Anyone For Chinese?

[Reading4eva]

Personally would rather keep the training ground and get a new stadium in the town centre. Hexagon site is ideal.

So you'd rather keep the site we can't afford and simultaneously spend £100m or something crazy on a new stadium causing abysmal traffic chaos every game?

No thanks.

To be fair the council would absolutely love it. The Oracle, Broad Street Mall and all other car parks will fill right up. The town would get a passing trade.

It wouldn't be a terrible idea had it been done all those years ago. But there is no point spending so much on a stadium when we already have an amazing one.

[From Despair To Where?]

Our stadium was amazing 26 years ago or if you're used to watching football in a 6,000 capacity shed. In comparison to Dean Court maybe.

[Snowflake Royal]

Don't think anyone's ever described our stadium as amazing. In comparison to Dean Court maybe.

It's identikit 90's

iirc it won an award not long after completion

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Don't think anyone's ever described our stadium as amazing. In comparison to Dean Court maybe.

It's identikit 90's

Shots fired

[windermereROYAL]

Most L1 fans with small grounds think it`s amazing, we`re a big side at this level.

[scumbag]

Don't think anyone's ever described our stadium as amazing. In comparison to Dean Court maybe.

It's identikit 90's

Harsh. I love it. Great view of the pitch and some of the best legroom in the 92.

[From Despair To Where?]

Ok guys, you've convinced m I'll amend my original post

[Greatwesternline]

Don't think anyone's ever described our stadium as amazing. In comparison to Dean Court maybe.

It's identikit 90's

iirc it won an award not long after completion

Best mid-sized European sports Arena as awarded by ESPN US if I remember correctly.

[Snowflake Royal]

Don't think anyone's ever described our stadium as amazing. In comparison to Dean Court maybe.

It's identikit 90's

iirc it won an award not long after completion

Best mid-sized European sports Arena as awarded by ESPN US if I remember correctly.

That's the chappie

[Hendo]

Personally would rather keep the training ground and get a new stadium in the town centre. Hexagon site is ideal.

So you'd rather keep the site we can't afford and simultaneously spend £100m or something crazy on a new stadium causing abysmal traffic chaos every game?

No thanks.

To be fair the council would absolutely love it. The Oracle, Broad Street Mall and all other car parks will fill right up. The town would get a passing trade.

It wouldn't be a terrible idea had it been done all those years ago. But there is no point spending so much on a stadium when we already have an amazing one.

Clearly someone who hasn't tried parking in Reading town centre on any given Saturday.

Also, the prices to park in town are horrifically expensive.

It is a terrible idea, it was then and it is now.

[PieEater]

iirc it won an award not long after completion

Best mid-sized European sports Arena as awarded by ESPN US if I remember correctly.

That's the chappie

It's quite unusual in that the outside and concourse are above the pitch, so disabled fans can get in and be at a level to get a decent view.

[Greatwesternline]

Best mid-sized European sports Arena as awarded by ESPN US if I remember correctly.

That's the chappie

It's quite unusual in that the outside and concourse are above the pitch, so disabled fans can get in and be at a level to get a decent view.

It sort of makes sense. if you dig down to put the pitch in, you dont need to build such tall stands to get people in.

[Green]

That's the chappie

It's quite unusual in that the outside and concourse are above the pitch, so disabled fans can get in and be at a level to get a decent view.

It sort of makes sense. if you dig down to put the pitch in, you dont need to build such tall stands to get people in.

Drainage must be a nightmare, but I guess your modern groundsman must have tools at his disposal to mitigate.

[Snowflake Royal]

It's quite unusual in that the outside and concourse are above the pitch, so disabled fans can get in and be at a level to get a decent view.

It sort of makes sense. if you dig down to put the pitch in, you dont need to build such tall stands to get people in.

Drainage must be a nightmare, but I guess your modern groundsman must have tools at his disposal to mitigate.

It's on a hill anyway. We've rarely uad anything called off.

[Whore Jackie]

Palmer Park is difficult because of the leisure centre and adjoining football pitches and the car park being tiddily. I'm also not sure whether the internal dimensions support a football pitch. But yes that's the best option if it does come to that.

Is there not a football pitch in the middle already? I'm sure I played a match there in the early 90s. Long time since I've been but is the cycle track round the outside still there and does it have a bit of banking, that would be more of an issue for putting some temporary stands in.

Don’t think there’s a cycle track but there are large banks of soil around the edge of the track yes. Not sure that’s entirely disadvantageous but I’m not an architect.

The middle of the track is currently an athletics field for throwing events. In theory you could of course use it for more than one thing, but others have said that the dimensions aren’t right.

Cycle track and running track are both still there, and were renovated as part of last year's sports centre expansion and swimming pool build. Only one permanent grandstand and probably no bigger than 1,500 seats. Car park is bigger than before, but not huge. Most of the surrounding roads are resident permit or 2 hours waiting. Palmer Park is on numerous bus routes and there's the Park & Ride options at Winnersh and Thames Valley Park. Would probably be our best bet and a similar setup to Brighton's Withdean Stadium.

[tmesis]

Is there not a football pitch in the middle already? I'm sure I played a match there in the early 90s. Long time since I've been but is the cycle track round the outside still there and does it have a bit of banking, that would be more of an issue for putting some temporary stands in.

Don’t think there’s a cycle track but there are large banks of soil around the edge of the track yes. Not sure that’s entirely disadvantageous but I’m not an architect.

The middle of the track is currently an athletics field for throwing events. In theory you could of course use it for more than one thing, but others have said that the dimensions aren’t right.

Cycle track and running track are both still there, and were renovated as part of last year's sports centre expansion and swimming pool build. Only one permanent grandstand and probably no bigger than 1,500 seats. Car park is bigger than before, but not huge. Most of the surrounding roads are resident permit or 2 hours waiting. Palmer Park is on numerous bus routes and there's the Park & Ride options at Winnersh and Thames Valley Park. Would probably be our best bet and a similar setup to Brighton's Withdean Stadium.

Brighton struggled with support there, and they were in the league, and obviously "massive" too.

If we were stuck somewhere like that, down in the depths of non-league, it'd be soul-destroying and kill our support.

[Jagermesiter1871]

Personally would rather keep the training ground and get a new stadium in the town centre. Hexagon site is ideal.

So you'd rather keep the site we can't afford and simultaneously spend £100m or something crazy on a new stadium causing abysmal traffic chaos every game?

No thanks.

In what sense can't we afford the training ground? If we had a decent setup the training ground/academy would have paid for itself in the players its produced and the fees we should have received from say Olise and Abbey alone. The tg is also a huge draw and the reason for most of the decent signings we've made since not being able to offer proper wages.

The current stadium is in dire state of repair; leaking roofs, rust, brick work crumbling, drab concrete interior, etc; thus is going to require a good level of investment. Brentford managed to build their new stadium, in central London, for £70 mil, so think £50mil should be an achievable target in Reading. Work in selling the current land, sell the council on the increase in town foot fall/revenue to a dying high street and it being greener as far less fans will drive and you should be able to get some sort of grant as well. The traffic is already fairly shit at the current site and as said, i think people will be far less likely to drive to a town centre stadium.

[tmesis]

The current stadium is in dire state of repair; leaking roofs, rust, brick work crumbling, drab concrete interior, etc; thus is going to require a good level of investment. Brentford managed to build their new stadium, in central London, for £70 mil, so think £50mil should be an achievable target in Reading. Work in selling the current land, sell the council on the increase in town foot fall/revenue to a dying high street and it being greener as far less fans will drive and you should be able to get some sort of grant as well. The traffic is already fairly shit at the current site and as said, i think people will be far less likely to drive to a town centre stadium.

I think if we had a town centre stadium far more people would use public transport, because public transport to a town centre is usually pretty good from all over town (and beyond). With 30 years of dull stadium mistakes to learn from, we could certainly build a more appealing stadium, and the location, in terms of a day out, would be hard to beat. We could easily go from being considered one of the least favoured away grounds to one of the best.

That said, I don't think there's any chance at all it will happen.

[Green]

Brentford managed to build their new stadium, in central London, for £70 mil

You have a strange definition of "central" London - it doesn't even have a London postcode.

[Jagermesiter1871]

The current stadium is in dire state of repair; leaking roofs, rust, brick work crumbling, drab concrete interior, etc; thus is going to require a good level of investment. Brentford managed to build their new stadium, in central London, for £70 mil, so think £50mil should be an achievable target in Reading. Work in selling the current land, sell the council on the increase in town foot fall/revenue to a dying high street and it being greener as far less fans will drive and you should be able to get some sort of grant as well. The traffic is already fairly shit at the current site and as said, i think people will be far less likely to drive to a town centre stadium.

I think if we had a town centre stadium far more people would use public transport, because public transport to a town centre is usually pretty good from all over town (and beyond). With 30 years of dull stadium mistakes to learn from, we could certainly build a more appealing stadium, and the location, in terms of a day out, would be hard to beat. We could easily go from being considered one of the least favoured away grounds to one of the best.

That said, I don't think there's any chance at all it will happen.

Agreed and agreed unfortunately. Just an idea for the new owners.