What a pointless exercise! Yes, I too used to prefer the atmosphere on the terraces at the county ground. If fact I’d go so far as to say it was more the reason I became a fan than the actual football... But make no mistake, safe standing is not terracing.
If anyone thinks that simply by ‘standing up’ it will recreate that, they’re wrong. In reality, it wasn’t the fact that we were standing that created that atmosphere, it was because we were crammed in shoulder to shoulder, when we scored there was a swell and the noise was deafening.
Standing up in neat rows where your seat used to be wont make a the slightest bit of difference to either the atmosphere or the capacity. Completely pointless.
The Hotel End what a place!
But you're wrong about safe standing not improving atmosphere. Go up to Celtic with the Green Brigade in their safe standing area and they'll preach to the rafters about how good it is. That's if you can hear them over the chanting. Also, go to Germany where they have various safe standing scenarios and the atmosphere is raucous.
There is also provision for safe standing to increase capacity and lower ticket prices. Win win.
Would agree though that there is a debate to be had about the potentially limited impact installing it in a small section of the North Stand or how future-proofed the North Stand is even as Beds has alluded to.