I came across this guardian article and thought some of you would find it interesting. The terraces, toilets etc are still lurking in the undergrowth. Bit like Odsal really... https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... all-ground

I came across this guardian article and thought some of you would find it interesting. The terraces, toilets etc are still lurking in the undergrowth. Bit like Odsal really... https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... all-ground

An absolute crying shame that Northern turned down the opportunity to move in there. It could've been our Headingley and would've rid us of the Odsal millstone.

Why didn't someone just remove the covenant stopping the land from being redeveloped?
Sometimes you just need to apply a little common sense to a situation.

As a fairly regular spectator back in those days I'm puzzled by the authors reference to the 'Kop end'. there never was a 'kop' end at Park Avenue, the covered end was "the Horton Park end" and the open end opposite was the Canterbury Avenue end. Not a kop in sight! Methinks it was VP which had the 'kop'.

Think most people from that area were both Northern and Avenue supporters. Used to love that ground with the magic of having a county cricket ground at the other side of the stand.

I'm sure I'm being naive, but if the covenant is still in place which only allows it to be a sports facility, can't the Bulls and PA develop the site as a community stadium?

No football ground there anymore Pumps. Just the cricket school and a bit of overgrown terracing IIRC.

Isn't the entire site still undeveloped though? i.e. beneath the bushes, cans of Kestrel and used Johnnies, isn't their still a pitch?

That being the case, then there aren't many parcels of land with theoretical permissions for stadia in place, and at the same time with a spiritual pull.

Having re-read the article and consulted a Mr Google Maps, I have answered my own question and can confirm that we can't play there in a shiny new stadium after all. Some sort of hangover induced fantasy their Christian old lad.

It's a shame. If we'd moved there when we had the chance...

In the final analysis there is maybe far too much money involved for us (and/or Avenue) to consider it - even with all the legals in place.

As I recall Northern were all set to move to Park Avenue at the council's request in 1973 but eventually the council got cold feet and the scheme never got off the ground, This was our disastrous Wembley appearance year when Fev beat us 33-14. In an earlier round we played Hull K.R. and I took some pictures thinking this could be the last cup game played at Odsal. I quite liked the idea of playing at Park Avenue, a pleasant, compact ground with more covered accommodation and back to our original roots. Half of the pitch is now covered by the the gym thus making any such move almost impossible .

I thought we'd been offered the chance to move but the club got cold feet. Whatever. Shame we didn't end up there. It looked like a tidy ground and much more at the scale we'd require.

Not sure about the scope for parking if we had moved in there. Good opportunity for a curry in Bharat or Mumtaz though.

The small car park that used to be there was at the Canterbury Avenue end and is now partially, at least, covered by buildings. There is little else, and whilst, 'back in the day', I can remember my father and grandfather both parking in the streets of the estate I'd hesitate to suggest that now given modern social attitudes (and the current lack of rozzers walking round in in twos). Of course, there were far more folk on the bus and even train back then, with a whole line of buses lining up before the final whistle, so parking wasn't the priority it is now.

Thinking about Park Avenue does remind me of one of the most unusual sights I've seen.

It was an evening game and I was walking down Little Horton Lane. As I turned the corner of Canterbury Avenue, high up above the ground, I looked down the road to see the top of the floodlight pylons sticking out from a pea-soup variety fog, down at the ground. It was quite surreal, you could actually see your feet disappearing into the fog as you walked down the hill and visibility was virtually nil by the ground.