stars are like fireworks (the best type of firework, let me tell you) that dont move

    18 vote(s)
    20.7%
  3. Turtles mistaking nightclubs for the moonlight on the sea, concerns me greatly

    38 vote(s)
    43.7%
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  1. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Dunno about my "construction knowledge" It's just stadiums for me.. read enough over the years to know the terminology.

    BTW way found the article in WD Sport concerning Scott Duxbury's stadium development announcement.. http://www.wdsport.co.uk/2016/11/watford-seek-to-increase-vicarage-road-capacity-to-30000/
    He clearly did mean 30K long term and SEJ stand first.. "Chief executive Scott Duxbury wants to increase the capacity of the club’s Vicarage Road ground to 30,000 by, first of all, taking the number of seats in the stand to around the 8,000 mark"

    The article was put out in November last year and i wondered about the part that states.. "Plans had been submitted to Watford Borough Council last season but the club have since changed architects and plans are being redrawn. Once approved, work will begin on creating the 4,000-plus seat tier in the summer of 2018"


    So were the plans ever approved? or do the club just have a non-specific previous permission for a larger stand?
     
  2. Abso

    Abso First Year Pro

    They were just agreed in principal by the planning department but never formerly submitted from what I was told. Was quite a while ago, much more than a year mind.
     
  3. Jossy

    Jossy Reservist

    Well that pretty much clears that up then, assuming Affleck was correct (I doubt the club would have later offered him a job if he had just been making stuff up about the clubs hierarchy).

    Interesting that Affleck states "second tier" in his opening paragraph (although not mentioned in Duxbury's direct quotes). As previously discussed on here - a second tier seems much more work than an extension to the existing tier and would also make the stand a lot higher which then brings in the issue with light for houses on Liverpool Road.

    I wouldn't mind betting that the redrawn plans include some kind of corporate facilities/executive boxes within them.

    Another question for you stadium experts - if the capacity goes up (eventually) to 25kish - then the away allocation goes up by another 300ish (based on the 10% rule for stadiums under 30k). I've read from various people on here that the Vic Road end is at full capacity - i.e, the club aren't allowed to issue any more seats within it due to safety reasons. If so, then where do the extra 300 people go? Does it mean we lose 300 from the family area and the netting position is adjusted slightly more to the west? I'm intrigued.
     
  4. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    It's not an immovable total so concessions can be made by the PL board. Hence Bournemouth being allowed to offer less away tickets and Spurs temporarily too last season.
     
    Jossy likes this.
  5. Bahrain Hornet

    Bahrain Hornet Academy Graduate

    I thought the SEJ took longer to build was because they decided to make the foundations bigger and stronger and build in the changing rooms etc to allow them to make the stand bigger/ another tier at a later date so when and if the time comes it wouldn't take as long?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  6. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Like you hinted at before i'm not sure everyone makes the distinction between second tier or an additional tier.. not even club officials


    As UEA said the guidelines on number of away seats are somewhat flexible. I did a list the season before last of capacities against away allocation and a few clubs fell short. I think they just expect clubs to get as close as is practically possible.
    I have always wondered though how they work the concourse areas at that end. Presumably they have a 50/50 divided that would need some adjusting should we ever need to give the away following more than half the stand.
     
  7. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Btw while searching for different planning applications the club have submitted i found this page which shows all of them to way back when.. http://pa.watford.gov.uk/publicaccess/propertyDetails.do?activeTab=relatedCases&keyVal=00056YQWLI000


    Guess i knew the original West stand application was refused.. http://pa.watford.gov.uk/publicacce...CaseNumber=000ZVWQWBU000&keyVal=ZZZZZ7QWXC832

    But i was surprised to find that we were once refused a plan to put a roof over the Vic Road terrace.. http://pa.watford.gov.uk/publicacce...CaseNumber=000ZVWQWBU000&keyVal=ZZZZZ7QWXC831


    and if you read down we were once denied a plan to put a speedway track around the pitch!
     
  8. Godfather

    Godfather bricklayer extraordinaire

    Above a minimum standard each EU country sets their own H&S policy but only we have made a complete industry out of it and at times it really can be really overbearing.

    Mind you our record pre the nineties was particularly disgraceful for a first world country so I won't whinge too much except to say that the extra financial burden has seemingly been paid for by the lowering of employees wages.
     
    KelsoOrn likes this.
  9. Jossy

    Jossy Reservist

    Slightly off-topic and nothing to do with recent chat on here - but do any of you older fans know why the seats in the original east stand were orange? Anything to do with the fact that when they were originally installed, we didn't actually play in yellow and so orange was just a generic seat colour? Was there a reason why they were never changed to match the stadiums yellow and red seats from 93 onwards (surely wouldn't have cost that much)?

    When you consider that orange is associated with the mob up the road, it always puzzled me why we had them that colour.
     
  10. Leighton Buzzer

    Leighton Buzzer Reservist

    I could be completely wrong, but I believe L***n used to play in black and white in those days, and that the orange crept in later, started more as a sort of brick red/ pale reddish brown anyway, if my memory serves me well.
     
  11. R4E

    R4E Reservist

    Pretty sure they were red. Just horribly faded by the sun!
     
  12. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    Luton did indeed wear white shirts and black shorts in the late 50s and at least until the late 60s
     
  13. Godfather

    Godfather bricklayer extraordinaire

    yup ... different dyes fade at different rates and that would include the components that go to make up other colours.
     
  14. Jossy

    Jossy Reservist

    Well my memory must have been playing tricks with me, because after browsing through some old pictures I have of the East stand, they did change them to red at some point in the 90's which then faded horribly. But the original seats (when I say original, I mean from the mid 80's onwards when I started going to the games) were definitely orange, as shown in the pics below.

    No big deal, stand looks great now. Just wondered if there was any reason for that colour considering the seats they put in the Shrodells stand towards the end of its life were red and yellow.

    jack-petchey-businessman-and-chairman-of-watford-fc.jpg 2_121.jpg
     
  15. I once had a red Mitsubishi fto that faded quite badly, something about red
     
  16. Nnnn

    Nnnn First Team

    Could be right, I had a red Audi that ended up almost pink
     
  17. zztop

    zztop Eurovision Winner 2015

    I cant believe how shallow the Vicarage Rd terrace looks. I used to think it was towering.
     
    oxhey67 likes this.
  18. Abso

    Abso First Year Pro

    When the rous was designed originally, it was done so with the foresight of it being replicated on all 4 sides of the ground with corner infills also.
     
  19. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    This is the oldest colour pic i can find of the East stand, prior to the 1969 extention..

    eastst.jpg


    and yes they do look somewhat orange, as did the later wing stand seats.

    But.. we didnt introduce red to the kit until 1976 so the choices prior to that would have been black or amber. Perhaps that reddy/orange colour was the closest they could get to Amber? In the days when perhaps there wasnt a multitude of colours avaliable.


    Also quite a few grounds back in the day had coloured seats that bore no relation to the club colours. The East stand at Chelsea for instance originally had brown seats.. http://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/PA-2469611.jpg

    Anfiled had all the colours of the rainbow! https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmBFIuhIEAArQ5F.jpg
     
    Jossy likes this.
  20. Jossy

    Jossy Reservist

    That's probably the most likely reason!

    I vividly remember the multi coloured Anfield seats from the 88/89 title showdown with Arsenal - after Thomas' late winner, the ground emptied pretty quick and they were visible on the tv (the match was on ITV, presented by Elton Welsby - whatever happened to him?!)
     
  21. oxhey67

    oxhey67 Squad Player

    That used to really annoy me for some reason and that annoyance has returned upon viewing that photograph.
    Any ground for whatever sport should be boycotted out of principal for looking so sh!tt!ly random.
     
  22. BigRossLittleRoss

    BigRossLittleRoss First Team

    Cheap leftovers from the then recent renovation of the Dutch national stadium ?
     
    Jossy likes this.
  23. Jossy

    Jossy Reservist

    Latest update on the Vic Road pitch, posted on Twitter by head groundsman Scott Tingley yesterday (27/7):

    DFwVyvbXsAQwtNV.jpg DFwVyvZXYAQAAZF.jpg DFwVyvZXcAAmnnm.jpg

    Looks amazing to me, but possible they've had some problems as he captioned the tweet with "Yesterday I felt like giving up, today it looks like this. Who would be a groundsman eh?"

    Also noticed they've changed the bet138 signs above the exits in the SEJ and the Vic Road stand divide from yellow to white.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/tingers_123/status/890610798418067456
     
  24. Sahorn

    Sahorn Reservist

    Looks good enough for lawn bowls.
    So we could've played Villa at home for the GT memorial trophy game on 29th ?
     
  25. Leighton Buzzer

    Leighton Buzzer Reservist

    Oh I love it, one of the few remaining people that write could've instead of the glaringly wrong "Could of"
     
  26. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Actually reading back i pretty much just agreed with what you stated in your first post :)


    A couple of thoughts though. The club did actually put some red & yellow seats in over the years. See here..

    P1050986.JPG

    Actually there's even some white ones in there! I imagine they replaced them when they were broken with whatever spares there were from the other stands.
    In this pic.. http://goalden.watfordmuseum.org.uk/east/galleries/images/3_6.jpg you should be able to see orange and red seats mixed up. The first two that have dropped down for instance. It's all a bit mix & match.


    PS For the record the Hatters introduced orange to their kit in 1973.
     
    Oscar calling likes this.
  27. Godfather

    Godfather bricklayer extraordinaire

    Oh Gawd Liverpool are just going to love that with their swanky passing game .... can't we dig some holes?
     
  28. Sahorn

    Sahorn Reservist

    Thanks LB.
    I'm just a 'Reservist' but trying hard to be an 'Academy Graduate' like yourself.

    (Some of the grammar, punctuation and use of English on here can make me cringe sometimes, like the little book 'Eats shoots and leaves', referring to either a trigger happy cowboy or a hungry gorilla depending on the punctuation. But, as has been rightly pointed out, this is a football forum not an English lesson, and others who point out errors usually get criticised).
     
    Leighton Buzzer likes this.
  29. Leighton Buzzer

    Leighton Buzzer Reservist

    That is exactly why I complimented you rather than criticise those that get it wrong, people generally do not like to be criticised, especially by somebody they have never met, anyway we all make mistakes, as I did by capitalising inside the inverted commas, part of a sentence, should have been lower case.
    I think that a reservist is higher in status than an academy graduate, you have been on this forum longer, and posted more than I have.
     
    Sahorn likes this.
  30. Sahorn

    Sahorn Reservist

    Yep a Reservist is higher status in the forum footballing sense, Academy Graduate just sounds better.
    I think I used to be first team captain or something until the forum changed platforms.
    My ego is still trying to recover.
     
  31. Nuandy

    Nuandy Academy Graduate

    Thank god they removed that awful advertising from on top of the Vicarage road stand
     
    V Crabro likes this.
  32. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    That was gone months ago, at least since January.
     
  33. CaveManHornet

    CaveManHornet Reservist

    You think that's bad, checkout Udinese's stands haha

    [​IMG]

    At first it looks like it is full with fans - which is what they were probably trying to do
     
  34. Leighton Buzzer

    Leighton Buzzer Reservist

    So glad to hear that, Vicarage Road and myself where going to get a long ladder and remove it ourselves.
     
  35. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Is that a "work in process" as it looks a little "cgi'ed"; there aren't any pitch markings and the work in the opposite corner? It also looks really "tight" on the pitch?
     
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