Main Stand redevelopment thread

[grumpymort]

Do you not read the articles that you post before being so rude in your reply?

For clarity i will post an excerpt from the link you provided - so the stand was due to be opened for the start of the 2024/25 season (so August 2024) and they knocked the old stand down in Jan 2023. We are now in June 2026 - so the best case total delay will be about 3 years.

In November 2022, Wrexham Council approved the club's plans to construct a 5,500-capacity all-seating stand, including official and retail space, facilities for the Wrexham Community Trust and a hospitality lounge for matches.

In January 2023, the current unused Kop stand was demolished in preparation for a complete rebuild. Things looked positive for the club, and a target opening date for the new stand was released for the 2024/25 season

Construction takes time pls learn how the industry works.

You are digging yourself into a deeper hole.

The log of what took place is documented by the club.

Not like Palace who keep misleading the fans & giving 0 updates.

 

[silvertop]

I appreciate a certain amount of frustration over the speed of progress. The press releases promote the new stand in a way which suggests it is part of the club's immediate plans, and the club does little to suggest otherwise when it talks about it. In that context, it's quite a time delay between the initial planning permission in 2018 and today.

That said, whilst other projects appear to have happened quicker, not all do. Fulham are just putting the finishing touches on their new main stand having got planning permission for it in 2012. They didn't start work until summer of 2019. For three whole seasons their capacity was temporarily reduced to 19,000. Even the small lower tier wasn't opened until 2022–23.

We, on the other hand, are trying to build the new stand around the old one so that nobody loses their seat in the process. We are also hoping to finish it fairly quickly after starting proper. These things are not nothing. Few other clubs have achieved them.

In terms of wider context we've had covid, ridiculous price increases, and have built a top class academy since the planning permission, and that's without all the complications with the wooderson close houses and the usual planning obligations.

More importantly than any of this, we are like any club our size engaging in this type of project: It only makes sense if we will be in the premier league, but we are never guaranteed to stay up. We have to take the plunge on a project that will take years and years to pay for itself whilst knowing that the income to do so may realistically cease at any given point. The overall viability is crucial, and potentially ruinous at worst for clubs like us. It's very different for Liverpool, for instance. I do wonder if the increased value of the playing squad in recent years is relevant. It must help Parish sleep easier at night as far as the new stand finances are concerned. Better than he would have slept a few years ago.

Finally, I don't accept that the club are out of order for not keeping us posted in detail. All these things may be commercially sensitive. If Parish is guilty of talking it up a bit then perhaps that's just him trying to retain interest in the project and the club. I'd rather he risked slightly misleading us than risked underselling the club, if that helps him deliver.

I'm not arguing more questioning. Where is the commercial sensitivity? How can the club be prejudiced by a bland wholly factual update from time to time?

In truth, I see plenty of contracts in my day job and there are always confidentiality clauses. When you ask why they are needed, the response is usually "because". It is safe policy in a world of instant info circulation. Thus, Parish repeats his advisers by saying there will absolutely positively be spades in the ground in October. When the unpredictable inevitably occurs, and October comes and goes, he is a liar, bullsh1tter and you cannot trust anything he says. The club suffers reputationally.

Parish comes from the world of PR so knows about information management. In football, he appears to have learned that saying nothing is nearly always the best policy. I would not blame him if he kept schtum until the workies arrived on site in their fluorescents, hard hats and wrecking ball.

 

[silvertop]

Construction takes time pls learn how the industry works.

You are digging yourself into a deeper hole.

The log of what took place is documented by the club.

Not like Palace who keep misleading the fans & giving 0 updates.

🙂

 

[martin2412]

What concerns me, is that having supplied hundreds of thousands of pounds of fittings for the interior fit out to Wembley, the Olympic stadium and Tottenham, and also quoting for Fulham and Liverpool, I haven't seen a thing regarding our new stand.
Ordinarily enquiries are received well in advance (up to three years) of the fit out, just to get some idea of costs, with a view to firming-up requirements and costs as the final details are nearing completion.
It may be that our firm is not being asked to tender, but I've spoken to many people in our industry and nobody seems to have seen anything.

 

[HeathMan]

Parish comes from the world of PR so knows about information management. In football, he appears to have learned that saying nothing is nearly always the best policy. I would not blame him if he kept schtum until the workies arrived on site in their fluorescents, hard hats and wrecking ball.

I do hope there will not be a wrecking ball, as plans, as I understand them, are for the new stand to be an envelope which will contain the old stand to be taken out piece by piece as the new stand is fitted out.

 

[TheBigToePunt]

I'm not arguing more questioning. Where is the commercial sensitivity? How can the club be prejudiced by a bland wholly factual update from time to time?

In truth, I see plenty of contracts in my day job and there are always confidentiality clauses. When you ask why they are needed, the response is usually "because". It is safe policy in a world of instant info circulation. Thus, Parish repeats his advisers by saying there will absolutely positively be spades in the ground in October. When the unpredictable inevitably occurs, and October comes and goes, he is a liar, bullsh1tter and you cannot trust anything he says. The club suffers reputationally.

Parish comes from the world of PR so knows about information management. In football, he appears to have learned that saying nothing is nearly always the best policy. I would not blame him if he kept schtum until the workies arrived on site in their fluorescents, hard hats and wrecking ball.

Dunno. Perhaps there is no commercial sensitivity. Mind you, I suppose if he's talking to several potential sponsors then perhaps he needs to talk it up in public, hence the big fanfare, when in actual fact he needs them to commit first in order to make it all work.

As you say, he knows PR so it's not like he'll be ignorant to the benefits of regular updates. That just makes me think even more that there might be reasons why he doesn't provide them.

 

[palace99]

Construction takes time pls learn how the industry works.

You are digging yourself into a deeper hole.

The log of what took place is documented by the club.

Not like Palace who keep misleading the fans & giving 0 updates.

You can probably the type of person who can have an argument in an empty room.

You are also conflating 2 separate issues.

One is that Palace haven't kept fans up to date on developments/delays - that is a fair point.

The second is that Palace are responsible for the delays - i've merely pointed out that we are not the only club/company to have experienced delays.

Money bags Wrexham initially said their new stand should be ready for the start of the 2024/5 season and knocked down the old stand in Jan 2023 in preparation of starting that construction.

Yes they have kept people up to date with progress, but progress is 3 years behind the initial schedule - the one that they announced, despite presumably knowing how the construction industry worked

 

[Eagle One]

Has a shovel gone in the ground yet?! 😉

 

[dreamwaverider]

What concerns me, is that having supplied hundreds of thousands of pounds of fittings for the interior fit out to Wembley, the Olympic stadium and Tottenham, and also quoting for Fulham and Liverpool, I haven't seen a thing regarding our new stand.
Ordinarily enquiries are received well in advance (up to three years) of the fit out, just to get some idea of costs, with a view to firming-up requirements and costs as the final details are nearing completion.
It may be that our firm is not being asked to tender, but I've spoken to many people in our industry and nobody seems to have seen anything.

Very odd. Maybe we are having a re think as to our overall strategy. New location?

 

[grumpymort]

You can probably the type of person who can have an argument in an empty room.

You are also conflating 2 separate issues.

One is that Palace haven't kept fans up to date on developments/delays - that is a fair point.

The second is that Palace are responsible for the delays - i've merely pointed out that we are not the only club/company to have experienced delays.

Money bags Wrexham initially said their new stand should be ready for the start of the 2024/5 season and knocked down the old stand in Jan 2023 in preparation of starting that construction.

Yes they have kept people up to date with progress, but progress is 3 years behind the initial schedule - the one that they announced, despite presumably knowing how the construction industry worked

It appears you are not very bright.

Palace was suppose to start building work before covid (construction industry still carried on during the scamdemic)

How is it 3 years behind for Wrexham you can't count and you seem to think construction happens over night no it tends to take years.

Maybe next time look at things correctly you would see the reasons behind some of the delays and they are nothing like Palace.

It's going to cost Palace double now to do work because of the messing about from them with likes of Brighton building a new womens stadium before Palace even add few thousand to a stand.

 

[GrayEagle]

We all await with interest what will become of the main stand, especially when Villa are cracking on with their redevelopment. My issue with the whole main stand redevelopment is that Selhurst ultimately still has two shite stands remaining - and how to redo them is difficult. Ideally buying out Sainsbury’s and using the land it sits on to sort out the Whitehorse would be best.
we have bought a few houses down Wooderson close, could CPFC not buy them all and turn Selhurst 90 degrees? Extend the Holmesdale and have that as one of the main stands, new stand behind a goal. The Arthur can be behind a goal and should be big enough as that can’t increase in height and then a new stand where Whitehorse is. The land space with all the car park is there. Maybe it has been considered and is a non starter, but surely its an option 🤔

 

[mtp1958]

Messing about like council demands not having a 100m at the time , none essential building work was stopped during covid , change of the board , kicking Bovis into touch , change of construction ,

So it is what it is , it will be built starting soon , we are building over the top not virgin ground ,

Scamdemic really I lost 2 friends to your so called scam

 

[Hrolf The Ganger]

We all await with interest what will become of the main stand, especially when Villa are cracking on with their redevelopment. My issue with the whole main stand redevelopment is that Selhurst ultimately still has two shite stands remaining - and how to redo them is difficult. Ideally buying out Sainsbury’s and using the land it sits on to sort out the Whitehorse would be best.
we have bought a few houses down Wooderson close, could CPFC not buy them all and turn Selhurst 90 degrees? Extend the Holmesdale and have that as one of the main stands, new stand behind a goal. The Arthur can be behind a goal and should be big enough as that can’t increase in height and then a new stand where Whitehorse is. The land space with all the car park is there. Maybe it has been considered and is a non starter, but surely its an option 🤔

It would be cheaper to buy the houses behind the Arthur Waite than to buy out Sainsbury's. I'm sure that if the club's success continues at its current trajectory, I'm sure we would be looking to do that and increase the capacity to or above 40k.
For now, it would be nice to see some action on the Main Stand.

 

[Phil1975]

There are rumours goingf around that it's going to be named "The Dame Eddie Izzard Stand".

 

[silvertop]

Parish comes from the world of PR so knows about information management. In football, he appears to have learned that saying nothing is nearly always the best policy. I would not blame him if he kept schtum until the workies arrived on site in their fluorescents, hard hats and wrecking ball.

I do hope there will not be a wrecking ball, as plans, as I understand them, are for the new stand to be an envelope which will contain the old stand to be taken out piece by piece as the new stand is fitted out.

Ha just some poetic licence (without any actual poetry)

 

[mogrem]

Money bags Wrexham initially said their new stand should be ready for the start of the 2024/5 season and knocked down the old stand in Jan 2023 in preparation of starting that construction.

How do you keep missing this vital line? Their build has been delayed at least 2 years now. But you still make it sound normal, but when Palace build is delayed it's somehow only Palace that fails to build on time.

How is it 3 years behind you for Wrexham you can't count and you seem to think construction happens over night no it tends to take years.

So again, you think their delay is normal but Palace delay is absurd. Weird. I think we have seen work done. Mostly checking the ground below if it can keep such a structure and so on.

The text above from the article clearly states they thought their new stand would be done 2 years ago and still isn't so.

 

[grumpymort]

Messing about like council demands not having a 100m at the time , none essential building work was stopped during covid , change of the board , kicking Bovis into touch , change of construction ,

So it is what it is , it will be built starting soon , we are building over the top not virgin ground ,

Scamdemic really I lost 2 friends to your so called scam

Construction continued as normal don't listen to the BS that was spread about essentials only I said it at the time I know people high up in one of the top construction companies and even lower people on the ground nothing changed.

All those you list are excuses the original planning was put in place something like 10 years ago and just before covid we was told work was going to start.

It was a scamdemic fact and sorry for your loss but people die every minute of the day in the world.

 

[mtp1958]

Construction continued as normal don't listen to the BS that was spread about essentials only I said it at the time I know people high up in one of the top construction companies and even lower people on the ground nothing changed.

All those you list are excuses the original planning was put in place something like 10 years ago and just before covid we was told work was going to start.

It was a scamdemic fact and sorry for your loss but people die every minute of the day in the world.

Well some friends of mine was put on other sites as they had to stop on that site because of Covid . I was working in power stations back then on outages , 50% of us wasn't allowed on sites , which slowed up repairs

Think you will find back in 1980 we was going to build a new stadium remember seeing it in the old Supporters club , roughly based on Wembley if my memory is correct ,


Thank you but to many people died very quickly to be a scam

 

[TheBigToePunt]

It would be cheaper to buy the houses behind the Arthur Waite than to buy out Sainsbury's. I'm sure that if the club's success continues at its current trajectory, I'm sure we would be looking to do that and increase the capacity to or above 40k.
For now, it would be nice to see some action on the Main Stand.

You might be right, but it would be a nightmare getting panning permission to demolish all those houses on Park Road and replace them. Even if the Council were content with the effect of this on the character of the area, look how long it's taken (is still taking?) with just six houses on Wooderson Close.

On the other hand, I can well imagine the Council readily supporting the club, perhaps through use of a compulsory purchase order, if it had a scheme to replace the Whitehorse Lane stand with a mirror image(ish) of the Holmesdale. That could involve building over the top of the existing Sainsburys, or knocking down the stand and supermarket and building a new stand with a replacement supermarket below. The houses/flats on Whitehorse Lane do not seem to have rear facing windows and there would be more than enough space to do it. Sainsbury's could even get a nice, shiny supermarket out of it.

Based on how the negotiations for the strip of car park land Palace needed for the new Main Stand went, I should think any joint-project with Sainsburys for a replacement supermarket and stand would be perfectly straightforward, swift, and with no problem at all.... 😕

 

[ASCPFC]

You might be right, but it would be a nightmare getting panning permission to demolish all those houses on Park Road and replace them. Even if the Council were content with the effect of this on the character of the area, look how long it's taken (is still taking?) with just six houses on Wooderson Close.

On the other hand, I can well imagine the Council readily supporting the club, perhaps through use of a compulsory purchase order, if it had a scheme to replace the Whitehorse Lane stand with a mirror image(ish) of the Holmesdale. That could involve building over the top of the existing Sainsburys, or knocking down the stand and supermarket and building a new stand with a replacement supermarket below. The houses/flats on Whitehorse Lane do not seem to have rear facing windows and there would be more than enough space to do it. Sainsbury's could even get a nice, shiny supermarket out of it.

Based on how the negotiations for the strip of car park land Palace needed for the new Main Stand went, I should think any joint-project with Sainsburys for a replacement supermarket and stand would be perfectly straightforward, swift, and with no problem at all.... 😕

The council and the London Assembly both made several problems for us. Costing us millions. They have been far from helpful.
Which is the exact opposite of how other teams have been treated by their local authorities. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not sure Croydon deserves us. They don't appreciate us.