Our ground is shit

[NickSTFU]

Reading the lovely Favourite Ground thread got me thinking (yeah I know) about fans who think their ground is, well, a bit shit.

I know a couple of Salop fans who only got to away games. They went to the New Medda once in 2007 and never went again. This includes high profile cup games and promotion seasons. The reasons are probably obvious to people who have visited us since 2007.*

Anyway. I just thought that this was a local phenomenon, until we bumped into a couple of Bolton fans in our local a couple of seasons ago.

It turns out, so they said, that they only do away games as the Reebok (University of Bolton) is shit.

I was just idly wondering if this an unusual occurrence in SY2 and BL6, or any other new(ish) postcodes.
Anyone?

*There’s one ex-season ticket holder and away traveller off my estate, who stopped altogether and now watches Haughmond.

[Nesta]

Bolton's is now called the, ahem, Toughsheet Community Stadium. Problem with it is surely less that it's, uh, sheet, and more that it just isn't by any stretch of the imagination in Bolton.

[Nefertiti2]

Oxford United win this all ends up. (or In the case of the K*ssam Stadium not up)

[JoeysToe]

Definitely not just those postcodes, this one is right up my street! I went from having a season ticket as a teen at The Manor and the first season at The Kassam to only attending one home game (Swindon FA cup) in about 6 or 7 years. I took a couple of years off completely (my interests being more drugs and music at the time) then started attending North West away games while at Uni. When I moved back to Oxfordshire I started going to home games again and had a season ticket for a few more years. But it was very much due to convenience and spending time with friends. Although the atmosphere did have a purple patch at that time due to some very dedicated youngsters, the triumph being the massive surfer flag for the "Di Canio" home game.

I got used to attending and had a pre match routine involving a proper pub relatively close to the ground. But I hate the ground so much. It's a freezing, 3 sided, breezeblock, cheaply finished, shithole in between a dodgy estate and a sewage farm. Oh and it's awful to get to from anywhere further away than Cowley.

We had a kid and moved away at the same time. Since then I've been to one or two home games a year, as many away games as possible (usually 7 or 8) and some local non league. I have friends with season tickets but I'll always choose going to a relatively unexciting away game (eg. Stevenage at the end of this month) on my own than a home game with company.

[Gangster Octopus]

Don Valley. Although the folk who worked there were perfectly pleasant.

[Patrick Thistle]

My other home ground (as Nick has done the Meddah) has a running track, shit access and a clubhouse that feels like a run down cheaply built pub. And occasionally the floodlights blow their fuse boxes.

[George C.]

Tbf, went there a few weeks ago, it was fine of its type.

For me it's more about the general location, often far from pubs, stations/transport hubs and life in general...

But ultimately all a bit #FirstWorldProblems though.

[Mr Beast]

Did you ever go to Layer Road Nick?

An awful dangerous hole. But now it’s been replaced by an identikit Barrs 10,000 capacity box Colchester lost something. The old ground was shit by any measure. But these out of town boxes are soulless.

[cantagalo]

Agree about Bolton and Colchester.

I'd also like to nominate Reading and Northampton.

[George C.]

Colchester's a nice ground but terrible location.
As is Reading.

Cobblers a better location, anodyne stadium, but their old ground was a joke tbf.

[Artificial Hipster]

Location aside, I don't think the Reebok is that bad. The DW Stadium on the other hand..

[Sporting]

EIM to thread?

[EIM]

Ah, man. Old Trafford gets so much stick. All this talk of it crumbling and leaking roofs and that. You get your eReds saying we need Qatar as they're the only owners who can afford to rebuild the ground. Which is weird from a section of the fanbase who never visit the place.

So there are issues with it. It takes ages to get in. You can't get a drink. There's no leg room. But every time I step from the concourse into the ground, I'm filled with the same sense of awe and wonder I had the very first time as a kid. There's nowhere like it under floodlight, and on the odd occasion the crowd are really up for it, and you can tell the second you're inside the turnstiles, nowhere matches it for atmosphere. It crackles. I'm very fond of Old Trafford.

[Sporting]

There's nowhere like it under floodlight, and on the odd occasion the crowd are really up for it, and you can tell the second you're inside the turnstiles, nowhere matches it for atmosphere. It crackles.

I haven't been since about 1979 but fully agree with the above. I was curious about your opinion.

[EIM]

Besides, I spent three hundred quid on a Lego model of it. I'm not doing that again for a new ground.

[Artificial Hipster]

Yeah as a lanky git I can very much vouch for the legroom issue, and I can understand why the kids I've been to both with all say the Etihad is better, but they are all of course quite wrong. I've visited 8 or 9 times for football matches, and stepping up from the concourse into the stands has never ceased to fill me with awe.

[Nefertiti2]

I got used to attending and had a pre match routine involving a proper pub relatively close to the ground. But I hate the ground so much. It's a freezing, 3 sided, breezeblock, cheaply finished, shithole in between a dodgy estate and a sewage farm. Oh and it's awful to get to from anywhere further away than Cowley.

Joeys Toe has just reminded me of the Priory. the only decent thing within 500 metres of the kassam stadium which has been vandalised. The entire area around the Kassam Stadium is a Kassam wasteland, where he managed to build a “leisure complex” including cinema, Frankie and Johnny mall, a couple of terrible hotels and a vast carpark, all part of the planning gain which he amde when he sold the freehold on the Manor to build a provate hospital and kept the pickings for himself. Oxford is a very beautiful city with amazing architecture- both new and old. Kassam has done more than any single person to make it look shit

But there was one pub out inthe wastelandm The Priory a pub which dated back tot he 15th Century and had been part of the Priory of Littlemore. Its main business was the football and the landlord offered a cider tent and used to serve home and away fans.-

Kassam closed it. and the lcoal council who own the freehold have allowed it to fall into disrepair. So there’s nowhere to drink near the ground and a listed building is shuttered for a decade- we’re all Awaiting a mystery fire

[Cousin Boneless]

I liked Bolton's ground. But found Shrewsbury's and Oxfords a nightmare to get to.

I hated ours for a while, especially in the league one league two days, but when we came back for a second time, changed the name to the CBS and removed all that W*sps signs from the place. It finally feels like home now.

Oh and this year, there are way more bars and actual pictures of Coventry players etc inside. It's great.

[jameswba]

I'm interested in a Coventry fan's perspective. When I visited the Ricoh Stadium (as it then was) in 2016, it immediately became my least favourite ground.

Partly because it was only a third full, more because there was nothing but Wasps crap around, but mostly because the journey from and to the city-centre was such a nightmare. All there seemed to be was a bus that visited every housing estate in the city and took about an hour to finally get somewhere near the ground. To add insult to injury, there was a railway station but trains were forbidden from stopping there on matchdays.

It all gave the impression of a club that had stopped caring about itself and a city that was actively hostile to it. I'm glad it's better now, and that the club is defying the long-lived 'your ground's too big for you' taunt. Not sure I'd ever want to go back though.

Of other suggestions, Bolton and Wigan can't be compared. Bolton's ground has a great design and is near a station that can be used. The facade of the ground is in full view the whole way from the station and it's obvious whose home it is. The downside - and yes, it's a big one - is that it's nowhere near Bolton.

Wigan is almost the opposite ; characterless but at least walkable from town.

[jameswba]

Perhaps shouldn't speak for another club's fans, but I think Birmingham supporters have been embarrassed by St Andrews since the forced closures of the Kop and Tilton Road End lower tiers. There's hope of this being fixed before the end of this season.

[Simon G]

I went to Reading's a few weeks ago and quite liked the ground - the location is a shocker though (save for it's proximity to the Motorway).

I agree with Nef about The Priory at Oxford. I like to try and get to grounds a couple of hours before kick-off to sample the local pubs and meet the home fans, and I loved going to The Priory. A shame it was shut down.

[Foot of Astaire's]

I like our ground very much. Lovely design, great transport networks to make it easy to get to. It's in the Borough of Bolton but I get if you're coming from a way away, then sticking Bolton Town centre in your sat nav will do you no favours.

Away days are what you make them. Just 5 minutes googling and it's easy to find where to park and
a good selection of boozers and places to eat. Certainly the options in nearby Horwich far outweigh anything that was on offer around Burnden Park.

[George C.]

I bet they don't do anything like the last season at Burnden though, fab pies at 50 pence each...

[Foot of Astaire's]

Aye, the pies were a big loss. Its all gyros and dirty fries these days.

[RobW]

Basically anywhere out of town, where there's no local pub you can get to, and you have to put up with TGI Friday's, Nando's or other eateries. Northampton, Franchise, Shrewsbury spring to mind. Oxford, obviously.
Franchise is convenient for having a massive ASDA next door, so you can buy celebratory booze for the train home (tho it's a trek to either Bletchley or MK Central).
Roots Hall, I went to a couple of years ago, after several years of not having the pleasure. Had forgotten how dreadful it was. Gillingham too in that fucking open stand. Eurgh.