I do love some of the whingers on this thread.

"We want a sparkly new stand with lots of bells and whistles on it"

I can only assume that most of you don't run your own businesses (or won't for very much longer if you carry on living in cloud cuckoo land).

There's a recession on. As a result, revenues are likely to fall. Let's face it, Headingley has hardly been packed to the rafters the last couple of years, even with the reduced capacity in the South Stand.

Why jeopardise the future financial stability of the club by borrowing to fund the creation of something you don't need and aren't going to use to its capacity more than twice a year?

It's an improvement on what's currently in place - it'll get a full H&S certificate for a start. Better viewing, improved facilities for spectators. Who gives a fishes t*t whether it's four feet lower or has much architectural merit to it - you're going to be stood inside the bloody thing not looking at it like an art gallery exhibit.

Im not bothered about it looking all modern and "posh". Just disapointed with the capacity size if the current one is bigger.

At 31 October 2010 the club had £2.36m in the bank and had lent a further £1.7m to Leeds Carnegie to cover their cash deficit (which I ASSUME we'll be getting back...). It's very cash-rich for an RL club and whilst obviously money will need to be borrowed either from within or without the group it's a decent starting point to the funding.

According to GH (last year) whilst there was at one point an intention to install corporate facilities in the new stand, the decision not to, whilst clearly affected by what size the stand could be, is also to do with whether there really was any need or demand for yet more corporate spaces at a stadium which already has more than anywhere else in Super League by some distance.

But the current one isn't bigger. It has a current capacity of 6,000 due to H&S restrictions, so the new build will be able to hold more fans than the current South Stand (which itself doesn't get used to capacity for most games anyway).

All very valid, totally understandable, and more importantly totally correct points. But it doesn't stop people having the right to be underwhelmed.

Nobody asked for it to be pitched to us in the way that it was. Everybody would've understood if the club would have come out and said... "The money is tight, we're trying to keep costs low, so that we can keep ticket prices low. The South Stand obviously needs updating, so we're basically constructing a working, safer version of the one we've got, with a few minor improvements (for example no pillars restricting the view) where economically viable."

"Pitched"?

Leeds aren't trying to sell you the concept of a new South Stand - the decision to rebuld has been taken out of their hands by the failure of the current structure.

Neither are they genuinely seeking your opinions on how the new one should look. This is a government style consultation, which is shorthand for "we've already decided what we're doing". If they haven't, then they've wasted a lot of money in architects fees.

This is an exercise in letting fans give their opinion and feel part of the process, purely cosmetic in nature. Accept it for what it is.

2.3m at October has to keep the club going until January - by January it will have next to nothing - hence the need to play the festive season game. Wages for both teams etc will be close to 400k a month these still need to be paid even though revenues are virtually non-existent.

Not sure it has more corporate than either Huddersfield or Wigan?

You know what I mean



The current SS is "big enough" to hold 8k and has been more in the last 10 years.

Well I did say:




The reason why everyone is a bit dissappointed is because of the previous plans we saw -which was a belting stand. Its only natural.
I can't afford to take our lass to the maldives this year. But I won't get the holiday brochure out and start looking at the Maldives showing her where I think Im going to take her....only for me to then on the day to drive her to Blackpool.

I agree with Andy, it's a new stand with better facilities to watch rugby in, what did you want? your own en-suite.

Not sure what relevance that has to this particular project Andy.

If we were talking about new changing rooms, or new toilets, then I fully understand your point. But we are talking about a once in 30-50 years project. We are not always going to be in recession, infact many experts would argue we are not. Are you seriously suggesting that that the market opportunities for Leeds will not get back to what they were in say 2004 or 2005? or even then just back to what they were working to when they did he original plans?

Money is tight, that I can accept, but you only get one opportunity for putting up a new stand. We are not going to do it again in a couple of years when the economy is better.

Where you point is fully vaid is if we were building a new stadium with potential to expand later. But we are not doing that.

With hindsight, perhaps everyone ought to be a bit more positive about this new south stand.

Might appear unspectacular on first impression, but it's a solid, no-nonsense stand capable of making steady metres in both height, length and breadth. Shouldn't give too many penalties away either from an H&S perspective. I'm also guessing it'll provide all those extra little things which are essential but often go unnoticed by other more discerning supporters with an eye for aesthetics and class.