Worst playing surface in Super League resembling a peat bog for most of the season. Still, it reminds me of the good old days when a lot of playing surfaces looked like that, particularly in soccer. But you cannot beat tradition, history, crap pitch and a real crackling old time atmosphere, none of the new grounds have it

Pissing against a Wall, standing on a crumbling terrace, catering from the 1800s, no facilities. Tradition and history, all at £25 a pop.

What a load of gash. Headingley is fast becoming the poor relation of RL grounds.

I see what you're saying G1 I do...but...You see so many of these new stadium's lose it's "spark"

Take the Arsenal's stadium for example, it's very pretty to look at but there's zero atmosphere.

I've only ever been past on the train.

I don't think there's any issue with Atmosphere at Hull or Warrington. Having seen St Helens new place I doubt there will be any less atmosphere there.

Wigan's lego construction with gaps in the corners doesn't help but I always watch our games there in the pub on Sky anyway so I don't care?

Did replacing the crumbling Eastern terrace with the Carnegie Stand improve or ruin Headingley's atmosphere?

No it didn't but having a higher roof compared to what we have now on the South Stand will affect things I would of thought?

Notcied the attendance at HQ is now back up to 21,500

Which further emphasises the point that GH was originally talking bollox when he said a new South Stand had to be built and built NOW, due to safety certificate for the old stand running out and not being renewed.

patchedupstander.com

It could be that when talking about replacing the South Stand, we was talking in terms of financially.

To fix issues may have cost say £2m, and would need approx £1m each year to keep it open, and to replace the whole stand would be £8m, then it would seem essential to replace the stand rather than pour money down the drain for an old stand which isn't up to scratch.

If the funding has gone, or the planning has not been approved then we have to go back to the undesirable mend and make do approach

I know this all part of your no.1 & GH doubting troll persona, but I also think you are choosing to ignore the actual situation with the long term condition and structural integrity of the SS.

As I have posted many times, the SS is no longer really fit for modern sports spectators purposes and structurally, the old girl is on her last legs too. I know that the structural engineers at LCC are concerned about the longer term structural integrity of the stand and that is why those two lower areas of the stand were closed two years ago. The advice from them to GH will indeed have been that the best course of action is to replace the stand and they will not continue to issue a safety cert indefinitely on the stand. Then of course, both the financial climate in respect of investors and sponsors and the alleged issues with the planners at LCC (trust me, I know how obstreperous they can be from direct experience!) meant that GH has probably had to go back and ask what possibly could be done to do to maintain a safety certificate on the stand. The answer from the engineers, I understand, is that you will have to do some structural strengthening work to our satisfaction, which has clearly now been done, and that has probably bought 3 to 5 years tops!

As an educated man you will know that structural engineers use the Greek lower-case symbol Gamma -ɣ and f to represent a factor of safety, and often the one factor of safety you will not see written down in a BS or Eurocode is the gamma - sleep at night factor, however it is a factor that most engineers are very familiar with! Was the SS in danger of imminent catastrophic collapse... no, of course not, with or without the structural work... but how long do you keep saying yes, this is ok, on an exposed and ageing structure where the public gather!

Quite interesting that IA!

Always good to have someone who actually knows what there going on about on these forums.

I think some of the older end want central heating putting in throughout HQ.

Thanks for the interesting information regarding the representational employment of lower case greek letters to denote safety factors among the structural engineering community. I didn't know that but you learn something new every day.

WRT to GH and his media posturings, what you need to remember is that we've now gone full circle on the Headingley rebuild scheme. Initially, it was the North Stand that was to be knocked down and rebuilt. When the funding for that fell through (someone else's fault obviously) the bad news was then immediately buried with a good news story of a brand new South Stand instead. Now that's fallen through (someone else's fault obviously) the bad news has been buried with a good news story of a brand new North Stand sometime in the future instead.

Even if I was inclined to invest in the buy-a-brick scheme for the North Stand, I'm guessing it'll end up being erected in my name posthumously, as I'm not expecting any work to begin there anytime soon.

I never quite grasped exactly what closing the front corners actually achieved ... but you might well be able to tell me.

I plan on falling through it and taking my compensation!

[urlhttp://www.superleague.co.uk/article/new-sponsorship-deal-helps-rhinos-complete-stand-work/24293[/url

Carlsberg!

Probably the best patched-up stand in the world.

Echoes of the long term Tetley's shirt sponsorship deal - presumably Carlsberg will be getting free advertising space, naming rights on the new stand etc?

Are you a Bradford Fan?

Whoosh!

Or, it's anticipated that a new South Stand won't be built in the next 8 years... at least.

It certainly looks like it ,dunnit?.Maybe we should have jumped in before Bradford and sold Headingley to the RFL and let them develop the place

Each to their own, but I'm not bothered whether I p1ss against a wall or a gold plated p1sspot, it all goes down the drain. As for catering, don't kid yourself a new stand will bring 100% Aberdeen Angus pies and top quality Belgian lager served in tulip shaped glasses. You'll still get pastry filled with slurry and urine in a plastic glass. As for facilities, what you after exactly ? Go to the KC stadium, Halliwell Jones or any of the new stadiums and you'll still queue into the 2nd half while spotty inept staff cough into your beer as they serve you (eventually). New grounds, same old problems. Oh and your $h1t will still stink in a new toilet.

Don't think there is anything wrong with the toilets. They are far better than they used to be (although they did have their own charm). And afaik, the food is franchised out to private caterers. It is crap though. The beer is not going to change as long as the Carlsberg deal is going, and don't expect anything other than tastless mass produced keg beer from the next brewer.

I agree that the ground is starting to look very tired and outdated, bar the Carnegie stand.

Totally agree. I'd rather stand in the old Southstand than sit at any of the soulless stadiums like DW Stadium and the KC stadium.

It looks like the club probably with help from Carlsberg has spent quite a bit on bringing the Stand up to health and safety standards,but there is going to come a day when doing that is not going to be good enough anymore,and if its not pulled down and rebuilt it will have to close permanantly.How long does planning permission last?

Only lasts for three years before you have to reapply.