tom_widdows

Albion Rovers away.

Ladies and Gentleman Aberdeen also seems to have caught student halls fever (Glasgow is being swallowed up by them at the moment) If pittodrie is to be sold I suspect this will be site's future http://www.urbanrealm.com/news/6597/Aberdeen_student_housing_duo_win_planning_consent.html

So potential opponents in 3 weeks time Sevco East Fife Dunfermline Ath Ayr Utd or Queens Park Hibs St Mirren Caley Thistle Hamilton Morton St Johnstone Partick Ross County Stirling Albion or Clyde Raith or Jambos Albion or Tic Away trip to Albion (at Clifton Hill. None of this 'move for security' bullshit) would be my choice But failing that East Fife, Stirling or Clyde away for the novelty.

24hrs ago it was 60 Durrants. Not sure what happened but I'm sure it wont be long till a similar situation returns

Increase the height of the South stand and you are making an existing situation worse for neighbouring properties. The flats behind the south immediately have a valid objection which the planners would need to consider very carefully. Making the stands taller unfortunately does not necessarily offset the loss of seats. New Regs about widths of aisles and amount of space in-front of each seat both when folded up and when people are sitting/ standing will apply (part of of this will come under the DDA act and accessibility regs. These are not just for wheelchair users, they cover anyone who has impaired mobility). At the moment the South stand concourses are at the back of the stand. The 'external' one is narrow but as an escape route just for fans is just about passable (existing situation) although I fear in a few seasons the club will be forced to restrict the capacity to obtain a safety certificate. The internal one is also narrow (too narrow for the capacity) and made worse by having the snack kiosks and toilets all along the back. The queues for both restrict circulation. In a new stand all the services, toilets, snack bars etc would need to be moved under the seating area and all circulation routes would need to be designed so that you must purposefully deviate from to reach them eg go through a set of doors. That way should you suddenly have to evacuate the escape routes (vomitories) would not be blocked by people waiting for their Bovril. The internal routes must then lead to a controllable external muster point with escape routes in multiple directions and wide enough for people to escape at the same time as the emergency services are arriving. Ideally this would be a carpark or private road. Unfortunately the south stand is enclosed with a boundary wall forcing people to go in max 2 directions. The minimum emergency vehicle lane width is 3.7m between kerbs. You must then add the width of the pedestrian escape route to that which is calculated based on the number of fans who may be forced to use it. The standard calc for a non domestic building is 5.3 x the occupancy capacity = aggregate width in mm. Very rough calculation and I'd look for someone with stadium design experience to correct me if necessary (I have only worked on medium sized conference facilities), but say an escape route is designed to take 4000 people (worst case scenario ie other escape routes are blocked) then it would need to be 21.2m wide. For 8000 fans this increases to 42.4m. Think about this next time you are leaving the South stand. I could be wrong but I don't think the club have any ownership of Pittodrie Street. Its in a predominantly residential area and residents will accept they live next to a stadium so cant park in certain areas on match days. However suddenly telling them they cant park on the street at all is a serious can of worms and the planners would need to have some serious balls to even consider letting that one through. One of the first rules of redevelopment is you cannot make an existing situation worse. Narrowing that road does just that. You also have to look at the effect of changing one section of a long street with no breaks (all side streets give way to Pittodrie street). To ease the effect of narrowing it along the back of the Main stand I think you would need to start the narrowing process at Ardarroch Road For the club to offer up the DD concourse and their own car-park for residential or visitor parking on non-match days is another legal minefield. The main stand car-park would need to be renovated to a certain standard for a start. The club could then potentially be held liable for any damage to the owners vehicles increasing their own insurance costs. Same would apply for the RDS concourse and would probably be even worse given one of its functions is to allow access for emergency vehicles so the club would then need to have someone patrol the area to make sure your average selfish moron doesn't abandon their car in a stupid place just because 'they will only be 5mins'. Thinking about it now, that 12500 figure is probably reasonably accurate. If all 3 stands ended up with capacities reduced by 50% it would equate to total capacity of 13,922. Add in the now 'necessary' corporate facilities to them and the seating capacity is cut again. Some clever designing and help from the planners could possibly push that up a tiny bit but not much. There is at least one person who used to post on here who has worked on a stadium redevelopment. They will certainly have a better idea of what could be achieved and hopefully will pop their head above the ramparts again.

You can build a new stand on the current footprint of the South stand. The problem is it will not hold the 8104 the current one does. Reasons I can think of for this are as follows The south stand is a former terrace with seats bolted to it. This was done in the 1970s before Heysel, Hillsbrough, the Bradford City Fire etc which brought in new rules about stadium design. Too many folk think the Taylor report was just 'get rid of standing and everything is solved'. Stadium evacuation, circulation for fans/ security/ emergency service personnel, crowd control were all revised having been neglected for decades. Primary evacuation routes should always be through the actual stands with fans escaping onto the pitch being seen as a secondary/ last alternative. In large stands/ stadiums evacuations will be staged so large amounts of fans will need to be held in 'places of safety' whilst other sections are let out to prevent crushes Emergency service vehicles must be able to access all the way around the stadium at the same time as a mass evacuation of supporters is taking place.. Yes you can drive a fire engines along the back of the South stand at the moment but try doing that when faced with 8000 panicking people. Said fire engines would also have to get down Merkland Road/ Golf Road, Pittodrie street all of which could be packed with up to 20000 fans plus other road users. Hibs two largest stands have capacities of 6,407 & 6400 respectively. Hearts Wheatfield stand holds 5,902. FYI their old main stand actually holds 5,100. Tynecastle is a unique redevelopment in that the concourses under the seats for all 3 new stands are actually linked. They are also raised above ground level so you enter the stands halfway up which allows for emergency access underneath the escaping fans. I am presuming there is significant fire proofing throughout so any fire on the actual seating area would take at least 1hr to reach the concourse. This is a clever layout but I do wonder if it would be possible in the current regulations (All 3 stands were built in the late 90s). It reminds me of the Westpac stadium in Wellington which has one massive 'wembley way' style access. Easter Road has a carpark and a private road behind their two biggest stands. The away stand has a fairly large concourse and a wide road with what appears to be primarily commercial use therefore quieter on weekends and evenings. Their biggest issue is the back of the famous 5 which exits right onto Albion place, however the road network allows for diversions so the section directly in front of the turnstiles can be shut on match days. Pittodrie being surrounded by so much residential property effectively rules out buying Merkland Lane and Pittodrie street as it would reduce emergency access for the existing properties. Building over the top of public roads (Athletico Madrid style) is not easy and very expensive. If yer gonna do it the best time is when the road is being constructed before houses are built nearby. I personally would prefer the club stayed at pittodrie and actually reduced the capacity (Much rather a 80-90% full 14-15k stadium rather than a 50% full 20k one.) However the consensus is AFC must have at least 20000 seats and thanks to Aberdeen's obsession with building flats over the last 30 years there is non longer the space available to do this.

Fuck load of public comments on this one. Think the council will regret their current comment system (much easier than some of the other Councils I have to work with) as it is clearly open to abuse People really need to learn how to 'object' to a planning application. Feel sorry for the Planning Officer on this one.

Pittodrie can quite easily be redeveloped in stages (funding dependent). The issue is 3 new stands designed to current regulations will not provide the 15,405 seats the current South, Main & Merkland provide. Sticking with the 4 stand layout I estimate the new capacity would be max 15000. A possible alternative of changing to a 2 stand layout (Braga Style) by rotating the pitch 90degreess could possibly bring 20,000 however it would be expensive as fuck (and thats assuming it would be possible to extend the RDS), Probably end up in legal fights over 'daylighting' issues to the surrounding houses, and even require a ground-share arrangement with the Dundee Clubs for at least part of a season. Also I haven't been to Braga but I presume they don't have North Sea style winds whistling through the open end.

I feel its time people started come up with evidence that Pittodrie in its current state is still fit for purpose. Anyone starting out with the consensus of 'its been fine for years so no need for change' will automatically remove themselves from the debate.

James Wiley Smith AKA 'Superfly' Jimmy Snuka 73 and was part of an ongoing lawsuit against the WWE concerning the lack of protection and care for current and ex Wrestlers.

Have they managed to find officials who know what they are doing yet? Last time I saw the tournament was 2010 and some of the linesmen occasionally refused to run, and would flag for offside even when they were about 20yards behind play. If a player was running clear the rule seemed to be 'he must be offside'. On one occasion I believe a striker was actually flagged offside when he was stood in his own half

oh aye! Starting to regret sending that sketch now....

40000 more seats Demolition/ land clearance costs Having to work above a subway line and next to an overground train line. Restricted site requiring lots or permits and a much larger construction force Relocating private households/ businesses (Arsenal spent a fortune doing this for the Emirates) Having Herzog & De Meuron as your Architects which will no doubt lead to someone like Arup Associates being the Engineers. Potentially having to pay rent at another stadium for 2 seasons or playing at a stadium with a vastly reduced capacity Seemingly cladding the entire thing in fancy brick. And the big one its in London.

Graham Taylor - 72

Is his contract up at the end of the season?

Well isnt this a nice move for society. I used to think CPOs were reserved for Major Transport and infrastructure developments but then saw what Glasgow city council got up to with the commonwealth games. With regards to the latter I can't say I have noticed any changes in the local population's sporting activities so the legacy seems to be they got to demolish an area which would often be included in the 'poverty' statistics and evict the residents for next to fuck all (I heard tell of people being given about 1/4 of the value of their homes) and put the city into debt (I believe part of the funding involved mortgaging lots of council properties thereby reducing their income). Lewisham council perhaps looking to get rid of Shadwell town so they can appeal to more Boycies? Good luck to everyone who has their own home. It appears its not just the Bankers who will tear the bricks and mortar our from under you.

I see yon cardiff vs Fulham cup tie had an 1130am kick off Attendance was 5,199 (Stadium capacity 33,300). I remember sky having Man U games with 1115 KO back in the 90s but they got kicked into touch fairly soon. TV fucks over the fans again

Someones having fun with the wind ups tonight. First Donati and then following it up with 'Yerdas Selsavon' on a spoof Twitter feed.

There seemed to be a shortage of Vaping shops when I was there in December

I believe a welsh lady was eventually banned from her local ASDA for the PJs malarky. From memory the ban only came after she had forgone the use of such 'shackles' as coats, dressing gowns and underwear and proceeded to do her shopping in just her nightie (commando style) For me it is a sign you have 'given up on life'

Think it was either Tom English or Stuart Cosgrove who highlighted the failed 1970s yank experiment where they brought in lots of famous players in a bid to kick start 'soccer' in the USA. Would have thought China would be better suited poaching the best coaches from around the world if they have ambitions to be a major football nation. 1.3billion people to chose from and yet thee have only qualified for 1 world cup and I doubt it's a coincidence that was one where the two strongest Asian nations automatically qualified as hosts. Never won the AFC Asian cup either

9) BBC and other 'home' media covering Spanish/ German Football as if its taking place in the UK. Used to piss me off seeing Scottish Kids wearing English premier kits but I now welcome that over seeing scottish kids wearing real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich kits etc and saying they are their favourite teams. 10) The UEFA TV blackout for domestic matches taking place on champs league matchdays - WTF is this meant to achieve other than brainwashing future generations into glory hunting manu, chelsea, liverpool, madrid fans? 11) International football on weekends and 'international breaks'. 12) The 'we are just as big as' mentality of the Scottish football authorities and their use of this as justification to not switch to Summer football.

1) Clubs being forced to have minimum capacities and remove terracing from their stadiums if they wish to get into the top league. It went a long way to crippling so many Scottish clubs and now we have the legacy of thousands of empty seats or 2-3 sided stadiums. Airdrie, Raith Rovers, Clyde, Dunfermline, Kilmarnock, Falkirk, Hamilton, Inverness, Livingston all spring to mind If you can run a successful team with a 2000 capacity stadium then you shouldn't be penalised. Only rule should be decent pitches (grass with adequate drainage & undersoil heating, or latest artificial turf), Decent floodlights, and stands with relevant safety certification. 2) Lower/ Non-league clubs being forced to play at neutral venues for cup games against certain clubs for 'safety' reasons. If its safe for a league match to be played there then it is safe for a cup match and if that means only 1500 people are allowed in then tough shit to those who miss out. Doesn't happen in England-shire so why the fuck should Scotland be different? 3) The Champions league/ Europa League - Fucking Yawn every season 4) Semi-Finals at Hampden, Wembley etc. 5) Clubs being allowed to ban the BBC from entering their stadium despite being contractually obliged to, yet not being allowed to tell sky or BT to fuck off. 6) Yellow cards for celebrating with your own supporters/ taking your shirt off. 7) Supposed campaigns against racism, sexism, homophobia etc which are nothing more than PR exercises and do nothing to even attempt to resolve the issues. 8 ) Removing cash turnstiles. Don't care what anyone says, I reckon clubs miss out on a few hundred (maybe even thousand) fans every game because no one can be arsed with the hassle of queuing up at the ticket office/ club shop to either buy or even pick up tickets on the day.

Annoys me it being described as a 'scorpion' goal. Was expecting a Rene Higuita effort and end up with a yoga pose gone wrong.

Zsa Zsa Gabor - 99