The English Rugby Stadium/Attendance thread

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Leicester Tigers to start work on a 450 car multi story car park in April.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Love it!

Genuinely,
One of my issues with rugby grounds is that access (especially for drivers) is terrible. I know quite a few have decent park and rides, and council run car parks etc. dotted around, but being able to drive to the stadium, see the game, drive home again would just be ideal. Especially as it means having to deal with far fewer East Midlanders.

 

[Tony Manx]

Love it!

Genuinely,
One of my issues with rugby grounds is that access (especially for drivers) is terrible. I know quite a few have decent park and rides, and council run car parks etc. dotted around, but being able to drive to the stadium, see the game, drive home again would just be ideal. Especially as it means having to deal with far fewer East Midlanders.

I am with you on that and have waited an hour to get out of the Saints car park a number of times!!

In France, the police encourage cars to park near the ground providing traffic can flow.......hence cars parked on pavements, on roundabouts and central reservations where room permits.

In the UK all you see are yellow lines and cones for miles around all sporting events and the parking police everywhere either booking or misdirecting the traffic!!!

 

[JJFlash]

Car parking close to the Toulouse rugby ground is a nightmare!
As TM says, cars are abandoned willy nilly but I don't know if the Toulouse police look upon the problem sympathetically on match days.
Last week I took the navette from a metro station to the ground which was fine.
The proposed new car park in the old Granby Hall car park next to the Tigers' ground is great news!

 

[Tony Manx]

Last time I was at the ST ground for s match was about five years ago but parked within half a mile .........!

 

[JJFlash]

You must have parked the day before the game!

 

[Tony Manx]

Haha! It was five plus years ago......we had small cars in those days!!!

 

[MarkyH]

http://www.londonmidland.com/about-us/latest-news/#/pressreleases/london-midland-and-wasps-to-run-rugby-specials-1315295?utm_campaign=send_list

Access to Wasps at Ricoh will be a LOT easier for games Vs Tigers and Quins. They have decided to open the station on match-days, using 6 coach stock from Nuneaton or Coventry (change here for Ldn and Leicester) on these game days... (the original was to close the station an hr before and after as the previous 1 coach train wasn't able to deliver enough fans)

 

[Tom Sparks]

Thought I'd make a thread to post news and discuss new stadium developments in English rugby.
There seems to be quite a swell of news at the moment so I thought it would be easier to consolidate it into here!

Bath - The Rec

• Will have an extra 2000 temporary seats added for the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons - for a capacity of just under 14,000.
• Close to 7,000 season tickets have been sold - breaking the old record of 6,200.
• Planning permission still pending on the 16,500 seat redevelopment. If granted it should look a little like this:

Exeter Chiefs - Sandy Park

• Exeter have made the most significant upgrade for the 2014/15 season, with two wings added to their main stand and have replaced their old east stand terrace with a much larger one.
• Their 2014/15 capacity looks to be 12,300
• They have also upgraded their playing surface to a hybrid Desso system (the same as Twickenham's)
• This will be the last upgrade until after the world cup - their long term plan is to have a 20,000 capacity stadium with extensive conference facilities by 2020, depending on rugby performance

The new grandstand extensions under construction for the 2014/15 season:

The proposed 20,000 seat set-up:

Harlequins - The Stoop

• Quins have sold 8,000 season tickets 5 weeks out from the start of the regular season - a club record.
• They have recently announced their intention to increase the capacity at the Stoop from 14,800 to 20,000 "within a decade".
• This will involve rebuilding the north stand thus increasing the total capacity to 16,800 within the next three years.

Leicester Tigers - Welford Road

• Last year they sold over 15,000 season tickets - by march they had sold 12,000. I would expect them to exceed last year's sales.
• In 2012 Leicester announced their plans to increase the capacity of Welford Road to 30,000 - I'm unsure of the current status of those plans - I expect they are still very much in the pipeline however.

Proposed 30,000 seat layout (with adjoing hotel/car-park):

Newcastle Falcons - Kingston Park

• Newcastle have installed a new 3G artificial pitch at Kingston Park
• The 7,000~ attendance for the Premiership 7s at Darlington bodes well for an increased average attendance over the 5,000~ in 2013/14.

Northampton Saints - Franklin's Gardens

• Northampton have been granted planning permission to build a new north stand which will take Franklin's Gardens to a capacity of 15,500 in 2015.
• Last year they had 8,500 ST holders and the ground was sold out for more than half the games.

Wasps - Adams Park

• New owners have expressed an interest to move back into London proper

That's about it for the Premiership.
The average attendance figures may or may not go up, depending on how many people turn up at London Welsh (their average last year was a dismal 1,300).
Assuming all clubs have a marginal increase in attendances, and Bath and Exeter have increases directly proportional to their capacity upgrades then we should be able to break the 13k average attendance barrier for the first time.
If LW can get 5k on average and Gloucester can get slightly closer to capacity (which I think they probably will) then that should be very doable and would be a good bit of growth.

Overall I think think the outlook for the clubs is largely positive - I think a reasonable target for the premiership over the next 10 years should be for every club to average 10k over the course of the season, and for at least half the clubs to average over 15k.

Outside the Premiership Bristol are moving to Ashton Gate and it looks as if the Pirates/Cornwall could finally be getting the stadium they deserve (their new chairman has said they want to move by 2016).

Proposed new Pirates stadium: http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/In...ium-Cornwall/story-22051198-detail/story.html

That would be fantastic for Rugby IMO.

To all Saracens fans! I am currently doing my dissertation at university on reasons why Saracens fans attend home matches and their identification to the club. I would really appreciate it if you could please help me with my research and complete this 2 minute survey - http://goo.gl/forms/6DSLkJTHBx . Having been a Saracens fan from a young age, I’m intrigued to gain a deeper understanding of fans from such a great rugby club. Thank you for your time and help #SarriesFamily

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

So Tigers have won the Granby hall site and are planning to build a 5 storey 4 star Hotel and fan zone (taking up 2/3rds of the area).

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/8...lop-Granby/story-29248837-detail/story.html#1

 

[Alias]

Update for Bristols Ashton gate stadium.
Two stands now completed and in use.
last one will be completed for the start of 2016/17 season.
Bristol sold out all available 16600 seats for this Wednesdays dreaded playoff match a week ago .
Capacity for next season will be 27000.
Not bad for a Championship club??

https://www.lobstervision.tv/home#/camera-0-0/timelapse?_k=hqjfy7

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Cockerill confirming that Tigers are getting a hybrid pitch before the start of the season.

Sounds like the same turf as
Eden Park
Waikato
ANZ Stadium
Rather than desso.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

And the old turf has now officially all gone

http://www.leicestertigers.com/fans/multimedia/webcams.php

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Tigers pitch all done now!!!!!

Some Info www.leicestertigers.com/news/25196.php#.V7VtCGJLOnM

New natural pitch for Welford Road
18 August 2016 06:21By Gary Sherrard

Leicester TigersThick new turf has been installed at Welford Road since the end of last seasonA new, fully natural turf pitch is being installed at Welford Road in time for the start of the season.

The Eclipse Turf System pitch will be in place for the home game against the Ospreys next Friday (August 26) following a significant investment by the club.

The previous top turf has been removed since the end of last season and improvements made to the drainage, while the club has also taken the opportunity to install a sprinkler system to assist the groundstaff in the maintenance of the new surface.

Developed and installed by Lincolnshire-based County Turf, the pitch features natural turf held together by a sub membrane.

Ged Glynn, head of rugby operations at the Tigers, said: "The previous pitch has served us very well but everything has its lifespan and the Board gave the go-ahead to replace it with a new surface.

"County Turf is a very well respected name within the industry with clients across the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and the Eclipse system produces a hard-wearing and very consistent surface which is obviously important to us.

"This is completely natural turf, which is what we prefer at Welford Road. The only artificial element is in the membrane beneath the surface which keeps the turf tight and stable and reduces the possibility of divets and damage."

A section of turf was installed at the Oval Park training ground during last season to allow the playing and coaching staff to assess its credentials before getting the go-ahead to install the new pitch at Welford Road.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Maybe they'll be able to beat Sale now

 

[ratsapprentice]

I'll be interested to see how it goes - from what I can see it's basically sheets of astro turf with grass grown into it.

I wonder what made them go for this over Desso...

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

I'll be interested to see how it goes - from what I can see it's basically sheets of astro turf with grass grown into it.

I wonder what made them go for this over Desso...

Cheaper it's this stuff.
http://www.countyturf.co.uk/eclipse-hybrid-turf/about-tech-info

 

[ratsapprentice]

Yeah, I looked at their website.

I assumed it was probably price, but it could have been a timing thing too.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Yeah, I looked at their website.

I assumed it was probably price, but it could have been a timing thing too.

Yeh I think Desso costs like around a million plus with a year waiting list.