Tom Hughes
Player Valuation: £10m
I agree that this was a missed opportunity to both maximise capacity and to emulate the best qualities of GP. There could've been other forces dictating the chosen format such as actual site access/transport/capacity limitations, but that's not clear.If anything it would be a side stand, in which case yes the overhang is poor in BMD which I and others have mentioned about in other posts.
A greater overhang has double the number of fans on the same footprint which is what fans wanted. ie fans as 'close to the action as possible', or fans on 'top of of the pitch'. BMD does not have any overhanging tiers so it is not as 'intimate' as people wanted.
We can't get it as close as Goodison, as there are minimum requirements for legroom but we could have at least had some overhang from the upper tiers.
Many modern stands still incorporate overhanging tiers to get more capacity for footprint. This also increases the value of those upper tiers by allowing them to be brought closer to the action. The resultant shallower lower tiers will have to be slightly more set-back to achieve minimum c- values, but this needn't be as distant as say at the Emirates.
The north stand could've had that format to give 2 full home supporting ends with strong identies. One double decker and a larger version of the Gwladys St, with the South Stand just a larger version of the Park end. A shallow lower tier along one side stand could've housed the away fans with a paddock of safe standing to allow more "easily-achieved" away capacity for cup games. Keeping away fans low down and distant from any atmosphere enhancing roof-acoustics.