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What are your favourite stadiums ever?


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8 hours ago, Clogiron said:

Alt Park at Huyton was a experience like no other for so many reasons, all of them bad.

Strange place to play when Geoff Fletcher was leading the pack.

Anyone experienced RL at its proffesional grassroots had to pull on a pair of boots here.  😉 

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11 hours ago, Hopping Mad said:

With the exception of Dewsbury (which I enjoy going back to), none of the 'flatpack', characterless new grounds!

Of the old ones, I had/have soft spots for Central Park (when packed, nothing like it), Craven Park, Barrow (warts and all, a cracking little set-up), Knowsley Road (fond memories, during Liverpool student days, of watching Meninga outclass the opposition), Fartown (always a sense of occasion, even when crowds dropped to a few hundred), Lawkholme Lane (great fun during Cougarmania), Mount Pleasant (a very good example of how an existing ground can be modernised), Station Road (faded grandeur), Thrum Hall (brimming with interesting features), Victory Park (such a shame Chorley never really 'got' rugby league), Watersheddings (a lovable dump), Wigginton Road (tight and atmospheric) and Wilderspool (another regular student days haunt, when Boyd, Tamati and Rathbone guaranteed entertainment - of one sort or another!).

I totally agree about Victory Park, Chorley (albeit that it was inappropriately named!). I had many a happy Sunday there and in the town itself. I lived in Preston all my days in Lancashire and used to watch Blackpool Borough but Chorley was easier to get to and my best mate lived there. Couple of pints in the supporters club after then round town and last train home.

I still remember being in there after a match against Keighley which sums up Rugby League for me. The doors into the bar opened and loads of massive blokes piled in, all wearing collar and tie and club sweaters, black for Chorley and green for Keighley. They’d just spent 80 minutes knocking seven bells out of each other but were happily mixing whilst chatting away and necking pints and sandwiches together.

It was indeed a shame that the town of Chorley never ‘got’ Rugby League. I honestly thought at the time that it had a real chance there after the upheaval from Blackpool to Wigan then Chorley. Stability was needed but it wasn’t to be. I’ve still got a good number of programmes and fanzines from that era and many happy, albeit slightly hazy, memories!

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Central Park for sure, a dump by the end but so atmospheric. I also loved Gillford Park, Carlisle, very basic but just a fun place to watch a game, especially when Cameron Bell was coach and although I haven’t been there since 2009 I always enjoyed games at Fev, Batley and Dewsbury.

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Wembley Stadium.  First went  to see my first CC final when aged 11 on a school trip. Loved the day so much I went every year for another 15 years until I left England. I then came back from Aus. on many occasions when my team played in the final.

Sydney Cricket Ground.  Started going there soon after I arrived in Aus. for the Saturday ARL match of the round played there every week for years until the format changed. Went to my first GF there in 1969 and have been to all GF's since.

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Headingley - both as it was and it’s been great seeing it transformed into a modern stadium (bar the western terrace obviously)

 

Leichhardt - great place to watch RL


I do actually enjoy the away games at the old stadiums like Cas and Wakefield but they do need sorting out!

 

as for the ‘modern’ stadiums I like KC and even though its now 26 years old the Mcalpine (it will always be that to me) is still uo there with the best especially when full

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I understand that this whole topic is about people's favourite stadiums, ancient and modern. I'm am nevertheless, surprised at the the fondness for old-time stadiums and the distain toward modern ones. 

Replace "stadiums" by "homes" and people would be horrified if posters expressed nostalgia for outside wcs, no insulation,  condensation, open coal fires, no damp proof courses, gas lights, tuberculosis and more.... 😊

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1 hour ago, Chrispmartha said:

Headingley - both as it was and it’s been great seeing it transformed into a modern stadium (bar the western terrace obviously)

 

In the context of this discussion Headingley suffers from the distinct disadvantage of still existing.

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9 minutes ago, JohnM said:

I understand that this whole topic is about people's favourite stadiums, ancient and modern. I'm am nevertheless, surprised at the the fondness for old-time stadiums and the distain toward modern ones. 

Replace "stadiums" by "homes" and people would be horrified if posters expressed nostalgia for outside wcs, no insulation,  condensation, open coal fires, no damp proof courses, gas lights, tuberculosis and more.... 😊

So you've been to East Hull then? 😉

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11 minutes ago, JohnM said:

I understand that this whole topic is about people's favourite stadiums, ancient and modern. I'm am nevertheless, surprised at the the fondness for old-time stadiums and the distain toward modern ones. 

Replace "stadiums" by "homes" and people would be horrified if posters expressed nostalgia for outside wcs, no insulation,  condensation, open coal fires, no damp proof courses, gas lights, tuberculosis and more.... 😊

I always get the impression modern stadiums, being bigger and all seater with fans further apart are really designed to be at full capacity and when they aren't they seem so soulless and dead.

I use Huddersfield as an example. I've been to Huddersfield for both club away games and internationals. The club game was quiet, empty, sound was echoing and under the floodlights with a bit of drizzle it really did seem incredibly miserable and almost dystopian. However, watching England v NZ in a full house on a sunny afternoon was a great experience, the atmosphere was fantastic, one of the best I've seen in recent years, even if my knees were destroyed by the lack of legroom. 

Another example, Anfield. Alright its an old ground but it has been modernised so much its basically new. I went there for the four nations final and with 15,000 empty seats, again it with pretty quiet and flat and it didn't help that the game was very dull but I don't doubt that with 55,000 in (or whatever the capacity is) and Liverpool playing the atmosphere is great! 

Possibly my least favourite ground is New Wembley. Considering there was just short of 70,000 last time I was there that could be the quietest I've ever heard a ground and I think it's just cos it's so big, the sound doesn't bounce around the same and just gets expelled from the ground. The atmosphere just leaks out of these bigger, newer stadiums. 

Now a smaller, older ground, take Cas for example, the fans are closer together and closer to the pitch and the stands seem to contain the crowd more because they are more cramped and thus it contains the noise and the atmosphere within. I think with a lot of people as well, older grounds just bring up a lot of nostalgia for the good old days. Even younger fans who didn't attend games in the pre-super league days have watched old game footage and seen the crammed in crowds with their suits and hats and the thick cloud of cigarette smoke around them and the old pictures of fans spilling onto the pitch and jostling in the stands, almost like a crowd at a rock concert or something. There's something much more special about the black and white days on the terracing than the modern day of sitting miles away from your fellow fans with the sound of nothing but the referees whistle and flies farting. 

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Always enjoyed the night games at the Willows (And the Night Club on the ground afterwards even though we didn`t get back to Workington until the wee hours) , Central Park ,Wheldon Road ,Post Office Road ,Wiggington Road , Odsal ,Naughton Park and Craven Park Barrow .

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Central Park, with a meat and potato pie and a pint in Billy Boston's beforehand, the old Wembley, McLaren Field and Hilton Park out of the grounds that are no longer with us. Out of the current ones I'd have Cougar Park, Fev (who've shown that you can modernise a ground without losing the essential atmosphere), Halliwell Jones and the LSV. Oh, and I'm with the Goose about the new Wembley - a ghastly, soulless place.

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A lot of the points, especially the nostalgia thing, I get. Sure. Not so sure about the carcinogenic smoke, though. 

I was a frequent regular at Station Road between 1957 for around ten years. Sure, semi finals and internationals attracted big crowds, but generally, the place was never more than about 1/4 full.  

In my opinion, the soullessness of modern stadiums is the same soullessness exhibited the modern, well-insulated, light, bright, centrally-heated home. 

Without diverting the topic any further (and I'll stop after this. 👍) for me the issue is how to get more paying fans  through the turnstiles. 

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