New stadium update...

[paulcooper4]

First of all I much preferred the HKS design to the original AFL plans but let's get it into perspective. When AFL were first engaged in the late 90s to do the new stadium one of the main considerations was cost and I seem to recall a total budget of around £70-80m was quoted back then. That original design was 'state of the art' and the best you could expect for that sort of money. The Reebok had just been built (and I thought it looked ****ing brilliant back in 1997), the City of Manchester was under construction and Ashburton Grove was still an artist's impression.

Roll forward six or seven years and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ride into town with a big fanfare. One of the first things they look at is the new stadium design which by then was well past it's sell by date. Rather than haul the architects (AFL) in and demand they give it a face-lift they pay them off (over £1m I heard) and bring in Butch Cassidy's mates at HKS who, fair play, come up with a stunning design. However, even last summer when steel prices had fallen, the bold new Texan design was estimated at costing around £400m. With steel prices rocketing, the dollar weakening and the cost of borrowing spiralling it would probably cost our friends in the South the best part of a million bucks to build the 'spaceship' now.

So... they hold a beauty contest with the local girl whose looks have faded being asked to put some slap on (AFL) and the Texan beauty being asked to drop her drawers for less bucks (HKS). Now it's down to Butch and the Kid to decide which girl they're going to dance with...

...unless this is Brokeback Mountain and they ride off into the sunset together!

iain

[blacky]

First of all I much preferred the HKS design to the original AFL plans but let's get it into perspective. When AFL were first engaged in the late 90s to do the new stadium one of the main considerations was cost and I seem to recall a total budget of around £70-80m was quoted back then. That original design was 'state of the art' and the best you could expect for that sort of money. The Reebok had just been built (and I thought it looked ****ing brilliant back in 1997), the City of Manchester was under construction and Ashburton Grove was still an artist's impression.

Roll forward six or seven years and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ride into town with a big fanfare. One of the first things they look at is the new stadium design which by then was well past it's sell by date. Rather than haul the architects (AFL) in and demand they give it a face-lift they pay them off (over £1m I heard) and bring in Butch Cassidy's mates at HKS who, fair play, come up with a stunning design. However, even last summer when steel prices had fallen, the bold new Texan design was estimated at costing around £400m. With steel prices rocketing, the dollar weakening and the cost of borrowing spiralling it would probably cost our friends in the South the best part of a million bucks to build the 'spaceship' now.

So... they hold a beauty contest with the local girl whose looks have faded being asked to put some slap on (AFL) and the Texan beauty being asked to drop her drawers for less bucks (HKS). Now it's down to Butch and the Kid to decide which girl they're going to dance with...

...unless this is Brokeback Mountain and they ride off into the sunset together!

Excellent post lad. As always you have come up trumps with stadium info for us. Respect.

[StevieG08]

I can't wait to get a new ground. Even though we've had loads of deadlines etc I'm of the opinion that it will get built - because it's imperative for our future. However, it takes second place behind what's going wrong on the pitch. We should be doing so much better (again) - but the bottom line is we're not.

For me it's been a combination of things. The public spat, which to be fair Rafa started left a very bad taste in the mouth. That was followed by the news that the original stadium was 'too expensive' and the owners were struggling to find the finances to pay for it. All this coincided with being out of the title race by January(again!). It's been a bad couple of months, lets hope for a good cup run(either FA or Euro or both!) and good news on the financial side of things.

[tomasjj]

funny stuff, RS

[irishgeo]

thanks rushscored4 for all the work.

[dom9]

I had fears about them too, but thank god for HKS coming in because clearly they've risen the bar and it sounds like AFL have risen to the challenge

You make it sound like HKS came in off their own backs and decided to give us a new stadium design.

You have been about the most vocal anti-American owner poster on this site in the last two months (yes, even more than more than Tom). You could at least view the role they have played in a slightly more positive light now.

Credit where credit is due I think.

[Darth Marty]

ffs...1 pint of guiness does that to him

[Kopite_Colin]

Cheers RS. However, I still say 70,000 capacity is bollocks. Any room for expansion with the new AFL design? We only want to do this once in the next 50 years or so, so let's at least get it right.

[rage]

i'm bored with this **** now. no offence intended to anyone but all i want is a single tier kop and 70 odd thousand with room to expand. Don't really care what it looks like, the football on the pitch will do the talking. the sooner they start digging the better imo.

[Angry Dan]

I don't think that anyone here want the owners to fail.

I do think that a lot of people are fed up of all the talk that has happened and if you look at what has been delivered so far it is not a lot.

It is all about expectation management, if they had not come out and said that we would be competing with the big clubs in transfer market, added to that the stadium debacle people would be happy about what has been done so far. Not to mention the isolation of a lot of fans with Rafagate.

We have a phrase for our American equivalents in the armed forces "All the gear and no idea", which I think is relevant here. There main problem is added to their lack of knowledge of the field they have now entered they are being advised by Rick Parry on how things should be done.

In my opinion they should wait until the financing is signed and sealed before they announce which stadium they have chosen and make a statement of intent about the future of how things will be done acknowledging the mistakes they have made.

I would expect the fans to give them the benefit of the doubt and we can all move forward with one objective, of returning this club to where it belongs at the top of the league.

[Pablo]

ffs...1 pint of guiness does that to him

Yes, you should definitely drink more!

Cheers for the info again Iain.

[rushscored4]

ffs...1 pint of guiness does that to him

Yes, you should definitely drink more! Cheers for the info again Iain.

Actually, it was two. And a couple of large glasses of wine when I got in so I'm suffering today... ("never mix the grape and the grain")

Cheers RS. However, I still say 70,000 capacity is bollocks. Any room for expansion with the new AFL design? We only want to do this once in the next 50 years or so, so let's at least get it right.

i'm bored with this **** now. no offence intended to anyone but all i want is a single tier kop and 70 odd thousand with room to expand. Don't really care what it looks like, the football on the pitch will do the talking. the sooner they start digging the better imo.

Yesterday there was a big debate on Talk****e about whether Newcastle were a big club or not. Loads of Geordie Neanderthals phoned in claiming they must be a big club because they get 52,000 at every home game and have a season ticket waiting list of over 10,000. Arsenal's new stadium holds 60,000 and although the Mancs get 76,000 (and are filling in the corners in soon for an extra 7,000), as Dementio admits, it's full of ****ing tourists.

I honestly think 70,000 is about right for us. Obviously we could get 100,000+ against the Mancs, Everton, possibly Arsenal and Chelsea and the CL games but I don't think we'd get more than 70,000 against the likes of Wigan, Fulham and Derby, for example, and definitely wouldn't fill it for a lot of domestic cup matches.

[ronan]

yeah agree that we dont want it too big
on eof the main things ive noticed about the emirates
is since the arsenal moved there,you hear a lot of the usual who are ya etc.. bull**** normally associated with likes of bolton,never used to get that at highbury to my recollection

[Guest]

Actually, it was two. And a couple of large glasses of wine when I got in so I'm suffering today... ("never mix the grape and the grain")





Yesterday there was a big debate on Talk****e about whether Newcastle were a big club or not. Loads of Geordie Neanderthals phoned in claiming they must be a big club because they get 52,000 at every home game and have a season ticket waiting list of over 10,000. Arsenal's new stadium holds 60,000 and although the Mancs get 76,000 (and are filling in the corners in soon for an extra 7,000), as Dementio admits, it's full of ****ing tourists.

I honestly think 70,000 is about right for us. Obviously we could get 100,000+ against the Mancs, Everton, possibly Arsenal and Chelsea and the CL games but I don't think we'd get more than 70,000 against the likes of Wigan, Fulham and Derby, for example, and definitely wouldn't fill it for a lot of domestic cup matches.

United do fill it for every match though. Tourists or not, they're paying big bucks to attend every match.

[Dhav]

First of all I much preferred the HKS design to the original AFL plans but let's get it into perspective. When AFL were first engaged in the late 90s to do the new stadium one of the main considerations was cost and I seem to recall a total budget of around £70-80m was quoted back then. That original design was 'state of the art' and the best you could expect for that sort of money. The Reebok had just been built (and I thought it looked ****ing brilliant back in 1997), the City of Manchester was under construction and Ashburton Grove was still an artist's impression.

Roll forward six or seven years and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ride into town with a big fanfare. One of the first things they look at is the new stadium design which by then was well past it's sell by date. Rather than haul the architects (AFL) in and demand they give it a face-lift they pay them off (over £1m I heard) and bring in Butch Cassidy's mates at HKS who, fair play, come up with a stunning design. However, even last summer when steel prices had fallen, the bold new Texan design was estimated at costing around £400m. With steel prices rocketing, the dollar weakening and the cost of borrowing spiralling it would probably cost our friends in the South the best part of a million bucks to build the 'spaceship' now.

So... they hold a beauty contest with the local girl whose looks have faded being asked to put some slap on (AFL) and the Texan beauty being asked to drop her drawers for less bucks (HKS). Now it's down to Butch and the Kid to decide which girl they're going to dance with...

...unless this is Brokeback Mountain and they ride off into the sunset together!