Memories

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

looking around for a bit of history, and stumbled across this, worth a look for some of the younger fans, see what was promised, and the delight at what was on offer after EP. I recall the meeting, NH was very good, answered lots of queries, soem old duffer took notes for HNA too.

http://www.royals.org/ground.html

[Gordons Cumming]

The stadium has been designed / orientated so noone will get the sun in their eyes during games ( good news for the North Stand !)

They failed there.

[Dirk Gently]

I'm still waiting to see where they put the matchday creche/nursery.

[Thaumagurist*]

The stadium has been designed / orientated so noone will get the sun in their eyes during games ( good news for the North Stand !)

They failed there.

Indeed, the East stand gets the sun sometimes.

[Sun Tzu]

I'm still waiting to see where they put the matchday creche/nursery.

At Green Park. Closed it due to lack of demand.

[No Fixed Abode]

I'm still waiting to see where they put the matchday creche/nursery.

East Stand Y25.

[Royal Lady]

I'm still waiting to see where they put the matchday creche/nursery.

I even offered to help with this. Didn't get so much as a reply. Months later when I enquired what had happened to it, they just replied and said it wouldn't be going ahead.

[1871 Royal]

The stadium has been designed / orientated so noone will get the sun in their eyes during games ( good news for the North Stand !)

They failed there.

Indeed, the East stand gets the sun sometimes.

Not just sometimes but pretty much every Saturday at a 3PM KO. Unless it is cloudy or something.

[Wimb]

I wish tickets still cost £12

Oh and LOLZ to this...

The car park space for 2000 has been calculated by a firm of specialist engineers as optimum for this size stadium. It will take no more than 30 minutes to clear the car park when they are full. The car parks will be free.

[Forbury Lion]

I'm still waiting to see where they put the matchday creche/nursery.

Y24 isn't it?

[RoyalBlue]

I'm still waiting to see where they put the matchday creche/nursery.

Funny concept of 'free parking' too!

Or was I imagining that?

For once it's going to be very difficult for Sun Tzu to defend the club on that broken promise because I do believe he himself recorded that statement in writing!!!

[Ian Royal]

I'm still waiting to see where they put the matchday creche/nursery.

Funny concept of 'free parking' too!

Or was I imagining that?

For once it's going to be very difficult for Sun Tzu to defend the club on that broken promise because I do believe he himself recorded that statement in writing!!!

Was the parking ever free? Pretty stupid committment if you ask me, and one that was never going to last even if they did it originally.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Not really ian, parking was free at most grounds, well the few that actually had parking, so offering it free was natural. I doubt there was an original intent to charge, but the queues up to the hill used to be horrendous.

Then they started to charge, and the queses were even worse as they collected the money, then the idea of the ST for parking was introduced, and queues eased a lot.

[WoodleyRoyal]

Hmmm, I'm almoast certain i paid to park there the first game against Luton

[Ian Royal]

Not really ian, parking was free at most grounds, well the few that actually had parking, so offering it free was natural. I doubt there was an original intent to charge, but the queues up to the hill used to be horrendous.

Then they started to charge, and the queses were even worse as they collected the money, then the idea of the ST for parking was introduced, and queues eased a lot.

Blimey.

[Wimb]

It's all a part of the changing attitudes to football fans to be honest.

In the bygone days, clubs needed to just get you through the gate and charging for parking wasn't something that might encourage you to turn up. Although perhaps the biggest reason was that in the past it was mostly street parking, meaning there were very few places where you could organise paid for parking and the alternatives were free. Now though people seem addicted enough to the football drug that they blindly hand over cash. I myself spent about £15 before I'd even entered the ground and thought nothing of it.

For what it's worth I think it's a disgrace to charge fans £8 for a car, whilst at the same time charge some fans over a fiver for a return bus ticket.I don't see why the club can't do some sort of scheme where by you pay depending on how many are in the car. So if you've got 4 in the car you pay a fiver, if you have 3 then it's 6, 2 its 7, 1 it's 8.

But that'll never happen. The club needs AS MUCH money as it can, hence the reason for more expensive food/programes etc. It's not just RFC it's the whole of football

[Dirk Gently]

Pretty good post, Wimb, just a couple of quibbles/comments.

Part of the problem is that the ground is so far from the town centre so there isn't much other parking around, and also that there is parking available on-site. If there wasn't parking then we'd have to adopt the Doncaster/Coventry/Wembley model and then it'd all be public transport from the town centre or elsewhere and then it'd work much better. Having car parking on-site makes people want to use it, of course, and if it was free then it'd be even more congested - what the car drivers who complain about congestion don't acknowledge is that it's them all causing the congestion.

The ultimate solution would be for half a dozen park and rides in all directions - one a J11, one at J12, one off the A33, one at Winnersh and so on, plus a shuttle bus from the twin centre - then the club could adopt the German model where your travel from the town centre or the P&R and back is included in your match ticket.

Agree that there ought to be a car park levy for minimum numbers in the cars, but that's only good in theory. People are so devious and tight-fisted that they'll find any loophole, so what you'd probably just get it cars stopping on Basingstoke Rd, Acre Road or the A33 and offering strangers a lift to the ground.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

There is plenty of parking around tho, however the authorities have made it all double yellows, give me a good reason why Bennett Rd, Acre Road, Commercial Rd, Imperial Way, Gillette Way, Manor Farm Rd have all become no parking on either side since the football ground opened.

If those restrictions were removed on the left hand side, facing away from the ground, fans could park there and cause no obstruction, as these are all commercial roads, and not residential, however they decided to ban all parking on these roads, adding to congestion and parking problems.

[Wimb]

Valid points on both of the above.

The double yellow situation is frankly stupid and some common sense from the council would be very welcome. The removal of the Greyhound stadium hasn't helped things, and the bottleneck getting out of the stadium hasn't improved in a decade.

I'd far prefer the club to enter into an effective relationship with regards to public transport etc and then only have parking on site for disabled fans. I seem to remember when we went to Cardiff there were 2 big fan park and rides and that system seemed to work well iirc.

But beyond all that, my main point was the frankly LOLaughable amount they charge you to park your car, why can't the fecking £20+ quid you pay for a ticket also entitle you to parking?

[Terminal Boardom]

The biggest, single mistake when it came to the stadium and the new A33 was that they built the new road on the wrong side of the stadium. Had the stadium been positioned between the Basingstoke Road and the new A33 Relief Road there would have been potentially 4 escape routes away from the stadium instead of the 2 and a bit that we have now.

I still have the pics somewhere of what the stadium looked like before anything had been done. How anyone can get excited about a patch of manky grazing land is beyond me!