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Out of Town Stadia


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For Euro 2020, a new National Football Stadium will be constructed next to the Brussels ring road. Anderlecht are likely to be tenants which will involve uprooting the club from their local area. As someone who goes to most home games, I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Increasingly, characterless shoebox stadia are erected near main roads (e.g. Broadwood, St.Mirren Stadium, McDiarmid Park, Falkirk etc) at the expense of dated grounds full of character (e.g.Broomfield). It seems to be the way of it in Germany too, although the scale is such that the shoebox model is less prominent. How do fans feel about this in general? Do you see it as a welcome modernisation, a necessary evil or an abomination? Especially any Clyde fans who have been severely shifted.

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It's an abomination.

You only need to look as far as Scotland to see this. Falkirk, East Fife, Airdrionians are all victims. Had great stadiums, now soulless shit holes.

New stadiums can be built with character. But they rarely are. For some reason a uniform stadium on all 4 sides is seen as better.

The days of having "ends" or special stands is slowly coming to an end sadly.

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It's an abomination.

You only need to look as far as Scotland to see this. Falkirk, East Fife, Airdrionians are all victims. Had great stadiums, now soulless shit holes.

New stadiums can be built with character. But they rarely are. For some reason a uniform stadium on all 4 sides is seen as better.

The days of having "ends" or special stands is slowly coming to an end sadly.

I agree that new stadiums are generally devoid of any soul bit I also wonder if we look back on old grounds with a Nostalgic view.

Though in saying all that I was recently at Fleetwood Town v Preston and loved every minute of it. A modern stadium, rebuilt in the last 5/10 years but with great terracing at either end, a good looking Main Stand and quirks like a Social Club in the corner.

Definitely thought back to away trips to Brockville, East End and the like and how good it used to be.

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Out of town stadia (there, I did it too) are generally pish. Unless you have an absolutely belter of a public transport link, the end of a match is a nightmare. 50,000 or whatever leaving at the one time and every one of them relies on transport to get them away. Hampden has its critics, but at least a reasonable number can walk it home.

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Increasingly, characterless shoebox stadia are erected near main roads (e.g. Broadwood, St.Mirren Stadium, McDiarmid Park, Falkirk etc) at the expense of dated grounds full of character (e.g.Broomfield).

Characterless shoebox I'll give you, but our ground is as much 'out of town' as Love Street was. It's only 800m away.

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The location isn't responsible for the type of stadia. Most clubs can only afford to build the most basic of structures with no room for design elements or enhancements. This also satisfies the short sighted Scottish football attitude of 'they're only there to the watch the game anyway' so there's no need to create an environment that would cater for fans being there longer before/after games that could generate more income.

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The location isn't responsible for the type of stadia. Most clubs can only afford to build the most basic of structures with no room for design elements or enhancements. This also satisfies the short sighted Scottish football attitude of 'they're only there to the watch the game anyway' so there's no need to create an environment that would cater for fans being there longer before/after games that could generate more income.

Correct.

Even small clubs down south really make an effort with fans bars at grounds and the like.

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Characterless shoebox I'll give you, but our ground is as much 'out of town' as Love Street was. It's only 800m away.

True, slightly closer to St James interchange and Linwood but negligible in the grand scheme of things. I preferred Love St but I guess the real estate for the new grun must've been cheap as chips. It could've been made more interesting though. Check out the BATE Borisov grun - small but enticing.

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQlRXHALZ2LUgWuyfugj2nTmnbYJB7tcc5rfbk8MRzczdZbDlng

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Out of town stadia (there, I did it too) are generally pish. Unless you have an absolutely belter of a public transport link, the end of a match is a nightmare. 50,000 or whatever leaving at the one time and every one of them relies on transport to get them away. Hampden has its critics, but at least a reasonable number can walk it home.

Hamden , ibrox and parkhead are in general nightmares to drive in and out of on March days however public transport wise they have excellent bus , rail options . Ibrox also has the subway. Also if decent enough weather ibrox and parkhead is only a twenty minute walk from city centre and also all 3 have a good number of bars/ fast food outlets nearby if you want to get a few or have a munch whilst waiting on the crowds or traffic to die down .

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Hamden , ibrox and parkhead are in general nightmares to drive in and out of on March days however public transport wise they have excellent bus , rail options . Ibrox also has the subway. Also if decent enough weather ibrox and parkhead is only a twenty minute walk from city centre and also all 3 have a good number of bars/ fast food outlets nearby if you want to get a few or have a munch whilst waiting on the crowds or traffic to die down .

Ibrox and Celtic Park also have very secure parking with all of the "parked-car surveillance officers" in the nearby streets. I'd need to have had a few already to decide to have a drink in one of the pubs near Parkhead or Ibrox;) I would say Celtic Park has poor transport links given the size of the venue but it is entrenched in its catchment area so fair enough.

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I was born a year after Broadwood was built and until November, I've lived within 15 minutes of it.

It's a total myth that you need some sort of teleporter to get to Broadwood. Craiglinn is 2 minutes walk away and Croy station is virtually down the hill in a straight line.

No denying about the ground itself - soulless, too big, etc. But the dream was Clyde were going to hover up the 50,000 people of Cumbernauld and they'd be queues for season tickets. Someone just forgot to tell them everyone supports the old firm and Clyde were second division shite at the time. We didn't even score until our fifth game ffs.

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Hamden , ibrox and parkhead are in general nightmares to drive in and out of on March days however public transport wise they have excellent bus , rail options . Ibrox also has the subway. Also if decent enough weather ibrox and parkhead is only a twenty minute walk from city centre and also all 3 have a good number of bars/ fast food outlets nearby if you want to get a few or have a munch whilst waiting on the crowds or traffic to die down .

Nip down to The Kensington if you want a classy establishment.

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Though in saying all that I was recently at Fleetwood Town v Preston and loved every minute of it. A modern stadium, rebuilt in the last 5/10 years but with great terracing at either end, a good looking Main Stand and quirks like a Social Club in the corner.

I was at Shrewsbury v one of the Bristols a couple of seasons ago. They have a new box stadium but the difference was it was pretty full so the atmosphere was awesome. Was also at St J v Dons in August and a decent crowd made it a not bad atmosphere. Playing in a 10000 seater with 500 fans is always going to be awful.

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