| 60k Stadium 08:40 - Nov 9 with 6712 views | pennblue |
In order for us to have a sustainable 'upper' Premier League club, we need a stadium full in the 50-60,000 region.
Therefore, if we grab Chelmsford, Newmarket, Lowestoft, Clacton, Felixstowe, Ipswich, Sudbury, Bury, Haverhill, Braintree, Bishops Stortford. Is it enough of a catchment area? Or are we going to have to start getting VERY good at getting people to the matches?
Or is this pie in the sky? |  |
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| 60k Stadium on 09:48 - Nov 9 with 1124 views | blueislander |
That is very unambitious. Surely we should be looking at the model for the renovation of The Bernabeu and improving on that. | | | |
| 60k Stadium on 09:54 - Nov 9 with 1112 views | Keno |
| 60k Stadium on 09:48 - Nov 9 by blueislander |
That is very unambitious. Surely we should be looking at the model for the renovation of The Bernabeu and improving on that. |
Im expecting something like this, but with blue seats obviously ....
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| 60k Stadium on 09:55 - Nov 9 with 1102 views | Oldboy |
| 60k Stadium on 09:35 - Nov 9 by Ely_Blue |
And Wolves, West Brom amongst others |
No yo-yoing for this lot. |  | | |
| 60k Stadium on 09:57 - Nov 9 with 1092 views | Ely_Blue |
| 60k Stadium on 09:55 - Nov 9 by Oldboy |
No yo-yoing for this lot. |
West Brom maybe but remind me when Wolves have yo-yo’d in the last 10 years? |  |
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| 60k Stadium on 10:03 - Nov 9 with 1067 views | Churchman |
| 60k Stadium on 09:30 - Nov 9 by hoppy |
I would imagine a restructuring of a larger Cobbold stand may incorporate a new 'main' front entrance to the club too, being town facing (and actually ON Portman Road too!)? [Post edited 9 Nov 2021 9:43]
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I’m not sure the distance between the pitch and PR would allow that. In an ideal world with limitless £ I would firstly buy the freehold off the council for the whole site.
Next, I would replace the Cobbold stand bringing it to the height of the North Stand and joining it up, possibly roofing it round to Churchmans. This wouldn’t increase the capacity much but with a modern design you would lose a lot of the restricted views and improve the seating all round. When it was built in 1971 it was a lovely stand. But times change and people get bigger. The seating is tight and access is cramped. A new stand would allow for better use underneath it, but not by much.
Next I would strip out and redevelop the underneath of the Pioneer stand and use part of the old training pitch for facilities. The alternative would be to replace it entirely with a roof line to match the others with a design for the 21st century. In the process I’d get rid of the peculiar Wendy house in the corner.
If possible, I’d build a multi purpose facility where the marquee is for the club and the community. It could also encompass conferencing facilities if the redeveloped ground is still short on space. The best of these I’ve seen in my limited experience is the media centre at the Oval. Different size rooms for hire, smart, clean (unlike Chelsea’s) fit for purpose.
Portman Road is well located and. Has space. It has great potential. Purely for ideas, if I were them I’d take a look at Spurs’ new ground (a brilliant facility wedged in a sh£#hole area). It’s fantastic. And of course, they have plenty of brilliant facilities in America, not least the LA Rams/Chargers new stadium.
This is all just random thoughts, little of which will ever happen, but it’s fun thinking about it as opposed to queues for stinking toilets and poor quality over priced food, scraped shins on old tight seating etc. |  | | |
| 60k Stadium on 10:06 - Nov 9 with 1061 views | Keno |
| 60k Stadium on 10:03 - Nov 9 by Churchman |
I’m not sure the distance between the pitch and PR would allow that. In an ideal world with limitless £ I would firstly buy the freehold off the council for the whole site.
Next, I would replace the Cobbold stand bringing it to the height of the North Stand and joining it up, possibly roofing it round to Churchmans. This wouldn’t increase the capacity much but with a modern design you would lose a lot of the restricted views and improve the seating all round. When it was built in 1971 it was a lovely stand. But times change and people get bigger. The seating is tight and access is cramped. A new stand would allow for better use underneath it, but not by much.
Next I would strip out and redevelop the underneath of the Pioneer stand and use part of the old training pitch for facilities. The alternative would be to replace it entirely with a roof line to match the others with a design for the 21st century. In the process I’d get rid of the peculiar Wendy house in the corner.
If possible, I’d build a multi purpose facility where the marquee is for the club and the community. It could also encompass conferencing facilities if the redeveloped ground is still short on space. The best of these I’ve seen in my limited experience is the media centre at the Oval. Different size rooms for hire, smart, clean (unlike Chelsea’s) fit for purpose.
Portman Road is well located and. Has space. It has great potential. Purely for ideas, if I were them I’d take a look at Spurs’ new ground (a brilliant facility wedged in a sh£#hole area). It’s fantastic. And of course, they have plenty of brilliant facilities in America, not least the LA Rams/Chargers new stadium.
This is all just random thoughts, little of which will ever happen, but it’s fun thinking about it as opposed to queues for stinking toilets and poor quality over priced food, scraped shins on old tight seating etc. |
The only bit of that I disagree with is "I would firstly buy the freehold off the council for the whole site"
that leaves us very open to less than honest owner in the future.
Nowt wrong with the current arrangement | |
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| 60k Stadium on 10:13 - Nov 9 with 1050 views | Churchman |
| 60k Stadium on 10:06 - Nov 9 by Keno |
The only bit of that I disagree with is "I would firstly buy the freehold off the council for the whole site"
that leaves us very open to less than honest owner in the future.
Nowt wrong with the current arrangement |
I agree with you in terms of vulnerability to an asset stripper or an idiot like Morris at Derby and the ability to redevelop under the current arrangement, but I think I’d still do it.
It’d add significant value to the club and prevent the Council from extorting money from the club, which it’s tried to do before. | | | |
| 60k Stadium on 10:14 - Nov 9 with 1047 views | Keno |
| 60k Stadium on 10:13 - Nov 9 by Churchman |
I agree with you in terms of vulnerability to an asset stripper or an idiot like Morris at Derby and the ability to redevelop under the current arrangement, but I think I’d still do it.
It’d add significant value to the club and prevent the Council from extorting money from the club, which it’s tried to do before. |
two words - Bill Archer
I suspect the council do know the value of the club to the Town centre which is why they have backed down previously | |
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| 60k Stadium on 10:18 - Nov 9 with 1043 views | itfcjoe |
| 60k Stadium on 10:03 - Nov 9 by Churchman |
I’m not sure the distance between the pitch and PR would allow that. In an ideal world with limitless £ I would firstly buy the freehold off the council for the whole site.
Next, I would replace the Cobbold stand bringing it to the height of the North Stand and joining it up, possibly roofing it round to Churchmans. This wouldn’t increase the capacity much but with a modern design you would lose a lot of the restricted views and improve the seating all round. When it was built in 1971 it was a lovely stand. But times change and people get bigger. The seating is tight and access is cramped. A new stand would allow for better use underneath it, but not by much.
Next I would strip out and redevelop the underneath of the Pioneer stand and use part of the old training pitch for facilities. The alternative would be to replace it entirely with a roof line to match the others with a design for the 21st century. In the process I’d get rid of the peculiar Wendy house in the corner.
If possible, I’d build a multi purpose facility where the marquee is for the club and the community. It could also encompass conferencing facilities if the redeveloped ground is still short on space. The best of these I’ve seen in my limited experience is the media centre at the Oval. Different size rooms for hire, smart, clean (unlike Chelsea’s) fit for purpose.
Portman Road is well located and. Has space. It has great potential. Purely for ideas, if I were them I’d take a look at Spurs’ new ground (a brilliant facility wedged in a sh£#hole area). It’s fantastic. And of course, they have plenty of brilliant facilities in America, not least the LA Rams/Chargers new stadium.
This is all just random thoughts, little of which will ever happen, but it’s fun thinking about it as opposed to queues for stinking toilets and poor quality over priced food, scraped shins on old tight seating etc. |
With Portman Road currently shut by the council, I wonder if longer term that can become a permanent thing which would allow us to extend back onto Portman Road and spill into the car park which could act as some sort of fan area with retail, drinking, eating etc.
The Cobbold stand just needs to be redone to improve facilities, and to increase the amount of expensive/corporate seats and conferencing or restauarants in the ground but the footprint has to be bigger and that is the obvious place where it can go - a reconfiguration to allow away fans into the South Stand would be good, even if they were to have the whole top tier if it can be segregated.
We are an hour from London and right by the station, if we can long term establish in PL then there will be a lot of corporate money to be spent here [Post edited 9 Nov 2021 10:19]
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| 60k Stadium on 10:22 - Nov 9 with 1026 views | Slambo |
| 60k Stadium on 09:30 - Nov 9 by hoppy |
I would imagine a restructuring of a larger Cobbold stand may incorporate a new 'main' front entrance to the club too, being town facing (and actually ON Portman Road too!)? [Post edited 9 Nov 2021 9:43]
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Once standing areas are brought back that will also naturally increase capacity by a few thousand... |  |
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| 60k Stadium on 10:24 - Nov 9 with 1022 views | The_Major |
I think realistically, 40k, perhaps 45k at a push is the absolute limit for Portman Road, as although you have space to extend east and west, you haven't north and south. To the south are the Churchmans flats, and northwards, you've got the houses at the end of Alderman Road. (Mind you, with the backing we've got, they could probably buy them out).
Rebuilt Cobbold, fill in both corners of SAR, put control room in stand, then you've got a u-shape with SBR separate. That should do it.
A 60k Portman Road would probably involve a Cobbold Stand with about five tiers where if you were in row Z, you'd probably be able to see the Copdock Tesco clearer than the dots on the pitch 150 feet below.
40-45k puts it in the Stamford Bridge/Villa Park size, so not too shabby. |  | | |
| 60k Stadium on 10:31 - Nov 9 with 1005 views | HighgateBlue |
| 60k Stadium on 09:40 - Nov 9 by Bluespeed225 |
I don’t know what world you live in, but in case you haven’t noticed, we are the filling in a Premier League train line sandwich. To get over 20k at the moment is nuts, but we’ll never need more than 35k tops. Spammers hoovered up Colchester downward years ago, and Norwich have done an excellent job in north Suffolk. IF we ever went up I’d happily see an over subscribed PR than a white elephant stand built. |
Absolutely. Our expensive redevelopment of stands has generally followed periods of success, and never preceded them. |  | | |
| 60k Stadium on 10:34 - Nov 9 with 996 views | HighgateBlue |
| 60k Stadium on 08:43 - Nov 9 by tivo |
Let's worry about getting out of League one... |
Quite. There are 92 teams in the Prem and football league. Our last match was a failure to beat the team sitting 90th in that pyramid, with our strongest team, at home. We need a bit of realism and a bit of humility. | | | |
| 60k Stadium on 10:35 - Nov 9 with 993 views | The_Major |
Also, The problem we have with catchment area is that from Colchester southwards, as things stand, a lot of folk will gravitate towards the London clubs, as all they have to do is a quick jaunt down the A12 to Newbury Park within an hour, jump on the tube, and it's relatively easy to get to any of the grounds (Apart from Selhurst Park. There's still part of my sanity left on the South Circular when I went thirty years ago).
Then there's Lowestoft. Unfortunately Norwich is half the distance away, and again, easier to get to. It's always going to be a split there. However, westwards, all you have to contend with are Cambridge, Peterborough,, Stevenage at a push. There's no big club until you get to the Midlands.
And er, eastwards, you're competiting with Felixstowe, Woodbridge, and any team in Orford. And then things get a bit damp. | | | |
| 60k Stadium on 10:39 - Nov 9 with 979 views | Fixed_It |
| 60k Stadium on 09:54 - Nov 9 by Keno |
Im expecting something like this, but with blue seats obviously ....
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I think we'd need a bigger screen - and possibly smaller goals ! |  |
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| 60k Stadium on 10:45 - Nov 9 with 976 views | monty_radio |
In the glory days of SBR all those places mentioned sent coaches, sometimes a good portion of their fleet. I worked in Lowestoft where blue and yellow vied for pre-eminence. Portman Rd regularly averaged 24k or so, or even approaching 30k for a big game.
Sky, the Premier League, the greater availability of entertainment and the reluctance of this later generation to be herded into Butlins, Joe Maplin's or indeed tedious, mass coach travel, would ensure that such a grand stadium project would never be required. Those who controlled the purse strings would be acquainted with the turmoil that the last modest rebuild cost us.
If a new Industrial Revolution were to triple the size of Ipswich and pave Suffolk into a giant flood plain a stadium of more than 40k would still be the whitest of elephants. | |
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| Wolves and Leicester have valuations to meet our owners goals... on 10:50 - Nov 9 with 960 views | unstableblue |
... but have 31k stadia... they have plans to extend to 50k and 40k respectively
Because the TV rights are a huge part of the revenue model
I think 40k seems more relevant to us... and an amount we would sell out in the Premier League
challenge is the obvious capacity change is the Cobbold... can you get 9k more our of that! its a no |  |
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| 60k Stadium on 10:58 - Nov 9 with 946 views | Fixed_It |
| 60k Stadium on 10:22 - Nov 9 by Slambo |
Once standing areas are brought back that will also naturally increase capacity by a few thousand... |
Not really. They won't bring terraces back. | |
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| 60k Stadium on 11:13 - Nov 9 with 923 views | solemio |
| 60k Stadium on 09:24 - Nov 9 by hoppy |
You missed out Stowmarket.
(and Ixworth, for that matter) |
Surely most people are in favour of missing out Ixworth. This is a purely factual statement. | | | |
| 60k Stadium on 11:17 - Nov 9 with 916 views | bournemouthblue |
| 60k Stadium on 10:03 - Nov 9 by Churchman |
I’m not sure the distance between the pitch and PR would allow that. In an ideal world with limitless £ I would firstly buy the freehold off the council for the whole site.
Next, I would replace the Cobbold stand bringing it to the height of the North Stand and joining it up, possibly roofing it round to Churchmans. This wouldn’t increase the capacity much but with a modern design you would lose a lot of the restricted views and improve the seating all round. When it was built in 1971 it was a lovely stand. But times change and people get bigger. The seating is tight and access is cramped. A new stand would allow for better use underneath it, but not by much.
Next I would strip out and redevelop the underneath of the Pioneer stand and use part of the old training pitch for facilities. The alternative would be to replace it entirely with a roof line to match the others with a design for the 21st century. In the process I’d get rid of the peculiar Wendy house in the corner.
If possible, I’d build a multi purpose facility where the marquee is for the club and the community. It could also encompass conferencing facilities if the redeveloped ground is still short on space. The best of these I’ve seen in my limited experience is the media centre at the Oval. Different size rooms for hire, smart, clean (unlike Chelsea’s) fit for purpose.
Portman Road is well located and. Has space. It has great potential. Purely for ideas, if I were them I’d take a look at Spurs’ new ground (a brilliant facility wedged in a sh£#hole area). It’s fantastic. And of course, they have plenty of brilliant facilities in America, not least the LA Rams/Chargers new stadium.
This is all just random thoughts, little of which will ever happen, but it’s fun thinking about it as opposed to queues for stinking toilets and poor quality over priced food, scraped shins on old tight seating etc. |
By whole site would you also buy the car parks around the stadium, which would generate a tidy income also?
Much as I love Portman Road, I think you could do what Tottenham have done on their site and build a brand new all singing all dancing stadium on the existing patch of land.
You'd want it well designed and to include a Kop style end.
The Stadium is a community asset so some forms of event space and capabilities with quality hospitality and public bar facilities would make it an all year round venue. |  |
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| 60k Stadium on 11:32 - Nov 9 with 896 views | Churchman |
| 60k Stadium on 10:22 - Nov 9 by Slambo |
Once standing areas are brought back that will also naturally increase capacity by a few thousand... |
How about a bit of lateral thinking and put seating on the roof of the Cobbold and Pioneer stands Indian train-style?
Think of the uniqueness and the jeopardy! You could charge minimal pricing and if people are worried about falling through the roof, have hydrogen bags under tethered seats. Might be a bit breezy, but a free bovril every game would keep the cold out.
Capacity issues sorted! | | | |
| 60k Stadium on 11:37 - Nov 9 with 891 views | hoppy |
| 60k Stadium on 11:32 - Nov 9 by Churchman |
How about a bit of lateral thinking and put seating on the roof of the Cobbold and Pioneer stands Indian train-style?
Think of the uniqueness and the jeopardy! You could charge minimal pricing and if people are worried about falling through the roof, have hydrogen bags under tethered seats. Might be a bit breezy, but a free bovril every game would keep the cold out.
Capacity issues sorted! |
Something akin to this approach we had before?
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| 60k Stadium on 11:49 - Nov 9 with 875 views | ArnieM |
Pennblue, think bigger. What’s wrong with fans / catchment area encroaching on West Ham’ s neck of the woods? The rail links to London are quicker now. If we have a successful, progressive Club that is growing in stature, why think only of Suffolk as a catchment area ? Trust me , if GC20 succeed 8n their plans East Anglia will be BLUE as a given, but we will also start to encroach into East London and the areas around the east side of London for the floating supporters. Why not ?
Look at how Towns current fan base and following has gone up just since the take over. I know it’s a cliche, but Town really do have a large dormant fan base from the SBR era…it’s starting to wake up again now. Tbh ITFC were actually too big for what Evans thought he was buying into and could manage. We now finally have the perfect fit for owners. That Blue touch paper has only just been lit, watch this Club fly ….. |  |
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| 60k Stadium on 12:00 - Nov 9 with 854 views | HighgateBlue |
It's pie in the sky to suggest we're going to have a 50,000 to 60,000 stadium under Gamechanger, yes. Absolutely no way.
Bigger than Goodison, bigger than Villa Park, bigger than Stamford Bridge? No.
I'm not sure that there /is/ such a thing as a sustainable upper Premier League club to be honest, but if a club wishes to try to become one, and it's current in League One and failing to beat struggling League 2 teams, it should focus first on getting out of League One, rather than building the Death Star. | | | |
| 60k Stadium on 12:05 - Nov 9 with 845 views | IpswichKnight |
The cobbold needs to be replaced in the next 5-10 years that would allow us to increase capacity to around 40k I really don’t think we need anything bigger. If we really wanted to be aggressive we could look to build a 5-10k stadium in the borough for the Ladies team and for league cup games where we know it will be low capacity. | | | |
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