Aye - especially when it was mooted publicly for a while and, it appears, we held off until the time was right.

As an aside it'll completely change the dynamic of the ground when it's done, really looking forward to it.

This will enclose the noise. Looking forward to the completion of this. Hopefully it isn't too long until the other end's corners are filled in too so the stadium is a proper bowl.

The thing that gets me is that it will only take us upto roughly what we should have had in the first place!

Ideally, eventually, the South Stand should be deepened/made larger/went up higher. I think it's too slender, and good because it's all standing along the side of the pitch and when on song sounds great but it just isn't big enough.

I think there have been proposals/ideas/etc thrown around about where the ground will be going. This year two a east corners filled in. Next will be to fill in NW corner. There was talk about boxes along the top of the South Stand. Therefore the TV studio/control booth etc will need to relocated. Sopmebody said that the groundstaff where getting new "accomodation" in the SW corner. How about filling this one in with a store/scoreboard/screen/TV studio/controltower structure. Think it was mentioned Quins have similiar?

Extending outwards for the South stand is not an option due to Buckley Street and extending the terracing to the outside footprint may be problematic due to the structural support of the stand but if they are changing "whats up in the roof" it may be possible to change these.

BUT if the club get this currently expansion right and on target....who are we to doubt their plans for the future.

That was something that suprised me a little with the new stadium in why it was built so close to Buckley Street and Dallam Lane, it gives little or no room for expansion on those sides.

Its quite a large site where the stadium was built, their must be reasons why it was built in the position it was, its just their seems quite a bit of space on the car park side to have situated more towards Tesco and further off Dallam Lane.

These were the only plans approved by the council. They can expand the south stand upwards but only with exec boxes. I think also they got the maximum capacity wrong for the stand and it may only be allowed to hold alot less than what they originally thought.

Because of the underwater stream.

Sorry for being a pedant, a stream under another stream?

Actually, the above comments are incorrect. There IS space between where the South Stand terracing currently ends and Buckley Street. Have a close look at the image below - or simply look up above your head when you are next stood in the South Stand concourse. That said, I think the club's current preference is for additional hospitality above the concourse, kind of mirroring the look of the top of the North Stand. But, should they decide, I'm sure there is plenty of room for several rows of terracing instead.

How many corners are being filled in?

Currently two....the one near the BB statute and the one facing the Rodney

I think thats roughly what I was trying to say. The actual footprint of the whole stand cant really be extended. The difference in the rear of the terracing to the outside line of the footprint (ie...that which over the concourse area) is currently home to the poles/beams which support the structure of the stand and roof. If they change the use of the "roof area" then they may be able to change the engineering.

As it stands maybe space for a couple of portaloo's or a burger stall but your not going to be able to replicate the North stand thats opposite due to not having enough depth behind, the only way you could take that South stand back is by having it over hanging Buckley Street which i'm not sure whether you would get planning permission for, it could impeded things like the fire services in the event of a fire breaking out at one of the near by units etc

If we could extend the South Stand back over the concourse I think it would add (roughly) about half of what's there already on to the capacity of the stand. Presumably the club have looked into this/will do with the major obstacle being those poles. I'm sure this could be rectified in a similar way to the poles overhanging behind the West Stand.

Ideally I'd add in the other two corners, convert the East stand into terracing (Bring back a bit of the Fletcher end feel) and add a tier to the North/North and East if needed. We're talking pretty long term here though.