CCFC - An alternative history (2 Viewers)

[Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon]

I decided to fire up Championship Manager 97/98 the other day and start a new game with City. Having finished 9th (Dion Dublin banging them in, Oggy and Magnus keeping them out....mostly) the board decided to expand HR to about 30,000 seats. This got me thinking about how 'realistic' that would have been at the time? Even if we were getting the attendances to justify an expansion would it have been physically possible to do so?

Obviously this is all irrelevant now but i was wondering if the club ever put much out publically about expanding HR before opting to build the Ricoh?

 

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[The Philosopher]

IIRC there was a suggestion of filling in the corners either side of the West Terrace (moving the press-box & scoreboard). This may have got the capacity from 26500 to nearer 30000. Another possibility would have been to lower the pitch and extend the stands forwards like they did at Ibrox. HR was a large pitch and fairly “high up” above the surrounding water table so drainage may have been easy (maybe the name “High Field” alluded to this).

I do remember a plan to remove the seating from the lower WT to increase capacity but the Taylor Report ended that possibility.

 

[Grendel]

Council blocked expansion requests didn’t they?

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

I decided to fire up Championship Manager 97/98 the other day and start a new game with City. Having finished 9th (Dion Dublin banging them in, Oggy and Magnus keeping them out....mostly) the board decided to expand HR to about 30,000 seats. This got me thinking about how 'realistic' that would have been at the time? Even if we were getting the attendances to justify an expansion would it have been physically possible to do so?

Obviously this is all irrelevant now but i was wondering if the club ever put much out publically about expanding HR before opting to build the Ricoh?

You mean I wasn't the only Coventry fan on CM 97/98 last night?!? Awesome. I think that was the best version of the game, and in one of my favourite eras of football. And I played it to death at uni instead of doing any studying...

I've posted about this before, but I'm working on an update of the 97/98 DB to make it slightly more realistic-Man C relegation strugglers in 2nd tier rather than winning it every time, Mendonca and Phillips lethal in that division, John Eustace with an actual playing position, Paul Telfer not instantly given a free transfer before the season starts by Strachan every time, rating any youngsters that go on to be stars higher, adding missing megastars like Eto'o, making Arsenal challenge Man U for the league stronger, that sort of thing. I've given all the Japan players their real positions and skills instead of random skills and am doing the same for South Korea, some African teams and Jamaica. I'm using ratings in the CM 01/02 db and a screenshots of ratings from some later ones as a basis, plus adding my own opinions and research, of course. It's quite a big project but I'll maybe upload a basic version in a couple of months for anyone who wants a bit of nostalgic fun.

How did you find the City squad? The GK's are highly rated in the DB. Dublin and McAllister should be better though I reckon?

I'm glad you get ground expansions as I've been playing the 95-96 version for the last year or so and it's bloody impossible!

This is a fun site with some good articles on it: About

 

[Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon]

You mean I wasn't the only Coventry fan on CM 97/98 last night?!? Awesome. I think that was the best version of the game, and in one of my favourite eras of football. And I played it to death at uni instead of doing any studying...

I've posted about this before, but I'm working on an update of the 97/98 DB to make it slightly more realistic-Man C relegation strugglers in 2nd tier rather than winning it every time, Mendonca and Phillips lethal in that division, John Eustace with an actual playing position, Paul Telfer not instantly given a free transfer before the season starts by Strachan every time, rating any youngsters that go on to be stars higher, adding missing megastars like Eto'o, making Arsenal challenge Man U for the league stronger, that sort of thing. I've given all the Japan players their real positions and skills instead of random skills and am doing the same for South Korea, some African teams and Jamaica. I'm using ratings in the CM 01/02 db and a screenshots of ratings from some later ones as a basis, plus adding my own opinions and research, of course. It's quite a big project but I'll maybe upload a basic version in a couple of months for anyone who wants a bit of nostalgic fun.

How did you find the City squad? The GK's are highly rated in the DB. Dublin and McAllister should be better though I reckon?

I'm glad you get ground expansions as I've been playing the 95-96 version for the last year or so and it's bloody impossible!

This is a fun site with some good articles on it: About

I finished 9th in the first season and Dublin was probably key to that (probably thanks to a small boost i gave him in the editor). I did edit Boateng too but he's still not performing as well as i think he did irl. McAllister did ok but i sold him to Wilmledon at the end of the season, Dublin decided to be a big judas snake and ship out to Arsenal too so i've replaced him with a disappointing Stoitchkov (if only!!).

The 2nd season hasn't gone well so far, they simply refuse to defend properly and so i've conceded something like 1.8 goals a game. I did manage a 9-2 victory over Sunderland but i'm sat about 14th presently. Current line up is as follows;

GK - Dida/Hedman, DR - Adi Viveash, DL - Christanval, DC - Mark Fish, DC - Willo/Shaw, MC - Heidenstrom, MC - Boateng/Gattuso, AMC - Cavaco, AMC - Johansen, AMC - Mulryne, - FC - Stoitchkov

I've got about £14m left to spend but nobody decent seems available/interested in joining which is frustrating. No idea where Paul Telfer is, didn't appear when i started the game and neither did Svindal-Larsen!!

 

[ajsccfc]

Oh man, Christanval. In one of the late 90s versions he was the closest player I've seen to football perfection.

 

[Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon]

Council blocked expansion requests didn’t they?

I imagine the attraction of a big new development in a run-down/brownfield area of the city probably meant expanding a stadium in a residential area would be less likely. My extensive research in CM97/98 has undoubtedly proven that we would regularly fill the expanded HR though!

 

[Liquid Gold]

Didn't we want to expand the sky blue stand and move the road back but were denied permission. That with filling the corners in would have taken it up to 30k and would have been a great developed ground like The Valley or Bramall Lane

 

[baldy]

Fuckin luv Footy Manager/Champ Manager....I remember one save when I was Cov boss,the season when we had Daish,Jess etc),and my bro kept bangin on & on about wanting to take over my team everytime I didn't play cuz I had college work to do (it had probably all piled up because of said game,haha)
The little shit only went & got Cov to Europe year after year....I was struggling to get them to win a pre-season match,let alone finish 6th

 

[Frank Sidebottom]

IIRC there was a suggestion of filling in the corners either side of the West Terrace (moving the press-box & scoreboard). This may have got the capacity from 26500 to nearer 30000. Another possibility would have been to lower the pitch and extend the stands forwards like they did at Ibrox. HR was a large pitch and fairly “high up” above the surrounding water table so drainage may have been easy (maybe the name “High Field” alluded to this).

I do remember a plan to remove the seating from the lower WT to increase capacity but the Taylor Report ended that possibility.

The seated capacity of HR was less than 24000. They could possibly have done some compulsory purchase orders on the row of houses behind the WT and made that stand bigger. But I think the lure of a shiny new ground and redevelopment of the old gasworks area seemed more cost efficient and would have been more appealing to the council as it acts as a multi purpose arena and they could meet housing targets by building on HR.

 

[Nick]

I bet none of you have just whacked FM Genie on and sold Kevin Thornton to Barca. Far too serious

 

[ajsccfc]

When I started a game and we had McAllister I used to have to add a second manager at a rich club to buy him, his £20000pw contract was killing me every time

 

[fernandopartridge]

The seated capacity of HR was less than 24000. They could possibly have done some compulsory purchase orders on the row of houses behind the WT and made that stand bigger. But I think the lure of a shiny new ground and redevelopment of the old gasworks area seemed more cost efficient and would have been more appealing to the council as it acts as a multi purpose arena and they could meet housing targets by building on HR.

Yes, the council certainly drove the gasworks location. Unfortunately for the club. At one point Parkside was on a shortlist, that would have been significantly better than the gasworks.

 

[CovInEssex]

What does everyone think we'd be averaging at HR, if we were still there? More/Less? I'd go for about the same.

 

[The Philosopher]

More:

1) Much better atmosphere - Ricoh feels too open, plastic and soulless in comparison

2) Easier to get to for the majority of fans.

3) far more “impulse” fans on the walk up. Few beers in town then head to HR is more likely than going to the Ricoh.

4) More fans likely to go to the football and walk to town after from HR.

5) the point is - don’t underestimate the “beer and footie” angle. This puts extra on the gate.

 

[Skyblueweeman]

Oh man, Christanval. In one of the late 90s versions he was the closest player I've seen to football perfection.

Agreed.

Others that I remember being great were:

Michael Chopra
Ola Toivenen (maybe in later editions) - or maybe it was another Finnish player?!
Freddy Adu
Viktor Onopko

 

[Alan Dugdales Moustache]

I've said this on another thread last year but in the late 1960s plans were drawn up to build a new spion Kop which held around 30,000, of which 18,000 would be standing. The overall ground capacity was to be 66,000. Imagine that. Even with the onset of all seater stadia latterly we'd never have had to move to the Ricoh.

 

[Samo]

Council blocked expansion requests didn’t they?

Did they? Goodness me... it would seems the council are C***S, who knew????

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

I bet none of you have just whacked FM Genie on and sold Kevin Thornton to Barca. Far too serious

Nah Thornton was an awesome AM in about 05-06 version, had loads of Player Preferred Moves-I built the side around him! The most wounding part of that version was that not only did Kyle start the game listed as a fan's favourite (how about that for research! Where on earth did they get that notion from?!?), but he's also one of our best players...

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

I finished 9th in the first season and Dublin was probably key to that (probably thanks to a small boost i gave him in the editor). I did edit Boateng too but he's still not performing as well as i think he did irl. McAllister did ok but i sold him to Wilmledon at the end of the season, Dublin decided to be a big judas snake and ship out to Arsenal too so i've replaced him with a disappointing Stoitchkov (if only!!).

The 2nd season hasn't gone well so far, they simply refuse to defend properly and so i've conceded something like 1.8 goals a game. I did manage a 9-2 victory over Sunderland but i'm sat about 14th presently. Current line up is as follows;

GK - Dida/Hedman, DR - Adi Viveash, DL - Christanval, DC - Mark Fish, DC - Willo/Shaw, MC - Heidenstrom, MC - Boateng/Gattuso, AMC - Cavaco, AMC - Johansen, AMC - Mulryne, - FC - Stoitchkov

I've got about £14m left to spend but nobody decent seems available/interested in joining which is frustrating. No idea where Paul Telfer is, didn't appear when i started the game and neither did Svindal-Larsen!!

Ah man I hate it when Svindal-Larsen doesn't come through! I tend to check at the start and then restart. He tends to appear more often if you pick 3 leagues, oddly-as does Maradona, who I have put the reputation up a tiny bit to make sure he does. Want that Maradona regen in a year or two...

Good to see you have a couple of bargain legends from this version though in Sir Heidenstrom and Mulryne!

I can remember putting McAllister up in the 90's and he still underachieved...I think the engine just wants DM's to be able to tackle, which aint his game. Might try him as a MC instead.

And I think an upgrade for Dublin is utterly necessary: it's the year he shared the Golden Boot with Owen and should have gone to the WC, which has to make him at least the 4th-5th best English striker in the DB on ability, but he's about 9th or 10th on ability at the start. He still does well, but has to be rated better than Stan Collymore FFS...

Same goes for Boateng seeing as he's a mediocre RB at the start....

Telfer sometimes doesn't come through as he's a player with no skills and no ability at the start. That might sound realistic, but I have to have Strachan obsessed with picking him, so I shall see what I can do with the editor!

 

[M&B Stand]

There was an Everton fan I used to work with, bitter about being denied 2 European Cups by Liverpool fans antics.
He had a T-shirt with Everton v Coventry City 1988 European super Cup Final on it. Made me
Smile. Mechelen won ‘our’ European Cup Winners Cup beating Ajax in the Strasbourg final.
PSV won Everton’s European cup.

 

[Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon]

Ah man I hate it when Svindal-Larsen doesn't come through! I tend to check at the start and then restart. He tends to appear more often if you pick 3 leagues, oddly-as does Maradona, who I have put the reputation up a tiny bit to make sure he does. Want that Maradona regen in a year or two...

Good to see you have a couple of bargain legends from this version though in Sir Heidenstrom and Mulryne!

I can remember putting McAllister up in the 90's and he still underachieved...I think the engine just wants DM's to be able to tackle, which aint his game. Might try him as a MC instead.

And I think an upgrade for Dublin is utterly necessary: it's the year he shared the Golden Boot with Owen and should have gone to the WC, which has to make him at least the 4th-5th best English striker in the DB on ability, but he's about 9th or 10th on ability at the start. He still does well, but has to be rated better than Stan Collymore FFS...

Same goes for Boateng seeing as he's a mediocre RB at the start....

Telfer sometimes doesn't come through as he's a player with no skills and no ability at the start. That might sound realistic, but I have to have Strachan obsessed with picking him, so I shall see what I can do with the editor!

I haven't played since about Monday night now as i got in a bit of a hissy-fit following several heavy defeats. For whatever reason i can't get them to keep the goals out despite playing the same formation we got to 9th with. S**t game anyway.....i'll start again this evening most likely.....