Stadium Expansion

"not be adversely affected" as it states in the article.. which sounds a touch ominous! Pay £650 for a season ticket and all you can see is the backside of a French tv cameraman

 

I have often thought that the Health campus would work better if Watford built a new stadium on the power station/cardiff Road part, with the housing on the Vicarage road site. There are pros and cons. You get a purpose built stadium right next to the railway and the new access road, but the downside is it is more remote from the town centre (personally i think the fact that it is a ten minute walk from the town is a big selling point for those attending matches. A purpose built stadium still within the town, would be difficult to achieve elsewhere, and presumably would have some sort of conference centre for non matchday income.

 

Well it would be pretty hard to become an 'established' EPL club in less than two years wouldn't it?

The stadium will continue to develop for the time being by maximising all the 'tinkering at the margins' opportunities available (which is what is being undertaken this summer (including those developments that are required of us as new entrants to the EPL)).

The Pozzo's style throughout, in developing our club in all its aspects, has been one of sensible pragmatism, not grandiose statements. So only when all the marginal improvements and increases to stadium capacity have been maxed out and if we were then 'established' in the EPL and potential demand was thought to be significantly in excess of supply, would a more radical solution likely to be considered.

The building of the SEJ didn't adversely affect stadium capacity while it was being built because that side of the ground wasn't being used at the time anyway. But look how long even a smallish, easy to construct, stand did take to build. Any major development on any side now would be likely to put that side out of action for a considerable length of time with a consequent reduction in stadium capacity during the (demolition if required) and building phase. And we'd still be 'hemmed in'.

For those reasons, if we got to that stage, then I think the Pozzos would be looking at a new stadium rather than try and increase the capacity at the Vic in any really significant way.

 

Palace?

 

The BBC have pointed out this expansion will take our capacity above Swansea's. 18th place. Wahoo.

Interesting (for me at least).

 

They also have experience at Udinese of the disruption that major developments can cause.

 

They've had their two years now and look 'established' yes. A first good season could always be a one-off. Palace could always have a bad season coming up right now and get relegated too. That's the same for all 'smaller' clubs like us and Palace. But if we get 'established', then I reckon we've got a better chance of sticking there under the 'Pozzo model' than others.

 

I've had a quick look through the list of English stadia with a view to identifying any 'traditional stadia' that once had a much smaller capacity and have now increased it to over 30,000. The only one that leapt off the page at me is the Boleyn with a current capacity of a little over 35,000. I wonder how the Hammers did it. Were they ever as 'hemmed in' as we are? And now they're moving anyway!

The Boleyn wiki entry also contains the following classic line:

"The East Stand is located on the far side of the Boleyn Ground, opposite the West Stand"

Well there's a thing!

 

Elton John lyrics are going too. The club are thinking about relocating them or at least getting the lyrics put somewhere in a different style.

 

Or continue the concrete steps that run from the back down to the (current) front row.

 

That's what I assumed they would be doing.

 

Yes. You are right. It would.

 

I've heard that after the successful test of 'spectators on the pitch' in the last game of last season, the club are going to put at least 200 seats just inside the touchline at the Rookery End. Whilst all the seats won't be 'restricted view', the corner taking areas will be assigned as 'restricted run up'.

 

Will they be flogging season tickets for the new seats? Going to get soaked sat there if it rains

 

You're going to get wet if you sit at the front of any stand to be fair, roof or no roof.

 

Love it when birds get wet!!! Oi oi!

 

This is good news for those fans who can only get to one or two games a year. It will make it somewhat easier to get tickets, although I would fear that they will be in short supply for certain games. The last away game that I went to was a championship match in Newcastle. Absolutely brilliant weekend, despite the result. So much so, that I would be keen to repeat.

 

The club have also announced that to fulfil their non-discriminatory Accessibility requirements, anyone in a wheelchair will have the option to have a 50cc 2 stroke engine fitted, pitch storming instructions will be printed in a variety of foreign languages and the 'half time penalty shoot out competition' will be replaced with the 'half time offside demonstration competition' just for the ladies. Plans to cater for numerical dyslexics are still being drafted to deal with those who might inadvertently rush on after the 09th minute.

 

Sounds reasonable although there will be many from both sexes who will benefit from the new ht demonstration.

 

Also as I was walking past the ground on way home from work about half 3 a group of 3 men were knocking a small hole in the wall between the away turnstiles and first set of exit doors on the vicarage road stand about head hight and examining what was behind it

 

Could be the Holy Grail.

 

Ouch! It was handball

 

FML Baz has hired the OAP cat burglars to crack the safe.

 

The missing key perhaps :naughty:

 

Wasn't directed at you particularly! Just that there are plenty of blokes who don't 'get' the offside law either. And when Richard Keys and Andy Gray made their 'joke' regarding a female lino and the offside law, every call she'd ever made was spot on as far as I could see.

Well, they can eff off to the Middle East then. Oh, they already have!

 

Hopefully they will be seating the johnny-come-lately glory hunters in the new section so the rest of us don't have to suffer them.

 

There's quite a few refs & linos who don't get the offside law either (badum tish!)

 

Any news of a second screen? I'm behind the current one in the family stand, so would appreciate one at the other end. Anyone know who I need to bribe to make it happen?

 

Nothing mentioned. I guess you'll have to hope one of the catchily named future "capital expenditure projects" is an extra screen.

 

You know you've arrived when your stadium has 2 screens. There's proper posh.

 

To be a proper Premier League team, you must have screens on top of the stand a la White Hart Lane in my opinion. I spent more time watching that than I did the game last time we were there (which was just as well seeing Paul Robinson, the GK one, scored from 80 yards!).

 

I'm sure it's already been purchased from Evolution HDTV and is currently being stored in a garage in Stanmore by Basil Lambrini (or some similar name). However it can't be used as the remote control and instructions were kept locked in a safe. I think that's what the workmen mentioned earlier were searching for. One of them was wearing a red helmet at a rather jaunty angle!

 

We found the safe !!!

 

Seats going into the NE corner now too.

 

Source?

EDIT:

http://www.watfordfc.com/news/article/150608-vicarage-road-stadium-north-east-corner-2486084.aspx