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ENGLAND - Stadium and Arena Development News

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#1 · (Edited)
British Stadiums - 15 Largest Countdown!

A summary of the UK's largest (though not necessarily best!) stadia. Note - Have included those currently under construction, but not those still in the planning stages. Also please note that they are not in order of what I think is 'best', but purely in order of capacity... Enjoy!


Britain's Top 15 Stadiums in terms of size:

1) Wembley Stadium, London: English national football stadium.
Capacity - 90,000
(Under Construction - opens 2006)







2) Twickenham Stadium, London: English national rugby stadium.
Capacity – 83,000
(Currently being expanded from 75-83,000)







3) Old Trafford, Manchester: Home of Manchester United F.C.
Capacity – 75,000
(Currently being expanded from 68-75,000)







4) Millennium Stadium, Cardiff: Welsh national football and rugby stadium.
Capacity – 73,000







5) Murrayfield, Edinburgh: Scottish national rugby stadium.
Capacity – 67,000







6) New Anfield, Liverpool: New home of Liverpool F.C.
Capacity – 61,000
(Groundwork just begun – Opens 2007/2008)







7) Celtic Park, Glasgow: Home of Celtic F.C.
Capacity – 61,000







8) Emirates Stadium, London: New home of Arsenal F.C.
Capacity – 60,000
(Under Construction – opens 2006)







9) Hampden Park, Glasgow: Scottish national football stadium.
Capacity - 53,000







10) St. James' Park, Newcastle: Home of Newcastle United F.C.
Capacity – 53,000







11) Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow: Home of Rangers F.C.
Capacity – 51,000







12) Stadium of Light, Sunderland: Home of Sunderland A.F.C.
Capacity – 49,000







13) City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester: Home of Manchester City F.C.
Capacity – 48,000







14) Villa Park, Birmingham: Home of Aston Villa F.C.
Capacity – 44,000







15) Stamford Bridge, London: Home of Chelsea F.C.
Capacity – 43,000



 
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#5,221 ·
Ah, right......so pretty much all government funded, then. Local and national.

What a good use of taxpayers' money. I mean, it's not as if money is tight at the moment or as if crucial government departments and local services are being squeezed.

#fuckup
Well, at least they're not stopping at half-a***d... They're going full on by shoehorning a compromised form into a "temporary" structure! Good on ya, London!

Which of course means the location will give this venue a role in a future World Cup over the likes of Emirates, WHL or anything more, excuse me, Moore proper.

Right then. :cheers:
 
#5,222 ·
Well I doubt they know as much as we do about stadiums. They may call it 'retractable' seating but I call it 'temporary' seating.
Temporary seating was ruled out due to the cost of storing it, plus the time it takes to erect and remove, hence the reason why they've opted for the Stade de France retractable seating option for the lower bowl.

The initial renders are more to do with giving West Ham fans an idea of how the stadium could look with West Ham's branding on it, and you're likely to get more detailed images once the planning documents have been submitted.
 
#5,226 ·
You'll certainly get a better understanding once the planning documents are submitted to the PPDT. At least then the rake of the retractable lower tier will be known, so will the actual distances between the pitch and the stands. West Ham's owners won't be able to hide those facts with shiny renders.
 
#5,232 ·
Ah, right......so pretty much all government funded, then. Local and national.

What a good use of taxpayers' money. I mean, it's not as if money is tight at the moment or as if crucial government departments and local services are being squeezed.

#fuckup
Yup, thanks to the cretinous decision made by the likes of Tessa Jowell and Ken Livingstone back in 2006 to decline West Ham' offer to contribute £100m towards retractable seating because they thought that London could become the first Olympic city to make a stadium financially viable with only athletics :nuts:

So instead the tax payer is now having to foot the bill to remove the one part of the OS which was meant to be permanent in order to make it a multi-purpose venue.
 
#5,233 ·
Nooooo! I'm very disappointed that West Ham United move to that ugly Olympic Stadium. Upton Park is a great stadium with a typical English atmosphere, and a lot of history.

Why don't they renovated it?
Getting a big new stadium for a minimal outlay is the only way the owners can expect to re-sell at a large profit.
 
#5,234 ·
Yup, thanks to the cretinous decision made by the likes of Tessa Jowell and Ken Livingstone back in 2006 to decline West Ham' offer to contribute £100m towards retractable seating because they thought that London could become the first Olympic city to make a stadium financially viable with only athletics :nuts:

So instead the tax payer is now having to foot the bill to remove the one part of the OS which was meant to be permanent in order to make it a multi-purpose venue.
More public funds would've been required for that plan at the start, though. Plus, according to Jowell they couldn't get Magnusson to commit to finance it. Yeah, great idea that would've been.

Jowell said that West Ham's bid was rejected because it was financially flawed. "The West Ham bid was closed off because we were going to have to put in about £97 million more of public funds to make it work," she said.

"West Ham simply did not have a proper plan. We could not get them to commit to finance it, there was no business plan. Nobody took their offer seriously."
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...vYC4Dw&usg=AFQjCNGUeMBhyvPIIU5NDYmixlqkZHXP6g
 
#5,235 ·
You'll certainly get a better understanding once the planning documents are submitted to the PPDT. At least then the rake of the retractable lower tier will be known, so will the actual distances between the pitch and the stands. West Ham's owners won't be able to hide those facts with shiny renders.
What about the upper tier? I remember a pic from a while back showing sections of seating 'tapering' into a smaller size near the replay screens (similar to Wembley). Was that just speculation, or is that what is happening? I ask as I remember a post from someone ages ago who speculated that seating in the upper tier behind the goals might be covered up to allow extra seats to be made available for events other than football matches. What does everyone think? ~54,000 permanently, or just for West Ham matches? The renders and quotes so far don't really give a lot away.

:cheers:
 
#5,236 ·
What about the upper tier? I remember a pic from a while back showing sections of seating 'tapering' into a smaller size near the replay screens (similar to Wembley). Was that just speculation, or is that what is happening? I ask as I remember a post from someone ages ago who speculated that seating in the upper tier behind the goals might be covered up to allow extra seats to be made available for events other than football matches. What does everyone think? ~54,000 permanently, or just for West Ham matches? The renders and quotes so far don't really give a lot away.

:cheers:
Yep, that was indeed the previous plan to reduce the capacity. Grey areas indicated what seats would've been covered over:



I've no idea if they're still planning to that, so we'll have to wait until the new planning documents are released. However, covering over those seats would be fairly cheap to do, and I imagine any covers would have advertising on them, so another form of revenue for West Ham or the LLDC. It would also mean the stadium could be easily expanded if required.
 
#5,239 ·
I believe it's about 20,000.

That would be too big in League One, but if they got up to the championship, which the typical new stadium boost in support should help them achieve, then drawing 14,000 or so each week wouldn't be unexpected.

It would be more or less ideal, as I'm assuming they aren't building a stadium with the plan on staying in League One forever.
 
#5,240 ·
Yep, that was indeed the previous plan to reduce the capacity. Grey areas indicated what seats would've been covered over:



I've no idea if they're still planning to that, so we'll have to wait until the new planning documents are released. However, covering over those seats would be fairly cheap to do, and I imagine any covers would have advertising on them, so another form of revenue for West Ham or the LLDC. It would also mean the stadium could be easily expanded if required.
Yep, that was the pic I was referring to. It will definitely be interesting to see what is eventually done with the stadium now that things can finally start to move forward. I, for one, hope that the stadium looks as good as possible when configured for athletics, concerts, (cricket), etc, as it hopefully will in 'football mode'. As you say, we'll just have to wait for the planning documents to ascertain whether this will be the case in reality.

Thanks. :cheers:
 
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