Fans' Forum tonight

[countygump]

Valley Parade??? It's a right mish mash of stands and one of the worst looking grounds in the EFL. They always take pictures with the new bit in the background making it look awesome

Valley parade is a bit of an odd one. Half of it looks like a prem league stadium and the other half looks like a ground from the 1940's. Bit of an ugly one!


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[durhampie]

Sincil Bank or Blundell Park take your pick. There isn't a camera angle that helps.

There's no comparison, Lincoln is by far the better ground, Grimsby is just a flea pit.

[Newish Pie]

Your last paragraph Newish Pie is a load of rubbish, regarding football match attendance. How difficult is it for anyone to rock up to Meadow Lane to watch a game of football.
I notice too an incredibly low percentage of transvestites at the Lane, should we be doing more to get these people to watch games, or any other minority for that matter, not that we discourage them.

I tried to explain in some detail how difficult it might be to "rock up at Meadow Lane" for someone who's never been to a football match before and/or isn't a white male. It's not a difficult point to grasp for anyone who possess enough empathy and imagination to put themselves in someone else's shoes and reflect on how much tacit knowledge they have that they take for granted. Or who can think of a cultural context they might find themselves in where they (a) don't know the rules everyone else knows; and/or (b) feel conspicuous in some other way.

Presumably by "transvestites" you mean transgender people. I've honestly no idea whether the transgender community is over or under-represented at matches - I've not done any research onto the issue.

But yes, I think football is for everyone and everyone should be welcome and made to feel welcome. If there are barriers in the way - whether that's substandard wheelchair seating, awful women's toilets, or not thinking you'd be welcome and/or safe - we should remove them.

Do you not think that football is for everyone?

[thefulltenyards]

Lincoln is pure miss mash lots of stands all different sizes, styles nothing similar. Only one worse I remember was the old manor ground with it's 7 stands?

Grimsby is indeed a flea pit, surprised the away end passes health and safety requirements. Absolute dive.

Both comfortably worse than Bradford's stadium.

I tried to post aerial photos of either but both too ugly and tin pot so would not allow me.

[Magpies1959]

Newish Pie please show me where I have even hinted that football is not for everyone.
Anyone would think from your comments that a visit down 'The Lane' was like entering a war zone.
Could have been transvestites as stated or trans***uals ( the vast majority of, by the way are transvestites). All welcome at the lane, (the toilets would be another issue though).
Basically anyone is welcome at Meadow Lane, just that some are more likely to come than others.

[BigFatPie]

Your last paragraph Newish Pie is a load of rubbish, regarding football match attendance. How difficult is it for anyone to rock up to Meadow Lane to watch a game of football.
I notice too an incredibly low percentage of transvestites at the Lane, should we be doing more to get these people to watch games, or any other minority for that matter, not that we discourage them.

I’ve already provided an example as to why women might not want to come to Meadow Lane, do you not think other reasons might apply to other groups?

You’re the epitome of an opinion on everything, knowledge of nothing syndrome.

[1955pie]

I agree.

I didn't really understand the references to our stadium being 'old' or looking 'tired'. I think our stadium is in pretty good condition, and the colour scheme always makes it look sharp and smart. Being picky I noticed one of the scoreboards wasn't working for the last game, but they're quite new so I hope that will soon be resolved.

One of Derek Pavis' best moves was to retain the gable design and flag pole on the Jimmy Sirrel stand, and to build the two towers on the Main Stand. It marks our ground out as distinctive, and retains a 'nod' to the old stadium, whereas so many of the modern all-seater stadia have a soulless 'off-the-shelf', Lego-set feel.

Meadow Lane is a good stadium. It would be great to fill in the corners one day, but obviously you wouldn't spend money on that until attendances justified such expansion. We can dream!

Attendances for home supporters are already at their limits. For 2 matches this season (Mansfield and Wrexham) there were no more home tickets available. How will we be able to expand the fan base that will obviously be needed to make us sustainable.
As for condition of the stadium can I add 1 more issue. Cracked and deteriorating seats. Mainly caused by UV but also people climbing over them.

[Newish Pie]

Newish Pie please show me where I have even hinted that football is not for everyone.
Anyone would think from your comments that a visit down 'The Lane' was like entering a war zone.
Could have been transvestites as stated or trans***uals ( the vast majority of, by the way are transvestites). All welcome at the lane, (the toilets would be another issue though).
Basically anyone is welcome at Meadow Lane, just that some are more likely to come than others.

No-one sensible would think from my comments that going to the match is like a war zone. Just saying if you've never been before, you might not know what to expect and you might not experience everything in the way that regular match goers do. Same as the difference between going to the theatre or the opera, or the tennis, or a really expensive restaurant when you've been before and know what to expect and what the unwritten rules are.

I'm not going to rise to your "transvestite" nonsense... that's a profoundly ignorant thing to say. I can respect people having different views on difficult questions about gender and how we organise society, and I can understand people who are a bit older feeling a bit baffled and struggling to catch up. If I didn't have transgender friends and colleagues, I'd know a lot less. But trotting out "transvestite" stuff is just ignorant.

I am glad that you do think that football is for everyone, and that everyone's welcome at Meadow Lane. That's something we agree on, at least. It's just that I think we (and all clubs) should actively make people feel welcome, try to find out what's stopping people feeling welcome, and seeing what can be done.

[Magpies1959]

Newish Pie, ta for all the patronising guff. A transvestite is a man with his genitals intact who chooses to dress as a woman, not difficult. If they call themseves transgender they are lying. Even an 'older' man like me does not find that baffling.
Maybe just maybe, nothing is making Asian people unwelcome, they are just not interested in coming to a footie match.

[thefulltenyards]

For me upgrade of the current stadium is significantly more important than increasing capacity. As mentioned cracked seats, handrails, lick of paint, more areas to eat and drink at games will all improve the match day experience of those in attendance.

The obvious way to increase the home capacity is to safely segregate the Jimmy Sirrel stand to allow flexibility and home supporters to use part of this stand. How practical this is I do not know.

The stadium is obviously more than big enough for Notts games. The average home attendances and importantly the occupancy of the home sections rather than the total crowd of just a few games a season is key. Until we get to a stage where the home sections are selling out regularly does it become an issue.

To be perfectly honest I can't believe the above is true for a Notts County side in League Two and even an discussion. It's frankly mind-blowing to me!

If you told me a few years back we would be having games during the season (and televised) selling out, out average attendance is likely to be over 10,000 for the season I would have thought you were mad! This is 4th tier football.

I never thought this was possible especially not following dropping to Non-League level even with ambitious, sensible owners, a very talented manager, entertaining tippy tappy football and top quality recruitment that we have not seen for decades.

The support home and away under this ownership and especially these coaches still hasn't fully sunk in and has me shaking my head in delighted disbelief.