North Stand Construction Discussion

[Gone for a Burton]

That’s not true.

Everything is still early stages and anything could happen. Could still end up being three tiers for all we know.

Club have told me it’s likely to be two tiers with focus on atmosphere across the whole stand.

I'm repeating what I was told from a very good source in the planning depth.

SS1 & NS1 Safe standing.

SS3 & NS2 Seating.

The Most important thing is that the NS is 2 tier. Most fans will stand up and the atmosphere won't be affected

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Having safe standing in NSL1 doesn’t mean seats in L2.

Maybe. I’m basing that on what we have in the south stand (standing on level 1 / seating above that). Would the club even entertain having standing so high up.

Realistically how would safe standing in level 1 work as well? You’d have to move a lot of people in the family stand, due to the amount of kids/ people that can’t and don’t want to stand.

Where would we move them to? If we don’t move lots of people out then it would be no different.

There’s lots of very difficult choices ahead.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

I'm repeating what I was told from a very good source in the planning depth.

SS1 & NS1 Safe standing.

SS3 & NS2 Seating.

The Most important thing is that the NS is 2 tier. Most fans will stand up and the atmosphere won't be affected

There’s no guarantee fans in the north stand tier 2 would stand up, if it’s seated. I’d imagine lots of people in there would have moved from seated areas - possibility the family stand as well. I think we’d need safe standing across level 2, which would kinda force people to stand up

A proper home end needs safe standing

 

[HelloCity]

It should officially be called 'The New Kippax Stand'.

The area behind (essentially a covered City square between two buildings) should be renamed Kippax Square.

Jobs a good'un.

No need for the ‘new’ as it won’t always be new (yeah I know some stadiums do this) but agree with the whole point and idea. Kippax Square has a great ring to it as well.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

It should officially be called 'The New Kippax Stand'.

The area behind (essentially a covered City square between two buildings) should be renamed Kippax Square.

Jobs a good'un.

Yesp, I agree on both of those. Its the only logical choice and makes a statement.

 

[Prophet of Doom]

‘Everyone’ didn’t get it wrong. 1894 spent months working on that relocation. The information we had prior to that relocation was:

- Security wouldn’t allow standing in level 3 (and would actively police it).

- Ticket prices would cost the same in both SSL1/SSL3 (or cheaper in SSL1).

- Flags on poles wouldn’t be permitted in upper tiers.

- Existing singers in blocks 117 onwards would remain there.

We also didn’t appreciate the difference the roof would make to the acoustics.

We had around 6/700 fans relocating to a singing section. Half of that number relocated to SSL3 when the club announced tickets were cheaper there and pulled the rug from under us!

It’s easy to look back with hindsight, but it’s not like 1894/supporters clubs made rash decisions - it was MONTHS of work including dozens of consultations with all kinds of different people.

Even though it could have gone better - the atmosphere is consistently better now thanks to the singing section in 115. I think people are deluding themselves thinking it was brilliant 10 years ago.

Realistically how would safe standing in level 1 work as well? You’d have to move a lot of people in the family stand, due to the amount of kids/ people that can’t and don’t want to stand.

Where would we move them to? If we don’t move lots of people out then it would be no different.

There’s lots of very difficult choices ahead.

So true. Where exactly are they gonna move the thousands of season ticket holders in the North stand L1 and North Stand L2 to ??

And if the tell them to move - what happens if only a few hundred want to move to North Stand L1 or L2.

This idea is complete madness and will never happen purely to give a few hundred singers an opportunity to move together.

 

[HelloCity]

The biggest fall out from all of this is obviously going to be the family stand. A lot of people are going to be unhappy about this new end and threaten to not renew etc. It’s really important that the fans already there are treated extremely well. As long as they have children of the right age, fans should be offered season tickets anywhere in the ground (outside of premium seats) for exactly the same price they would pay in the family stand. This needs to be permanent in order to keep encouraging families and children to come to games. They are the future after all.

I guess one solution would be the expanded tier is the Kippax and the lower tier is a condensed family stand. It would reduce forced upheaval and keep kids close to the action. Some might argue that this defeats the objective of creating an end though.

 

[Manchester33]

The biggest fall out from all of this is obviously going to be the family stand. A lot of people are going to be unhappy about this new end and threaten to not renew etc. It’s really important that the fans already there are treated extremely well. As long as they have children of the right age, fans should be offered season tickets anywhere in the ground (outside of premium seats) for exactly the same price they would pay in the family stand. This needs to be permanent in order to keep encouraging families and children to come to games. They are the future after all.

I guess one solution would be the expanded tier is the Kippax and the lower tier is a condensed family stand. It would reduce forced upheaval and keep kids close to the action. Some might argue that this defeats the objective of creating an end though.

I spoke to the club about this and their response was that basically the family stand isn't a 'family stand' anymore. The kids who moved in when it was named as such have mostly all grown up and the percentage of adults/children isn't significantly dissimilar to other areas of the stadium.

So true. Where exactly are they gonna move the thousands of season ticket holders in the North stand L1 and North Stand L2 to ??

And if the tell them to move - what happens if only a few hundred want to move to North Stand L1 or L2.

This idea is complete madness and will never happen purely to give a few hundred singers an opportunity to move together.

It's worth pointing out that SSL1 (rail seating section) is the area of the stadium with the highest demand. There's not enough rail seating to accommodate the number of fans who want to stand in that section. So it's only natural that we add more.

There are fewer season card holders in NSL1 and NSL2 than you'd think. With an expansion (that ADDS around 6k NEW seats) there should be more than enough room to relocate people. I think many fans in those sections would like to be part of a new Kippax too (thinking of the young adults who've grown up in the current family stand).

 

[jrb]

I'm repeating what I was told from a very good source in the planning depth.

SS1 & NS1 Safe standing.

SS3 & NS2 Seating.

The Most important thing is that the NS is 2 tier. Most fans will stand up and the atmosphere won't be affected

That’s going to cause a problem isn’t.

If people are going to continually stand up in a seated area there are going to be problems between the fans and with the stewards. As a rule standing isn’t allowed on SSL3 because it’s a seating only tier.

Nobody sings when they‘re sat down. The whole point of the North stand expansion and a larger 2nd tier was to make it a proper home end that creates an atmosphere. The fans aren’t going to do that if they’re sat down.

“Excuse me Doris, can you stand up and sing please“ “No, I’m sat down, I don’t want to stand up, and I don’t want to sing” “Fuck off back to South stand”

If the 2nd tier is seated and not safe standing who is that going to attract? It certainly won’t attract me and other singers. I’m not getting continual grief off other City fans who want to sit down, want to watch the match, and don’t want to sing. I don’t want grief off the stewards telling me to continually sit down either.

Even if safe standing is introduced on NSL1 it will only replicate SSL1, but it will be even worse. City aren’t going to get 500-1000 singers moving to NSL1 when they can stay next to the away fans. Where‘s the incentive to relocate?

City need to make level 2 an official safe standing tier. The last cup games against the Dippers, Chelsea and Arsenal have shown the away fans can stand in L3 and L2 safely and create a good atmosphere. Adding safe standing to North stand, level 2 will improve the fans safety, and cement North stand, level 2 as a proper home end and a new singing section.

Spurs fans stand in their new stand behind the goal. The front section is safe standing. Don’t know if there plans to make the rest of the stand higher up safe standing.




Liverpool fans regularly stand on the KOP all the way to the back of the Kop.

Unfortunately I’ve got a horrible feeling NSL1 will be made safe standing like SSL1, and an expanded L2 tier will be a stand full of regular City fans, day trippers, tourists, maybe even corporates. I’m really not expecting anything radically different when the North stand expansion plans are made public.

 

[christened at st marks]

I asked why because because why should it be called Kippax people will sill use it (JUST LIKE UNITED YOU LIVE IN THE PAST)lets go forward into a new era Maine Road and the Kippax Street Stand was twenty years ago

No probs, to me The Kippax was 50 years ago on the terraces it was the original stand.