Stadium Expansion

[Rhys The Royal]

I wonder if there will be any local opposition to these plans. Although I do not know the area that well, are there any houses between the stadium and the old A33. If not I can't imagine anyone would have any real objection.

38,000 at Reading. Kind of defies belief.

I wouldn't imagine they will have much of a problem at all getting permission, what with the local 'high' of us being in the Prem, and there being no houses around......Plus it can only benefit the town in the long term.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Any indication of how much this will cost the club? I seem to recall seeing ball park figures of £1,000 per seat. How much of an effect will this have on our transfer budget over the next couple of years?

JM also said that any redevelopment wont start until we have firmly established ourselves as a premiership club. I presume this means that the timeline given is totally dependent on results on the pitch. If we just stay up this season in 17th will the club direct funds towards the playing staff instead?

[JC]

The OS gives details of the timeline. IIRC North/South complete Dec 2007 and East complete Dec 2008

[notloyalenuffroyal]

What is looking good is future world cup / euro bids.

A 38,000 seater stadium 40 miles from London with excellent transport links to the major English airports - we have to be in the running to host some of the group stages!

[Forbury Lion]

Evening Post today has the new proposed models.... all stands extended with a weird bendy roof thing.

Looks as though the corners are being removed... which makes me think it's just a crap artists impression!

Club say North and South will be done over the summer.

[Deadlock]

Strange how the maps on that site fail to clearly label that large area of develpment with the circular features to the west .....

Of course! You won't read anything about it on the Kennet Island web site, either - or what the Kennet Island site used to be for that matter.

That map is too small to actually read the numbers, but the fact that there's a label saying "MRT Stop" (Mass Rapid Transit) is quite interesting. Anyone got any hard facts about this?

Also good to see on the bus map that there's a direct bus connection from the new Green Park station to the stadium (though I would expect it to be rather full on match days).

[anR]

Also good to see on the bus map that there's a direct bus connection from the new Green Park station to the stadium (though I would expect it to be rather full on match days).

On certain days I've made an early start for the evening kick off, certain buses have gone all the way up to Green Park (where nobody has got on or off) then on with the route.

I would have thought they'd either arrange a seperate shuttle system for match days to help the flow of 38K people? Or just expect everyone to walk, which I'd prefer to do should time be allowed!

[Dirk Gently]

Also good to see on the bus map that there's a direct bus connection from the new Green Park station to the stadium (though I would expect it to be rather full on match days).

With them being much closer they'll be able to provide a much better service than is currently possible - the greater the distance between the points being served the more busses (and drivers) you need to provide the same level of service - for fairly obvious reasons! This is made even worse when there are such sustained peaks of demand - approx. 1- 2 pm inbound and 16:50 onwards return.

So a shuttle bus between GP and the stadium will almost certainly work better than the current town centre "shuttle".

[premiership_bound]

I’m confused, in one the vision part of the design proposals it states that there will be no new corporate boxes then further down it says that “further accommodation such as restaurants and offices will be placed below the seating. Some function areas will have spectacular viewing galleries onto the pitchâ€

[Platypuss]

Joining the dots together by using previous Green Park info, the Southside website and RBC's 5-year Local Transport Plan my guess is that they're going to be pushing for a network of guided busways, of which the A33 corridor will be the first.

[premiership_bound]

No I think the last thing they decided on was just using bendy buses disguised as trams.

[Platypuss]

No I think the last thing they decided on was just using bendy buses disguised as trams.

Indeed, but I think these will also have guided capability.

Chapter 10 of the LTP is the doozie for what RBC have planned for the A33 corridor.

"Aggressive demand reduction techniques". Hmmm.....

http://www.reading.gov.uk/ltp/GeneralM.asp?id=SX9452-A7817040

[premiership_bound]

Well the bus/MRT they had going round Reading last year and the one all the proposals were based on was not guided. Well in was guided by a driver and a steering wheel. They said this was the cheaper option.

[Harold]

For comparison, there's a reasonable aerial view of the current stadium at http://www.intosport.co.uk/acatalog/Reading.html. From the sketches it looks like the backs of the new stands would go out to about the line of the existing road.

And if all goes ahead as planned we'll end up with one of the largest grounds in the country. 12th if my figures are correct.

1) 75000 Man Utd
2) 60000 Arsenal
3) 52000 Newcastle
4) 48000 Sunderland
5) 48000 Man City
6) 45000 Liverpool
7) 42000 Aston Villa
42000 Chelsea
9) 40000 Everton
10) 40000 Leeds
11) 39000 Shef Weds
12) 38000 Reading

Chelsea's is 42,499.

[Y21]

I seem to recall around the time of the season ticket prices for this season being announced, that one of JM's excuses for hiking the prices up was due to our small stadium...if the expansion goes ahead, do you think that a) season ticket prices will go down...or b) they will go up with the excuse that the club needs the revenue to pay for the extended stadium? I wonder...

[Ginger Ninjas]

I think this is really exciting stuff!

The brochure on the OS clears up a lot of questions I had about the design, and it looks very impressive. When complete, I think it would be fair to say that little old Reading would have the best stadium in the country, (south of Manchester and outside London that is - and only Emirates and Wembley would be better in London). Birmingham's proposed new stadium would be the only thing that could eclipse it.

Good times.

[handbags_harris]

Evening Post today has the new proposed models.... all stands extended with a weird bendy roof thing.

Looks as though the corners are being removed... which makes me think it's just a crap artists impression!

Club say North and South will be done over the summer.

Evening Post also has a pretty big front page cock-up today:

"M-ADD STAD

Expansion Plans will add 12000

[Front Page, Paragraph 3] The Club has unveiled preliminary £13 million plans that would boost the Madejski Stadium's capacity from 24000 to a whopping 38000 by 2008."

Where's the extra 2000 gone from the headline?

[Alan Partridge]

It must really piss Brighton fans off when they read this.

FaLOLmer

FaLOLmer indeed, no messing just get on with it, that's the Reading way

[handbags_harris]

It must really piss Brighton fans off when they read this.

FaLOLmer

FaLOLmer indeed, no messing just get on with it, that's the Reading way

We've got one stand bigger than your ground

[Harold]

I think this is really exciting stuff!

The brochure on the OS clears up a lot of questions I had about the design, and it looks very impressive. When complete, I think it would be fair to say that little old Reading would have the best stadium in the country, (south of Manchester and outside London that is - and only Emirates and Wembley would be better in London). Birmingham's proposed new stadium would be the only thing that could eclipse it.

Good times.

You forgot Stamford bridge m8.