New Stadium update

[Colchester and proud!]

I was younger than you when dear old Vic Jobson first started coming up with new stadium plans. Now I'm 60, & still waiting..

It is the same at most clubs especially those in the lower divisions, Colchester United had so many grand plans for new stadiums, even one with it's own rail entrance direct from North station but of course it never happened! That was in the 80s but it took until August 2008 before our current one finally opened.

 

[BALDY]

No matter who you support.......You can only hang on to a dream for so long.

 

[nevereatwhitesnow]

OK, how do I feel about being in the West Stand when the roof collapses and I'm showered in asbestos, or better still in the East Stand when the wood finally catches fire? Tricky old choices there.

Wouldn't those things causing personal harm to supporters also be directly attributable to the owners negligence?? What choices are you suggesting need to be made and by who??

 

[RHB]

Wouldn't those things causing personal harm to supporters also be directly attributable to the owners negligence?? What choices are you suggesting need to be made and by who??

Yeah, of course they would. But my post was directed at those supporters that would rather remain at Roots Hall as opposed to moving to Fossetts Farm. I do hope that clarifies it for you.

 

[Green Wizard]

Is it the case that the longer this saga goes on with house prices rising, the profit from the move to a new stadium will get larger?

 

[Cricko]

It was good news in 2007/8 when people marched down Vic avenue to the Civic centre in support of it and RM and planning was granted.

Some 14 years later we are still no further ahead. I will only believe this fairytale when construction starts and even then i have serious doubts about whether we will ever get a 4th side.

 

[shrimpled]

Is it the case that the longer this saga goes on with house prices rising, the profit from the move to a new stadium will get larger?

With inflation as it is I expect it's more likely to cost more to build, which seems a bigger issue in short term?

 

[RHB]

It was good news in 2007/8 when people marched down Vic avenue to the Civic centre in support of it and RM and planning was granted.

Some 14 years later we are still no further ahead. I will only believe this fairytale when construction starts and even then i have serious doubts about whether we will ever get a 4th side.

hen I drove past all the shiny Blue hoarding that is still standing there were definitely some white poles in the ground. Could that be a sign of imminent an aircraft landing strip becoming operational?

 

[essexshrimper]

T

hen I drove past all the shiny Blue hoarding that is still standing there were definitely some white poles in the ground. Could that be a sign of imminent an aircraft landing strip becoming operational?

if There’s poles in the ground, surely that’s to stop Aircraft landing similar to the anti glider devices of WW2

 

[Supershrimper]

hen I drove past all the shiny Blue hoarding that is still standing there were definitely some white poles in the ground. Could that be a sign of imminent an aircraft landing strip becoming operational?

Rons looked at the cost of wholesale gas & oil prices and has started exploratory drilling to try and locate any oil or shale gas that might reside under fossetts farm.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

With inflation as it is I expect it's more likely to cost more to build, which seems a bigger issue in short term?

And interest rates for borrowing the money to finance it rising too.

 

[nevereatwhitesnow]

Yeah, of course they would. But my post was directed at those supporters that would rather remain at Roots Hall as opposed to moving to Fossetts Farm. I do hope that clarifies it for you.

But if the club remains at Roots Hall then the club would have to ensure it's safe so it's really nothing to do with what supporters want at all?

 

[North Banker]

It can be simultaneously true that there have been many false dawns and it isn't worth getting any hopes up until spades are in the ground, and that the current plans and recent signs are the most encouraging there has possibly ever been. Supplementing FF, and replacing RH, with housing gives a far more secure financial basis than shops/supermarkets, and gives the council a clear incentive to help us see it through. The plan seems workable. But then a p*** up in a brewery would seem workable and probably still elude Ron.

On a minor point, it's a bit odd that the "early visual" the club have attached to their statement which they hope "gives a feel of how the new stadium will look if the amendment is passed"...isn't new at all. StadiumDB.com has these images from 2017 - you can open them side by side and they're literally identical. It's fair enough if the club haven't got renderings of the new design yet (and presumably it won't look hugely different), but I don't know why they feel a need to lie about it.

 

[RHB]

It can be simultaneously true that there have been many false dawns and it isn't worth getting any hopes up until spades are in the ground, and that the current plans and recent signs are the most encouraging there has possibly ever been. Supplementing FF, and replacing RH, with housing gives a far more secure financial basis than shops/supermarkets, and gives the council a clear incentive to help us see it through. The plan seems workable. But then a p*** up in a brewery would seem workable and probably still elude Ron.

On a minor point, it's a bit odd that the "early visual" the club have attached to their statement which they hope "gives a feel of how the new stadium will look if the amendment is passed"...isn't new at all. StadiumDB.com has these images from 2017 - you can open them side by side and they're literally identical. It's fair enough if the club haven't got renderings of the new design yet (and presumably it won't look hugely different), but I don't know why they feel a need to lie about it.

If you look at the latest picture of the inside of the proposed stadium you can count the seats. I reckon the latest picture will show 17k seats, whereas the old one will show 21k. It will take a bit of concentration on your part, but it would put to bed the difference between pictures?

 

[Smiffy]

It can be simultaneously true that there have been many false dawns and it isn't worth getting any hopes up until spades are in the ground, and that the current plans and recent signs are the most encouraging there has possibly ever been. Supplementing FF, and replacing RH, with housing gives a far more secure financial basis than shops/supermarkets, and gives the council a clear incentive to help us see it through. The plan seems workable. But then a p*** up in a brewery would seem workable and probably still elude Ron.

On a minor point, it's a bit odd that the "early visual" the club have attached to their statement which they hope "gives a feel of how the new stadium will look if the amendment is passed"...isn't new at all. StadiumDB.com has these images from 2017 - you can open them side by side and they're literally identical. It's fair enough if the club haven't got renderings of the new design yet (and presumably it won't look hugely different), but I don't know why they feel a need to lie about it.

Glad you pointed that out about the “new” images. I thought I was going mad. As you say they aren’t new at all. You would of thought with 4,000 less seats now, that would make some sort of visible difference, despite the overall structure apparently remaining the same.

 

[londonblue]

Am I missing something? IIRC one of the things Ron used to say (I may genuinely be wrong here) is that the Southend conurbation is around the same size as Middlesborough so we should be aiming to be around where they are. That all makes sense to me, until you now see that we're developing a stadium that is half the capacity of The Riverside.

 

[overseas shrimper]

Am I missing something? IIRC one of the things Ron used to say (I may genuinely be wrong here) is that the Southend conurbation is around the same size as Middlesborough so we should be aiming to be around where they are. That all makes sense to me, until you now see that we're developing a stadium that is half the capacity of The Riverside.

Bit over simplified if that is what he said. For example, Middlesborough don't have a whole host of London clubs close by with a large chunk of the conurbation loyal to London clubs due to family links to them.

Not a criticism of what you wrote, @londonblue ... more a reaction to what RM may have said (which does ring a bell for me).

Edit: I know 'Borough have 2 large clubs not a million miles from them, but the competition is still nowhere near the same.

 

[Userorange]

hen I drove past all the shiny Blue hoarding that is still standing there were definitely some white poles in the ground. Could that be a sign of imminent an aircraft landing strip becoming operational?

If there are Poles in the ground that’s a good thing. There’s been a desperate shortage of cheap construction labour since a certain event we don’t talk about here.

 

[Strykr]

With inflation as it is I expect it's more likely to cost more to build, which seems a bigger issue in short term?

Plus people finding it harder to buy/pay a mortgage if interest rates keep going up at this rate.

 

[gatecrasher]

It was good news in 2007/8 when people marched down Vic avenue to the Civic centre in support of it and RM and planning was granted.

Some 14 years later we are still no further ahead. I will only believe this fairytale when construction starts and even then i have serious doubts about whether we will ever get a 4th side.

See Oxford Uniteds ground for your answer on a 4th stand...