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Hillsborough Improvements


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The Portsmouth and Sunderland games were both great occasions and brilliant to see Hillsborough rocking but it also made me notice that Hillsborough is amazing but tired in places. It therefore got me thinking, what could be done now to improve Hillsborough and ultimately the fans experience. My initial three are as follows:

 

- Put seats back in the north west corner - now that it is no longer required for the Sky box this would not be a problem. I was all for them tidying this corner up when some seats had to be removed for the Sky box assembly but this corner really did look sad during these big games and brought the look of the stadium down. Nothing worse than a redundant part of a football ground sat there looking at you.

- Tannoy system - even though this has been upgraded, the clarity is rubbish. It needs replacing.

- Repaint external areas of the main stands where appropriate - the Kop is a prime example of that. It just looks tired now.

 

I would be interested to know your top three. And yes, people will argue to spend nothing on the ground until we are in the Prem but why, we lost 25M for the last two years, we need to reprioritise / reduce spending and using a small amount year on year to keep the ground fit for purpose has to be part of that. All this helps the brand and the feel of the club - we need to keep up to date like all businesses - I'm not saying full scale redevelopment of stands etc as that will need to wait but there are plenty of things that could be done in the meantime without using the "Prem" as an excuse. They have clearly put money into the Stadium of Light to keep it looking fresh so why can't we. We can't keep ducking maintaining our great old stadium properly.

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Improve the concourses so that all existing seats can be used before considering adding new ones, also and I may be wrong, wasn't the NW corner condemned as unsafe hence removal of seats etc?

Improve facilities especially on the kop 

Get rid of Presto on the lep roof

 

 

 

 

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Would be happy with something like this…have a feeling it was a proposal back in the 60’s but only the North Stand was completed - pity.

 

67B506AF-54AB-434D-BD63-B12EC98D55FE.jpeg

 

Kop and Leppings Lane  ends need a rebuild for starters and something along the lines of the recent proposals would be good.

 

..but it will cost a fair whack and thus bottom of the list at the mo.  If/when we get to the Prem will it be on the table.

Edited by Earlsfieldowl
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2 minutes ago, Kentowl said:

Improve the concourses so that all existing seats can be used before considering adding new ones, also and I may be wrong, wasn't the NW corner condemned as unsafe hence removal of seats etc?

Improve facilities especially on the kop 

Get rid of Presto on the lep roof

 

 

 

 

I thought the H&S issue was resolved through new entrance creation? If is was condemned it should be taken down. Agree with better facilities for the kop - they are terrible!

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Just now, WBridgfordowl said:

Where would the money come from, we’re losing millions and millions from our day to day business?

 

 

Spend less on players and spend a small amount on stadium maintenance - the players shouldn't continue to be the only beneficiaries - otherwise what will we have to show for the investment, the infrastructure won't be there.

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Knock down the NW Corner and the Lep. Put something decent in it's place with natural segrgation that wont get the SAG knickers in a twist and preferable makes better commercial use of the space behind

 

However this would be massively expensive and I appreciate it wont happen.

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Running warm water in all toilets, 

A Lick of paint for both the internal and external stands

cleaning up the turn styles, they look like you have time travelled back to the 1950's

 

but the biggest issue is the pitch, next season is going to have period of lots of games in a short space it cannot be aloud to spend big sections of the season looking and playing like it did this year, and the stand shadow excuse is right up their with the dog ate my homework.😂

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50 minutes ago, We are all Wednesday said:

The Portsmouth and Sunderland games were both great occasions and brilliant to see Hillsborough rocking but it also made me notice that Hillsborough is amazing but tired in places. It therefore got me thinking, what could be done now to improve Hillsborough and ultimately the fans experience. My initial three are as follows:

 

- Put seats back in the north west corner - now that it is no longer required for the Sky box this would not be a problem. I was all for them tidying this corner up when some seats had to be removed for the Sky box assembly but this corner really did look sad during these big games and brought the look of the stadium down. Nothing worse than a redundant part of a football ground sat there looking at you.

- Tannoy system - even though this has been upgraded, the clarity is rubbish. It needs replacing.

- Repaint external areas of the main stands where appropriate - the Kop is a prime example of that. It just looks tired now.

 

I would be interested to know your top three. And yes, people will argue to spend nothing on the ground until we are in the Prem but why, we lost 25M for the last two years, we need to reprioritise / reduce spending and using a small amount year on year to keep the ground fit for purpose has to be part of that. All this helps the brand and the feel of the club - we need to keep up to date like all businesses - I'm not saying full scale redevelopment of stands etc as that will need to wait but there are plenty of things that could be done in the meantime without using the "Prem" as an excuse. They have clearly put money into the Stadium of Light to keep it looking fresh so why can't we. We can't keep ducking maintaining our great old stadium properly.


Can we not look to have capacity increased by addressing what safety issues exist?

 

We have 39,000 seats, but can only sell 33,000 tickets.

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3 minutes ago, Eastern said:


Can we not look to have capacity increased by addressing what safety issues exist?

 

We have 39,000 seats, but can only sell 33,000 tickets.

We probably have just under 38,000 seats now that the NW Triangle has had it's seats removed.

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57 minutes ago, We are all Wednesday said:

The Portsmouth and Sunderland games were both great occasions and brilliant to see Hillsborough rocking but it also made me notice that Hillsborough is amazing but tired in places. It therefore got me thinking, what could be done now to improve Hillsborough and ultimately the fans experience. My initial three are as follows:

 

- Put seats back in the north west corner - now that it is no longer required for the Sky box this would not be a problem. I was all for them tidying this corner up when some seats had to be removed for the Sky box assembly but this corner really did look sad during these big games and brought the look of the stadium down. Nothing worse than a redundant part of a football ground sat there looking at you.

- Tannoy system - even though this has been upgraded, the clarity is rubbish. It needs replacing.

- Repaint external areas of the main stands where appropriate - the Kop is a prime example of that. It just looks tired now.

 

I would be interested to know your top three. And yes, people will argue to spend nothing on the ground until we are in the Prem but why, we lost 25M for the last two years, we need to reprioritise / reduce spending and using a small amount year on year to keep the ground fit for purpose has to be part of that. All this helps the brand and the feel of the club - we need to keep up to date like all businesses - I'm not saying full scale redevelopment of stands etc as that will need to wait but there are plenty of things that could be done in the meantime without using the "Prem" as an excuse. They have clearly put money into the Stadium of Light to keep it looking fresh so why can't we. We can't keep ducking maintaining our great old stadium properly.

The North West Corner, if I recall correctly, was condemned a while ago - there are issues with most of the stands with regards the concourse areas, access and egress and segregation as well.

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1 - Knock down the Leppings Lane end / corner. Build a new stand that offers multiple segregation areas (like modern stadiums do) so we dont have to leave 4k of empty seats in bigger games.

2 - Sort out facilities on back of Kop / remove pillars if possible on Kop.

3 - Look at walk ways to stadium, any chance we can have a direct pedestrian path to local transport, such as the tram, a larger tram stop offering 'special' back into town after games, as well as possibly the old bus specials?

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Also, the argument that "we will do it when we are in the Prem" - how long is a piece of sting. We need to undertake normal levels or maintenance / improvements in the meantime rather than shipping all the money out to the players. Priorities! No other business runs like a football club, particularly at this level!

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1 hour ago, WBridgfordowl said:

Where would the money come from, we’re losing millions and millions from our day to day business?

 

 

 

Agree. Isn't DC on record as stating that there won't be any significant investment on the ground until we reach the promised land of the Premier league?

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1 hour ago, We are all Wednesday said:

The Portsmouth and Sunderland games were both great occasions and brilliant to see Hillsborough rocking but it also made me notice that Hillsborough is amazing but tired in places. It therefore got me thinking, what could be done now to improve Hillsborough and ultimately the fans experience. My initial three are as follows:

 

- Put seats back in the north west corner - now that it is no longer required for the Sky box this would not be a problem. I was all for them tidying this corner up when some seats had to be removed for the Sky box assembly but this corner really did look sad during these big games and brought the look of the stadium down. Nothing worse than a redundant part of a football ground sat there looking at you.

- Tannoy system - even though this has been upgraded, the clarity is rubbish. It needs replacing.

- Repaint external areas of the main stands where appropriate - the Kop is a prime example of that. It just looks tired now.

 

I would be interested to know your top three. And yes, people will argue to spend nothing on the ground until we are in the Prem but why, we lost 25M for the last two years, we need to reprioritise / reduce spending and using a small amount year on year to keep the ground fit for purpose has to be part of that. All this helps the brand and the feel of the club - we need to keep up to date like all businesses - I'm not saying full scale redevelopment of stands etc as that will need to wait but there are plenty of things that could be done in the meantime without using the "Prem" as an excuse. They have clearly put money into the Stadium of Light to keep it looking fresh so why can't we. We can't keep ducking maintaining our great old stadium properly.

First time I sat in the stands this year against Sunderland and I actually thought the matchday Experience was excellent to what it was pre covid 

 

the build up music was more on point 

 

the little video they put up in the big screen with all the kids singing Wednesday songs brought a great family feel to the club 

 

the corner you speak to having the Shakespeare’s ( was it ) playing live, especially like the hi ho silver lining they sang at halftime and those still in the stands hit right behind it. I like the idea of the club using this more often to help promote up and coming Sheffield bands 

 

obviously the fans and the occasion played a huge point but I think the club did well to add the little touches on it 

 

the only thing I think the can do more with us having better build up outside the ground and inside the grounds 

im not sure what they can do with the pace 

 

I remember going to Lincoln in a pre season friendly and they was probably the best I’ve seen for this 

 

they had a bit of a football kids disco thing going on all was enjoying this in sun the mascots were out abs they did a Q&A interview with a few ex players 

 

I’m sure this kind of thing would be too tight inside the ground but could you do something similar in owls in the park or under the south stand / leppings lane area for selected games

 

outside Hillsborough was packed from when we arrived at 6.15 queues for the burger vans were long so the footfall were there ( granted night game so people were straight from work and arriving early due to a sell out ) 

 

the point being I think this is a huge are the clubs can tap into for match day experience and maybe get the portable catering vans and bars out or sun these out for a better fan experience where they can generate a bit of extra coin

 

in terms. Of the ground improvements I think the energy savings they are doing with new flood lights and watering / draining the pitch is about as much as they can do unless they pull out the World Cup plans and revisit them but again if they are looking at going to that expense I’m still in the camp of a new purpose built stadium that ticks every box rather than just trying to paper of the cracks our beloved stadium has 

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