I’ve stood on the terrace since it opened. As I have booked online each time I have bought a ticket through the same account, it would be very easy to set up a tick box to show I receive a slight discount (I won’t be able to stand with the people I normally go with as they have already purchased season tickets - I think that deserves some sort of recognition).
This shouldn’t be down to degradation of the materials, it sounds like structurally the design wasn’t up to scratch. The voids under the terrace which are used as storage create spans of unsupported concrete - the weight of the concrete itself and then the loading of pie-loving Chairboys, maybe doing a few too many rhubarb-rhubard-boing-boings - that’s where the issue lies but really a 35 year old terrace (more like 30yrs when the problems were first apparent) shouldn’t be having this sort of problem.
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Not sure what to make of this, other than to say it’s sad and feels like the beginning of the end for standing at AP. Always easy to jump to blame, and maybe there has been some oversight by someone/some people. But very much an ‘is what it is’ situation for the time being at least. I’d like the club to give a more detailed short and long term plan fairly sharpish.
If the FA and Family Stand will be accommodating more patrons, maybe it’ll generate an impressive wall of noise as the terrace was fighting a losing battle on that front, both structurally and in terms of dwindling vocal support (yessss the atmosphere was better years ago and I don’t have rose-tinted ears).
The Block T experiment is about to go up a notch.
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I don’t understand people blaming the management for this, surely this is a scheduled safety inspection
. I am not aware of the frequency of such inspections but if they found the fault and the club are undertaking urgent action to rectify and at the same time keeping people safe, then good on them.
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Sat in the garden after another day of no rain, I wonder if the ground conditions are also a factor. Ground drying out around the foundations could be putting additional strain on the structure if it’s already old/weakened.
This has been brewing for the last 5yrs or so! Every year, they manage to squeek through the inspections and it looks like its finally failed.
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I think the fact that it’s been mentioned in several trust Q&A’s by this point suggests it’s been known about for years, and the inspection could have been done on the first day after the season ended, which might have given them time to come up with a better plan.
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This was well known when Rob was around. That’s why he was “looking” at every option to get another road built. Without it, the stand can’t be rebuilt as the Council & FA will never allow it due to the limited 1 access road.
The grounds & stadium are inspected every year so that it maintains it’s capacity cerficiate. Its the same type of inspection that happens for non-league clubs and has stopped clubs being promoted because they don’t have the correct facilities.
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Can’t be rebuilt or can’t be increased?
I’ve also mentioned a few times that the terrace’s capacity has been (unofficially) lowered so that it continues to pass the inspections. It looks like now has been the point where its not viable or safe until some major work has been done to the stand
What’s the point of rebuilding something if you can’t improve it?
To have some sort of functional stand before it’s totally shut down. Although maybe they can repair it well enough to get it back to a decent capacity? Maybe not though.
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Surely it comes down to if its cost-effective? If the stand is rebuilt, it was increase potential capacity which could also could earn more revenue through sponsorship, maybe put some boxes in the stand too
That’ll be the ideal scenario but how far could we increase the capacity without the mythical new road?
Yes, I see your point.
Correct only comment would be if we demolished and applied to build the stand the same way same size it would get approved.
So that is a good point. If the ground is inspected every year, then it was ok last year then?
What’s the point of increasing the capacity if we don’t fill it as it is?
Improvement, of course, doesn’t mean bigger. Similar size, better acoustics but with the option to increase at a later date (if we get promoted for example) would all be improvement without increase.
Mind you, having a stand that’s not falling down would also be an improvement.
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As I’ve said earlier, I know that the terrace’s total capacity has been lowered several times over the last few years becaise of it’s worsening condition. However, it appears this year that either enough is enough and the stand needs some serious work OR we’ve had an assessor from the FA that has looked more in-depth to make that judgement
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