Ground Developments

[CoolClaret]

What actually is a “soulless corporate bowl”?
A brand new, 25,000 seater, with all the bells and whistles in and around a new venue sounds great to me.
Much better than the rickety old eyesore we have now.
Good job most of the dinosaurs on here will be dead in a few years.

You mustn't get on many away games. Going to places like KC Stadium & the Ricoh vs what we have at the Turf is night and day.

Ask any Cov fan if they'd have the Ricoh over Highfield road, no chance

[trawlen]

Urgent fixes:

- Congestion on concourses and general fan experience
- WiFi (4G almost unusable)
- Small tidy up

I'd be happy with those for next season, and then give us a plan for rebuilding the Bob Lord and Cricket Field stands because they're starting to look embarrassing (I still laugh at the bread bin plans sometimes).

I don't want a new stadium because there are too many problems that come with it and not a lot of good locations. If we come up with some good plans though, I'm not against it.

[Vegas Claret]

there is a massive difference in entertainment value between a VK side and a Dyche side, that alone puts bums on seats but I tend to agree that we don't need extra capacity at this point.

If the waiting list gets to a big level then maybe we look at it or introduce something similar to the away points requirement but instead of points you get bonus points for the amount of songs you join in with and get points taken away every time you say your grandma could do better

[RickyBobby]

Quite surprised the majority are more then happy for the club to move to a new ground. A few years ago I am sure the vast majority would have been against it.
I suppose I am not surprised. Moving to a nee ground has done wonders for the likes of coventry and has resulted in nothing but positives for them. Same goes for darlington, moving to an out of town stadium has been great for them and the town.
Can’t wait for us to move to the Watt arena in huncoat. Will be like going to an anyway game at ewood every game as the majority will have to get buses out there and back!
Hoping we ditch the old claret and blue whilst we are at it. Exciting times!

[Targetman]

What actually is a “soulless corporate bowl”?
A brand new, 25,000 seater, with all the bells and whistles in and around a new venue sounds great to me.
Much better than the rickety old eyesore we have now.
Good job most of the dinosaurs on here will be dead in a few years.

You will also be dead at some stage lad! It comes to us all, some earlier than others, dont rule yourself out of the first batch.

[Quicknick]

We don't need more seats. We've been PL established, in Europe and had 15 glorious years and only sold out 15% (estimate) during all that.

Even if we continue playing attractive football the novelty will wear off for some, prices will spike and then we're left with crowds nearer 15000 in a half empty stadium - which is rubbish.

I'm in a minority here but i'd modernise the Cricket and BL but try and keep as much of their character as possible. Embrace all the clanging turnstyles, wooden seats and what not. They're irreplacable.

Totally agree.

[Quicknick]

Quite surprised the majority are more then happy for the club to move to a new ground. A few years ago I am sure the vast majority would have been against it.
I suppose I am not surprised. Moving to a nee ground has done wonders for the likes of coventry and has resulted in nothing but positives for them. Same goes for darlington, moving to an out of town stadium has been great for them and the town.
Can’t wait for us to move to the Watt arena in huncoat. Will be like going to an anyway game at ewood every game as the majority will have to get buses out there and back!
Hoping we ditch the old claret and blue whilst we are at it. Exciting times!

[Clive 1960]

I think we need to start thinking about making a change or two to the Bob lord and cricket field stand's if money allows .

[Claretforever]

The Cricket Field stand won’t continue passing its safety inspection. The roof structure has rusted to an extent that they didn’t dare touch it when they blast cleaned and re coated the stanchions silver back in 2014, instead covering it with banners. It barely passed its inspection a year or two ago, and you can clearly see how deteriorated it looks when you’re in the stand. It’s safe for now, but HAS to be replaced soon. If not the entire stand then the roof structure. BFC were talking about replacing it in the year 2000!!!

We need more capacity, but no more than 25,000 I wouldn’t think. If you want to attract fans from slightly further afield you need good seats to put them in, and we don’t have that spare right now. It’s about being ambitious without being silly. In the Premier League over half the clubs would bring 3-4,000 if you offered it, and the stand was designed to be flexible in Away capacity (moving barriers on the stand and underneath segregation).

What’s to say we won’t strike a deal for slightly more land from the Cricket Club and incorporate a new pavilion for them into the back corner of a new stand design?

And in the next couple of weeks the club are starting redeveloping the Jimmy Mac exec areas in line with the recent Longside changes, so that’ll be an improvement on the corporate side.

[Dyched]

Rebuild and the capacity need to go up or else season tickets would have to. I’d like to see the reaction on here if the latter happens.

Just adding 8 rows to the Bob Lord would add a few thousand which would be more than enough. Could even look into what they did at Old Trafford/Anfield and just build onto what is already there.

[CaptainKirk]

You will also be dead at some stage lad! It comes to us all, some earlier than others, dont rule yourself out of the first batch.

Flipping eck - I know that - and it feels like it is getting nearer each week.

[Corky]

Having recently been to Reading to watch the Clarets, I have no wish to experience being plonked out of town on a retail park for every home game. And an aerial view of the Turf shows that their is scope for limited expansion upwards and outwards. However if we could buy the Cricket Club ground then the scope could be quite dramatic.

Since I first went on the Turf in the early to mid 60s all four sides have been redeveloped and that is part of its history. And we need to keep redeveloping otherwise blokes would still be standing on the terracing peeing onto a rolled up newspaper rather than staggering off to rudimentary toilets.

There have been a number of excellent suggestions so far and it seems to me that first and foremost a feasibility study needs to be carried out and a proper integrated plan put in place. For instance I like the idea that there might be room to put another tier on top of the BL but is it feasible. I remember some years ago now writing to Clive Holt about filling in the sides. Unlike Bob Lord I got a reply which advised me that the club had looked at that but the cost due to the difficulty of construction didn't warrant it given the small number of seats that would be made available.

Things are never straightforward but one area that we do desperately need to improve is the concourse experience.

[NewClaret]

The Cricket Field stand won’t continue passing its safety inspection. The roof structure has rusted to an extent that they didn’t dare touch it when they blast cleaned and re coated the stanchions silver back in 2014, instead covering it with banners. It barely passed its inspection a year or two ago, and you can clearly see how deteriorated it looks when you’re in the stand. It’s safe for now, but HAS to be replaced soon. If not the entire stand then the roof structure. BFC were talking about replacing it in the year 2000!!!

We need more capacity, but no more than 25,000 I wouldn’t think. If you want to attract fans from slightly further afield you need good seats to put them in, and we don’t have that spare right now. It’s about being ambitious without being silly. In the Premier League over half the clubs would bring 3-4,000 if you offered it, and the stand was designed to be flexible in Away capacity (moving barriers on the stand and underneath segregation).

What’s to say we won’t strike a deal for slightly more land from the Cricket Club and incorporate a new pavilion for them into the back corner of a new stand design?

And in the next couple of weeks the club are starting redeveloping the Jimmy Mac exec areas in line with the recent Longside changes, so that’ll be an improvement on the corporate side.

Completely agree with this.

The CFS needed work 23 years ago so it definitely needs it today. I know there’s a “no ROI” argument on any ground investment but you two hugely aging stands makes this one more about basic maintenance.

I do get the argument that we don’t need a hugely increased capacity, but equally if we are ambitious and are playing attractive football in the Prem I think we could fill a few extra k, plus potentially offering more away (only a small amount though). Given those things, I would do the CFS first as it’s the only real way to build the ground but in a fairly minor way. Another tier on the BL would add too much capacity.

That’s interesting about the corporate areas in the Jimmy Mac? I thought both were upgraded at the same time?

I saw a big area behind the Longside was cordoned off with loads of what looked like construction workers when I went in last Wednesday. Anyone know what was going on there?

[Spijed]

The Cricket Field stand won’t continue passing its safety inspection. The roof structure has rusted to an extent that they didn’t dare touch it when they blast cleaned and re coated the stanchions silver back in 2014, instead covering it with banners. It barely passed its inspection a year or two ago, and you can clearly see how deteriorated it looks when you’re in the stand. It’s safe for now, but HAS to be replaced soon. If not the entire stand then the roof structure. BFC were talking about replacing it in the year 2000!!!

We need more capacity, but no more than 25,000 I wouldn’t think. If you want to attract fans from slightly further afield you need good seats to put them in, and we don’t have that spare right now. It’s about being ambitious without being silly. In the Premier League over half the clubs would bring 3-4,000 if you offered it, and the stand was designed to be flexible in Away capacity (moving barriers on the stand and underneath segregation).

What’s to say we won’t strike a deal for slightly more land from the Cricket Club and incorporate a new pavilion for them into the back corner of a new stand design?

And in the next couple of weeks the club are starting redeveloping the Jimmy Mac exec areas in line with the recent Longside changes, so that’ll be an improvement on the corporate side.

The max number of away fans in the Prem is 3000.

[NewClaret]

The max number of away fans in the Prem is 3000.

Pretty sure that is the minimum number if your ground capacity is over 30k, or 10% if not.

[TsarBomba]

How many additional seats could be put in the Bob Lord & Cricket field stand were they to remove all the wooden ones and replace with standard plastic seats?

This is far too simplistic a view, and simply trying to shoehorn more fans in, whilst existing infrastructure isnt up to scratch as it is, is symptomatic of the short termism we have seen employed all too often over the past 20 years.

Safe standing may be on the horizon, which will increase capacity in the CFS, but concerns have already been raised re safety on the concourses, without adding hundreds more fans.

The CFS needs knocking down, and a single tier stand probably not unlike what is at Fulham thrown up in its place. It doesn’t need to be fancy. And a single tier on the BL, too.

In the cold light of day, the Turf is a bit of a mess, because we’ve had no long term plan in place. The whole ground needs realigning and shifting to the north. We have all that space behind the Longside, but then nothing to work with when it comes to the BL and CFS.

[quoonbeatz]

People who want us to move to a new ground either don't go to games or aren't football fans. You lose so much by moving away from your home. It's never the same and never as good. I can't think of one new stadium that isn't an insipid, sanitised experience of watching a match compared to what each club had when they were at a proper football ground. Although I've not been to Spurs, which is meant to be good, but that's essentially a redevelopment anyway.

[pompeyclaret]

Ideally we'd do what Spurs did and knock down everything and start again, moving the pitch slightly away from Harry Potts way to make use of the whole site. No one likes the 'new' stands and the BL and CS are both well past their best.

Build a 24/25k seater, decent corporate, disabled, catering facilities, but with a bit of character rather than a sou-less identical bowl like many others have stated. Re-create the Longside/ bee hole end feel, one tier mostly.

2 main obstacles are finance and if we could somehow do this while remaining playing/ where we'd ground share for a year.

Unfortunately think both are too troublesome so we'll do some plaster job and probably end up spending more like we have patching up the rest of the ground.

[NewClaret]

In the cold light of day, the Turf is a bit of a mess, because we’ve had no long term plan in place. The whole ground needs realigning and shifting to the north. We have all that space behind the Longside, but then nothing to work with when it comes to the BL and CFS.

Agree with the lack of long term vision and plan for the ground.

It potentially should have been move more northerly previously, although I think there’s scope to move the pitch over to nearer the longside quite significantly. That big strip is quite wide and the dugout areas are quite generous on the Bob Lord. It could be repositioned.

I’d love to see us bringing the fans closer to and right on top of the pitch to make the Turf as intimidating as possible. There’s loads of scope for this and should be a priority in any future development.

[Roosterbooster]

What actually is a “soulless corporate bowl”?
A brand new, 25,000 seater, with all the bells and whistles in and around a new venue sounds great to me.
Much better than the rickety old eyesore we have now.
Good job most of the dinosaurs on here will be dead in a few years.

Eyesore? I think its beautiful
My kids are pretty damn young. And they get very excited whenever they see the ground as we walk in. It's not what it looks like that matters, it's what it means, and the way it makes you feel

Sure, it could do with some changes. But I'll be very, very unhappy if we ever move

[mdd2]

Planning the ground with a view to major rebuilds of CF and BL stands is an absolute nightmare
What can be done in a close season without disruption to the capacity in season?
What happens if the seasons go badly wrong and we end up in League One
Impossible to plan for with any certainty
But the CF stand will have to be rebuilt and pretty soon and quickly I imagine

[Spijed]

Pretty sure that is the minimum number if your ground capacity is over 30k, or 10% if not.

Nope. the max is 3000. See example at Old Trafford.

https://www.awaygames.co.uk/away-day-gu ... %203%2C000.

[Ric_C]

The two main things we need to upgrade in the short term:

1. General facilities
2. wifi / reception

For the longer term, one way to increase capacity at minimal cost is to put rail seats in the Longside lower. I think this would create a better atmosphere in general. Also somehow if we were to re-develop some of the stands, the roofs need to be re-designed to keep noise in the stadium rather than float away.

I genuinely believe we have a USP of Turf Moor and the fact it is an old fashioned stadium. If we can make it even more intimidating than it is now, it might be worth 10 points a season to us.

[RVclaret]

The whole rebranding of the club as of late has been great but there's no doubt the Turf is the anomaly amongst it all. Even the training ground looks superb these days. But what is the one thing people all around look at when they watch Burnley / research Burnley? The stadium. It's probably the first connection people make with the club. If we are being honest it's pretty crap and not very aesthetic, that's before issues inside concourses etc.

Imagine Brentford's image if they'd have stayed at Griffin Park in the Prem, compared to what it is now when you see their new stadium. With the Turf the LED stuff has at least modernised it a bit but it's still quite a way off.

[Barry_Chuckle]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Those who say "if or when we get relegated again, the ground will look like the one down the M65" and "we rarely fill the ground we have", ingest that, however, 10 years ago visitors were given the whole CF stand, that now houses approx 2200 more Clarets in the ground than 10 years ago. With the right incentives to encourage families, the demise of our near neighbours, and the fact folk want to watch us but struggle to get tickets sat together or tickets at all, I feel we are perfectly positioned to go the next step. 30000 stadium is a step too far, but 25000 would be ideal.

Just my opinion.

[FeedTheArf]

There's absolutely no way we build an all new stadium, let's get that out of the way. Aside from the massive financial pressure it would cause on an ownership model with no money (in Prem terms), the town depends on the ground being exactly where it is. We don't need a bigger capacity, maybe a couple of thousand tops. I'd rather have a ground bursting at the seams than thousands of empty seats.

From what CT has said, rail seats will be coming shortly, whether that's this coming season or the one after, but you'd think this would be in the CFS given everyone already stands in there. Stick the rail seats in and tart up the fascias and external bits and pieces of the stand and that's about as good as we're going to get in the foreseeable future IMO.

[Quickenthetempo]

Nope. the max is 3000. See example at Old Trafford.

https://www.awaygames.co.uk/away-day-gu ... %203%2C000.

Burnley used to give 4400. Blackburn 8k, Wigan 5k.

[Here's-Johnny]

The Cricket Field stand won’t continue passing its safety inspection. The roof structure has rusted to an extent that they didn’t dare touch it when they blast cleaned and re coated the stanchions silver back in 2014, instead covering it with banners. It barely passed its inspection a year or two ago, and you can clearly see how deteriorated it looks when you’re in the stand. It’s safe for now, but HAS to be replaced soon. If not the entire stand then the roof structure. BFC were talking about replacing it in the year 2000!!!

We need more capacity, but no more than 25,000 I wouldn’t think. If you want to attract fans from slightly further afield you need good seats to put them in, and we don’t have that spare right now. It’s about being ambitious without being silly. In the Premier League over half the clubs would bring 3-4,000 if you offered it, and the stand was designed to be flexible in Away capacity (moving barriers on the stand and underneath segregation).

What’s to say we won’t strike a deal for slightly more land from the Cricket Club and incorporate a new pavilion for them into the back corner of a new stand design?

And in the next couple of weeks the club are starting redeveloping the Jimmy Mac exec areas in line with the recent Longside changes, so that’ll be an improvement on the corporate side.

The Barnfield stand construction stand....a company who have made millions outta Burnley.. mmmmmm.....

[Here's-Johnny]

There's absolutely no way we build an all new stadium, let's get that out of the way. Aside from the massive financial pressure it would cause on an ownership model with no money (in Prem terms), the town depends on the ground being exactly where it is. We don't need a bigger capacity, maybe a couple of thousand tops. I'd rather have a ground bursting at the seams than thousands of empty seats.

From what CT has said, rail seats will be coming shortly, whether that's this coming season or the one after, but you'd think this would be in the CFS given everyone already stands in there. Stick the rail seats in and tart up the fascias and external bits and pieces of the stand and that's about as good as we're going to get in the foreseeable future IMO.

Tart up Bugger all.....do a fcking right job!

[Rowls]

If we were to ever build a purpose built new ground it would need to be on the same site at Turf Moor.

The town and the football club are indivisible.

[FeedTheArf]

Tart up Bugger all.....do a fcking right job!

A right job is going to take more than a close season to sort and with a waiting list for season tickets it makes absolutely zero sense to reduce the capacity and re-home the away fans whilst that happens.

[randomclaret2]

Burnley used to give 4400. Blackburn 8k, Wigan 5k.

Clubs can choose to give more to visiting supporters than is actually required, but as I understand it the rule in the Premier League is 10% of capacity or 3,000, whichever is lower

[Georgeclaret]

I’d encourage the club to resurface the car park behind the north stand.

It can be a nightmare traversing it at times, especially during the winter months when we’ve had a bit of rain.

[Pickles]

If we were to ever build a purpose built new ground it would need to be on the same site at Turf Moor.

The town and the football club are indivisible.

Agree with this. And as quoon says earlier up - people who want us to be out of town must not go to much football. Burnley FC on an industrial estate would be a real poor do.

[Here's-Johnny]

Agree with this. And as quoon says earlier up - people who want us to be out of town must not go to much football. Burnley FC on an industrial estate would be a real poor do.

Trouble with Burnley Folk they're stuck in a Time Warp and like to put a sticking plaster over every thing. Progress isn't an option.

[Claretforever]

The max number of away fans in the Prem is 3000.

No, you can offer whatever you like providing you offer the minimum levels. 3,000 is the minimum you HAVE to offer if your ground capacity is 30,000 and above.

Most don’t offer more, but they can do. Blackburn used to allow up to 7,600 to away fans for large parts of their stay in the Premier League, averaging around 4,000 Away fans in their ground compared with our 1,800 ish. Bolton offered more than 3,000 at times too. The away numbers help increase your average attendance.

[Hipper]

I think it could do with being slightly bigger but we don’t need to increase it massively unless other events are being held there.improvements and catering do need looking at and the latter already is.

The Bread Bin fits your bill, including catering.

[Foshiznik]

As the only Burnley fan in my immediate family and having lived a long way away for most of my life, i have taken alot of non-clarets to games at Turf Moor and the most common comments they make are how much they enjoy the traditional feel and look of the ground and surrounding area. Therefore, if looking at a wider audience, we absolutely must keep that traditional look intact imo. Modernise the Bob Lord Stand and completely rebuild CFS and when the time is right to rebuild the other two stands, we should incorporate the design of the disabled area corners so that they seamlessly continue around that side of the ground to close it off properly, rather than the current mish mash look they have at the moment.

Whether that increases capacity or not, i don't see why we shouldn't consider it. The majority of fans would never have envisaged Brighton filling the AMEX when they were playing at the Withdean, so similar thoughts on our ground make no sense.

[Rick_Muller]

2 main obstacles are finance and if we could somehow do this while remaining playing/ where we'd ground share for a year.

The ground share option (if you can call it that) presents only one viable option... Deadwood...

At least we have a good record there recently, and it would be funny to fill it week in week out while they cant

[but no... not an option really!]

[mikeconroy10]

I don't think there's any need to worry about the club vacating the current site anytime soon. They've recently spent a small fortune on the new disability stands, corporate facilities, club shop, offices etc. and it wouldn't make much sense to commit to this new 'Town to Turf' development if they were thinking of upping sticks in the foreseeable future.

[aggi]

What actually is a “soulless corporate bowl”?
A brand new, 25,000 seater, with all the bells and whistles in and around a new venue sounds great to me.
Much better than the rickety old eyesore we have now.
Good job most of the dinosaurs on here will be dead in a few years.

We could go full Milton Keynes and get an Asda and a Nando's as well.

Realistically, the driving force for a lot of out of town moves is being able to flog your ground for loads of money and move somewhere less desirable. That's pretty unlikely for Turf Moor so makes the rest of the plan difficult.

[Rowls]

The ground share option (if you can call it that) presents only one viable option... Deadwood...

At least we have a good record there recently, and it would be funny to fill it week in week out while they cant

[but no... not an option really!]

Huddersfield is feasible.

[quoonbeatz]

Trouble with Burnley Folk they're stuck in a Time Warp and like to put a sticking plaster over every thing. Progress isn't an option.

Progress is very much an option. Proper progress would be redevelopment. Relocation would be detrimental. We'd lose more than we'd gain.

[Here's-Johnny]

As the only Burnley fan in my immediate family and having lived a long way away for most of my life, i have taken alot of non-clarets to games at Turf Moor and the most common comments they make are how much they enjoy the traditional feel and look of the ground and surrounding area. Therefore, if looking at a wider audience, we absolutely must keep that traditional look intact imo. Modernise the Bob Lord Stand and completely rebuild CFS and when the time is right to rebuild the other two stands, we should incorporate the design of the disabled area corners so that they seamlessly continue around that side of the ground to close it off properly, rather than the current mish mash look they have at the moment.

Whether that increases capacity or not, i don't see why we shouldn't consider it. The majority of fans would never have envisaged Brighton filling the AMEX when they were playing at the Withdean, so similar thoughts on our ground make no sense.

[Guppyspotter]

Is the way forward to expand the seating capacity to cater for more away fans? Home fans seem to have pretty much topped out at max 20k. Or do we not sell out if away tickets when in the premier League often enough to make it worthwhile?

[Here's-Johnny]

Is the way forward to expand the seating capacity to cater for more away fans? Home fans seem to have pretty much topped out at max 20k. Or do we not sell out if away tickets when in the premier League often enough to make it worthwhile?

Increase away support.....helps with the local economy On match days. Creates atmosphere.

[Quicknick]

Increase away support.....helps with the local economy On match days. Creates atmosphere.

More away support is the last thing you want.

[mikeS]

I believe there will be significant upgrades to the matchday hospitality side of things this summer. Along the lines of touchscreen pre-ordering of half time food and drink.

Whatever happened to the 'iPie'?

[Here's-Johnny]

More away support is the last thing you want.

Blackburn v Burnley....You saw the uproar on this msg board didnt you?Some Fans... Lots of em like Travelling away believe it or not.

[Foshiznik]

I'd be quite happy with development similarly seen at Ashton Gate. Good atmosphere and modernised stadium that hasn't lost any of it's original character but still looks good too.