On these pages are plans which are freely available for the public to view from the Bristol City planning department [lovely chaps and City fans]. These plans "could" well be the plans submitted sometime around 2005 by Bristol City fc for the new East End. Even if it they are not it is evident that this is all very close to what Colin Sexstone envisages will be the new East End.

CITY TO PRESS AHEAD WITH WEDLOCK REDEVELOPMENT

Date : 16.05.07

Bristol City are resurrecting plans to rebuild the Wedlock Stand at Ashton Gate, two years after the project was first proposed, taking the next step towards having a stadium which holds 29,000 fans. Planning permission was granted in 2005 to redevelop that end of the ground, which currently houses away supporters.

Work was due to start in the July of that year. It was put back 12 months and then, mainly due to a lack of funds, was postponed indefinitely.

Now, having won promotion to the Championship, City are to press ahead, with the builders moving in to start work at the end of next season.

Chief executive Colin Sexstone said: "The plans won't change drastically from our original intentions. The back of that stand will become the main entrance to the stadium, and it will have a fantastic concourse and 16 executive boxes. It will even be taller than the Dolman Stand.

"And that's just phase one of the project. We were granted permission to redevelop the Williams Stand in 1998, and have consistently renewed that so it still applies today.

"Rebuilding that stand, and filling in one of the corners, will provide more than 13,000 seats, taking us up to a capacity of 29,000.

"I wouldn't say the Wedlock plan has been triggered by promotion, but it certainly helps."

Although no images are yet available for the Wedlock design, the club say it will be very similar to the single-tier construction proposed two years ago.

The new stand, which will cost in the region of £7 million to build, will house 5,300 fans, taking the capacity of Ashton Gate to 21,000 when segregation is used. Away fans will be moved to another part of the ground, although it is yet to be decided where

As fans we have been offered no say so in what will be built for us when here was an opportunity to bring fans into the BCFC fold, create goodwill by having fans help design their own stadium and create something that the supporters of Bristol City fc will be truly proud of. At the price quoted [it will be more!] this stand should be an absolute triumph of design and passion for everything BCFC as it is possible to build stands of this size for half the price, grounds have been built for these sums in the lower leagues. Bristol City fc have been asked to reveal what the final design will look like but……? Even the Gas's pie in the sky stadium redevelopment has detailed plans, pictures, graphics and tangible feel to it. How can something which is going to cost millions and has been promised for years have no images or detailed information for supporters to look at? Even this lot keep their Fans informed -

http://www.bristolrovers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/StadiumPlans/0,,10328,00.html

There must be real concerns already for ticketing arrangements for this new stand -

" Will fans in the Atyeo be allowed to move en masse to the new East End.

" Will fans take precedence in the Dolman/ Williams over the Atyeo for season tickets

" Are prices to be in line with the Atyeo rather than the Dolman/ Williams

" Do the improved facilities mean a dramatic increase in price

" The design must include kitchens so will fans be paying more for this facility

" Is a Premier Style club intended for the best seats in the stand linked to the new facilities.

" Will there be any unreserved seating.

" Where are the away fans going

" What will happen to existing season ticket holders in the new East End

" Will the best seats be available for under sixteen's without paying extra

There is a huge amount of work to be done now by BCFC starting with revealing the design if yet more bad feeling being directed to the club is to be avoided. Nobody should be under illusions how massive an undertaking the New East End really is. It cannot be said enough that this stand will be shaping the future of Bristol City fc and every effort to make the process a success should have started.

This stand will be here for decades. It will take years to pay for. Bristol City FC or The Stadium Company, Ashton Gate Holdings etc, whoever owns it, have not revealed how the stand will be financed and it was cancelled mainly for financial reasons last time out.

None of the following is fact and could be very far from the truth, but the debate is relevant. If the stand does cost a minimum of £7 million then it would be normal to build it then pay via an industrial mortgage, possibly guaranteed, given Stephen Lansdown's wealth & Football's problems over the years, by our Chairman & Shareholders.

Is there a mystery sponsor or benefactor waiting in the wings to donate a large proportion of the cost?

This could take seven, ten, fifteen or even twenty years at a interest rate of about 9%PA depending on how much BCFC could get as a grant from the Football League, Football Association, or even the Government.

Assuming BCFC have to pay £5m of the cost, that will mean repayments of about £79kpcm over ten years including interest, assuming once again that it's a fixed rate over ten years.

In the event that no White Knight or Benefactor comes forth, prices may well have to rise significantly and they always do!

New East End adult season tickets could smash past the £375 charged for the Atyeo. It is inconceivable that current admission prices could remain the same as the stand would take ages to pay for by simply charging £23 per person, based on an additional available capacity of 1,000.

Looking at the total capacity, if it's full of 5,500 adults, every game of the season for about four years, that would do it, but when is it and, unless we arrive in The Premiership, it's more likely to be at least double that or more?

If any of the above is true & none of this is an exact science, when the cost of this new stand could be taking fifteen to twenty years to repay and will not raise capacity dramatically, shouldn't the shareholders and fans of Bristol City be told how the figures work out?

Sympathetic stadium design can be used to unite supporters by offering an opportunity for fans to buy into a bigger picture of the clubs future. It's quite simple really all BCFC have to do is offer fans via supporters groups such as the Supporters trust, Supporters Club[if they are interested this time!] and also forums a means of having meaningful input into design of the new East End. Maybe supporters do not want a stand with a steep gradient as the design above has. There are numerous possibilities for stand design which may be preferable such as two tiered, Cantilever, propped cantilever but nobody knows unless they ask! Perhaps the cavernous stand design pictured with its high roof which lets the sound out towards passing Easy Jets could include a means of projecting sound downwards across the pitch giving Gary Johnson the atmosphere he constantly calls for. Possibly the roof needs a total redesign because it is incapable of providing anything other than a poor acoustic setting, No matter how hard fans try to raise the atmosphere sound travels in waves and a open faced stand twice as high as the original East End will not do anything other than take the atmosphere away from the pitch unlike the original version -

It will even be taller than the Dolman Stand - Colin Sexstone

The picture above is the only representation we could find provided by BCFC from Feb 2005 of what "may" again be intended. It looks like many flat pack stadiums or putting it another way boring Lego castles. It is utterly unoriginal. Have a cursory look at stands within these stadiums Dens Park, East End [whoa!!]Park, Falkirk Stadium, Fratton Park, Love Street, Oakwell, Pittordrie, Prenton Park, Tynecastle Stadium, Rugby Park, , Vicarage road ……….add sixteen hospitality boxes across the back and you get the picture!

Here we start to play with our imaginations lower the roof or slant the roof to improve the acoustics dramatically, put a Gable or a clock on the roof, try a big club badge, electric scoreboard, add a massive image of the Robin and Suspension bridge or John Atyeo to the seats similar to designs elsewhere [Preston/Pompey]. Move the exits so the largest blocks of seating are behind the goal roaring on City, add chip shops, Bars with Blackthorn and Thatchers on tap, bookies, put the hospitality boxes in the Williams when it is redeveloped because very few grounds have them behind the goal anyway, fill the sides in now again to push that sound out across the pitch lifting the spirits of our players, put fans flags along the front, flags along the rear then over the exits adding our [the fans] identity, have reserved and unreserved blocks of seating allowing the vocal to gather together in an effort to gain the maximum advantage from the stand, allow the fans to name the stand whatever they feel it should be called………. Somewhere amongst all of this highly subjective or not thought is something for us to be proud of and truly worthy of our club. A stand for the people.