Stadium (1 Viewer)

[shmmeee]

The Ricoh: Built in the wrong place. There was ample space at the HR site for a top ground, there were plans. But we had individuals connected to our club with £ signs in their eyes. Still it’s done now so unless a new owner with deep pockets can conjure up a new stadium somewhere like Hearsall Common for example we need to sort this Ricoh situation out and quick.

Firstly: fuck off you aren’t building on Hearsall Common FFS. Over my dead body.

Secondly: no we couldn’t have expanded HR. That was the entire point of the Ricoh. The surrounding area wouldn’t have taken the increased traffic and it would never have got past planning.

The conspiracy theories are fun, but the boring reality is sports was a focus for the council and every sports team in Cov at the time was talked to about new/improved grounds. Crusaders turned down the Sky Dome, Blaze were brought in (boo franchises), CRFC The Butts, CCFC the Ricoh. Sorry to disappoint. I’ll leave you to Get back to wanking about brown paper envelopes and your cork board of red string.

 

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[Ring Of Steel]

Firstly: fuck off you aren’t building on Hearsall Common FFS. Over my dead body.

Secondly: no we couldn’t have expanded HR. That was the entire point of the Ricoh. The surrounding area wouldn’t have taken the increased traffic and it would never have got past planning.

Also unless you were going to buy up entire streets to demolish houses and also reroute Swan Lane, we'd have ended up with the same East Stand, same Main Stand, the West Stand could have been expanded at each end and there would have to have been a bloody enormous Sky Blue Stand going right over Thackhall St and the car park. To get to even 30k at HR there would have had to have been another 7,000 or so seats added on the East side, which would have made the ground completely lopsided. The money required to do all that, and still end up with less 'facilities' than the Ricoh offered would have made no sense.

Were there plans to do that though? I wasn't aware of that.

 

[shmmeee]

Also unless you were going to buy up entire streets to demolish houses and also reroute Swan Lane, we'd have ended up with the same East Stand, same Main Stand, the West Stand could have been expanded at each end and there would have to have been a bloody enormous Sky Blue Stand going right over Thackhall St and the car park. To get to even 30k at HR there would have had to have been another 7,000 or so seats added on the East side, which would have made the ground completely lopsided. The money required to do all that, and still end up with less 'facilities' than the Ricoh offered would have made no sense.

Were there plans to do that though? I wasn't aware of that.

Someone might have had plans, it was never a goer. But traffic flow and residential impact isn’t as sexy as stories of corruption so here we are.

 

[Ring Of Steel]

Someone might have had plans, it was never a goer. But traffic flow and residential impact isn’t as sexy as stories of corruption so here we are.

lol

 

[Magwitch]

There were plans I saw them. One plan was to shorten Thackall Street to the Highfield Road junction, then turn the ground round and re-build in stages first replace the West End and Sky Blue stand with a new build and then the Main stand, the East stand would have remained and extended. The new Main and Sky Blue stand would have been behind the goals. As for land there was loads look at the housing estate the now. I seem to remember the capacity would have been similar to the Ricoh.

 

[Ring Of Steel]

There were plans I saw them. One plan was to shorten Thackall Street to the Highfield Road junction, then turn the ground round and re-build in stages first replace the West End and Sky Blue stand with a new build and then the Main stand, the East stand would have remained and extended. The new Main and Sky Blue stand would have been behind the goals. As for land there was loads look at the housing estate the now. I seem to remember the capacity would have been similar to the Ricoh.

Derby & Leicester had very similar plans initially, to turn the pitch round and build new four stands, Derby even announced they were doing that before a home game. But the cost & logistics of doing it, to then end up with fewer facilities than a brownfield site meant that neither went through with it.

 

[Joy Division]

There were plans I saw them. One plan was to shorten Thackall Street to the Highfield Road junction, then turn the ground round and re-build in stages first replace the West End and Sky Blue stand with a new build and then the Main stand, the East stand would have remained and extended. The new Main and Sky Blue stand would have been behind the goals. As for land there was loads look at the housing estate the now. I seem to remember the capacity would have been similar to the Ricoh.

What plans were these, who was it proposed by? Would be nice to have a look at that.

 

[Magwitch]

Long gone I’d think, I was a steward back in the day for a few years, when a new ground was topical my role was dressing room security basically making sure that area was clear and no undesirables around, our boss at the time showed us the plans, it could have been good I reckon, I reckon it would have been cheaper than the £113 million the Ricoh cost though.-

 

[Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon]

Bulldoze IKEA now they're closing it down and bung a stadium in there. Plenty of pubs and a railway station (that actually has some capacity) nearby. Is that close enough to the Lady Godiva Statue?

 

[fernandopartridge]

Bulldoze IKEA now they're closing it down and bung a stadium in there. Plenty of pubs and a railway station (that actually has some capacity) nearby. Is that close enough to the Lady Godiva Statue?

I'm right behind the idea. Get rid of the Skydome as well.

 

[NortonSkyBlue]

I'm right behind the idea. Get rid of the Skydome as well.

Keep the sky dome, get rid of the arcade and cov market and IKEA and you are not just in the city centre it will be the city centre, no traveling for anyone. Build an underpass for cars and buses and maybe some student accommodation to make it authentic Coventry.

 

[edgy]

Just found this on a memory stick left on a chair in IKEA Restaurant!

 

[Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon]

Keep the sky dome, get rid of the arcade and cov market and IKEA and you are not just in the city centre it will be the city centre, no traveling for anyone. Build an underpass for cars and buses and maybe some student accommodation to make it authentic Coventry.

Build some flats into the corners and make it look a bit like the Luigi Ferraris or something. All we need is several hundred million to make this a reality.

 

[Tommo1993]

Hearsall Common, Croft Rd/Corporation St, Butts Park Arena.

Crikey, some people come up with some laughable suggestions

 

[Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon]

Hearsall Common, Croft Rd/Corporation St, Butts Park Arena.

Crikey, some people come up with some laughable suggestions

Laugh all you want, the blueprints are posted above. This is happening.

 

[AOM]

Laugh all you want, the blueprints are posted above. This is happening.

50p hot dogs and I'm in

 

[Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon]

50p hot dogs and I'm in

If IKEA could rustle up a flat-pack stadium it might keep costs down too.

 

[Kneeza]

If IKEA could rustle up a flat-pack stadium it might keep costs down too.

Nobody'd be able to follow the plans. You'd end up with something like fckn Filbert Street!

 

[covcity4life]

So is this a joke or would thwir be scope for a groubd there? Would have to knock skydome down too for there to be enough space?

 

[Kneeza]

So is this a joke or would thwir be scope for a groubd there? Would have to knock skydome down too for there to be enough space?

Too laughable to be even a hint of truth in it tbh.

 

[NortonSkyBlue]

So is this a joke or would thwir be scope for a groubd there? Would have to knock skydome down too for there to be enough space?

Of course it's a joke. Although....

 

[Briles]

Town Crier would do an absolute Trade if they built it there

 

[fernandopartridge]

Hearsall Common, Croft Rd/Corporation St, Butts Park Arena.

Crikey, some people come up with some laughable suggestions

Yep, like the farcical idea to build on a former Gasworks which included millions in decontamination costs

 

[clint van damme]

Hearsall Common, Croft Rd/Corporation St, Butts Park Arena.

Crikey, some people come up with some laughable suggestions

don't dismiss the Butts mate, you'll be getting hate mail and death threats.
Probably safer to advocate gun control at an NRA rally.

 

[coop]

 

[fernandopartridge]

Can't buy into any support for the hockey team, they're another franchise so they can get fucked.

 

[Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon]

So is this a joke or would thwir be scope for a groubd there? Would have to knock skydome down too for there to be enough space?

Where there's a will there's a way

 

[clint van damme]

don't dismiss the Butts mate, you'll be getting hate mail and death threats.
Probably safer to advocate gun control at an NRA rally.

edit - think you might be OK, IKEA appears to be the new go to obsession.

 

[hill83]

Firstly: fuck off you aren’t building on Hearsall Common FFS. Over my dead body.

Hearsall Common isn’t going to shag you mate

 

[NortonSkyBlue]

Now that it's confirmed that IKEA is an option how about asking those Chinese builders in Wuhan to build it in a few weeks? The Corona Arena has a nice ring to it.

 

[GaryMabbuttsLeftKnee]

View attachment 14055

All jokes aside, if you could do the literal impossible and somehow magic away the Ricoh, magic up a few hundred million and build this, it would be incredible.

 

[torchomatic]

Firstly: fuck off you aren’t building on Hearsall Common FFS. Over my dead body.

Secondly: no we couldn’t have expanded HR. That was the entire point of the Ricoh. The surrounding area wouldn’t have taken the increased traffic and it would never have got past planning.

The conspiracy theories are fun, but the boring reality is sports was a focus for the council and every sports team in Cov at the time was talked to about new/improved grounds. Crusaders turned down the Sky Dome, Blaze were brought in (boo franchises), CRFC The Butts, CCFC the Ricoh. Sorry to disappoint. I’ll leave you to Get back to wanking about brown paper envelopes and your cork board of red string.

Highfield Road didn't need expanding. Just modernising. The new East Stand was excellent. They could have done that to the other three sides eventually and we could have had a great stadium. Richardson's ego had other ideas unfortunately.

 

[Irish Sky Blue]

Bulldoze IKEA now they're closing it down and bung a stadium in there. Plenty of pubs and a railway station (that actually has some capacity) nearby. Is that close enough to the Lady Godiva Statue?

Are they closing Ikea? I have always thought that that building was such an eyesore when you think that the beautiful Spon Street is next door. Most things new in the City Centre seem to be student related so if Ikea goes that is probably what will happen.
Having a new stadium there would breathe live into the city centre every two weeks. You would think that a scheme combining shops, hotel, perhaps housing or student accommodation with the stadium would be a winner. Can’t see it though.

 

[GaryJones]

The Ricoh was ill conceived and the issues from day one are the reason it is not loved. I also think that on the last day of HR it was probably at its best ever(full house, sun shining, great atmosphere and a joyful celebration of a much loved home) but we would have still needed a new stadium IMO. Yes we could have hung on like Portsmouth but that would have been a stay of execution.
The Ricoh could and should have been a gateway to a better future but ended up as our graveyard.

Graveyard! We are not dead yet - far from it!

 

[GaryMabbuttsLeftKnee]

Agreed, bloke was a clown with his movable pitch and National stadium ideas. HR held 23k didn’t need to up it that much. When you think of it £113 million was paid to increase our capacity by just 9000.

There are a million and one things that went wrong with building the Ricoh but that isn't one of them. *IF* you had a full ground in the Premier League, you'd probably be looking at £450 a season ticket. That's £4 million a year just from those tickets, let alone the extra F&B revenue from another 9,000 people. That is the most basic way of looking at it before you start looking at increase in revenue streams from the hotel, casino etc. If it had been securely funded and well-thought out it made sense to increase capacity. But it was the polar opposite and our downward spiral to the Championship and beyond put the nail in the coffin.