Redevelopment Closer Than Ever?

[Manwork04]

Charles from the IACTM pod has been along to visit the East Stand...

A good read & pretty much sums up how most genuine supporters feel. We'd all love the original design but after the previous owners blowing the 10 million, this is the best we could have hoped for.

https://cobblerstome.com/visiting-the-east-stand/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEhTttleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHe8tQU70pVgHxmb8ewmepOKfZigx3dYK3F77RrdsCybi797F2jktQ3dATg_aem_dX1cyNRhYnRlLhDlRNkjBA

Fair write up and the best we could have hoped for.

[BackOfTheNet]

I don't have to agree with everything that happens at the club. But it is for me a happy place. A place that in some respects reflects the highs and lows, but that can't inflict any real harm on me or my family. A sanctuary for the superficial, if you like. What I find amazing is that some people have become so entrenched in the politics, that they deny themselves the joy that going to home games brings. As if in some way they are inflicting harm, or asserted their opinion. How deluded have you got to be to view yourself as that important in the scheme of things. It is football. It is not the Cardozas, it is not KT or DB, it is a pint with your mates. A packed Sixfields, buzzing with anticipation. It is escapism. Surely the day it becomes more than that. You are simply missing the point. And not really angry at some distant entity. More likely just bitter.   

Great post, Tel. At the end of the day, it's just a game. A game we all love and have an affiliation with, but just a game. Some people just lose that perspective.

I grew up loving Star Wars. Even as an adult I read a lot of the novels that were produced that continued the story, and catered for the adults that were the original audience. They were really good. Then they made more films, the thought of which awakened my inner child and got me really excited. I remember sitting in the cinema as the music started and the crawl began to move up the screen and I was an 8 year old boy again.

And then the rest of it was shìt. And they got progressively worse. And in doing so they wrote off all the continuity that had been established across dozens of novels. It irritated the hell out of me at the time, but I got over it and chose just to remember the bits I liked. I still watch the new stuff they churn out on Disney+ but the magic has largely gone.

The point I'm rather circuitously getting to is this. Facebook's algorithms have picked up on my interest in Star Wars and I see a lot of related posts pop up. I never actively engage with them but reading the comments under them is fascinating. You have never seen such an array of angry middle aged men that are still ranting and raving and properly laying into each other over a crap film that came out a quarter of a century ago!

I think that's the problem you get when people are passionate about something but have little else going on in their lives. They fixate on what's wrong with the things they love and blame others for spoiling them, when to be honest they would be better off looking at why they themselves feel so strongly about about something so trivial that's only meant to be a bit of fun, be it sport or a sci fi universe.

[tcobb]

Excellent posts. To me going to the Cobblers is all about the day, not just the game, meeting mates, having a laugh, going to away days. It's the expectations,  the disappointments, highs and lows all combined to create that experience   the memories.
Just can't get my head around people who have stopped doing all of that just because they don't like the New Stand  or Training Ground or the amount of money someone has or hasn't put into the financial side of the Club. Why rob themselves of the reason for supporting  a Football Club, just what are they trying to prove to themselves ? 

[DavCobb]

If there is one positive it is that the view from all other angles of the stadium have already been vastly improved!! I would hazard a guess that far more progress has been made before the start of the season than most of us expected.

Genuine question. Are most of the seats going to be kept dry on rainy days, obviously dependant on the direction of the rain? It is difficult to see the aspect of the roof from the pictures about and I haven't been down to look for a while. It looks like the roof may fall level with the front row.

[TVOR]

I don't have to agree with everything that happens at the club. But it is for me a happy place. A place that in some respects reflects the highs and lows, but that can't inflict any real harm on me or my family. A sanctuary for the superficial, if you like. What I find amazing is that some people have become so entrenched in the politics, that they deny themselves the joy that going to home games brings. As if in some way they are inflicting harm, or asserted their opinion. How deluded have you got to be to view yourself as that important in the scheme of things. It is football. It is not the Cardozas, it is not KT or DB, it is a pint with your mates. A packed Sixfields, buzzing with anticipation. It is escapism. Surely the day it becomes more than that. You are simply missing the point. And not really angry at some distant entity. More likely just bitter.   

Put it on a t-shirt!
Very well said sir.

[TVOR]

Genuine question. Are most of the seats going to be kept dry on rainy days, obviously dependant on the direction of the rain? It is difficult to see the aspect of the roof from the pictures about and I haven't been down to look for a while. It looks like the roof may fall level with the front row.

NTFC ponchos in the mini shop for when it rains, NTFC sun visors for when its sunny. 

[1971cobbler]

NTFC ponchos in the mini shop for when it rains, NTFC sun visors for when its sunny. 

Let's all lobby vociferously for a retractable roof to be installed. 

[Observing]

If there is one positive it is that the view from all other angles of the stadium have already been vastly improved!! I would hazard a guess that far more progress has been made before the start of the season than most of us expected.

Genuine question. Are most of the seats going to be kept dry on rainy days, obviously dependant on the direction of the rain? It is difficult to see the aspect of the roof from the pictures about and I haven't been down to look for a while. It looks like the roof may fall level with the front row.

I would say so, ish.

The progress is remarkable in the short time really.

[XVK]

If there is one positive it is that the view from all other angles of the stadium have already been vastly improved!! I would hazard a guess that far more progress has been made before the start of the season than most of us expected.

Genuine question. Are most of the seats going to be kept dry on rainy days, obviously dependant on the direction of the rain? It is difficult to see the aspect of the roof from the pictures about and I haven't been down to look for a while. It looks like the roof may fall level with the front row.

The prevailing winds in this country are westerly, so any sitting in the east stand will feel the full force of anything coming from that direction. Anyone who sat in the old east stand able to comment?

[WadeyCobbler]

The prevailing winds in this country are westerly, so any sitting in the east stand will feel the full force of anything coming from that direction. Anyone who sat in the old east stand able to comment?

That's correct, although that's the same as it has always been and the same for all stadia as one stand will face West. The Saints biggest stand faces that direction and get's the sun, can't comment on how wet Saints fans get in that stand when it rains. My reservation is that there will be all the great facilities, hospitality, nice new bars etc yet few decent viewing seats as all single tier, except the boxes seats and thankfully after all these years the disabled platform.

[Ragdoll Cobbler]

Suggest the anti current owners listen to today's IACTM Podcast with Kelvin Thomas...

It's a very insightful discussion, esp from 58 minutes onwards 

[BedsCobb]

Thought I’d put Bubbles theory to the test, have a quick scout round the tinterweb and see if chimps are evolving quicker than we thought? The links gives figures of top football stadia per seat in the UK from 2009-2019. It comes out at 7,564.5 euros per seat. At the current GBP to Euro exchange rate of £0.86 the cost is £6,505.47 per seat.

The new capacity of the east stand is 2,374. Using Bubbles claim that the cost of the East Stand is £5.8 million, the fact that Buckinghams were paid £442,000 and were owed £1.9 million (see second link) the total build figure is £8,142,000. That equates to £3,429.66 per seat, around half the cost per seat of a top stadium according to the attached. I accept Sixfields is not a top stadium, but the figures below are taken from 2009-2019, and the refurb is post Covid in 2024. So on face value using these figures the development costs seem more than reasonable.

Perhaps Bubbles would like to put up alternative figures he used to support his claim that it is all somehow a rip off, that £5.8 million is rinsing the town and supporters? After all, it’s a bold statement to make without supporting figures, I do hope he’s not just pulled an assumption out of his arśe again? Don't hold your breath though, I think the evolutionary gap is widening. Ooo, ooo, ooo.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/968136/europe-average-cost-per-seat-in-stadiums-in-top-football-divisions/

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/nov/06/northampton-town-extinction-missing-millions

'I admit Sixfields is not a top stadium ' So why carry on with the rest of your nonsensical charade in trying to justify spending whopping 5.8m on just 10 boxes and 100 seats...
You can copy and paste all the titbits you can find but for £5.8m you could easily fit out a tiny non league stand and increase the capacity of the south stand...

£5.800.000 is a lot of money and could achieve a lot more than were getting if it had been used correctly.

[Observing]

'I admit Sixfields is not a top stadium ' So why carry on with the rest of your nonsensical charade in trying to justify spending whopping 5.8m on just 10 boxes and 100 seats...
You can copy and paste all the titbits you can find but for £5.8m you could easily fit out a tiny non league stand and increase the capacity of the south stand...

£5.800.000 is a lot of money and could achieve a lot more than were getting if it had been used correctly.

Yes quite right. 

[Tom]

'I admit Sixfields is not a top stadium ' So why carry on with the rest of your nonsensical charade in trying to justify spending whopping 5.8m on just 10 boxes and 100 seats...
You can copy and paste all the titbits you can find but for £5.8m you could easily fit out a tiny non league stand and increase the capacity of the south stand...

£5.800.000 is a lot of money and could achieve a lot more than were getting if it had been used correctly.

Maybe he should just keep quoting numbers (number of boxes, number of seats etc) he knows are wrong instead.

[Terryfenwickatemyhamster]

'I admit Sixfields is not a top stadium ' So why carry on with the rest of your nonsensical charade in trying to justify spending whopping 5.8m on just 10 boxes and 100 seats...
You can copy and paste all the titbits you can find but for £5.8m you could easily fit out a tiny non league stand and increase the capacity of the south stand...

£5.800.000 is a lot of money and could achieve a lot more than were getting if it had been used correctly.

He quoted facts and gave variables to accommodate our situation. Something you have never managed. I heard the other day, that you are under the same management as Duston. That would explain a lot.

[XVK]

I wonder what Gustavo thinks? 😉

[guest3694]

'I admit Sixfields is not a top stadium ' So why carry on with the rest of your nonsensical charade in trying to justify spending whopping 5.8m on just 10 boxes and 100 seats...
You can copy and paste all the titbits you can find but for £5.8m you could easily fit out a tiny non league stand and increase the capacity of the south stand...

£5.800.000 is a lot of money and could achieve a lot more than were getting if it had been used correctly.
[/quote

….. but you always fail to put things into perspective, we could (and probably should) still owe the council £10.25m and be sat facing a concrete shell with no seats. It’s a miracle we still have a football club after that fiasco 💁

[TVOR]

Suggest the anti current owners listen to today's IACTM Podcast with Kelvin Thomas...

It's a very insightful discussion, esp from 58 minutes onwards 

Good listen. He still seems pissed off by that group but also clear he knows they are a minority.
Dont fully agree with him on capacity increase and would like to see them increase North but I guess they have a list of priorities they are working through.

[BedsCobb]

He quoted facts and gave variables to accommodate our situation. Something you have never managed. I heard the other day, that you are under the same management as Duston. That would explain a lot.

He quoted the cost of a seat at the Tottenham or Everton stadium as if it has relevance to the cost of one in the tiny non league stand at Sixfields...

The structure was already in place, just needed fitting out.. £2m?
£3.8 could've been used to earn the Cobblers some extra gate revenues....£500k per season plus.
But this is the Cobblers 😀

[BackOfTheNet]

He quoted the cost of a seat at the Tottenham or Everton stadium as if it has relevance to the cost of one in the tiny non league stand at Sixfields...

The structure was already in place, just needed fitting out.. £2m?
£3.8 could've been used to earn the Cobblers some extra gate revenues....£500k per season plus.
But this is the Cobblers 😀

Would you mind awfully providing the calculations you use to come up with the oft quoted figure of 500k that we are missing out on each year?