Stadium Expansion

My thoughts entirely.

Should be Jags & Bentleys.

Where’s the Richarlison money gone?

 

Do they Uber outside match days?

 

The Captain's Bar now refurbished and renamed 'Horizons', due to the additional disabled spaces built at the back of the lower GT. According to the article, it'll actually be bigger than the previous layout due to expanding in to the west side of the stand (albeit not shown in these pics) :https://www.watfordfc.com/club/horizons-new-look-lounge-open

 

What a soulless, dreadful, "corporate" vacuum in which to watch football......and the beer is undoubtedly fizzy, tasteless and 10 degrees too cold - yuck!

 

"Captain's Bar" With flowing alcohol and food to order. <insert own Deeney joke here>

Another fantastic addition to the corporate side of things. Makes me wonder why the Pozzo's didn't insist on making the EJ stand a more substantial structure with even more scope for VIP areas. I guess it just didnt fit the plan at the time.. and they will no doubt be addressing that in the future.



Btw.. going back to the area over the sensory room. I wonder if they are going to install sliding type windows there? and these can be fitted without the scaffolding in place. I think i'm right in saying that the boxes at the back of the GT were the first in the country to have such a feature.

 

When we played at Roker Park we were invited to share a box in the main stand. It was basically a green house type with seats behind a sealed window. I thought it was dreadful as you couldn't cheer or hear any crowd noise at all. A very dull way of watching football imo.
Watfords new boxes were pretty unique at the time because you could sit outside, we must have been one of the first if not THE first to have them.

 

As someone who had to move forward for the extra wheelchair spaces in the Lower GT, It was good to see all the spaces used with several children and their parents enjoying the match. Being able to walk the full length of the concourse is a bonus. But the withdrawal of classic Coke and its replacement with Coke Zero (for health reasons) seems a little draconian.

 

It's because of the sugar tax. Loads of places have done it now.

 

I think they did but a few blow off every time the breeze picks up.

 

In other news, Watford have declared a capacity of 20,400 to the Premier League for this season. Down from 21,000 last season.

Surely (hopefully) got to be thinking of expansion in the next couple of years?

 

Why not just charge more for a Classic Coke?

 

I think ‘them up the road’ just beat us to it, purely because their Bobbers stand was so Mickey Mouse that they couldn’t fit anything else in it

 

Its gone very quiet on the expansion front hasn't it. I wonder if they are having a rethink.

 

Planning for championship

 

In no way can any variety of Coca Cola (or indeed Pepsi or any other brand) be described as "Classic".

 

Why did they get rid of the dislike thingy!

 

Class sick

 

Ah yes the Bobbers double glazing executive stand that was redeveloped by visiting Millwall fans.

We cant credit them with the first sliding door boxes though as they have conventional glass doors as opposed to the movable window sections of the ones in the GT. In his Football Grounds book Simon Inglis states that our boxes were of a type new to football when the stand was opened.

 

The Simon Inglis book (published early 90s?) is a delight - I have a copy somewhere. It details the grounds from a time when they were all very different, large or small, rather than the similar bowls which tend to be built these days. It’s now become a historical document.

 

The bible for football ground enthusiasts.
He published four different football ground books.. Football Grounds of England and Wales (1983 revised 85) Football Grounds of GB (1987 and fully updated 1996) and Football Grounds of Europe (1990) I had all four at one point but lost the first book along the way somewhere.

People in the football ground community are desperate for him to do an update but he's since gone off to cover varied subjects.
I reckon he'd love the modern day Vicarage Road as he is always stating the importance of the "little touches" that remind you of where you are. The Pozzo era Vic Road is a fantastic example of that.. the club identity is everywhere you look.

 

Here's their magnificent 'Executive stand', in case you've forgotten what it looks like:

 

Twenty past three and we’re two up already!

 

I’ve heard of self cleaning windows but never ones that will never clean ...because they are permanently stained with SCUM.

 

Maybe the club not fully re-investing the Richarlison money on transfers is a sign that the club are going to use this money on the stadium instead.

 

Maybe - it's all gone very quiet on stadium expansion/ relocation - (can't see us building a new stadium - way too expensive for us)
Wouldn't be the first time we sold a player to build a stand - pretty sure the vic end was built from proceeds of selling Paul Furlong

 

That would be the Rookery Stand that was financed through the sale of Paul Furlong. The Vicarage Road Stand was part financed through the sale of Bruce Dyer.
Perhaps we should have named the stands after them!

 

The Vic Rd stands design is a homage to Bruce's surname.

 

Always thought it was after Lloyd Dyer.

Stand corrected.

 

I was at that game it was the famous 4-0 win at the Kennell, they kept doing one man invasions of the pitch when we were 4-0 up in the first half in an attempt to get the match abandoned, they didn't even have the brains to try it all at once, it might have worked

 

He would have been about 10 years old when the stand was built

The story with Bruce Dyer isnt quite what it seems. He was sold fully 6 months after the stand was opened.. in fact he played in the very first game in front of the Vic road stand (vs Notts County Sept 1993) It suggests that maybe we overstretched ourselves Financially building the stand and had to sell.
Furlong was sold well ahead of the Rookery Stand opening.

 

Danny Dyer?

 

Pwoper stand that guvnor..

 

Eric Dier?

That’s my last throw of the die-rce.

 

Moving on..
With the naming of stands. Who else in the clubs history could warrant a stand named in their honour in the future? Apart from people from way back.. for instance those that started the club, i can only really think of one. Luther.
Would be very fitting as well because GT told him on their first ever meeting that his name would look good in lights and we could have an illuminated Luther Blissett Stand sign.

 

He also scored in front of it, during our 2-0 win over Middlesbrough on 10th October 93 which was shown live on ITV for Sunday's 'Big Match'