Stadium Location

[Alex MacLeod]

As much as I think this dougal lad is on the wind up, he is correct in saying our stadium is pretty terrible and in an awful location.

It never bothered me when I lived in Inverness but I know that it does put people off, how many fairweather fans there are I've no idea, nobody does. Right now our stadium solely caters for supporters who are driving to the ground, comfortably at least. For me any future move has to consider that not everybody wants to drive to a game, theres no way to tell if a move to a more central location would discourage fans who had to park further from the ground on a match day.

What I will say though- I live down the road from Tynecastle in Edinburgh, 6 days a week the traffic jams up almost constantly and there isnt a parking space anywhere near the stadium. The nearest train station is a 20 minute walk away and the taxi's are the most expensive in Scotland, on paper the stadium is in a horrible location compared to ours in terms of access.

Thats if you define access as being able to park a few feet away from the stand you'll be sitting in and having the ability to make a quick getaway at full time, without wanting to make any compromises whatsoever. In terms of catering and 'refreshment' options around Tynecastle, they are on a different planet to us. It's already been said that in the past these stadiums were built on old playing fields, they had to be near where people lived as most folk had no choice but to walk. Thats true but now fans are willing to make a little sacrifice in terms of how far they can park from the stadium if it means they've options on where to eat/drink around the ground.

Also the traffic around a tight urban space such as Gorgie never really gets that bad for more than 10-15 minutes, as not only is everybody heading in different directions after the game but also not everybody has parked their car in the same place.

I've no idea if access is a big issue or not but we would only gain support by moving to a less isolated site.... all said it doesnt really matter as we're stuck with one weird stand and two lego ones, in the middle of nowhere, for a good while yet

Officially the most expensive taxi's outside London are in Aberdeen.

That aside, if you really analyse the other stadia around the country, not too many are close to town or city centres. Takes twenty mins max to walk from Sneck centre to Longman. Took me that on the underground and foot from centre of Glasgow to Ibrox today.

[ilpadrino]

As much as I think this dougal lad is on the wind up, he is correct in saying our stadium is pretty terrible and in an awful location.

It never bothered me when I lived in Inverness but I know that it does put people off, how many fairweather fans there are I've no idea, nobody does. Right now our stadium solely caters for supporters who are driving to the ground, comfortably at least. For me any future move has to consider that not everybody wants to drive to a game, theres no way to tell if a move to a more central location would discourage fans who had to park further from the ground on a match day.

What I will say though- I live down the road from Tynecastle in Edinburgh, 6 days a week the traffic jams up almost constantly and there isnt a parking space anywhere near the stadium. The nearest train station is a 20 minute walk away and the taxi's are the most expensive in Scotland, on paper the stadium is in a horrible location compared to ours in terms of access.

Thats if you define access as being able to park a few feet away from the stand you'll be sitting in and having the ability to make a quick getaway at full time, without wanting to make any compromises whatsoever. In terms of catering and 'refreshment' options around Tynecastle, they are on a different planet to us. It's already been said that in the past these stadiums were built on old playing fields, they had to be near where people lived as most folk had no choice but to walk. Thats true but now fans are willing to make a little sacrifice in terms of how far they can park from the stadium if it means they've options on where to eat/drink around the ground.

Also the traffic around a tight urban space such as Gorgie never really gets that bad for more than 10-15 minutes, as not only is everybody heading in different directions after the game but also not everybody has parked their car in the same place.

I've no idea if access is a big issue or not but we would only gain support by moving to a less isolated site.... all said it doesnt really matter as we're stuck with one weird stand and two lego ones, in the middle of nowhere, for a good while yet

Some of what you're saying is simply down to perception, but some is down to big city infrastructure. Bught Park is about 1? miles from the railway station, Longman is slightly further. Tynecastle is only about ? mile from Haymarket, and that's with an LRT (or whatever they are these days) bus passing each way every couple of minutes.

As you say, people are heading off in all directions from Tynecastle, which wouldn't be the case from Bught Park. They also have a lot more options for parking, and in general find themselves in no worse a position than Saturday shoppers.

As for pedestrians, well, some bottlenecks have become accepted because of their history - that doesn't mean they would be acceptable to create anew. Anyone who doubts the congestion in Gorgie need only leave the Digger's just after the final whistle blows and try walking to Tynecastle.

[DornochJAGGIE]

I don't like the design of our stadium, but i think the location is fine. Its near the road, that means its easy for travelling fans to get to. There is enough room to expand, and change the stadium if need be.

[Charles Bannerman]

I don't like the design of our stadium.

A case of beggars not being able to be choosers at two stages where there were enormous time and cost pressures to get an urgent job done.

In 1995, a raft of planning requirements, including a ?1.3M approach road, meant that roughly ?1 of savings had to be made on a stadium project which was already way behind the timescale promised to the SFL. Hence the Main Stand + pitch part.

Then in 2004 there was the urgent necessity to get ICT back to Inverness from Pittodrie in a situation where money was once again tight. As a result the Tulloch and Highland Council funded North and South stands were erected on a very short timescale to realise the SPL seating criterion of 6000 and get the team back playing in Inverness in January 2005.

The only other part is the 200 seats on the west side of the ground which was a genuine attempt by Alan Savage when he was chairman to meet the needs of a Singing Section but which never quite took off.

[tm4tj]

It's fine where it is.