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View Full Version : First Scottish club to have a a Modern Day Stadium?



monktonharp
04-01-2018, 09:44 PM
I have seen recently some posts regarding Falkirk and their failure to be promoted, and I think it was because on both occasions that they did not have the required capacity, and in their old ground it would not happen anyway. If I recall, and I might be wrong, St. Johnstone became the first club to have "modern day facilities" all seated, all under cover and the first time I went to Mc Dermott, they actually had tellies in the concourse. Airdieonians were not far behind, as far as I remember but they have not been in the Premier league during that time, have they?

wookie70
04-01-2018, 09:52 PM
Ibrox was a good bit before that I think

hibby6270
04-01-2018, 09:52 PM
You could well be right. St J had the first purpose fully built all seater stadium mid to late 80s iirc.
Had the good fortune to speak with the architect a few years ago (long story) and he said it was also the first ground in Scotland to be built having the proper acoustics taken into account to be at their maximum volume.

lyonhibs
04-01-2018, 09:53 PM
Were the Rangers not a bit ahead of the curve on this front due to changes made after the Ibrox disaster?

wookie70
04-01-2018, 09:56 PM
Looking at Wikipedia Rangers were 1981 with St Jonstone 1989. I found this article while looking too. Who would have thought they would go from plans for a centrally heated seating area to not being able to afford a pund for the meter,

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/30615/GERS-NEW-280m-IBROX

iwasthere1972
04-01-2018, 09:56 PM
From memory St Johnstone had their new stadium about 1989 and Ibrox was a few years before that when they modernised. Couldn't think of any other clubs who would have had the finances to rebuild or move because Tesco wanted their land.

Pete
04-01-2018, 09:57 PM
Pittodrie was the first covered, all-seater stadium in Scotland.

Boghead was the first all-seater football stadium in the UK....edit, I meant Kilbowie, home of Clydebank.

wookie70
04-01-2018, 09:59 PM
Was Pittordrie not bench seats though. It looks far from a modern stadium now whereas St Johnstone still looks like it could have been built fairly recently as does ER.

monktonharp
04-01-2018, 10:04 PM
I am shocked that Ibrox was first. can understand the disaster situation prompting it I suppose. still , that was an Auld club so it must be St. J'Z in Club terms rather that stadium terms :greengrin

StevieC
04-01-2018, 10:05 PM
I think St Johnstone could say that they had the first modern purpose built stadium. A lot of clubs could boast all-seater stadiums, but only after they had slapped cheap wooden benches on top of existing terracing.

When did Rangers put seats into their main stand enclosures? I seem to remember them being standing areas even after Broomloan and Copeland Road stands were up.

brianmc
04-01-2018, 10:05 PM
Two points to add: Ibrox still had terracing in the enclosure at the front of the Main Stand long after 1981...
And, Pittodrie has many hundreds of seats, that to this day, are completely uncovered.

*Snap

hibby6270
04-01-2018, 10:05 PM
Were the Rangers not a bit ahead of the curve on this front due to changes made after the Ibrox disaster?

True. The Broomloan, Copland and Govan stands were completed by the early 80s but the main stand didn’t get completed until early 90s. You could argue then that Oldco had three quarters of a modern stadium before everyone else but not a complete modern stadium until later.

Pete
04-01-2018, 10:09 PM
Was Pittordrie not bench seats though. It looks far from a modern stadium now whereas St Johnstone still looks like it could have been built fairly recently as does ER.

I think they ripped out the benches and replaced them with individual seats when they made it all-covered. Not sure about the old beach end though which I think was benches until it was knocked down.

monktonharp
04-01-2018, 10:13 PM
I was sure Saint Johnstone did have the full ground done. also remember much to our surprise, all those TV's on the walls ! in the concourse areas.

Nakedmanoncrack
04-01-2018, 10:21 PM
I think they ripped out the benches and replaced them with individual seats when they made it all-covered. Not sure about the old beach end though which I think was benches until it was knocked down.

Beach end was benches until knocked down for the current monstrosity.

jgl07
05-01-2018, 12:30 AM
Ibrox wasn’t completely all seated until after they were forced to do by the Taylor report. The only standing areas were a paddock to the front of the Main Stand if I recall correctly. The whole stadium had been completely rebuilt with three brand new stands and a new deck on the Main Stand. This was done relatively painlessly because they were getting such poor crowds in the early 1980s particularly if there was any prospect of them getting beaten. Hence they could close and rebuilt each stand in turn.

Aberdeen and St Johnstone had all-seater stadiums earlier. Aberdeen’s was a con with bench seats on terraces.

I think that Coventry City were the first English team to have a all-seater stadium. Jimmy Hill was Chairman at the time and he just shut down the standing areas. I was living in Coventry at the time (early 1980s) and it went down very badly. He was later forced out and the standing areas reopened.

BH Hibs
05-01-2018, 12:44 AM
I’m sure Hibs were the first if not only club to build four completely new stands on their old but existing site.

Mixu62
05-01-2018, 03:12 AM
Clydebank also had an all "seater" stadium (again, if you count wooden benches as seats) back in the early 80's but a lot of it was uncovered.

oneone73
05-01-2018, 08:24 AM
I’m sure Hibs were the first if not only club to build four completely new stands on their old but existing site.

Think that might have been Kilmarnock?

Hiber-nation
05-01-2018, 08:32 AM
Think that might have been Kilmarnock?

Think you might be right - I'm sure they rebuilt their main stand back in the 60s then the 3 new stands with extra small seats were built in the 90s.

where'stheslope
05-01-2018, 12:01 PM
Think you might be right - I'm sure they rebuilt their main stand back in the 60s then the 3 new stands with extra small seats were built in the 90s.

You also forgot to mention the whole stand moves when you jump out of your seats after scoring a goal?????

Firestarter
05-01-2018, 12:14 PM
I was sure Saint Johnstone did have the full ground done. also remember much to our surprise, all those TV's on the walls ! in the concourse areas.

They still have the same TVs now in some areas. 😂

Keith_M
05-01-2018, 12:40 PM
I think St Johnstone could say that they had the first modern purpose built stadium. A lot of clubs could boast all-seater stadiums, but only after they had slapped cheap wooden benches on top of existing terracing.

When did Rangers put seats into their main stand enclosures? I seem to remember them being standing areas even after Broomloan and Copeland Road stands were up.


I think it was about '92.


St Johnstone can claim the prize of first purpose built all seated stadium and Rangers, quite rightly, can claim the first modern era rebuild of most of their stadium

IMO, Ibrox is still the best football stadium in Scotland. Shame about the inhabitants.

CropleyWasGod
05-01-2018, 12:52 PM
Didn't Meadowbank Thistle have the first all-seater stadium in Britain?

jgl07
05-01-2018, 03:58 PM
Didn't Meadowbank Thistle have the first all-seater stadium in Britain?

Aye because the 7,000 capacity Main Stand was big enough to accommodate their usual 350 people attending. Hence they could close everything else.

A typical home crowd in the latter stages of the Meadowbank Thistle era would be 120 visiting supporters, 100 with complementary tickets and 130 home supporters. Most of them would be singing ‘Bobby out, Blobby out’ in tribute to then chairman Bill Hunter who was blamed for running down the club so that the move to Livingston could go through.

Carheenlea
05-01-2018, 08:25 PM
Ibrox is the first ground I can remember that had the facility of sinks and paper towels in the toilets - all very novel at the time and it was back to wading towards the troughs at the back of the east the week after.

Billy Whizz
05-01-2018, 08:40 PM
Ibrox is the first ground I can remember that had the facility of sinks and paper towels in the toilets - all very novel at the time and it was back to wading towards the troughs at the back of the east the week after.

I’m still waiting on Hibs putting hot water in the East

Hermit Crab
05-01-2018, 09:18 PM
Ibrox wasn’t completely all seated until after they were forced to do by the Taylor report. The only standing areas were a paddock to the front of the Main Stand if I recall correctly. The whole stadium had been completely rebuilt with three brand new stands and a new deck on the Main Stand. This was done relatively painlessly because they were getting such poor crowds in the early 1980s particularly if there was any prospect of them getting beaten. Hence they could close and rebuilt each stand in turn.

Aberdeen and St Johnstone had all-seater stadiums earlier. Aberdeen’s was a con with bench seats on terraces.

I think that Coventry City were the first English team to have a all-seater stadium. Jimmy Hill was Chairman at the time and he just shut down the standing areas. I was living in Coventry at the time (early 1980s) and it went down very badly. He was later forced out and the standing areas reopened.


No Scottish club were bound by the Taylor report. The SFA sucked up the English FA's arse by agreeing to go along with it. Taylor report only included top flight stadia in England!

Hermit Crab
05-01-2018, 09:19 PM
I’m still waiting on Hibs putting hot water in the East


We don't have it in the West either!

HUTCHYHIBBY
05-01-2018, 09:24 PM
You could well be right. St J had the first purpose fully built all seater stadium mid to late 80s iirc.
Had the good fortune to speak with the architect a few years ago (long story) and he said it was also the first ground in Scotland to be built having the proper acoustics taken into account to be at their maximum volume.

First in the UK according to their website.

jgl07
06-01-2018, 02:54 AM
No Scottish club were bound by the Taylor report. The SFA sucked up the English FA's arse by agreeing to go along with it. Taylor report only included top flight stadia in England!

It wasn’t just the SFA who forced through all seater stadia. Both Hibs and Hearts requested to retain the terraces for an extra year while their removal to Straiton/Millerhill were clarified or details of redevelopment of Easter Road/Tynecastle were finalised. This was turned down flat by all. Hibs ended up having to install benches with bucket seats in the whole of the visitors end only one year before it was demolished. Correction it was more like six months.

Nameless
06-01-2018, 08:59 AM
I’m sure Hibs were the first if not only club to build four completely new stands on their old but existing site.Hearts?

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Frazerbob
06-01-2018, 10:37 AM
Pittodrie is far from all covered.

LancashireHibby
06-01-2018, 11:14 AM
No Scottish club were bound by the Taylor report. The SFA sucked up the English FA's arse by agreeing to go along with it. Taylor report only included top flight stadia in England!
And games would still be taking place in grounds barely fit for the 19th century if clubs hadn’t been forced to carry through the Taylor Report recommendations. The financial problems brought on by clubs modernising grounds was as much to do with the SPL insisting on the 10,000 minimum capacity as much as ensuring modern facilities were provided.

NAE NOOKIE
06-01-2018, 12:28 PM
Even with the renovations which have taken place since the 90s Scottish stadiums are still lagging pretty badly with far too many still needing work done. If your definition of a modern stadium is the same as mine. That being 4 stands covering the length of each side of the pitch all seated and all covered, we have 41 professional clubs excluding Queens Park and most of them don't fit the bill so far, here's a list of those that do.

Easter Road
Tynecastle
Celtic Park
Ibrox
Pittodrie ....... I'll allow them the uncovered seats in the corners
Tannadice
McDiarmid Park
East End Park
Starks Park ..... they couldn't extend the main stand any further even if they wanted to so get a pass
Rugby Park
Fir Park ........... same as Raith Rovers, there are reasons they cant extend the main stand the length of the pitch
St Mirren Park
The Toni Macaroni arena :greengrin
The Excelsior stadium
Victoria Park

So of 41 professional clubs only 15 have a 4 sided all covered all seater stadium and even some of them are badly in need of modernisation. If a 4 sided all covered stadium was a requirement for promotion to the premiership Hamilton, Dundee and Partick Thistle would be out of the league.

tamig
06-01-2018, 12:40 PM
It wasn’t just the SFA who forced through all seater stadia. Both Hibs and Hearts requested to retain the terraces for an extra year while their removal to Straiton/Millerhill were clarified or details of redevelopment of Easter Road/Tynecastle were finalised. This was turned down flat by all. Hibs ended up having to install benches with bucket seats in the whole of the visitors end only one year before it was demolished. Correction it was more like six months.
Hertz did the same. The Geebsie game was with a seated Gorgie Road terrace. However, Hibs did things by the book. Built the two new end stands in accordance with the agreed timeframe whereas the gunts chanced their arm with the council. The seated Gorgie was no longer meant to be used but they applied for dispensation from their pals to open it for a European game. There were no issues and they bought themselves an extra year beforethey had to do anything. Another example of the treatment they receive from the council.

Keith_M
06-01-2018, 02:10 PM
Pittodrie doesn't just have uncovered seats in the corners. The front 5-6 rows in the south stand are also uncovered, as the roof doesn't go all the way to the front.


Have a look at THIS (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tfPY2vwYM_k/Uau0o6m8cfI/AAAAAAAABNI/HVson-kNim0/s1600/DSC05578.JPG) photo, in particular the nearest of the yellow seats to the pitch, and then how far back the roof is in comparison.

Greenfly
06-01-2018, 10:41 PM
You're all talking nonsense. Hearts were the first club in Scotland - probably the world actually - to have an all-seated, all-covered modern stadium. It's even got chips and toilets and an inexplicable bit at the front of one stand that gets raised on props for some reason. They were first in the world to introduce a press area totally exposed to the elements and a Director's Box that isn't a Director's Box. They were also the first to have function suites that don't actually exist yet, to sell season tickets for a stand that also didn't exist and to claim they could see a castle somewhere when they couldn't. Hearts were innovators with cost over-runs, chronic delays and apparently they invented glass. They nearly succeeded in building a seated stand without any seats because they were being too casual with the shopping list and must be the first club on the planet to have so many seats that you can't see the pitch from. McDiarmid Park doesn't have a pitch that's too small for UEFA requirements, Pittodrie doesn't have steps so steep that folk are falling down them and the hospitality lounges at Ibrox aren't all facing away from the pitch. Hearts have achieved all these things. None of these other grounds (including that Lego brick thing at Easter Road) can hold a candle to the financial foresight, aesthetic brilliance and project innovation that is Tynecastle Park - the pride of the nation and a cert for UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

lyonhibs
07-01-2018, 10:03 AM
Pittodrie doesn't just have uncovered seats in the corners. The front 5-6 rows in the south stand are also uncovered, as the roof doesn't go all the way to the front.


Have a look at THIS (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tfPY2vwYM_k/Uau0o6m8cfI/AAAAAAAABNI/HVson-kNim0/s1600/DSC05578.JPG) photo, in particular the nearest of the yellow seats to the pitch, and then how far back the roof is in comparison.

To summarise, Pittodrie is a dump.

I agree :agree::agree:

Jamesie
11-01-2018, 11:47 PM
Hertz did the same. The Geebsie game was with a seated Gorgie Road terrace. However, Hibs did things by the book. Built the two new end stands in accordance with the agreed timeframe whereas the gunts chanced their arm with the council. The seated Gorgie was no longer meant to be used but they applied for dispensation from their pals to open it for a European game. There were no issues and they bought themselves an extra year beforethey had to do anything. Another example of the treatment they receive from the council.

And they made a real hash of it - I remember numbers falling off seats, tickets old for seats that didn’t exist etc etc. They never seem to have much luck when it comes to construction projects.

jgl07
12-01-2018, 08:18 AM
And they made a real hash of it - I remember numbers falling off seats, tickets old for seats that didn’t exist etc etc. They never seem to have much luck when it comes to construction projects.
They tend to adopt a do-it-yourself approach rather than using qualified architects and contractors. I recall Wallace Mercer ordering the steel for the Wheatfield Stand. Budge did exactly the same thing with no main contractor and a firm of property valuers as project managers.

Mercer and Budge both seemed to think they could do a better job than professionals.

brog
12-01-2018, 09:02 AM
You're all talking nonsense. Hearts were the first club in Scotland - probably the world actually - to have an all-seated, all-covered modern stadium. It's even got chips and toilets and an inexplicable bit at the front of one stand that gets raised on props for some reason. They were first in the world to introduce a press area totally exposed to the elements and a Director's Box that isn't a Director's Box. They were also the first to have function suites that don't actually exist yet, to sell season tickets for a stand that also didn't exist and to claim they could see a castle somewhere when they couldn't. Hearts were innovators with cost over-runs, chronic delays and apparently they invented glass. They nearly succeeded in building a seated stand without any seats because they were being too casual with the shopping list and must be the first club on the planet to have so many seats that you can't see the pitch from. McDiarmid Park doesn't have a pitch that's too small for UEFA requirements, Pittodrie doesn't have steps so steep that folk are falling down them and the hospitality lounges at Ibrox aren't all facing away from the pitch. Hearts have achieved all these things. None of these other grounds (including that Lego brick thing at Easter Road) can hold a candle to the financial foresight, aesthetic brilliance and project innovation that is Tynecastle Park - the pride of the nation and a cert for UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

:top marks

Steve-O
12-01-2018, 10:39 AM
It wasn’t just the SFA who forced through all seater stadia. Both Hibs and Hearts requested to retain the terraces for an extra year while their removal to Straiton/Millerhill were clarified or details of redevelopment of Easter Road/Tynecastle were finalised. This was turned down flat by all. Hibs ended up having to install benches with bucket seats in the whole of the visitors end only one year before it was demolished. Correction it was more like six months.

I feel like there were seats in the old Dunbar end for far longer than 6 months? More like 2 years, no? Could be wrong admittedly!

Carheenlea
12-01-2018, 12:29 PM
It's a shame that we see so many identikit stands in Scottish football now which gives a lot of grounds a sterile feel, but strangely enough I don't get that feeling at St Johnstone and always enjoy visiting. Maybe because it was the first of its kind.

hibbyfraelibby
12-01-2018, 04:06 PM
I’m still waiting on Hibs putting hot water in the East

Hot water is in short supply at ER...you need loyalty points to get some.

Colr
12-01-2018, 10:58 PM
True. The Broomloan, Copland and Govan stands were completed by the early 80s but the main stand didn’t get completed until early 90s. You could argue then that Oldco had three quarters of a modern stadium before everyone else but not a complete modern stadium until later.

They where also innovative in including commercial office space under the stands making use of their car park during the week.

iwasthere1972
13-01-2018, 06:35 AM
I’m still waiting on Hibs putting hot water in the East

What? We've had hot water in the FF for about five years and soft fluffy towels. Love the emerald green carpet that they fitted in the FF concourses too. You can even get your shoes polished at half time.

CropleyWasGod
13-01-2018, 02:22 PM
What? We've had hot water in the FF for about five years and soft fluffy towels. Love the emerald green carpet that they fitted in the FF concourses too. You can even get your shoes polished at half time.In Hospitality, Rod gives amazing service with that tache of his.

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NAE NOOKIE
13-01-2018, 03:30 PM
There's a whole umpteen page thread on Sickbag dedicated to Aberdeen's proposed new stadium, its full of Yams giving the forums tame Sheep fan financial advice, advice on the best way to build new stands and criticising Aberdeen for overspending and buying players when they should have been rebuilding Pittodrie :faf: