Your Old Stadium

[HibeeJibee]

Maracana only opened in 1950...

Motherwell did stop in Brazil for a few days en route home from a month's tour of Argentina in 1928.

Drew 1-1 with 'Brazil' (or 'Rio XI'), lost 5-0 v 'Brazilian' XI ('Rio-Sao Paolo XI'), in Rio.

Edited January 26, 2014 by HibeeJibee

[dirtydave]

Maracana only opened in 1950...

Motherwell did stop in Brazil for a few days en route home from a month's tour of Argentina in 1928.

Drew 1-1 with 'Brazil' (or 'Rio XI'), lost 5-0 v 'Brazilian' XI ('Rio-Sao Paolo XI'), in Rio.

Cheers. Knew about the south american tour and just assumed we played Brazil at the maracana because one of the games was in Rio.

[jagfox]

Picture of the Holte End at Villa Park

Its like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

[jagfox]

What is happening with Love Street?

Took this yesterday.

[akuram]

I remember at the old Muirton Park for a few years they had a burger van which sat at the top of corner nearest the ice-rink and one match a clearance or shot went right in the open window of the van.

[HibeeJibee]

Cheers. Knew about the south american tour and just assumed we played Brazil at the maracana because one of the games was in Rio.

In the narrative bit of the Motherwell official history it says it was played at the "Rio Stadium" before a crowd of 40,000.

Apparently the second match finished so late the 'Well players had to be shuttled to the dock in taxicabs, still in their football kit, in order to catch the liner home!!

Third Lanark had previously toured Argentina & Uruguay in 1923 and built many friendships. I recall reading that during WWII they were sent replacement kit from people in Argentina in solidarity.

[Kilbowie's Finest]

If anyone is interested the link below takes you to a series of pictures showing my beloved Clydebank FC's old ground Kilbowie Park through the years

Some cracking pics here and what a great thread this is

http://www.clydebankprogrammesonline.co.uk/New%20Kilbowie%20Park.html

[dirtydave]

In the narrative bit of the Motherwell official history it says it was played at the "Rio Stadium" before a crowd of 40,000.

Apparently the second match finished so late the 'Well players had to be shuttled to the dock in taxicabs, still in their football kit, in order to catch the liner home!!

Third Lanark had previously toured Argentina & Uruguay in 1923 and built many friendships. I recall reading that during WWII they were sent replacement kit from people in Argentina in solidarity.

I'm sure a similar thing happened to motherwell. On one of the tours, think it was south america, they were presented with a new set of kits as a thank you. The kit was claret with amber trimmings rather than the other way round so the club used it as an away kit.

[Kilbowie's Finest]

If anyone is interested the link below takes you to a series of pictures showing my beloved Clydebank FC's old ground Kilbowie Park through the years

Some cracking pics here and what a great thread this is

http://www.clydebankprogrammesonline.co.uk/New%20Kilbowie%20Park.html

Sorry just noticed someone posted old pics of Kilbowie earlier in the thread - that's why I should always read all the pages before posting !!!!

[pozbaird]

What is happening with Love Street?

Took this yesterday.

Nothing seems to be happening. The new stadium will be five years old on Jan 31 this year. Tesco bought the old ground and we all thought a Tesco store would be flung up on the site as part of the re-generation in this area of Paisley. However, as time passed with no sign of work starting, there were two rumours. One was that Tesco couldn't get permission for the new store to be big enough and the footprint of the stadium site couldn't accomodate a big store, a petrol station, the car park, and so on. The second rumour was that Tesco never intended to build on the site at all - they wanted another site on Renfrew Road, near Chivas bottling plant, and only bought Love Street to stop another supermarket chain buying it. Tesco just flattened the old ground, fenced it off, and sat on it in their land bank. At this moment in time, Tesco are constructing a new store just up the road in Linwood - on the site of the old Linwood shopping centre (1960s concrete monstrosity that had fallen into vandalised graffitti-strewn disrepair). This work is well underway. The most likely scenario is that if the economy picks up, Tesco sells the Love Street site for housing, or perhaps an extension of the businesses attached to the nearby airport. Maybees aye, maybees naw.

The timing of our deal with Tesco was the jammiest thing - a year later and bingo, the banking crisis, financial meltdown, probably zero chance of our BoD brokering such a deal that got us sorted with a new, modern, but admittedly a bit soul-less new midden.

On the whole though, it's our soul-less midden. Bought and paid for and fit for purpose with an award-winning playing surface, and vastly superior dressing rooms and so on.

Job's a good un'.

[HibeeJibee]

It's also interesting to observe that we're now in an era of almost complete "stagnation" in terms of new stands and new stadiums (in the national leagues, anyway). Over the course of the 1990s and the early 2000s there was work going on at almost every ground, new stands opening every few months, and complete new stadiums opening every year or so. This slowed and has now prettymuch entirely stopped - I think the biggest bit of work due in 2014 is the terracing cover behind a goal at Galabank in Annan.

Of the full-time clubs only Morton (who plan a new end stand if they're ever promoted?) and Queen of the South don't already have all-seater venues.

No-one is looking seriously at new stadiums with the possible of exception of East Stirlingshire and this plan for a 1,000-seat ground in Grangemouth.

Only Aberdeen among the major clubs have any sort of real plan for a new stadium.

If anything it's non-league football where the most action is, with Lowland clubs doing work for licensing and various community 3G centres opening.

[Mon The Candy]

Nothing seems to be happening. The new stadium will be five years old on Jan 31 this year. Tesco bought the old ground and we all thought a Tesco store would be flung up on the site as part of the re-generation in this area of Paisley. However, as time passed with no sign of work starting, there were two rumours. One was that Tesco couldn't get permission for the new store to be big enough and the footprint of the stadium site couldn't accomodate a big store, a petrol station, the car park, and so on. The second rumour was that Tesco never intended to build on the site at all - they wanted another site on Renfrew Road, near Chivas bottling plant, and only bought Love Street to stop another supermarket chain buying it. Tesco just flattened the old ground, fenced it off, and sat on it in their land bank. At this moment in time, Tesco are constructing a new store just up the road in Linwood - on the site of the old Linwood shopping centre (1960s concrete monstrosity that had fallen into vandalised graffitti-strewn disrepair). This work is well underway. The most likely scenario is that if the economy picks up, Tesco sells the Love Street site for housing, or perhaps an extension of the businesses attached to the nearby airport. Maybees aye, maybees naw.

The timing of our deal with Tesco was the jammiest thing - a year later and bingo, the banking crisis, financial meltdown, probably zero chance of our BoD brokering such a deal that got us sorted with a new, modern, but admittedly a bit soul-less new midden.

On the whole though, it's our soul-less midden. Bought and paid for and fit for purpose with an award-winning playing surface, and vastly superior dressing rooms and so on.

Job's a good un'.

but just not love st

[pozbaird]

but just not love st

No, it ain't Love Street. A four-sided, mini 'Tynecastle' style steeply banked stadium with four stands meeting at the corners, built on the Love Street site would have been the dream scenario. No chance of it happening, not just money either - the old shoebox main stand backed onto a row of houses on Albion Street. No chance of building anything bigger there, and no car parking space either. Our BoD made the best of the situation - fighting hard for our new stadium to be four sided. You won't struggle to find St Mirren fans who miss the old place and haven't taken to the new one, but you'll struggle to find many people lambasting the BoD for doing what was necessary to set us up for a stable future.

Edited January 26, 2014 by pozbaird

[HibeeJibee]

Ibrox shortly before redevelopment began (note the old-fashioned floodlights!!)...

http://www.footballgroundguide.com/old-grounds-and-stands/old_ibrox_park_glasgow_rangers.htm

[Gibby82]

The thing I remember most about the old Shed at Tannadice was the smell - a stew of tobacco, pies and methane.

I almost miss it.

[rustyarabnuts]

The thing I remember most about the old Shed at Tannadice was the smell - a stew of tobacco, pies and methane.

I almost miss it.

ahhh the memories, you forgot the consequences of peh drainage onto the terracing

[Jacksgranda]

Regarding the swapping of ends, Id say Dundee United come to mind as well as Ayr. Most Scottish fans seemed to stand at the sides (usually under cover) so less changing of ends. English fans seemed more to go in for the popular behind the goal end thing, Spurs jump out as an exception with the amazing structure that was the shelf. It is so sad that these will never come back, looking at pics of the shed at Firhill breaks my heart.

Always swapped ends at Pittodrie - even for reserve games!

[Fuctifano]

It's also interesting to observe that we're now in an era of almost complete "stagnation" in terms of new stands and new stadiums (in the national leagues, anyway). Over the course of the 1990s and the early 2000s there was work going on at almost every ground, new stands opening every few months, and complete new stadiums opening every year or so. This slowed and has now prettymuch entirely stopped - I think the biggest bit of work due in 2014 is the terracing cover behind a goal at Galabank in Annan.

Of the full-time clubs only Morton (who plan a new end stand if they're ever promoted?) and Queen of the South don't already have all-seater venues.

No-one is looking seriously at new stadiums with the possible of exception of East Stirlingshire and this plan for a 1,000-seat ground in Grangemouth.

Only Aberdeen among the major clubs have any sort of real plan for a new stadium.

If anything it's non-league football where the most action is, with Lowland clubs doing work for licensing and various community 3G centres opening.

Hopefully the next series of works will be certain stands being converted into safe standing / terracing areas given the more lenient SPFL criteria.

[Granny Danger]

The thing I remember most about the old Shed at Tannadice was the smell - a stew of tobacco, pies and methane.

I almost miss it.

You carry that smell with you Michael.

Sorry that I have to be the one to tell you.

[FTOF]

Fact for the day... Hibs are the only Scottish club ever to have played in the Maracana.

St.Mirren almost played there in the 1980.

On their tour to brazil, they were offered a game in the Maracana against a local team.

However, they already had a game arranged against Vitoria which was 400 miles up the coast, so had to decline the offer.

My father, who was on the tour, said that they did see two games at the Maracana though.One was the final of the league play offs (they had regional leagues in those days) in which Flamenco played. There were 160,000 at the game and the atmosphere was out of this world.Apparently, there was a moat round the pitch and every game one particular nutter would jump in the moat, swim across it and get onto the pitch.

w