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The North and South Stands


SMEE

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I'd love to see even one of the sections on the end of the Main stand knocked down and a media suite built. It'd look so much nicer, and would surely bring another source of revenue for the club?? I know it's easier said than done but you'd think in the long term it would be of benefit.

If the other rather unsightly section of the main stand was removed, then the few seats in the West 'stand' could be extended so it's a full stand spanning the length of the pitch just 6 rows deep or something.

After seeing the video back in 2004 of when we were promoted, I'd also love to see the North and South stands go back to what they were like then, taking into account the new ground capacity rules. I know this is asking a bit much but I'm just throwing it out there.

So there'd be a reduced seating capacity in both the main stand and north stand (marginally), but this would be compensated for by the increased capacity in the West stand. This would make our attendances look better (and might actually improve them), and also the overall atmosphere would be improved.

Fully expecting to be shot down saying we can't afford it, and that may be so, but with the profits from our sucsesses on the pitch over the couple of seasons and I'm sure a transfer fee or two over the summer, could it not be something the board look at?

Edited by CaleyThistle
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Would just like to see them shifted 10 m closer to the pitch

Think the reason they are so far from the pitch is because access is from the front of the stand only.

 

I'd love to see even one of the sections on the end of the Main stand knocked down and a media suite built. It'd look so much nicer, and would surely bring another source of revenue for the club?? I know it's easier said than done but you'd think in the long term it would be of benefit.

Would that not restrict the viewing from the upper sections of the main stand though? Think that's why a large section of perspex is missing from the sides of the main stand as it is.

If any money is to be spent on stadium infrastructure I would prefer it to go on completing the main stand as originally designed. I have a feeling though that the long-term aim is to relocate so doubt any major spending will take place.

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If they were to be taken down, the South stand would only need to be rebuilt for away fans as the main stand could accomodate our home crowds

 

Crowds may be on the low side but no it couldn't.

An average gate of around 3,500? Usually around 200 in the south stand and when we get our higher attendances like 3.5k there tends to be 500 or so away fans, aberdeen celtic county etc

Main stand only takes 2200, 1700 covered.

I have been told and am almost sure the North and South stands both hold 2200 each, the West stand holds 400, so the Main stand can't possibly only hold 2200

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Each wing of the main stand seats 280 and the whole lower tier including the wings seats 1616. The upper tier (minus the soft seats) seats 651. This gives a total for the main stand of 2267 plus the soft seats so about 2300.

The north and south stands are about 2400 each. Add on the west stand and disabled seating takes us to around 7800.

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Ah the great idea of 10k+ seater stadia, where teams spent millions they never had to fulfil a criteria and end up with 60% of their seats empty every week, in the hope that they may have 4 sell outs per year when the OF came to visit and it would all look aesthetically pleasing on TV. Perhaps its worth considering the status of many of these clubs now who are still in huge debts and fighting at the lower leagues as they cannot sustain player wages due to still servicing the debt that 10k seater stadia created. At least now its based on what a club needs and can sustain - yes stadiums may not all look pretty like the Dnglish ones on TV, but at least ths clubs are striving to survive within their means and invest in the playing squad, would rather see the best quality squad on the park possible than sit somewhere nice watching dross. Just my view though. 

 

The year the 10k rule was dreamed into existence up, the lowest average attendance in the SPL was St Johnstone's, at just over 7,000.

 

The whole thing only became a real farce when Falkirk were denied promotion even after agreeing a ground sharing deal with Airdrie.

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Surely a club who break even would be able to morgage "tens of thousands" over a 20 year period to further improve the ground... and get it for a favourable price given our Stadium name connections.

 

What are we going to mortgage?

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Don't mortgage that's debt we don't need. As for selling a contracted player for a proper transfer fee (we've never managed that yet) may be worth a closer look....

Marius Niculae ?
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If we had the money I think investment in the stadium would be a major priority. Caley park is a rubbish stadium, it's far to open to the elements (mainly due to where it's been stupidly situated) there is no atmosphere even when people do get singing, stupid uncovered sections of the main stand (never liked them, never will and god only knows why we went with that design, it's aweful) and the north and south stands are far to far away from the pitch and not steep enough to get a decent vantage point. Stands behind the goals like at raith rovers would be ideal but sadly we do not have the funds.

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Its funny how expectation levels change.

20 years ago I thought it was a pretty decent stadium when it was build.

I felt the likes of falkirk, pars, st mirren, partick, st johnstone were big clubs and if you said to me 20 years from now we would be moaning about just missing out on playing in the Europa league 2 years running I would have laughed it off.

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Its funny how expectation levels change.

20 years ago I thought it was a pretty decent stadium when it was build.

I felt the likes of falkirk, pars, st mirren, partick, st johnstone were big clubs and if you said to me 20 years from now we would be moaning about just missing out on playing in the Europa league 2 years running I would have laughed it off.

Sucsess breeds conempt

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Was it not the same stand that was cobbled together in record time to ensure we got our SPL campaign started on time.

 

Brilliant feat actually from all accounts ....so....?  Where are you going with this young Doofer?

 

When I stood on the terracing at the former Caledonian F C there was no side stands and the main stand was small. Sometimes you stood beside or behind trees if there was  a large crowd. And sitting down was generally not an option.   These were the good old days and not the modern mollycoddling days of this era.

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The stadium is a joke. The worst in the SPL in my opinion. As doofer says above it's far too open which means no atmosphere, always cold because of it's stupid location, 2 eye sore stands behind the goals, horrendous looking main stand, no idea who designed it but they get no points and it does nothing to attract new fans.

Stadium investment should be an absolute priority now. And I guarantee our crowds would go up if the stadium looked a bit better, people and neutrals especially would be far more inclined to go down every second Saturday if they were in a decent ground instead of sat in the freezing cold and struggling to even see the game because the poor design of the north/south stands. This is the opinion of so many people I have spoken to. Boys from work, neutrals, people who aren't ICT fans but who just want to go down and watch a game of football on a Saturday afternoon but they are put off by these things.

The stadium does absolutely nothing to help attract new fans. If there are funds available investment in this area should be a top priority.

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Don't mortgage that's debt we don't need. As for selling a contracted player for a proper transfer fee (we've never managed that yet) may be worth a closer look....

Marius Niculae ?

 

aye fair point forgot about him may have been the court case that put him off my radar  :getmecoat:

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The stadium design (even internally) is not great and the club had to spend money very soon after completion to make changes to the architects layout.

 

That said, many of the issues with the main stand are created by having to cut construction costs to meet the budget (not helped by a significant six figure claim being submitted by one of the Contractors a day after they signed the contract). This led to the uncovered sections and even the roof being curtailed.

 

The above not withstanding, a number of features of the ground were dictated by the need to mitigate daft fears of stakeholder. For example, ships were to get blinded and confused by the floodlights and one of the reasons the main stand was positioned was to mask this being a problem.

 

I am sure however if the ground did not have to be conceptually designed with a 10,000 capacity in mind something more compact may well have resulted.

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I've really noticed this season that the ground is needing some serious work done on it. The red seats in main stand are pretty much pink. The main stand needs a good paint, inside and out....the red girders are getting extremely rusty. The goal sheds im surprised are still standing and again need a lick of paint. And ofcourse, the west sode especially just seems to be getting worse n worse. When it rains it get muddier and more puddles seem to appear.

Personally i think the club really need to look into the ground infristructure and how they can better it. The ground really is needing some amount of repair work and that should be near the top of the list. The goal sheds i think really need to get replaced and a plan should be put in place to rebuild the main stand

It was built as a 3rd div stadium with the potential of being added to over the years whilst we go up the leagues. I dont think anyone felt we would be playing in SPL within 8 years.

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Were the golf stands built as a temporary measure in case we didn't stay in the SPL very long? Now we are an established SPL side, surely something more permanent should be, at least behind the home goal.

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Were the golf stands built as a temporary measure in case we didn't stay in the SPL very long? Now we are an established SPL side, surely something more permanent should be, at least behind the home goal.

I think someone said the Structure itself is permanent....but the seating was only meant as a temp measure? One thing is for sure.....its nowhere near the stand the club had intended to put in place. It was far better....more like rugby park

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The stadium is a joke. The worst in the SPL in my opinion. As doofer says above it's far too open which means no atmosphere, always cold because of it's stupid location, 2 eye sore stands behind the goals, horrendous looking main stand, no idea who designed it but they get no points and it does nothing to attract new fans.

Stadium investment should be an absolute priority now. And I guarantee our crowds would go up if the stadium looked a bit better, people and neutrals especially would be far more inclined to go down every second Saturday if they were in a decent ground instead of sat in the freezing cold and struggling to even see the game because the poor design of the north/south stands. This is the opinion of so many people I have spoken to. Boys from work, neutrals, people who aren't ICT fans but who just want to go down and watch a game of football on a Saturday afternoon but they are put off by these things.

The stadium does absolutely nothing to help attract new fans. If there are funds available investment in this area should be a top priority.

Yeah.....i only follow teams with state of the art stadiums, where money is no object!

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A bit harsh shooting some people down SMEE.

The main stand is obviously ugly and the north and south stands arent brilliant either, but while many are suggesting that noone thought we would be in the SPL for that long, we're in it now, and despite Hughes I cant see us going down any time soon.

I'd like to see our away end similar to Countys, the new bit where the wendy house was. With the uncovered section nearest the south stand being extended. I know Celtic and recently stranraer have sat there so it could be extended for smaller supports like St J, St M, Partick, etc. tripling its length would accomodate the amount they bring. I also like ICTRoughi s idea of a media suite on the side nearest the north stand. Surely at the cost of doing that it would make a profit in a few years rather than opening and stewarding the south stand when the most (celtic, arabs, sheep county aside) it is filled in 3 columns.

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