http://www.chesterfield-fc.premiumtv.co.uk...1279637,00.html

It used to be fun the away game. New town, new ground which looks totally different to your own right in the middle of the heartland of that town. Decent pubs nearby, walking through back alleys to get to the away end. The noise trying to out sing the home fans in a old tin shed, crap toilets overflowing. Beer on sale at half time, all part of the day

Train station within a 10 minute walk and free car parking space is plentiful if you traveled that way in.

Now what do we have:

Go to a ground which looks like B & Q in the middle of nowhere and is next door to a Tescos or **Asda and Ikea** and not much different from your own teams ground (I know not for me YET but I daresay one day it will). Getting filmed and pushed about by the police for doing nothing. No chance for a beer from a decent pub as it upsets the families so all there is an harvester. God heaven forbid if you sing or stand, but they play nice loud music for you to listen to while you wait for the"main event".

Once the game has finished you got to walk a country mile to get back to the closest town or train station but being made to go the longest way round and being kept behind for your own safety(I be the judge what and what is not safe for me thanks). If you drove it costs 10 quid to park in the nearest (only) car park within a 3 miles.


Is it worth the bother. :(


** A brownie point for who correctly answers which ground has those two next door.

RIP Saltergate, probably the best remaining old style ground in the country. For a country that cares so much about heritage, why does it not apply to football?

I believe that would be Stadium:MK

Shrewsbury=Colchester=Chesterfield

I was at Saltergate only 3 weeks ago - spot on with everything you say, this is an absolute travesty (wonder how many Tescos that is now which have received planning permission by inserting a plastic stadium in the package)

You'd think the 'credit crunch' might be discouraging this kind of thing by now

There's enough value in the land underneath Saltergate to make it fairly worthwhile for the club, from what I've heard. To be honest, I'm not totally opposed to redeveloping grounds if they're pretty outdated (I think Layer Road could have done with more than one toilet for example!) but you're right in that random moves across town often take some of the shine off aways.

Anyway, I've got a friend with a relative who met the architect for their stadium a while back and asked about terracing, apparently its all seater but the design would be easy to convert - quite why they'd bother with that I dunno, considering they're in League Two now and were near the bottom of League One at the time so its not like they're risking having to change it any time soon if they did go with terracing.

I thought this was the last season at Saltergate, seems I was wrong ;o) If it's still at the planning stage we can still give an input to it, as we have for Morecambe & Brentford recently.

Yes it is.

Its ok mate by 5pm tonight you could be destined for the conference....no plastic bowls down there (excluding oxford which is just tench and new)

Yup. I hope we started how you lot did. and even if we dont, we have the right people in charge to lead the fight


Anyway back to the topic. Why is it always seen that a new ground will gain the club more fans plus will make the club successful

Ask this to the fans of
Millwall- I think of all the teams to have got a new ground it has affected them the most, their old place was deffiently a 12th man for them, now though it is just as intimidating as any were else(not much)
Leicester - Bland looks like Southampton
Southampton- Bland looks like Leicester
Coventry - Bland looks like a air craft hanger
Darlington-who ever thought about building a 20k for a team that rarely gets over 4k regular as a good idea needs to be shot.
Chester
Shewsbury -never been but looks like Colchester in the pictures I have seen
Oxford -never been but at least finish it


All these clubs above since getting new grounds haven't exactly set the world alight have they. All have either suffered relegation or bottom half table finishes or been close to the brink of admin since moving to new grounds
<_<

As ever, it beats me why clubs with grounds entirely adequate for their purposes want to bankrupt themselves paying the mortgage on a new one. A thousand or two lame-os will toddle along to see the shiny new place and enjoy the luxurious new toilets at first of course, but they're hardly going to be able to pay for the whole thing. Long term these moves make no sense, how can people not understand that?!

But I guess it could be worse. At least the planned design has four separate stands instead of being a miniature version of one of our God-awful Championship bowls (like Shrewsbury's).
Also, if standing areas end up being included then it could be very good for the safe standing lobby. The FLA can pass off the continuing existence of old terraces in the 3rd/4th Divisions as just necessary evils which will disappear in time when the clubs move to their nice new all-seaters; but trying to make out that a modern standing area like that at Morecambe, Burton etc. is a death trap is a whole different matter.

I spose our new ground ain't too bad. Deffo got potential if we open up a stand for home and away fans, plus it has one unique 2-tiered stand!

But its 3 years since we left Highfield almost exactly to this day and i still miss it. R.I.P

The Walkers Stadium is an absolute pile of tench.

No life, no soul and no character.

And the club thought this would propel us to the next level.

Looks like it'll be hosting League 1 Football next year!

tbh i've quite enjoyed my two visits to the walkers stadium, alot of banter and decent atmosphere.

Although you couldn't beat Filbert Street, remember walking out and seeing Leicester fans left right and centre just punching anyone above the age of 15!!

Don't know why i miss it so much...

There is a lot of potential for a good away atmosphere, for sure. Best place in the ground to be for atmosphere, providing the sun is in!

Filbert Street certainly was a great ground. Used to have a bit of a reputation about it, as you say! :ph43r:

Ricoh is about the most advanced 'bowl'. Can't say I've loved my trips there, we've took on average 4,000 on our three visits there, but full of day packers! So we rarely create much!

I think Shrews fans have been hit worst of all by this. Their fans were pretty good at Gay Meadow. At the New Meadow we were treated to 93 mins of silence, then a small cheer as their scored a 94th minute winner then silence again! It was awful!

Imagine the difference between a noisy layer road and the vast open corners of cuckoo farm, I am half happy I have been banned so I don't have to endure that.

Rumours that Spurs have decided on a new ground right next to the Lane. 50,000 and apparently very steep and enclosed like a German ground. Now if only we could have some safe standing eh ? I would rather 50.000 than 60.000 with every tom dick and harry and jcl there to be honest. Just hope that the football bubble bursts and we can get back to 30.000 hardcore .

So despite not having done anything worth getting a proper banning order, the club still have you banned? That's just daft :(