Quote ="vastman"My latest idea for a stadium on the BV site. I have lifted the plans to scale from NM and used them over the top of the BV site, they are fairly accurate and they fit quite well. So Yorkcourt give us the money. Basically it's nearly all covered and the blue bit is terrace the red seats. Kinda keeps the flow of the existing ground with the ability to move around a bit. i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv99 ... WBV2HR.jpg'" Like it. Where can I get a large scale copy of your plans. Any idea on cost.

Quote ="vastman"My latest idea for a stadium on the BV site. I have lifted the plans to scale from NM and used them over the top of the BV site, they are fairly accurate and they fit quite well. So Yorkcourt give us the money. Basically it's nearly all covered and the blue bit is terrace the red seats. Kinda keeps the flow of the existing ground with the ability to move around a bit. i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv99 ... WBV2HR.jpg'" Like it. Where can I get a large scale copy of your plans. Any idea on cost.

Another example of the voluntary talents on here, should the club come calling??
Nice work Vasty.

You've managed to Tarmac over a house Vasty.

You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

Yeah I know possibly being a bit optimistic that it may be part of any redevelopment (should it happen, that's for wren wink).

Yes indeed I'll e-mail you a PDF.

When you take the footprint of the present ground and superbowl together there is certainly enough land to build a very good facility and what you have produced clearly demonstrates this.
So if we assume the funding can be raised , another problem arises, how can it be built whilst we still play there?

The hardest part would be the Western Terrace because the only access would be over the ground itself. I would think that would have to be done first, then work backwards over the North terrace. Demolishing the East stand and replacing that would be the easiest bit logistically, but would have to come last.

Ideally it would be best to do it all at once rather than bits at a time, but what ever way you look at things I think it would be extremely difficult to do without having at least one season 'on the road' somewhere else.

Could play at Oakwell for a season

Yup.

IMHO it would be a fantastic ground, a real RL ground but modern and reflecting the summer game. I have a feeling it would very quickly establish itself as most other fans favourite away ground which in itself is a revenue earner.

Logically the best way to do it would a one season hit funds allowing. I think a few big matches at Barnsley for demo purposes would be ideal but personally I'd rather keep whatever cash we have to pay out within the game making Featherstone the best alternative should they agree. I also think the RFL should help with the cost of the Barnsley as they would definitely fall under developing the game.

We may assuming Fev are still a Championship team be able to pay part of any rent in kind by permanently loaning them some players for the season again assuming they wanted any.

Finally the west terrace is bigger than most people think and you could actually fit a smaller version of the stand thats built into the side of the banking at Hudds (opposite main stand) that has access from under the stand. However this is more expensive and not needed in the summer game IMHO. Im also trying to create with the west terrace a BV equivalent of the grass bankings you used to get at NRL grounds, although in our case it would be concrete terracing. I see only the central area covered with the rest open where folk can stand in the sun enjoying a beer purchased from one of the bars in the paved areas either side. Perhaps a little landscaping as well to give a park feel now would''t that be a nice way to treat paint customers. Basically a very informal area where people can mingle and move about, or a nicer version of what's already there.

Me personally would not like to give foot all RL money, I 'd rather it go to Cas! than football.

I thought it was dark this morning

The Western Terrace is the most immediate concern, although access is tight the easiest way would be demolishing the whole terrace, reusing the crushed concrete as a suitable base then bringing a crane via from Anderton Street / Arthur Street onto the footprint of the WT, starting from the south west (chav) corner then working northward. A retaining wall will be needed along dog poo alley.

If we want to be radical, you could wipe out the whole superbowl area, turn the pitch 90 degrees and move it east slightly to give more room for the Western terrace to be a decent stand behind the posts.
That would give lots of room down the sides for parking, hospitality, main entrance

Of course that woud cost a lot and would take more than a season away from Belle Vue.

But that's effectively what Widnes did.
Their ground wasn't that different to ours now.

Yep, but cost wise that's really expensive - would require new drains and power cables etc. At least by using the existing footprint you should avoid this - especially as the South stand is effectively cleared and there is very little to demolish on the west terrace. Naughton Park had silly little stands all over the place and effectively required a full demolition and clearance.

Also where possible I'd like to keep the trees near the ground which gives it that established feel.

Over all it's all about money and so far we have none.

I mocked this up a while back, it’s the LSV plonked on the footprint of BV to scale. It broadly fits with the exception of the WT but as per vastman’s plan this could be a reduced width terrace

Indeed.

I think what we have is enough. We can all get creative about what we'd like but money will decide.

I'm torn on what I would like.
An analology for me would be a hotel example.

I've stayed in some fantastic old hotels, that in their day were probably taking royalty, but now, even though they've hada touch up, look great on the outside, but the rooms are still Victorian.
Compared to a brand new hotel, that is quite basic, but is a modern set up.
So you have easy internet, tv attached to wall, bathroom is build to purpose rather than fitted to something that didn't used to need a shower, etc.

That's belle Vue and Newmarket for me.

I love Belle Vue and the history and romance that goes with it, and a modernisation of the kind you describe would really make staying worthwhile. But the infrastucture around it would still be for the old Belle Vue area, and could really knock up costs compared to just buildimng new in Stanley.

I'm glad it's not my decision to choose, but whoever does, has a lot of details to consider, rather than initial view of overall costs.

We could move the pitch about 4metres to the east, over the top of the East terrace. That would in turn give us an extra 4m at the West side of the pitch, when added to the room already there it's more than enough to enable a decent sized stand on the West side.

In turn a new East Main Grandstand could be moved back 4m so as not to lose space there.

For me, One of the criteria of a modern stadium is a concourse area with outlets, WCs etc and I'd love to see us build something at that level.

Yeah it was this one that inspired me, mines a cut price and reduced size version but with more emphasis on terracing and keeping the general feel of the ground.

For what its worth most home fans would be able to walk into my version once completed and roughly find their spot. Only the merry band who stand in front of the east stand genuinely lose their place (sorry).

Do you think wmdc will allow this , they will surely find a way of delaying this until it is unable to proceed ,or take it to a public enquiry that seems to work . I think it`s a great idea though

Looks great to me, new stadium or redevelopment not fussy at all.

This is one that folk often get wrong. Politically WMDC would bend over backwards to get this through. However it is my understanding that the planning department of any Council is fully independent of any political interference and is ultimately responsible to the courts - please correct me anybody if I'm mistaken.

It's fair to say that WMCC Planning Dept has been shall we say pedantic with us in the past. I'm sure some pressure could be brought to bare by the Mr Box but not much.

I was just thinking, what if we had that £6M the council are going to blow on the Hepworth. We could start this in the close season and certainly get the new Western Terrace up and running.

You mean the Hepworth that brought over a million people into Wakefield in its first year of operation and has won numerous awards?

It's an easy bit of hyperbole, but the Hepworth has a significantly wider appeal than WTW could ever dream of; apples and oranges innit.

And cost the council £30m to start with, inc money originally allocated to our stadium!

I don't knock the Hepworth, it's a fantastic asset to Wakefield, but there were no 15,000 signatures asking for it, there was no-one leading a campaign to make it happen and there was no outside investment to fund the majority of it.

The council need to stick to their promises and cough up! They've proved they can find funds - when it suits!

In fairness it cost £30m to build, that's not how much the council put in. The vast majority came from grants etc and it really is something we (people from Wakefield) should be proud of.