Football stadiums not under cover

[sw2borshch]

The away concourse at Huddersfield.

[ingoldale]

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.

[Kevin S]

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!

[George]

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.

[longeared]

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.

[Ray de Galles]

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.

[Paul S]

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.

[Janik]

In fact, from this image



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

[Janik]

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.

[Sporting]

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.