Jacko93
Player Valuation: £35m
Visited the stadium today on a shareholder's tour. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos. Entered the stadium in the South east corner, went up the stairway to the upper concourse which serves South, East and I believe North upper tiers, with access all the way around. It appeared quite roomy with spaces laid out for central Island concessions. We walked along the South stand concourse and could see the view towards the city centre, although the drizzle created a mist obscuring most of it. We were then led up a central vomitory, out onto the upper tier for our first view of the stadium bowl itself. The first over-riding impression was that of scale and steepness. We stood on the first row above the super-riser separating upper and lower (safe-standing) tiers. Without an actual goal to gauge distance, it felt as if we were roughly the same height as say the back row of the upper Gwladys Street stand...... but in this case there was another 33 rows rising above us. I especially liked the wrap around effect and simplicity of the straight cranked corners. It's a much simpler layout than the complex Spurs and Arsenal Bowls tbf. But that might create greater unity. The roof did feel very high but gives a slight overall domed effect which has its own acoustic properties and which hopefully in combination with the wrap around corners will help generate a great atmosphere. The North stand for me looks like a little bit of a non-event, although some people seem to like the variation of height at that end. It looks completely disconnected from its roof.... a little bit like going out with an umbrella and holding it at full arm's-length above your head. I noticed that a lot of the front half of the Lower West stand's terraces looked very wet. I can only assume that the transparent roof panels have not been fitted yet.... otherwise this area is not very well protected. I had hoped that we would be getting a view from a side stand.... so that I could have sneaked a photo of the South Stand before getting kicked out. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, as we were then led away to an external viewing platform before leaving site.
Great stuff Tom.
I know that many of your concerns are based on factors beyong stadium design, but has the visit gone any way to allay any concerns you had?