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Is a super stadium the goal fans want?
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Thursday 27th Aug 1998.
THE days are long gone when football fans queued up, hail, rain, and shine, to stand on the terraces and cheer their team on with only a soggy potato pie for comfort.
Fans can now arrive at games by helicopter to sit in a plush luxury box and dine on cordon bleu cuisine and fine wine while watching the match.
OK, so that may be one of the extremes of corporate hospitality, but, like it or not, the faces of our football stadiums are changing.
Blackburn Rovers has just launched its own TV station, Rover Vision, based inside the Blackburn End Stand, and Manchester United fans the world over can now subscribe to MUTV to watch Giggs, Keane, Cole and Co do their stuff.
Burnley has made moves towards holding concerts at Turf Moorand has a new, state-of-the-art gym.
Preston North End are preparing to open the new National Football Museum inside their Deepdale ground and Blackpool planned to create a concert venue inside their new ground, before the plans apparently fell through this week.
Bolton Wanderers have spent £35 million on their futuristic Reebok Stadium, which is proving to be a popular conference centre and venue for events.
Fans can seal their loyalty to their team and each other by getting married just yards away from the hallowed turf. And some clubs will soon be offering the full 24-hour entertainment experience with shops, bars, restaurants, sports facilities and even hotels within the stadium grounds.
Blackburn Rovers is one such club, with plans for a hotel complex and massive new stand to replace the Walker Steeel stand which only a few years ago was the jewel of Ewood Park and is now the poor relation of the redeveloped ground.
There are also plans for a giant TV screen and a sports bar at Ewood Park.
All this means one thing - money, and mega money at that. Some critics say that the greed of players and multi-millionaire sponsors are already blighting the beautiful game.
So what are we going to see next? Fans playing in virtual reality games alongside their heroes?
Certainly football holidays where fans spend two weeks staying at the "Anytown United" hotel watching games, touring the club museum, dining in the themed restaurant and spending their hard earned cash in the club shops could soon become a reality.
Rossendale-based construction firm James Killelea and Company has had a big hand in building many of the new super-stadiums across the country including Ewood Park, Turf Moor, Derby County's Pride Park, and Middlesbrough's Cellnet Riverside Stadium.
Bolton Wanderers fan Chris Clayton, the firm's chief estimator, said: "Football clubs are certainly going the whole hog when it comes to designing their new stadiums.
"At Derby County there are now restaurants, bars and pubs for the supporters inside the stadium.
"It seems the good old days when fans went in the local pubs before and after the games are long gone.
"Sheffield United are planning a massive new stadium incorporating two hotels, shops, pubs, a health and fitness club, offices, fast-food restaurants and betting facilities. "I think this is definitely the future of our football stadiums. Clubs are spending millions of pounds on developing new sites and that means they want them to be used 365 days a year, not just on match days.
"They have to make the investment work and that is why function rooms are being hired out for Rotary Club dinners and weddings, stadiums are hosting pop concerts, and fans are being encouraged to eat, drink and spend money at the stadiums."
But Shaun Borman, of Burnley Supporters' Club, thinks that clubs should concentrate on the actual football first and put multi-million pound stadiums second.
He said: "A lot of people think that the teams should be built before the stadiums, particularly at a club like Burnley.
"We have got a nice stadium now but that has affected the playing staff. The cost of the stadium means that we can't afford to pay the wages to players that other clubs can."
Pauline Perkins, of Blackburn Rovers Supporters' Club, thinks fans should accept that the new super-stadiums and the merchandising that goes with them are all part and parcel of modern clubs that want to compete at the highest level.
She said: "I agree that the shops and other facilities at grounds these days are another way of getting money out of fans. But, really I am all for it.
"Going to the match is something all the family can enjoy together and the more clubs can do to make it seem like a real family day out the better."
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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