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St Andrew’s – or SulliGold Stadium?
Here we are again, a delve into my box of meandering thoughts I am free to jabber on about. A thread on a well-known Blues message board allowed me to begin to ponder the surroundings in which we watch our boys in action. Once started, the mind goes full pelt and I forget most of those ponderings before my typing can possibly catch up, so feel lucky, anyone who is actually reading this.
News is being leaked into the local Birmingham Press that Blues are thinking seriously about the option of building a new stadium. David Sullivan has gone into print saying that for the first time in eleven years the Council and the club are working together to develop a fabulous stadium that would be a focal point for the whole city.
He does then go on to say the ground would not be out near the NEC, but within a mile of St Andrew’s current location. No great thought seems to have been given about road access then, for this supposed 60,000 to 70,000 seater stadium.
Well, no doubt the planners will consider access routes and transport links at some point before any plans are drawn up and submitted – I can’t see Blues accepting early design costs without full consideration having been given to all aspects of the plan.
Regardless of the eventual decision to stay at our spiritual home, or to move on elsewhere, it is fun to give oneself over to conjecture and let Blues fans everywhere have a different topic to debate at the pub, dinner table, or at work (but only in break times, of course).
We haven’t moved ground since the relocation from Muntz Street to St Andrew’s around 100 years ago – OK, even if this is just a few ramblings from my fingertips, it does you good to be accurate. Let’s see…
We were at Muntz Street from the summer of 1877 to December 1906, when we moved into St A’s and we’ve been there ever since. Well, apart from as soon as WWII broke out, when the ground was forcibly closed, only opened again in March 1940 after the matter of Blues being the only club in the country to have its ground shut was raised in Parliament. Lo and behold, in January 1942, we were bombed from within as an errant would-be helper doused a fire in a brazier with a bucket of… petrol, not the water he presumably thought it was, destroying the whole of the Main Stand. Still, a certain Mr Graham Chambers can no doubt elucidate on that sorry tale. That meant brief moves to Leamington and v*le park for our home games (Dear Lord, what a price to pay) before we could move back to St Andrew’s in 1943.
After the War, in the 50s, we started redevelopment by building a new Main Stand, then floodlights were added and used from 1956. Interestingly, our opponents for the grand opening were Borussia Dortmund, a German team of course, but this only a decade after the end of hostilities. The emotions of more than a few attendees must have run high that night – it is hard for us 50 years on to try and understand what feelings could have run through the minds of those with families made smaller in number as a direct impact of the War. It always intrigues me, anyway.
Another few years later, and we celebrated our European Fairs Cup exploits by covering the Tilton and the Kop, with a smaller version of the Main Stand being added at the Railway End a few years later still.
From virtually all-standing to the constant addition of more and more seats up until the last game on the Kop against Bristol City in April 1994, only token improvements were made to our cherished ground, which up to then had retained its familiar appearance throughout the decades.
The massive redevelopment of the Kop and the Tilton, plus the later addition of the show stand at the Railway End has vastly improved the St Andrew’s experience for the majority of supporters.
Can anyone remember the subterranean toilets at the corner of the Tilton and Kop we used to use in the 60s and 70s? The brick wall built close by in the late 70s was a vast improvement on them, but not by much. Things have definitely improved on that score under the current regime. Mind you, anyone who struggles in and out of the Tilton of Kop loos at half time will appreciate the validity of building an entry and an exit route, rather than one which is both entry and exit (still, the Millennium Stadium got this wrong too, so it isn’t just us)
I have to admit to missing the old crash barriers, renditions of “Knees Up Mother Brown” and crashing down the terraces in delight after Blues scored, eventually making your way back to your spot a minute or two after the goal went in. We stood “behind G3” which was the number Blues painted on the stand stanchion in the 70s/80s – I don’t know what we used to refer to our spot as before then, but “behind G3” was its moniker for a long time.
Stories are legion of the tea hut at the back of the Kop too. I never dared buy anything from that hut, but I do recall the dark days when a pile of sugar and a mucky plastic spoon were plonked onto the counter, as there was no receptacle for sugar, and only one spoon. I suppose the taste of tea had to be drowned out somehow, but surely people must have used Blues’ catering facilities as an additional support to willpower to give up sugar in their drinks? I can also remember the chaps that used to walk round the pitch in white butcher coats, with an enormous square silver container on their back, with a pipe leading round the side and to their front, where a tap was attached and they dispensed tea to anyone who made their way to the front of the terraces. That was the 60s though.
These are fond memories now, I know that, because I am sitting here grinning and laughing at things remembered from the past, far too many to put into print here, but given the stark choice between what we have now and a return to the past, I’ll stay where I am thanks. To think the catering debate still rages on these days, but that “menu choice” and sporks are the top agenda items is a subject of some amazement to me. Menu choice used to be “hot or cold, take it or leave it” – a pie being cold was no excuse to getting your money back – and that was anywhere in the land, not just down the Blues. A cold pie these days would result in a lawsuit, the way society has moved on (not all social advances are necessarily for the best, it is plain to see).
Any road, we do have an eyesore of a stand at St Andrew’s that creaks and leaks and lets the view down from all other areas. There are those who sit there that are very comfortable with their lot and do not want to see progress, if this is measured by redevelopment of the Main Stand. This is not an unusual reaction, any change management guru will tell you people are resistant to alterations to their surroundings, as the unknown comes into play. Fair enough – I moved into the Main Stand when the Kop was redeveloped and sat in there for three seasons, relocating to the Tilton following a brief exchange of correspondence with the club which began after the Wrexham FA Cup tie, but that really is another tale for another day. Our current Main Stand incumbents are guilty of nothing much more than reluctance to do something different each week – and let’s face it, most of them are at an age where change is a real problem. A new place to park, new turnstile to go through, new programme seller to get to know, new seat next to different people from the usual crowd – it all adds up and makes the feeling unpleasant, initially. However, I know they would get used to their better, more modern facilities pretty quickly, but why should they trust me to tell them the truth?
Their numbers are being rent asunder with the new executive seating ploy being foisted upon one and all, which more or less divides the Main Stand into two banks of true fans, flanking the 2004/5 prawn sarnie arrivals, many of whom may be a tad surprised at the somewhat rudimentary nature of their executive privileges. When they take their seats having walked through a hail of cold tea from ancient flasks and are buffeted by the winds created by the shaking of rugs, they may feel inclined to exercise their executive status and naff off early, very early.
So, back to the original reason for starting this off, should Blues stay at St Andrew’s and redevelop the Main Stand, or move to a new venue that can house 60,000 or 70,000 people? This is a debate that I would expect to draw a good few responses, much better done as a thread on a variety of message boards, so I won’t attempt to cover all scenarios here, but I think there will be a fair number who opt for remaining at St A’s, who present what look like valid arguments, but are really hiding behind the very same ‘change’ reluctance that our Main Stand faithful are going through.
I would love to see St A’s with the horseshoe stand completed round the Tilton/Main Stand corner, all the way along to the Railway End, but I just don’t think it is going to happen. I can’t see a new ground being a reality for a decade either, but on balance, I do think that is probably the way to go. Cost of the design and build is a big inhibiting factor, but I don’t have to worry about that personally, so I can ignore that aspect of the overall scenario.
The public/chartered transport and road links are more of a concern to me, but I’m getting on in years and you start to think of these things when you pass 40. Setting that concern aside, I can’t see it being a problem if we are only able to get our crowds up to 35 to 40,000 as a regular attendance figure, with the 60 to 70,000 only once in a claret and blue moon, or when Torquay’s and Paignton’s travelling mobs descend upon Brum to watch their Red Devils in action. I would imagine the stadium would be designed in two or three tiers, with roughly 20,000 seats in each tier. It would be a fairly simple matter to keep the top tier closed unless it is needed for the ‘big’ match encounter. So when the aforementioned, or afore-hinted, teams come up on the fixture list, they may command bigger crowds and the opening of the top tier sections.
Our European opponents may also see demand growing, as ‘other fans’ in the vicinity turn up to swell our numbers to watch the top teams in Europe pit themselves against the mighty Blue machine. Some of those intruders will want to come back more regularly and the younger elements of those crowds, who may be taken to the game as an excuse for the intruders to make their own appearance, will be hooked like we all were at some point in the past. With no discernible local alternative to tempt them elsewhere, our crowd numbers will rise steadily and the top tiers will be opened more and more frequently.
Daydreaming? Maybe so, but the thought of getting into the Premier League was a pipedream not ten even years ago. Surviving a season in the Premier League was all we could hope for three years back, yet last season we spent the entire season in the top ten.
Yes, a new ground is the decision from me, as hard as it will be to leave St Andrew’s (what will that be like, the very last game we play there?) Would it be more difficult to pass the old place by later and it finally sinks in that you won’t ever set foot inside there again and watch the Blues trot out onto the field of play? Southampton fans wouldn’t go back to The Dell; Man City fans might take your arm off to get back to Maine Road, but they had a poor first season at the CoMS, a few wins (or a change of manager) might change their outlook.
I think we’ll have a good few years left at St Andrew’s yet, before any move to a new venue. What would it be called? I went for SulliGold Stadium without any real thought – what about the press article’s proposed City of Birmingham Stadium? Will Birmingham City Council ever allow Birmingham City to occupy CoBS, or will they let us build it, then insist the Witton mob get to use the name instead? I’m not sure CoBS would be my choice of name, is it a bit ‘distant’ a name for a historically really gritty team’s home – New St Andrew’s might be a bit twee and I can’t see the Board going for St Francis’s if looking to keep the sanctity of the name intact.
I just hope we get the car parks and routes to the Motorways built well in advance. I’ll probably be in my 50s by then, if I’m still around – I need comfort, a short walk to the car and a swift getaway to cut down on the loo stops on the way back to Yorkshire. See to it, will you, planners.
Leigh Bosworth
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