Football Stadia - Past, Present & Future

[who are ya?]

Looks like Griffin Park will soon be consigned to Grounds of the past. Real shame, my favourite league ground.

This will be a sad day for football

[larry1971]

This is where Reading FC use to play.

can't remember his exact words but in his Football Ground's of Great Britain. Simon Inglis pretty much described Elm Park, as been a depressing and dull ground.

I think he said it was the least interesting ground in the country, but revised his ideas a bit it later editions.

Odd to think if it was still around now, in the same state, fans would be raving about it.

Think that's just football fans in general getting all nostalgic for the pre-Hillsborough days when you had standing I dare say if you asked a lot of fans over a certain age who have seen their club move into a new stadium whether they prefer the old one to the new a fair few would saythe old stadium.

[Terminal Boardom]

To think that this


Turned into this:

[frimmers3]

maybe cited previously..but as a foot soldier of old a visit to the dell was a delight...packed to the rafters,an element of danger but above all electric..one of the very best.

[MSV Duisburg]

I'm from Maidstone (Reading fan, living in Germany, all very confusing), but last Saturday Maidstone opened their new ground with a friendly against Brighton. The notable thing is that the new ground is the first in England to be built with a 3G pitch, the latest form of artificial turf. The benefit is that the pitch can be used by the first team, reserve team, youth and ladies teams, and is nowhere near as susceptible to the weather as a traditional grass pitch. Take a look at the video highlights and you can see the rain is chucking it down, but with no effect on the pitch. Do you guys reckon this could be the surface of the future? Gus Poyet was certainly impressed by it. The FA has also agreed to allow the surface in qualifying rounds of the FA Cup...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05dB8iQb ... r_embedded

[AbovetheI]

Remember being lucky enough to visit the old Waldstadion in Frankfurt before it was demolished. The seats had stinging nettles growing out of them and the safety fence ruined the view sp much, you couldn't see the other end of the field.

It was situated deep within a forest, and the backdrop was just gorgeous.

[Geekins]

I'm from Maidstone (Reading fan, living in Germany, all very confusing), but last Saturday Maidstone opened their new ground with a friendly against Brighton. The notable thing is that the new ground is the first in England to be built with a 3G pitch, the latest form of artificial turf. The benefit is that the pitch can be used by the first team, reserve team, youth and ladies teams, and is nowhere near as susceptible to the weather as a traditional grass pitch. Take a look at the video highlights and you can see the rain is chucking it down, but with no effect on the pitch. Do you guys reckon this could be the surface of the future? Gus Poyet was certainly impressed by it. The FA has also agreed to allow the surface in qualifying rounds of the FA Cup...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05dB8iQb ... r_embedded

Do they still have the black bits of rubber nestled in the 'grass'?

[Royal With Cheese]

I'm from Maidstone (Reading fan, living in Germany, all very confusing), but last Saturday Maidstone opened their new ground with a friendly against Brighton. The notable thing is that the new ground is the first in England to be built with a 3G pitch, the latest form of artificial turf. The benefit is that the pitch can be used by the first team, reserve team, youth and ladies teams, and is nowhere near as susceptible to the weather as a traditional grass pitch. Take a look at the video highlights and you can see the rain is chucking it down, but with no effect on the pitch. Do you guys reckon this could be the surface of the future? Gus Poyet was certainly impressed by it. The FA has also agreed to allow the surface in qualifying rounds of the FA Cup...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05dB8iQb ... r_embedded

I was disappointed as I only got a GPRS signal during the game.

[Wax Jacket]

good luck to the Stones. know a chap who did some fundraising for the new ground. it's taken a while hasn't it.

[Wax Jacket]

Remember being lucky enough to visit the old Waldstadion in Frankfurt before it was demolished. The seats had stinging nettles growing out of them and the safety fence ruined the view sp much, you couldn't see the other end of the field.

It was situated deep within a forest, and the backdrop was just gorgeous.

must've been a nightmare to get to and from, unless you take your time about it and get smashed

[Nick Shorey my Lord!]

good luck to the Stones. know a chap who did some fundraising for the new ground. it's taken a while hasn't it.

It certainly has. I think it was in WSC that I read that Margate are also moving to a new ground soon and they've been after that for donkeys years.

[No Fixed Abode]

Where Chelsea are playing tomorrow

[Wax Jacket]

that stand at the end is quality. if I were a goalie I'd just spend the half staring at it

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

must've been a nightmare to get to and from, unless you take your time about it and get smashed

Not really. There's a train station a few hundred yards away. You don't literally have to trek through the forest to get there.

[Wax Jacket]

must've been a nightmare to get to and from, unless you take your time about it and get smashed

Not really. There's a train station a few hundred yards away. You don't literally have to trek through the forest to get there.

I meant in and out of sorry. I've been past on the train.

what I mean is, 50,000 people all piling into one train station. I know the Germans are good at this sort of thing but still.

[Terminal Boardom]

Where Chelsea are playing tomorrow

There is something about American sport stadia. I know it's not football but this is a cracking stadium

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

must've been a nightmare to get to and from, unless you take your time about it and get smashed

Not really. There's a train station a few hundred yards away. You don't literally have to trek through the forest to get there.

I meant in and out of sorry. I've been past on the train.

what I mean is, 50,000 people all piling into one train station. I know the Germans are good at this sort of thing but still.

Definitely right there. I went there for a couple of world cup matches. I got crammed into one carriage, and they filled up each carriage one by one until each was almost bursting. This, on a day when it was 90 degrees. Luckily I only had to do one stop, as it was horrible on there, turning into a Frankfurt sweat-a-thon.

Worse was another game. Similar situation, yet this time the crush was so great that some rather pretty young woman was squashed up against me, with me unable to move. OK, some might suggest having one of a pretty girl's buttocks pressed against your groin for about 10 minutes isn't the worst thing in the world, but the amount of will-power required to not even "react" in the slightest took some effort.

[Wax Jacket]

wonder how she recounts the encounter?

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

wonder how she recounts the encounter?

I was just concentrating on making sure she wouldn't be recounting it to the police. She did actually smile at the situation of being squashed in like that, as people took it in surprisingly good spirit (it is fairly normal for public transport to/from football there to be packed way beyond what'd be accepted here) and I just made sure that mood didn't change.

[No Fixed Abode]

Chelsea playing here next