ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

?Old? new stadium?

In all the discussions about a new home, has there been any talk of building an ?old? new stadium? I go to games in New York City where we are in the process of building two brand-new baseball stadia, both with reduced capacities, but in a style that emulates an old style ballpark. Can this be done? Is that the plan?

My concern is that you end up with a place like Man City or the Reebok, soulless buildings with too big capacities. Why not have a place with a maximum of 45 thousand seats that rocks? That looks exactly like Goodison but doesn't have the obstructed views or the narrow seats or the horrible facilities. The new ballpark in NY will mimic Ebbets Field that was torn down 50 years ago, and the new Yankee Stadium will evoke strong memories of the current Yankee Stadium. Why can't we do that? If we need to move away, why can't we take the heart of Goodison with us, and leave the Reds to have a modern building that has no life?
Al Dugan, NYC Posted 19/07/2007 at 02:51:20

back Return to the Mail Bag

Comments

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

Lyndon

It's a good question, Al. I think that to some extent the idea of emulating the RheinEnergie Stadion in Cologne is an attempt at building an older-style stadium, if only in as much as it isn't a bowl.

On similar lines to what you describe in New York, the San Francisco Giants also built a brand-new stadium with a nostalgic design... on a brownfield waterfront site, no less. In combination with the DotCom boom at the turn of the century, that stadium development sparked massive development and regeneration in an area that was hitherto just a sea of concrete.

Tom Hughes
1 Posted 19/07/2007 at 08:09:20

I think you will find that when LFC release their plans that they have tried to emulate much of their current stadium. The retro-approach has been going on for years in the US. There is plenty of scope to do similar with Goodison, and plenty of reasons to follow this route given the history of this particular site.

Ed MacDonald
2 Posted 19/07/2007 at 08:29:05

Couldn’t agree more. Best stadium I’ve ever been to is Camden Yards in Baltimore. http://www.hoksport.com/projects/oriole.html
It’s new but feels like it’s been there for years (the fact that it’s a short walk from the waterfront also helps). I really hope we can learn from this and do something a bit retro.

Allan Southall
3 Posted 19/07/2007 at 09:50:20

Change is good, embrace change, move on, the future is bright.

Why are Evertonians so stuck in the past? Whats this obsession with ’dear old Goodison?’

The best stadium I’ve been to in recent years is the Emirates, its very modern, brilliant views from every (massive) seat and has everything you could want from a modern stadium.

An atmosphere is built by the fans not the space they’re watching from.

Gareth Davies
4 Posted 19/07/2007 at 10:30:45

Allan, while it is certainly true that you couldn’t have an atmosphere without fans, the stadium will go a long way to amplifying the noise created by the fans.
I believe the new Wembley stadium is fenced by glass at the top of each stand, where previous, similar structures have an open air gap. This was designed to keep the noise in, so to speak.
Although a shiny new stadium is seen as essential to the clubs progress it does need to be right - a new stadium along the same lines of Goodison (with four stands) is far preferable to another bowl such as the Reebok or Pride Park

Iain McWilliam
5 Posted 19/07/2007 at 10:32:30

’An atmosphere is built by the fans not the space they?re watching from’, good point Allan...which begs the question of why are we moving out of Liverpool again :)

I do like the idea of an ’old fashioned’ new stadium tho...but remember we are talking about Tesco here, I doubt if they really want to build this stadium for us and if they do then they will keep a tight riegn on the budget, which will leave little scope for ’artistic needs’ :)

Brian Waring
6 Posted 19/07/2007 at 10:31:00

Allan Southall.I now live down in Wokingham where there is a lot of support for Arsenal,and I talk to to some Arsenal fans in my local boozer.And they say if there was 2 things they could have brought from Highbury,it would have been the soul and atmosphere of that old stadium.I was like you, saying to them, they probalby had one of the best grounds in europe.But as one of them said,it’s like this old boozer he used to drink in.Spit and sawdust type pub,with all the old fellahs with their different characters.He said it was taken over and turned into a wine bar.He only ever went once because he said it had lost it’s soul and atmosphere.And that is what the new stadium feels like.It’s okay saying the fans give the atmosphere,but I don’t think it’s as simple as that.

Allan Southall
7 Posted 19/07/2007 at 11:08:31

Agreed on all fronts with all of you. My point is, that the stadium needs to be built in such a way as to keep the noise in, but to say it needs to be built to look like Goodison is ridiculous. It should be modern, it should be designed to keep the atmosphere in, an atmosphere created by us.

Its very simple, I just don’t agree that it should reflect Goodison Park particularly. Dixie’s statue out front should be enough to remember a bygone age.