Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Football stadiums not under cover

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Football stadiums not under cover

    With the rain here at the moment lashing down in a biblical fashion I feel sorry for those supporters who at tomorrow's match in Mestalla, if it goes ahead, will not be part of the fortunate few who have their seats under the one covered main stand. I've attended matches at this stadium before when it's been raining and all the raincoats and plastic sheets and umbrellas don't really compensate for what can be a very miserable 100 minutes or so.

    The Camp Nou is not by any means completely covered: nor are the Sevilla grounds. Northern Spanish league grounds tend to have full cover, though there were considerable teething problems (some fans not being fully protected from slanting rain, I think) with the new San Mames; I'm not sure if these have been sorted out yet.

    Are all English Premier and Championship stadiums fully covered? My guess would be yes but I'm not certain. And how about the Bundesliga? I'm pretty sure that many Serie A venues have large areas open to the elements but any observations would be interesting to read about.

    #2
    Originally posted by Sporting View Post
    Northern Spanish league grounds tend to have full cover, though there were considerable teething problems (some fans not being fully protected from slanting rain, I think) with the new San Mames; I'm not sure if these have been sorted out yet.

    Are all English Premier and Championship stadiums fully covered?
    Fulham has roofs above every stand these days, so I can't think of one off hand. However the cover at most of them is not extensive enough to keep out slanting rain. Which is far from unheard of in England. There is normally one side of the ground where the first few rows are getting soaked.

    Comment


      #3
      In fact, from this image



      one wonders if the first few rows at Craven Cottage are covered at all!

      Comment


        #4
        The roofs at most football grounds are cantilever which means there are no supporting posts obscuring the view, but the downside is they don't keep you dry. The roof at Leyton Orients main stand is particulalry useless, as are the roofs at many other grounds.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Janik View Post
          Fulham has roofs above every stand these days, so I can't think of one off hand. However the cover at most of them is not extensive enough to keep out slanting rain. Which is far from unheard of in England. There is normally one side of the ground where the first few rows are getting soaked.
          The City of Manchester Stadium is particularly bad for that, I think (possibly due to it’s original design as an athletics stadium?). They have to give out thousands of sky blue plastic ponchos out to supporters in the lower tiers when it rains and, it being Manchester, that is a common occurrrence.

          Cardiff’s Stade de Farce seems to be the same.

          Comment


            #6
            Took this pic at Craven Cottage a couple of years back and from this angle it certainly appears that the first few rows of the Riverside Stand are in the open.



            Hillsborough has a couple of bits not under cover. The north-west corner is rarely used by fans these days - it's where the telly studio will be positioned tonight. At the other end of the ground there is a portion of the Kop not covered by the roof, it might get highlighted tonight when the cameras inevitably focus on Tango (the guy who watches matches shirtless). The club spent a million quid roofing the Kop in 1986 which was very much needed but it's not great as a piece of design, the rain regularly swirls in to the first few rows and I also got massively sunburnt down the front once.

            Not currently a Championship ground but Oakwell has a large chunk of one stand with no roof - it's the old school main stand that was originally designed with covered seating to the rear, uncovered paddock at the front. Went all seater years ago but they didn't add any form of roof.

            Comment


              #7
              From memory games at Bologna's three sides open, Stadio Renato Dall'Ara often seemed to be played in near monsoon conditions when on Channel 4 back in the day.

              Comment


                #8
                The lower section of the Cobbold Stand at Portman Road isn't really covered. In fact it's mentioned on Ipswich's website:

                The Cobbold Stand

                This stand is situated opposite the East of England Co-operative stand and has also has a designated family area. If you would like to watch the match from this stand, the whole of lower tier is a designated family area, although they are permitted in the upper tier too. Two points of note in this stand are firstly, the visiting supporters sit in the upper tier of this stand, and also if you choose to sit in the lower tier and it rains, you will get wet!

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Sporting View Post
                  With the rain here at the moment lashing down in a biblical fashion I feel sorry for those supporters who at tomorrow's match in Mestalla, if it goes ahead, will not be part of the fortunate few who have their seats under the one covered main stand. I've attended matches at this stadium before when it's been raining and all the raincoats and plastic sheets and umbrellas don't really compensate for what can be a very miserable 100 minutes or so.

                  The Camp Nou is not by any means completely covered: nor are the Sevilla grounds. Northern Spanish league grounds tend to have full cover, though there were considerable teething problems (some fans not being fully protected from slanting rain, I think) with the new San Mames; I'm not sure if these have been sorted out yet.

                  Are all English Premier and Championship stadiums fully covered? My guess would be yes but I'm not certain. And how about the Bundesliga? I'm pretty sure that many Serie A venues have large areas open to the elements but any observations would be interesting to read about.
                  In the top two tiers. In Segunda and Tercera there is usually quite a lot of uncovered standing e.g Las Llanas where Sestao River play. The roof situation at San Mamés has indeed been resolved.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    The away concourse at Huddersfield.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Last Saturday's Carlisle v Morecambe match was played in an absolute downpour during 'Storm Callum'.

                      Morecambe had one supporter in a wheelchair, with accompanying parent, and Carlisle put them in the away-disabled area - an uncovered, pitch level, area at the corner of the pitch. The pair got absolutely soaked and it appears Morecambe fans tried to persuade our stewards to bring them into the away end, under cover, but the stewards (apparently) refused on safety grounds. They did apparently offer them the option of going into the home-disabled section which is under cover of sorts, being (I shit you not) two joined-together former Newcastle United dugouts which we got for nowt when Newcastle got new ones, with the intention of using them as dugouts but realised they were too tall. Anyway the Morecambe fans didn't really fancy this idea, understandably.

                      Photos of said pair made it onto our message board, and some of our fans have taken up the cause, sending them to the FL, supporters groups and the media, and Five Live have picked up on it (they tweeted it yesterday - can't link from here) - with the intent of shaming our own club into doing something better, which it appears may be materialising.

                      So yeah, fair to say we haven't got 100% coverage at our place, in the wettest county in the country.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I can testify that the first few rows of the Craven Cottage stand that holds away supporters’ were certainly uncovered in August.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          1. Bundesliga grounds tend to be covered now, but that was certainly not the case when I first started watching German football. In many cases the current crowd cover was the result of renovations for the 2006 World Cup.

                          Schalke’s Parkstadion



                          HSV’s Volksparkstadion



                          Eintracht Frankfurt’s Waldstadion

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Here’s the tweet that WFD referenced

                            https://twitter.com/bbc5live/status/1052852062713733120?s=21

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                              HSV’s Volksparkstadion

                              You're doing the second-division lads a favour there. That picture's of the new ground before they put the roof on. The old Volksparkstadion - a hideous, filthy, frightening place - was so uncovered at both ends that you might as well have been standing on the beach on Amrum.
                              Last edited by treibeis; 19-10-2018, 12:46.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Hideous, filthy, frightening:
                                Last edited by treibeis; 19-10-2018, 14:08.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Ah, crap. I knew it looked different than I remembered it from the time when you had a better chance sheltering under the trees on the walk there than in the ground



                                  The dell 'Ara is still uncovered, though there are plans to put a roof on



                                  As is the Franchi in Firenze, where I have personally been drenched more than once

                                  Last edited by ursus arctos; 19-10-2018, 12:59.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Seeing as the picture of Bologna's stadium has come up, what is the story behind that castle tower thingy?

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      There is always ''plans'' to carry out work on stadiums in Italy. Occasionally it takes place.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        "Occasionally" gives the impression that it happens more often than it does.

                                        In Bologna's case, as is common, the "plans" are associated with new ownership.

                                        In reality, most renovations are connected to a major tournament. Italy is still suffering from not having gotten the 2012 Euros because of Calciopoli. It had been considered a done deal, and the municipalities who own the grounds were all counting on an influx of state and EU funds to allow them to bring grounds up to date (as very little has been done to the vast majority of them since Italia '90). There was no Plan B and still isn't. At the same time, plans like Roma's for entirely new grounds have suffered from the usual bureaucratic gridlock.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          I thought Roma's new stadium had been given the green light by the local authorities, along with a much larger adjacent business park?

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Janik, the Torre di Maratona was built in 1929 as a Fascist era monumental addition to what was then called the Stadio Littorale.



                                            It originally featured a statue of Victory with the fasces and an equestrian statue of Mussolini, but has now been converted into the "Sky Lounge Bar"

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              George, it keeps getting green lights, only to be followed by red ones.

                                              The current fear is that it will fall victim to the perhaps imminent collapse of the M5S government currently running the city.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Karlsruher SC are in the 3. Liga now but the Wildparkstadion hosted top-flight football just a few years ago. Virtually every part of the ground is exposed to the elements in some way, there isn't much cover, and you're a long way from the action. I've seen matches from most sections in the stadium and have a bit of a soft spot for it, for no readily-discernible reason. Looks like its days are finally numbered though, I think the plans to knock it down that have been changed, abandoned and adjusted many times over the last 20 years are now complete and work to build a football-only 'arena' is due to start soon...

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Carlisle’s old uncovered away end is the place I have been coldest in my life. Assailed by wind and rain. Truly horrendous.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X