I think I’d have missed Maine Road more if we’d kept the heritage of the original look of the place along the way in the 70 years we were there, as we’d have been leaving a great old stadium.
The state we left it in, we were always much better off leaving the hotch-potch great replacement of anything that ever existed in 1923 stadium with five different stands that had no resemblance to each other.
Overall, we ruined the place and I too don’t miss what we left in 2003.
Wilderspool was far too small and was ugly as sin. One side had no stand, the Fletcher End didn’t spread the entire end of the ground, you couldn’t sit down in Brian Bevan stand if you were over 6ft… but I don’t love the Halliwell Jones either, even though the way the South Stand atmosphere can - as Andrew Johns once said - make the ground sound like 50,000 are there when it’s only 15,000.
Odsal for me is a bit different to Maine Road and Wilderspool. It does resemble its heritage aesthetic and could be made into really nice stadium. But you are spot on that it would cost an fortune to develop.
