Aberdeen on the move

[Squirrelhumper]

4 hours ago, Rossy said:

On first glance, I agree.

However, I believe the club wants a 'Tynecastle-like' atmosphere....with steep one level stands close to the pitch, but having the advantage that it'll be all-enclosed (no corner gaps).

It'll also be bigger than both Tynecastle and Easter Road, which most people agree are two of the best grounds in the country for atmosphere and viewing.

When you look at it that way, it doesn't seem so bad...

 

Agreed, it'll be 100 times better than the current stadium. Which incidentally i can't wait to visit on a freezing cold Tuesday night in a week or so......

[Langtonian]

They can't fill their stadium as it is yet looking to build a 20k all seater,why?

[Mox]

Looks ok I think, although I really hate that the new site is 7 miles from Pittodrie. In terms of transport and infrastructure, how accessible would it be for home fans in terms of trains and buses etc? Also, who is funding it?

[Mox]

7 minutes ago, Langtonian said:

They can't fill their stadium as it is yet looking to build a 20k all seater,why?

I can't speak for Aberdeen fans here and don't intend do, but I don't think you can downplay how much the match day experience puts fans off going to stadiums like Pittodrie. It's pretty run down, doesn't look particularly nice, it's baltic 364 days of the year, the toilets are bogging and it's just not a particularly nice place to sit watching football after spending £25 on a ticket .

A brand new stadium with modern facilities would undoubtedly be a selling point and I'm pretty certain numbers would increase based purely on the fact that it's a modern stadium, something that Aberdeen haven't had for decades. 

[deecie]

9 minutes ago, Mox said:

Looks ok I think, although I really hate that the new site is 7 miles from Pittodrie. In terms of transport and infrastructure, how accessible would it be for home fans in terms of trains and buses etc? Also, who is funding it?

It's right beside the bypass and we've been promised an endless line of shuttle busses from every corner of the North East.

It'll be as easy (if not easier) for most fans to get to.

[Potted Heid]

Match day experience?  Mine was pretty good the other week up at Pittodrie as a visiting fan.  Off the train, walked up to the Archibald Simpson for a breakfast and a pint - got change from a fiver!.  Strolled down King St to meet my mate off the Ellon bus and dropped in to the Bobbin Mill for a beer - in warm sunshine!  In to Pittodrie to watch Aberdeen get beat - no surprise there.  Strolled back up King Street with my mates for a good old fashioned pub crawl round the Castlegate, before wending our way back home via trains, buses and taxis.

Compare that to driving to some industrial estate in Kingswells or Westhill.  Saying cheerio to your mates at the edge of some massive car park.  No pint before or after.  Only overpriced fitba food to eat.  Given that Aberdeen will have less to spend on players after investing so much in a new stadium, I think the quality of football, along with attendances, will go down.

[Parklife]

54 minutes ago, Potted Heid said:

Match day experience?  Mine was pretty good the other week up at Pittodrie as a visiting fan.  Off the train, walked up to the Archibald Simpson for a breakfast and a pint - got change from a fiver!.  Strolled down King St to meet my mate off the Ellon bus and dropped in to the Bobbin Mill for a beer - in warm sunshine!  In to Pittodrie to watch Aberdeen get beat - no surprise there.  Strolled back up King Street with my mates for a good old fashioned pub crawl round the Castlegate, before wending our way back home via trains, buses and taxis.

Compare that to driving to some industrial estate in Kingswells or Westhill.  Saying cheerio to your mates at the edge of some massive car park.  No pint before or after.  Only overpriced fitba food to eat.  Given that Aberdeen will have less to spend on players after investing so much in a new stadium, I think the quality of football, along with attendances, will go down.

So you're comparing your day out last week with a fictional day out in future that'll bear no semblance to what it'll actually be like? 

Cool. 

[thplinth]

59 minutes ago, Potted Heid said:

Match day experience?  Mine was pretty good the other week up at Pittodrie as a visiting fan.  Off the train, walked up to the Archibald Simpson for a breakfast and a pint - got change from a fiver!.  Strolled down King St to meet my mate off the Ellon bus and dropped in to the Bobbin Mill for a beer - in warm sunshine!  In to Pittodrie to watch Aberdeen get beat - no surprise there.  Strolled back up King Street with my mates for a good old fashioned pub crawl round the Castlegate, before wending our way back home via trains, buses and taxis.

Compare that to driving to some industrial estate in Kingswells or Westhill.  Saying cheerio to your mates at the edge of some massive car park.  No pint before or after.  Only overpriced fitba food to eat.  Given that Aberdeen will have less to spend on players after investing so much in a new stadium, I think the quality of football, along with attendances, will go down.

Well I agree with you 100%. Pittodrie's location is far from perfect and it's proximity the North Sea and exposure makes it a cold stadium no doubt. But to move to Westhills is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It is a wilderness by comparison. And soulless.  As you rightly point out the cost of the needless stadium will mean far less money to invest in players (how can it not, is Santa paying?) and the experience will be plastic, artificial. You'll be sat there at some point after the honeymoon period is over thinking...feck what have we done. Just like when Thatcher got sacked (that should resonate with the hardcore aberdeen fans). But you wont really know that until it is too late. 

[thplinth]

Location, location, location... 

[deecie]

1 hour ago, Potted Heid said:

Match day experience?  Mine was pretty good the other week up at Pittodrie as a visiting fan.  Off the train, walked up to the Archibald Simpson for a breakfast and a pint - got change from a fiver!.  Strolled down King St to meet my mate off the Ellon bus and dropped in to the Bobbin Mill for a beer - in warm sunshine!  In to Pittodrie to watch Aberdeen get beat - no surprise there.  Strolled back up King Street with my mates for a good old fashioned pub crawl round the Castlegate, before wending our way back home via trains, buses and taxis.

Compare that to driving to some industrial estate in Kingswells or Westhill.  Saying cheerio to your mates at the edge of some massive car park.  No pint before or after.  Only overpriced fitba food to eat.  Given that Aberdeen will have less to spend on players after investing so much in a new stadium, I think the quality of football, along with attendances, will go down.

Let's not bother then. Spending 15 minutes on a bus is far too big an intrusion on your days drinking.

[Mee]

I think they should try to stay in the city centre.

A day at the football is more than the 90 mins of the game in the stadium. Atmosphere pre match, going into pubs full of your fans, meeting up with your mates anf bumping into people you haven't seen for a whilr. bit of food a beer etc is what makes it a good day out. 

Driving a car out to an industrial estate and leaving 10 mins early to beat the rush onto the bypass doesn't do it for me. There obviously isn't space to build a world of football with training pitches etc at the current site but they don't need to be beside the ground.

[thplinth]

Google maps says 25 mins from city centre to new stadium and that does not include finding a bus stop and waiting for one to pitch up. The bypass might be great if you don't live in Aberdeen but if you are coming from the city centre I am not sure it helps you does it. Plus it looks like there is only one direct main road form the centre to the stadium so what happens if there is just one road accident. I can see it being an buzzkill 30 mins if you are lucky to hour job getting there. Pittodrie may have been cold but so is waiting on a poxy bus. And anyway I thought someone one on here was saying they'd never ride a bus so that is odd. I guess if it makes it more handy for them in the short term then screw everything else.

[DoonTheSlope]

42 minutes ago, thplinth said:

Google maps says 25 mins from city centre to new stadium and that does not include finding a bus stop and waiting for one to pitch up. The bypass might be great if you don't live in Aberdeen but if you are coming from the city centre I am not sure it helps you does it. Plus it looks like there is only one direct main road form the centre to the stadium so what happens if there is just one road accident. I can see it being an buzzkill 30 mins if you are lucky to hour job getting there. Pittodrie may have been cold but so is waiting on a poxy bus. And anyway I thought someone one on here was saying they'd never ride a bus so that is odd. I guess if it makes it more handy for them in the short term then screw everything else.

It's one thing waiting on a bus but it's another getting a space on one. You'll find the private hire companies will be loving the fact it's in the middle of nowhere, supporters clubs will have to hire buses for home and away games. Are the local bus companies olanning on offering any sort of deal etc?

How far is the nearest train station?

Im glad Hibs hit Straiton on the head in 2003, imagine heading back there after the 2 recent cup wins in 2007 & 2016

[Rossy]

It's always been said that a big proportion of Aberdeen's support comes from the shire rather than the city. 

I've never been sure if that's true or not, but if it is then it may not effect crowds as much as some fear. 

[thplinth]

Going nowhere alienates nobody. It risks nothing. As everybody is used to Pittodrie where it is including all the folk in the shire.

Moving to Westhill / Middle of nowhere might make a few folk in the shire more happy but how many new supporters will that bring in?

Versus for most aberdeen city types this move will suck balls. How many supporters will that turn off?

Low upside huge downside.

Seems an insanely risky move to do this when the only really driving force is Stuart Milne...the big property developer.

[thplinth]

Putting it another way. If Aberdeen council say was to build an equivalent new venue like the Hydro in Glasgow... do you think the council would build it in Westhill? It is laughable. No it would be in the city somewhere where it makes sense. People spill out of gigs into bars and restaurants and the whole city get s a boost. All that money that was spent in the city on match day by fans... where is it going to be spent in Westhill. Sure some of it will catch a bus tospend it anyway but a chunk will simply not bother. This is only a net win for Milne. He could easily do up Pittodrie if he wanted. Easily. But he prefers this option. 

 

[dandydunn]

3 minutes ago, thplinth said:

Putting it another way. If Aberdeen council say was to build an equivalent new venue like the Hydro in Glasgow... do you think the council would build it in Westhill? It is laughable. No it would be in the city somewhere where it makes sense. People spill out of gigs into bars and restaurants and the whole city get s a boost. All that money that was spent in the city on match day by fans... where is it going to be spent in Westhill. Sure some of it will catch a bus tospend it anyway but a chunk will simply not bother. This is only a net win for Milne. He could easily do up Pittodrie if he wanted. Easily. But he prefers this option. 

 

No. 

They're building that in Bucksburn. 

[thplinth]

Really are they are building a Hydro type arena in Bucksburn. I had not heard that. I think you are maybe thinking of the propsed new Aberdeen exhibition centre (just from a quick google). If so a good location for them mid way between the airport and the city centre perfect for an exhibition centre and still very close to Aberdeen coming in at half the travel distance from Pittodire versus Westhill.

But of course you still would not put a Hydro there (Bucksburn). They put the Hydro next to the SECC in Glasgow because they already had a city centre site with land to spare with a metro station nearby. Yeah a metro station. You got one of them in Westhill, Bucksburn. No. Just fleets of free buses put on by Stuart Milne (he promises honest) to get you to and fro from the middle of nowhere. Don't do it.

Edit: thinking about it Aberdeen Council would build a new Hydro in Bucksburn, what am i thinking.

Edited November 24, 2016 by thplinth

[dandydunn]

1 hour ago, thplinth said:

Really are they are building a Hydro type arena in Bucksburn. I had not heard that. I think you are maybe thinking of the propsed new Aberdeen exhibition centre (just from a quick google). If so a good location for them mid way between the airport and the city centre perfect for an exhibition centre and still very close to Aberdeen coming in at half the travel distance from Pittodire versus Westhill.

But of course you still would not put a Hydro there (Bucksburn). They put the Hydro next to the SECC in Glasgow because they already had a city centre site with land to spare with a metro station nearby. Yeah a metro station. You got one of them in Westhill, Bucksburn. No. Just fleets of free buses put on by Stuart Milne (he promises honest) to get you to and fro from the middle of nowhere. Don't do it.

Edit: thinking about it Aberdeen Council would build a new Hydro in Bucksburn, what am i thinking.

I think you're not picking here. 

Its not a hydro,it will never be as big as it's not needed up here like Glasgow needs one,but you know what I was getting at. 

There isn't pubs to be around before/after gigs,there isn't a train station for at least a mile,yet it's happening. 

Aberdeen city centre is a very congested place,there is no room for expansion at pittodrie,there is no room to expand at the aecc,therefore things will head away from the city centre,but the was Aberdeen in continually growing,Westhill won't be on the city limits for long,just like how newhills and portlethen seem to be getting closer and closer to Aberdeen with all the expansion going on. 

[thplinth]

Not being nit picky.

On the scale of being an aberdeen fan where say cove or rossy or lamia are 100% I would say I am about 0.1%.

I have no say here and don't claim to.

I do have a tremendous amount of affection for the city and the team. I think this a horrific idea and I would not say it if otherwise. What are you doing. Crazy.

You are jumping out the frying pan into a field in the middle of nowhere.  Don't do it. Take a breath and think again. A better plan is out there.

Make Pittodrie Great Again.

[deecie]

3 hours ago, dandydunn said:

No. 

They're building that in Bucksburn. 

They really should be building both at the same site.

[ibelieve!!!]

Well my taxi driver from Westhill to the airport this morning is very much against the stadium plans! (Are all aberdeen taxi drivers moaning bastards?!)

[Parklife]

3 minutes ago, ibelieve!!! said:

Well my taxi driver from Westhill to the airport this morning is very much against the stadium plans! (Are all aberdeen taxi drivers moaning bastards?!)

Aberdeen is full of the biggest load of whinging, "not in my backyard", dour faced bastards in all the world. 

It seems very few people ever want anything to change in the city. 

[deecie]

44 minutes ago, ibelieve!!! said:

Well my taxi driver from Westhill to the airport this morning is very much against the stadium plans! (Are all aberdeen taxi drivers moaning bastards?!)

Indeed they are, sitting in their brand new Audis complaining that they're only getting 6 holidays this year. 

Cannot wait for Uber to wipe them all out.

[Potted Heid]

17 hours ago, deecie said:

Let's not bother then. Spending 15 minutes on a bus is far too big an intrusion on your days drinking.

Mum, If you can get to or from Pittodrie or Guild St to the new stadium in Westhill/Kingswells in less than an hour on match day then I'll buy you a fresh orange juice in Portals.  If you can do it in fifteen minutes, I'll give up drinking.