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A platform to air your views
As most of you will know, the last ‘send-out’ included not only
Issue 22 of this magazine, but also a re-subscription form. We are
delighted to say that the uptake has been very encouraging with more subscribers now on the books than ever before. Part of the subscription notice asked for your comments and produced a fair bit of feedback. On this page we bring you a selection of this.
Tony Davies of Chalfont St Giles praised our efforts but challenged our opinion of the stadiums
used during Euro 2000. He wrote; ‘I find your comments concerning the various merits of Arnhem and Amsterdam strange. At the Arnhem game the town centre was buzzing before the
game….organisation at the stadium was poor as there was a lot of queuing to get access to the
stadium concourse. I do share your comments about the Arnhem stadium which you describe as
bland, however, you seem euphoric about the Amsterdam Arena which to my mind seemed more
suited to pop concerts than football. I certainly would not like to watch games there every week.’
Ed; I don’t think we are too far apart on the Gelredome apart from the ease of access and egress. The parts of
the ground we used were truly deserted and uncluttered. It just goes to show that you can have very different
experiences at the same game! Much the same goes for the ArenA which we said had an ‘awesome’ view. We
were just trying to make the point that it should have hosted the final. Each to their own. It’s good we don’t all
think alike.
Jim Tuite of Cheshunt again praises our overall efforts but goes on to say; ‘ I’m a bit concerned
about the attention given (or not) to certain subjects. The new stands at Old Trafford have been
virtually ignored…..lack of interest in Man.Utd. or what? Are you all becoming stricken with antiPremier League-itis? Groundtastic is in danger of becoming a journal of non-league nerdism
rather than a diary of a very interesting period of change in British football grounds history. Other
examples include the new stands at St. James’. A couple of pictures barely make amends for no
coverage until Issue 22 and then even questions like how the Milburn Stand’s concrete roof was
removed and how is the new roof kept up(!) are not answered. Also, you were very harsh on the
Gelredome. If you’d been there under floodlights with the roof closed and a full house then you’d
have come away with a much more positive perspective.’
Ed; We have always strived to keep a reasonable balance across all levels of the game. We try our best to keep
our coverage of non-league football to a good standard and, as a lot of our readers prefer the game at this level,
we will continue to do so. This will not be to the detriment of the ‘big’ clubs and they get a mention as well. We do
though only have 80 pages and there is an awful lot packed in already. Without expanding even further (which is
not possible at present) we are at a loss to see a way of totally pleasing every reader with every Issue. To answer your query about the roof at Newcastle - Basically, a tracked JCB-type vehicle spent all of last season
perched on the old roof, breaking away the concrete struts whilst the roof of the new stand was built over the
top. A new book called Fortress St. James has just been published and has 108 pages describing the whole redevelopment. See page 9 for details.
Groundtastic
page 57
Issue 23