Out of Town Tue Apr 21, 2009 1:30 pm
Well basically with new stadium and plastic all seater comes plastic johnny-come-lately fans (soccer am types, families) and moving with the times, as you must do, I couldn't give a sh1t what the ground is called if it brings vital income for the club to progress and keeps the cost of going down to a decent level.
The old L33ds Rd ground was a hostile place and the long walk down from town on the poorly policed non cctv dual carriage way then made the big home fixtures a cert for a good old ding dong. You could at one time swap ends before the separation and fences came up early 80's but also was a right shit hole, despite the terrace holding 24,000 at its peak and bouncing around the cowshed as a kid thinking you were billy bigballs in your docs. You could even brick the away fans from the back of the terrace (Burnley early 80s when they brought 50 coaches, frequently get a infiltration at ko, walk round the back of the away end and time it right to meet the exiting away fans, lob more bricks over the fence as you went then as we got casual & dressed up 82/83ish, went upmarket to sit right next to the away fans in the corner main stand - total chaos compared to now.
Things were always better in times gone by weren't they?? but after visiting Chesterfield, Accrington of late and Hereford this season it reminds you how much things have moved on for what is generally for the better, last week it mentioned we had 4200 U18 season ticket holders, we didn't get that many when i started going some weeks.
But i suspect to some it will be the Macalpine forever, though prior to that sponsorship, it was the Kirklees stadium to soften the public of w yorks for the £5m council cash they stumped up, sold as venue for all purposes.
fuck me don't I go on.......