...and people say that the standard of education in Britain is failing our youngsters, I say "should me the evidence".

I had a look in the cafe on Friday at it. All I can say is that if it goes ahead then be prepared for HQ to be a lot more souless

Bwah ha ha

Seriously though what are the options for the 'Southstanders' when it is being built as we are not moving grounds? There won't be room for everyone in other parts of the ground, will there?

If we keep playing like we are then there might be plenty of open spaces to move the Southstanders to next year

Seriously though, the carnegie standing terrace always looks busy so the only option I can see is reducing the number of tickets given to the away supporters if we're suddenly having to move en-block 6000 or so fans who prefer to stand and I doubt there is anything like 4000/5000 spare seats on a match day.

I thought I'd read somewhere when the plans were first being talked about that we were going to approach the RFL to have all our matches at the start of next season away, that way there is no problem.

To my mind that is the easiest solution and the only realistic way of avoiding having to cram 6000 people into other parts of the ground.

An interesting problem for the club...... but in the Sleeve we believe

"Nothing but the best For Headingley"

Does the dilapidated existing south stand really give it "soul"?

Popped in last night and some of the discussions with the guys from the club and architects there were interesting. There seemed to be a little bit of despondency as to why the council were so unhelpful in developing the RL stadium compared to the seeming carte blanche given to the cricket ground (the latter in their eyes is "prestigious" whereas we ... aren't). Interestingly, it was felt that the Carnegie Stand may be a negative factor as it turned out to be rather bigger than the "locals" had expected and hence they and the planning authorities are keeping a rather closer eye on the new S Stand

Cheers for the update Mjm!

Nine points from the opening ten rounds could look pretty good by this time next season.

Cheers MjM. Good read.

I've often pondered this, and there's a few candidates I'm assuming might know the answer...

What's the rules (if any) surrounding designing a stand with the specific intention of amplifying the noise the crowd produces? The can do some pretty clever stuff now a days, I know many amphitheatres are design to avoid the actors needing microphones for example. So you could acoustically design the stand to amplify, and direct the sound towards the pitch. It's the sort of thing I'd imagine the German's attempting!

Just do what the colts [iallegedly[/i did in 2007 and pipe in extra crowd noise when your opposition has the ball....

I don't know if there are any rules as such about noise amplification but I do know that when Wembley was being built rlthis manrl was brought in to address the accoustics and preserve 'atmosphere'. Knowing 'DTJ' for non-work or RL reasons I asked a couple of years ago about what his role had been and, primarily, it seems to have been to optimise the stadium for use as both a concert venue and a football ground, down to the details such as the accoustic impact of the angles of the glass on the hospitality boxes and the nature of the materials used in construction. Alas I fear such considerations may be outside the budget in this instance.

I would have thought sound would be covered by planning regulations one way or another; perhaps that hurdle is another thing the LCC planners will chuck the club's way before this thing gets built. As was mentioned last night, the fact that the stadium has been here since 1890 carries no weight whatsoever if one is trying to establish an "it's always been like that" or indeed perhaps an "it's always been that noisy" type of argument.

Cramming the 'Southstanders' into other areas of the ground is fair enough, but presumably only into standing areas as they can't expect people to pay more for seats. That means East stand which is already fullish, or West Stand with away fans?!

They could consider doing the same trick as that employed by Hull FC at the Boulevard in the early 90's. Lower a microphone into the middle of the '3d' stand and broadcast the resulting (often racist chants) over the ground PA system.

I remember Ellery Hanley in particular being a big fan of that.