If only David Murray had completed the corners of the Govan Stand properly

[Treble Kings]

A quite important factor was that Murray put a lot of faith into beambacks as a possible future revenue stream, and that's why we got the two big Sony Jumbotrons. However watching beambacks is f#cking rotten and turned out to be quite unpopular. As well as that Sky and other platforms showing virtually every game negated the attractiveness of sitting in a stadium watching a game on a big screen and Rangers ripping the hole with exorbitant pricing.

 

[Robo]

The capacity of the stadium is just about right at present i would be looking at the catering side of things as whoever caters for us is simply not good enough.A lukewarm bovril last night with a tasteless scotch pie.

Five pound twenty,both were disgusting and i'll certainly ( from here on in ) eat outside.

The other main issue is the ticket office and the function of the disabilty units.

A club the size of Rangers has a lot of questions which needs answered but so many employees hide.

I was in the main stand and asked for 2 pies 2 coffees and a coke, all they had was chicken leek and mushroom or Balti pies then only Fanta. What sort of shit show is running the catering

 

[vinnie]

The weight would cause it to collapse into a black hole

Get that onto WhatsApp. A Tim somewhere will believe it!!

 

[Loyal72]

do you really expect someone on here to be able to provide an accurate price? Worse than the OP ffs

Speaking from experience, it'd be cost more than Ibrox cost to build originally

We effectively need to engineer a plan that will take away all the loading bearing supports and steel out, try and open the area up for viewing - but still locks together and structurally supports the weight of the stadium.

There are a few solutions to easily fix such problems, but as said you'd be cheaper buying a new stadium.

 

[MightyGersLand!]

How much do we reckon it would roughly take to fix the corners and fill them with seats anyone know ?

I reckon about £33,250,000 give or take a few hundred grand.
If your wondering what makes me qualified to put such an accurate price on this, I once built a flat pack shed. Well, when I say built, I watched my neighbour build it.

 

[vinnie]

I was in the main stand and asked for 2 pies 2 coffees and a coke, all they had was chicken leek and mushroom or Balti pies then only Fanta. What sort of shit show is running the catering

The one Green put in place. Heard on H&H recently that contract is only just coming to and end.

Which is (I suppose) why the club have done a focus group recently. Think I also did a survey online recently too. Fingers crossed it’s on the verge of an uplift.

 

[Professor Yaffle]

Didnt say that, but remove Murray, you remove his history and legacy, and UEFA cup final, Leeds games, 9iaR etc is part of that, cant have one without the other.

We may have won 9 with out the prick.

Some seasons in the run our biggest rivals were Hibs Motherwell and the sheep. The tims were skint and hopeless but improved towards the end.

Murray spent our money, not his and is an utter bastard.

Fuckhim.

 

[CrunchBear]

It’s going to be interesting to see how clubs around our level deal with new stadium builds in the future given money is being centralised around the top “super league” clubs.

 

[BigBuff]

The one Green put in place. Heard on H&H recently that contract is only just coming to and end.

Which is (I suppose) why the club have done a focus group recently. Think I also did a survey online recently too. Fingers crossed it’s on the verge of an uplift.

That was on the ally podcast this week I think mate

 

[The Iceman]

If only David Murray had completed his purchase of Ayr Utd.

 

[spotlight]

The capacity is woefully inadequate.
Rangers are quickly becoming a club with the stature of a English mid PL team.
We’ve gone from having the biggest club ground in Britain (and top 3 in Europe) to soon to be 11th or 12th in Britain alone.
With that the standing and appeal of the club deteriorate.
The aura of the club diminishes.
Ground capacity should be what we can easily fill for our big games
70-80,000
Who cares if there is 48,000 against St Mirren if you’ve got 75,000 against Aberdeen in a league decider or a Champions League game
Our current board have no vision and no initiative

Well said. We need to figure out how to do it, think big. Even if it’s not started for a few years from now. Make a plan.

 

[150Edmiston]

Don't see what difference in air circulation there would be from what we have now and with full seating at the corners. Both options would be poorer than what was there pre-1995 from that perspective, but not insurmountable with pitch technology these days.

Like I said, that was my recall at the time and would be based on the technology available at the time, which as you point out may well have improved. There were probably other issues as well i.e. structural but that point stuck in my mind.

 

[SteVM1872]

Note how they filled in the corners

This is how we'd do it too more than likely with the cantilevers on the corners although our steelwork would probably be more substantial than Dortmund's. Never happening though unless some billionaire buys us.

 

[The People]

You are never getting an extra 8k in by filling in Govan corners “properly”!

Murray changed his mind as he didn’t want season ticket commitments affected. He didn’t have enough confidence in the support. It was always his Achilles heel, vast over confidence in himself and under estimating the support.

I think was a big part of it along with the beam back thing

 

[SecondBestIsNothing]

If I had an unlimited budget, I would love to knock down the other 3 stands and start again. They look nice on the inside but the outside honestly looks dreadful. I sit in the Govan and once you get away from the main facade, the rest looks painfully dated.

 

[Loyal Soldier]

Replacing the roofs with a lightweight cantilever design would allow the expansion of all three stands and the corners to be filled. Wouldn’t be cheap but perhaps could be done in five phases.

 

[Big Hepy]

Look at the cost of the club deck. Even Murray couldn't get away with the price of filling in the corners.

 

[RangersForever]

Have to admit, the corners are an absolute joke and spoil what could have been a more complete area af the ground to merge properly with the other stands.

Let's be honest, it looks shit.

I'm the same - the corners don't bother me one bit(though maybe that's because I'm used to them). There are issues in the ground and of course I'd love it to be bigger(no innuendo) but it's still a terrific stadium.

I wouldn't chose the corners to be the way they are but also not sure I would prefer a bowl like most other stadiums.

Would expect that they could add many more corporate boxes in the corners if they ditched or moved the screens.

 

[Molly Sugden's Bridesmaid]

Look at the cost of the club deck. Even Murray couldn't get away with the price of filling in the corners.

The club deck was an extremely challenging build, not least because of the listed building status of the Main Stand. Probably not a good gauge of £/seat in general.

 

[RabSpackman]

If I remember right it was a structural thing. The sides of the 3 stands were very much load bearing, removing them would need a complete redesign of the roofs. Which would have cost a serious amount of money. Or have hideous metal pillars at the corners that would make a chunk of the new seats restricted views. All in all it wasn't feasible.

I think that’s exactly it. There doesn’t seem to be any financially feasible way to get round the supporting structures.

 

[Big Hepy]

The club deck was an extremely challenging build, not least because of the listed building status of the Main Stand. Probably not a good gauge of £/seat in general.

Replacing the supports for the other 3 stands would be a nightmare cost wise. The supports just don't magically disappear. We need extensive steel work to stop the roof falling in

 

[bluetonic]

Completely agree. Suddenly our famous stadium loses its uniqueness. Most stadiums these days look the same. I love ours as it is.

Our stadium will always be unique because of the Main Stand etc, but filling in the corners would only enhance the look and atmosphere on matchdays.

 

[CoopBlue]

I wouldn't chose the corners to be the way they are but also not sure I would prefer a bowl like most other stadiums.

Would expect that they could add many more corporate boxes in the corners if they ditched or moved the screens.

Each to their own and all that, but personally i would far prefer the 'bowl' corners compared to what we currently have.

As per this image I posted earlier in the thread, this would be my dream for corners where the screens are. Will never happen unfortunately but it would look incredible imo. The acoustics would also be significantly improved in those areas.

 

[Molly Sugden's Bridesmaid]

Replacing the supports for the other 3 stands would be a nightmare cost wise. The supports just don't magically disappear. We need extensive steel work to stop the roof falling in

Yeah, absolutely. Would be very costly but there must be a cantilever solution at the corners that could be implemented.

Not an expert but would guess cost/seat would still be less than what the CD was.

 

[Tom Forsyth's stud]

I am sure our friends at the SFA will let us use Hampden at a very reasonable rate

If I had an unlimited budget, I would love to knock down the other 3 stands and start again. They look nice on the inside but the outside honestly looks dreadful. I sit in the Govan and once you get away from the main facade, the rest looks painfully dated.

All the cladding on the outside is being replaced eventually and the the rest of the stands can easily be modernised without rebuilding. The away corner on the outside for a start could be repainted and a banner of the founding fathers or the Barca Bears put up.
For me the stadium footprint needs redone and made more appealing before any stands get rebuilt.

 

[Thor]

We may have won 9 with out the prick.

Some seasons in the run our biggest rivals were Hibs Motherwell and the sheep. The tims were skint and hopeless but improved towards the end.

Murray spent our money, not his and is an utter bastard.

Fuckhim.

This!
I advise people to listen to Heart and Hand pods about the 80’s and 90’s. Murray certainly didn’t bankroll 9 in a row as we were regularly making profit due to player trading and Champions League participation. Also it shouldn’t go unnoticed the amount of work done by Walter in securing these titles. Apart from the sheep in 90/91 until possibly going for 8 in a row we were pretty unchallenged domestically as the scum were a basket case until McCann came in. Murray portrayed an illusion he was using his own money when Advocaat came in but clearly it was anything but.
Genuinely can’t believe folk on here are given the guy any credit for our achievements. I’d gladly wipe the guys name from our history and wish he never took over us when he did.

 

[Spack Man]

A tunnel and dugouts on the 4th tier of the stand would be a modern architectural phenomenon

Indeed. It would be the exit for the visitors only.

 

[Thor]

Was the Millenium Stadium re-build not something ridiculous like £120 million? When you see costs now of Wembley and Spurs stadium it’s mental that 20 years ago it’s was a tenth of the price.

 

[Tom Forsyth's stud]

Was the Millenium Stadium re-build not something ridiculous like £120 million? When you see costs now of Wembley and Spurs stadium it’s mental that 20 years ago it’s was a tenth of the price.

Millennium and Hampden pretty similar in costs to rebuild, light years apart in comparison!

 

[Cooper 11]

That's exactly it - we could possibly extend the 'new govan' cantilever round to include the corners as well which could possibly remove the corner 'goalpost' so there are no restricted view seats, but as you say, depends on how you could re-engineer the existing piller.

If we're keeping the corners as is, I thought it may be feasible to put in 'stacked' hospitality lounges. Wouldn't increase capacity much but it would be high value seating.

Yeah, that’s something I’ve mooted on here before. Potentially a mash-up between something along the lines of the Luis Ferraris in Genoa and the Parken in Copenhagen.

 

[Slipshod]

In hindsight building three stand alone structures was a huge mistake.
I remember as far back as 1979 being at Cologne and we agreed a bowl type stadium is how Ibrox should have been developed.

 

[Molly Sugden's Bridesmaid]

Was the Millenium Stadium re-build not something ridiculous like £120 million? When you see costs now of Wembley and Spurs stadium it’s mental that 20 years ago it’s was a tenth of the price.

It is an incredible figure considering how great a stadium it is. Definitely the best I've been at.

 

[Purplestar]

I saw someone mention we could potentially have something similar to Dortmund in the corner.

Considering that this was the stadium the Willie Waddell copied , you can see that even Dortmund never looked far enough into the future to see what problems would arise on any stadium expansion should they ever need it.

That corner looks naff.

 

[Tom Forsyth's stud]

Considering that this was the stadium the Willie Waddell copied , you can see that even Dortmund never looked far enough into the future to see what problems would arise on any stadium expansion should they ever need it.

That corner looks naff.

The advantage we have over Dortmund is that there's a bigger gap between each original corner.

 

[RobGer]

A lot of ignorance re funding for increasing capacity on here.
It’s basically done via a mortgage scheme similar to a house extension
That’s how most clubs pay for stadium upgrades
Say you need to borrow £40 million to increase capacity by 15,000
You do this over a fixed term.
15,000 seats would increase revenue by around £6million per year (low estimate at £20 a seat accommodation of no sales etc)
£2million goes towards the borrowing & interest for 25 years
£4 million extra profit for the club
And you’re all paid off

The club deck cost £20m in 1991 to add 7,000 seats so I think building a new stand to add 15,000 would be more than £40m though as you say we could prob bring in more than £6m a year. Looking at the stadium seat selection map - filling in the corners only I reckon would add about 3000 seats say £2m xtra income a year but the cost per seat in comparison would be greater than a new deck on the SJ Govan. So as new expensive corner supports would be needed either way it maybe be better to go for 3rd tier on Govan as well giving an added 6500 + 3000 (total £6m income). If construction costs have risen by say 3x+ ( then the estimate cost could more than £80m. Developing another 5 Nathans could make it happen

 

[EndOfDays]

Considering that this was the stadium the Willie Waddell copied , you can see that even Dortmund never looked far enough into the future to see what problems would arise on any stadium expansion should they ever need it.

That corner looks naff.

I agree it does look poor buts it's our only option to put seats in there in a cost effective way.

 

[Vince]

Am I the only one that loves the Stadium?
I would like to see more Coperate boxes and better seats, I would also like to see the disabled section moved to the back of the enclosure and enshrined in glass ( I actually put that idea forward when they were looking at ideas for the RFF money they built the Stand at theTraning Ground )

Why more corporate boxes? …I think that would reduce the capacity even more.

 

[SecondBestIsNothing]

All the cladding on the outside is being replaced eventually and the the rest of the stands can easily be modernised without rebuilding. The away corner on the outside for a start could be repainted and a banner of the founding fathers or the Barca Bears put up.
For me the stadium footprint needs redone and made more appealing before any stands get rebuilt.

I did say unlimited budget, so it’s all fairytale stuff tbh. Yet I think that’s more likely than GCC and SG letting us move a bin near the stadium (if by footprint you mean the surrounding area).

 

[mfgorm]

Govan roof is different to the other two - it's a more 'normal' canteliver design (albeit hidden in the cladding) whereas the other two are supported by the 'goal posts'.

The other thing to consider is how many seats/places we have lost over the last 30 years - the original capacity of the new Ibrox was 44K, but we are now only at 50K having added the club deck and the corners, and twice dropped the pitch to add new rows to the stands.

We'lost capacity when we seated the enclosure and when the seating arrangements had to be amended with widened and more passage ways. If we hadn't had to make those changes, the capacity now would be nearer 55K

My mate worked as a civil engineer when the corners were done. The entire stadium was reseated at the same time and he was told there was more seats added with the passageways being re aligned and narrowed than there was by filling in the corners. I think Strathclyde council said the passageways were not wide enough and a column of seats was removed to comply. You can still see the row letter where the original passageways were.

 

[Kathmandu]

do you really expect someone on here to be able to provide an accurate price? Worse than the OP ffs

If it’s any help Dortmand spent £200m in 2006 to change from the basic design we have.

 

[BSPECIAL]

IF ONLY DAVID MURRAY. Now there's a start of a sentence a lot of people could finish with interesting thoughts.

 

[Twosignals]

Every time I see or hear That Name D M I feel an anger on that Creep, typical, that those Society Idiots give him a Knighthood. If I was the person with the sword, let’s put it this way the sword would not be tapped on his shoulder?

 

[Paisleybear30]

Thank f**k they never built that , i would have a heart attack walking up those stairs

So would the players when they come out the tunnel 200 feet above the pitch

 

[Clicker]

Millennium and Hampden pretty similar in costs to rebuild, light years apart in comparison!

Hampden is a disgrace considering how much was spent on it, it’s basically one modern stand and the original terracings and North Enclosure with seats and a roof.
I’m not round at the Celtic End very often, when I went to a concert I was surprised to see it still had the grass embankment from the terracing of what 100 years ago?

 

[Hoojar McKinney]

Haven't been on the forum that long and this must be the fifth iteration of a stadium expansion thread I've seen. Not a dig, I've read every single one of them in the vain hope of something new being said. It's the Follow Follow equivalent of refreshing Teletext for the scores.

 

[Blueallblue]

More steel involved in what we eventually got, would be my guess. The prick.

Prick bought us 9 in a row.

 

[GersLoyal74]

I've always wondered if you could fill the corners but in a way similar to the Point at Old Trafford cricket ground. Appreciate its a stand alone structure, so bear with me.

Above the seats as they are .... you build glass front tiered executive areas. You could name these corners with naming rights to fund. You could even have 2 or 3 tiers in there with increasingly expensive executive areas. Gold, platinum levels....Bisgrove could work his magic.

I'm absolutely no engineer but wondered if building the corners in that way would easier. The Point at Old Trafford cost 12m. If you picture 2 smaller versions of this fitted to the corners as they are you maybe get the idea.

Might not increase capacity by huge amounts but could look good and bring in loads of income.

Freely accept I'm possibly talking shite and not explaining this well. Also no idea how to post pictures of the Point.

 

[Tom Forsyth's stud]

I did say unlimited budget, so it’s all fairytale stuff tbh. Yet I think that’s more likely than GCC and SG letting us move a bin near the stadium (if by footprint you mean the surrounding area).

Thing about the footprint is if it's new surfaces, landscaping and perimeter fencing or walls the council can hate it all they like but would have to grant permission for the works.

 

[Cambuslangger]

Nothing wrong with Ibrox.
The structures are fine they just need modernised as to the concourses and toilets, no need for a total rebuild.
As for capacity, changing the Broomloan and Copland stand similar to Old Trafford would work.

Correct. Do one stand at a time once funds are available. Copland first. Broomloan second. No need to do Govan and DO NOT TOUCH THE MAIN STAND!

 

[Carnwadric-bluenose]

The thing that annoys me the most is the space between the stands in the main stand corners. If we can’t fill them then I’d like to see them get closed off like Anfield. Surely shouldn’t be too much cost or hassle. After that then priority should be disabled access then looking at trying to find capital to fill the corners of the Govan. At the game on Wednesday night and was struggling with the weather at the back of the Enclosure - god knows how those poor people felt at the front. Not sure if it’s the club or the council but the roads and walkways round about the ground are in a horrendous state as well. Even though the board have done well improving the stadium it just shows you how much 10-15 years of neglect has done to it.

I've always hated them as well I feel the stadium would be a lot more intimidating with these properly closed off and having fans in the spaces instead .