WHAM Stadium (face lift) Improvements
 

What are your thoughts on the Improvements (upgrade) of the WHAM Stadium,whats you see as 1st Priority followed by your thoughts on the mager Ground Improvements you would like to see happen (first) next :) For me Priority has to be the Toilet facility for both home and away fans need to be overhauld ASP. mager improvemets for me would be a new whinney hill stand in corparating the changing rooms,Has this is the least used at the Stadium could be up and running befor the end of the season :)

Re: WHAM Stadium (face lift) Improvements
 

Abit of an article about it...

Andy Holt draws up big plans to boost Accrington Stanley in the future (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Re: WHAM Stadium (face lift) Improvements
 

Agree with your suggestions, Mab.
I'd refine your first one further, if necessary, and say upgrading the ladies' toilets should be the top priority. Men will pee up any lamppost but our better halves rightly demand more civilised standards and, given that lots of mums may be persuaded to bring their kids, making sure they are not put off coming again is vital.
Whinney Hill side is also an obvious location for modest new construction. It'll upset the neighbours but some of them have been watching games from their conservatories and bedrooms for years without the club moaning about it.

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Exile is correct,
Men's toilets are acceptable
Never been in the ladies toilets but if they need work then do it

Personally I would prefer the club to add a 2nd catering van behind the Clayton end ideally selling something different from the other.
Hopefully it would be on the same terms as the other can where the caterer takes all the risk from a postponed game.

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I think it's important next season (If the contract is only a season long) that we have our own caterers instead of outside contracts coming in...They must make a killing!

Hopefully we can develop the cowshed and make better hospitality and offiice space that could generate more revenue...How many times a year is the club house used? Need to get people using that more!

Andy Holt obviously sees something in Stanley that can work just needs abit of "tough love" and our backing!

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No they certainly are not, on the ClaytonEnd at least. Always smelly, barely enough room to squat for a number2, and no hot water and even the cold taps run dry. I don't know about the away end but I'm not sure the Morecambe fans are joking when they say "a new light bulb would be good"

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I'd love to see the Whinney Hill cowshed demolished one day to be replaced with a new stand, but maybe that's expecting too much. A lot less ambitious,i'd like to see the main stand's roof painted. The paint has faded and it's covered in green mold.

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men using a theodolight in the car park adjacent to Livingstone Road is there money being spent there

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Maybe they're prospecting for gold, or gas:rolleyes:

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Shale Gas Maybe ?

Change of name to Fraccy Stanley :D

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In fact I would go to say 'totally unacceptable !!' .....For everyone from 2 to 92 ??.
There is always a certain loss of dignity felt as one becomes embroiled in the struggle to gain entrance to the Men's Toilet in the Main Stand...let alone the crush inside as an attempt is made to use the facility !.
The sooner these antiquated premises are replaced by more civilised arrangements the better.
And, as RR says, it is most definitely not a place for youngsters to visit !.

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Playing catch up on various threads and I can't remember what I've read and where. I think somebody mentions on this thread though about 'we seem to revel in tinpottedness'

I entirely agree, but don't think that it is a bad thing if done right. There is a vast difference between tinpot and scummy. The toilets are scummy - the ground is tinpot.

With the best will in the world we aren't going to have the big shiny stadium and we don't need one. What we need is something that is comfortable for the fans that we have, and something that enables us to maximise what we already have.

First rule of customer building? Look after the ones you have. It should be easier to retain customers than continually find new ones.

Priority

Improve the Bogs
Fix the leaking roof on every stand (except maybe the Cow shed)
Find some way of providing shelter on the concourses so that people can spend money there pre-game and at half time

Secondary

Find a way of taking money off people other than on the gate, programme and 50-50 draw.
Can we do our own catering? has anybody looked into this in recent years? Many clubs seem to use the pre-cooked, wrapped in tin foil type of fayre. Surely this is as simple as ordering, putting into warmy contraption and then selling for a vast profit?
If catering is beyond us then can we have some kind of additional provision where crisps and chocolate and pop is available for the kids? Even just a brew shed. Often I have fancied a brew rather than a beer but I'm standing in line for 15 minutes to pay two quid or whatever for a cup of warm water.

Thirdly
Now we get to the major builds. Once we've looked after the existing customers we can start to look at bigger things. Any kind of development of the cowshed would be primary. If we were to make a big push on attracting families where would we put them? The main stand doesn't have enough room to section a decent area off as 'family area'. Anywhere near the dug-outs is too close to some choice language, anywhere near to the changing rooms is too close to the away fans and any intimidating behaviour. I'm not saying that kids can't go in the main stand at all, but there simply isn't room to target a big push on families. The Clayton End is where the action is, but as a father of a young child I'm not entirely sure I want him in amongst some of the songs and the bad language of many. Yes they'll hear it where ever they go, but I wouldn't bet on families returning when they are in immediate earshot.

Any development of the Cowshed should be done with 'Family Stand' as the primary objective.

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WHEN?! :confused:

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I agree to a certain extent. The 'tinpot' title needs getting rid of, but not to the extent of the reason why I no longer go and see my lifelong team, too much corporate feel. The club needs to retain the friendly club title, but without going too far up the corporate ladder. On the other hand the corporate side is where the money is in maintaining football these days. It's a very fine line between the two.

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Agree with most things their Macca especialy the priorities section look after the punters we have we lost enough since we came back into the league as for more fans I think everything has been covered on that one I still think corporate facillities is a priority along with more sponsership and advertising improve facilities slowly and success off the field will hopefully convert onto the pitch as well as from now hopefully will be run as a successful buisness model professionally and less mistakes and the buisness will grow hopefully.

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Cheeky! Usually midweek if I know I'm driving the following day

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Take the roof off the Clayton End bogs and let the heavy rain give them a good wash(for the first time in donkey's)!:D

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Clearly we need to raise the level of the pitch after yet another postponement!
The pitch level could be raised by 18 inches, but still retaining a slight slope, with lots of drainage put in, even including a proper drainage system with pumps fitted at the lower Coppice End to take away the water that seems to fall endlessly from our local sky!!!
Definitely need to improve the Stone Age toilets in the Clayton End which are a health hazard as described by other posters earlier.
T'would be nice to see a Family Stand replacing the cowshed on the Whinney Hill side!

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Will the clay base not make it a waste of money raising the pitch? I ask but have no idea personally.:confused:

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Move the lot to Dubai believe it's quite dry their.

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Rebuild the stadium in the same way as the one in Monaco. From what I remember its on the fourth floor above car parks and a swimming pool

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just put a roof over the whole stadium, simples. Keep a certain whinger off our boards.

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Employ Danvic Ltd who installed drainage at GT Hardwood CC that transformed it from the worst to best draining ground in the league.

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Aye but was Harrods clay underneath?

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Sand filled slits every metre feeding into drainage system ringed round the edge of the ground. Sand slits grassed over. Would be within Stanley's budget too.

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But haven't we done the sand slits at least twice before? It's what lies beneath which is the problem.

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Do they feed in to anything?

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They'd have to feed into an attenuation tank/pit/lake within Stanley's control. Can't simply discharge surface water onto your neighbours' land anymore, and move the flooding further downstream. Would have thought somewhere under the Coppice end car park would be an option. Could install a giant SUDS system under there, but it's unlikely to be cheap, unless it as part of a more comprehensive development at that end of the ground:).
But the current groundwater levels are exceptional, and across the country, and the cost of further drainage infrastructure has to be balanced against both how often this level of incessant rain occurs and what else the money could be spent on.

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Large capacity underground storage tanks? Excess water can be run off into them then recycled as & where required, toilets, ground sprinklers, or even a local farmer or two should it be required. :idunno:

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:) I sure Additional drainage was put in pre-season while other work was carried out on the pitch.MrT may be able to clarify.

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Readstone Construction on site digging in the problem corner at Coppice end Whinny Hill end anybody's guess what they are doing.

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Fracking for gas?;)

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Or maybe trying to find the plug to let all the water out?? ;)

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Checking the drains and jetting them

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Oh No!
Not more water flushing down the Coppice End!
They will be enforcing a Hosepipe Ban next!:pain30:

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Andy Holt tweeted yesterday some pictures of more new drainage going in down the side of the main stand!...Doesn't mess about does he?

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Where can you find them Baldy?

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@AndyhHolt mate

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Hope this works

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Had a quick look on the Hynburn Council planning website to see if theres anything on a found all the previous planning permission from 2004 and 2006 with new Control Room, Toilet Blocks and New Whinney Hill Stand.
I guess in the end it was down to money.

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Control Room.