council want to talk to Town about new stadium

In the sixties, (god I feel old!), all the front gardens of the houses round the ground were rammed with pushbikes. Back then there wasn't so many cars, people use to bike everywhere. The householders use to charge a penny to look after your bike while you watched the game. They made a lot of money back then!

Quoted from Chrisblor

Yeah, seems as though a lot of car users feel entitled to a parking space within 5 minutes of Blundell Park half an hour before kickoff.

If you head towards Queen Mary Ave / Carr Lane there's usually loads of on street parking available, even this season, and it's only a 10-15 minute walk mostly through a park to get to Blundell Park. Think people are really overstating the parking issues this season personally.

This is my thing too…I literally never struggle to park, large crowd or not, simply by parking on Freeston St…as you say, if people are desperate to park on the door step then expect it to be difficult.

As I say though, the parking thing is a moot point in truth as we, and rightly so, will need to look at alternative solutions to getting people in to BP. Park and ride, buses, walking and so forth…

The location of a new ground would bring its own parking problem in Freemo or the docks. Only somewhere like Great Coates or Peaks Parkway would it not be a major problem. The docks and Freemo would only move the problem away from BP so the parking issue will not go away.

Does anybody know how many cars/vans there are that need parking spaces? I don't. A 7,000 gate would probably mean 1,500 - 2000 parking spaces but I'm guessing, allowing for buses and fans walking to the match. A 10,000 stadium with the extra 3,000 gates would mean perhaps another 1,000 parking spots.

Even with the best will in the world, you are not going to generate that number of parking places around BP,Freemo or the docks. Park and ride looks likely to be an option even though I can't see it popularity because of the time factor. The newly mooted car park at Grant Street might help but that has to be shared with day trippers to Cleethorpes.

Whichever option 1878 goes with the parking issue is not going to go away unless the new stadium is out of town.

Quoted from DB

Whichever option 1878 goes with the parking issue is not going to go away unless the new stadium is out of town.

I’d say that would bring its own problems parking wise. The more “out of town” the higher percentage of parking needs to be onsite. This makes getting in and out much more difficult. You only need to be near G******* P*** on a match day to appreciate that issue and that’s with one-fifth of the gate/cars we are hopefully talking about.

Quoted from LN8Mariner

I’d say that would bring its own problems parking wise. The more “out of town” the higher percentage of parking needs to be onsite. This makes getting in and out much more difficult. You only need to be near G******* P*** on a match day to appreciate that issue and that’s with one-fifth of the gate/cars we are hopefully talking about.

I agree with you, my only reason for suggesting out of town was from a congested parking situation in town.

Assuming the comments earlier are accurate, I suppose it depends what you want to do with the Main Stand, whether a full rebuild is necessary or whether you can do what is needed whilst retaining the bulk of the stand.

As it stands, the disabled facilities aren’t close to being acceptable, the toilets are Dickensian, about a third of the seats are restricted views, the stand isn’t safe enough to have advertising hoardings along the top and it’s an ongoing fire hazard. A lot of that could be addressed with some relatively minor work, you may want to replace the roof & supports, maybe even knock down that PA/observation block and extend up towards the Pontoon.

In a way we already have a sort of park'n'ride in Grimsby. Several large car parks in Grimsby town centre - multi story in Freshney place, Duchess Street, multi story adjacent to Doughty Road, Cartergate, one near Garden Street crossing. Those coupled with frequent buses from top town that go past the ground. There are also 2 large car parks off Freeman Street with a regular bus service ( No 3) that goes past the ground. There are lots of options but nobody seems to want to use them.

Quoted from rancido

In a way we already have a sort of park'n'ride in Grimsby. Several large car parks in Grimsby town centre - multi story in Freshney place, Duchess Street, multi story adjacent to Doughty Road, Cartergate, one near Garden Street crossing. Those coupled with frequent buses from top town that go past the ground. There are also 2 large car parks off Freeman Street with a regular bus service ( No 3) that goes past the ground. There are lots of options but nobody seems to want to use them.

There's the whole of the seafront and boating lake too, which isn't too busy over the winter months.

These problems exist what ever and wherever a stadium, or theatre for that matter are built. Having a venue of any kind anywhere will create these problems. The only way to solve traffic issues would be to not have any entertainment venues to go to.

When the pontoon was redeveloped didn't they just rip out the wood and replace it with concrete leaving the rest of the structure alone? Could they do the same with the main stand as a cheap option and maybe extend it towards the pontoon for extra capacity?

A new stadium will never get permission for thousands of parking spaces - planners and developers are under pressure to reduce parking spaces so that people are encouraged to use public transport and not arrive in cars.

The new Everton stadium is planned to be 52,000 rising to 62,000 and Liverpool council are actively planning to make it difficult to go to the stadium by private car but encouraging sustainable transport and park and rides etc

Any new Town stadium will have to have a plan for getting people in and out without using their cars. I think this actually makes Freemo/the docks a better prospect because there is existing public transport and space not too far away for a park and ride (up the A180 towards Gt Coates).

We might have to get used to parking a significant distance away from the ground and walking or taking a shuttle bus. But if you cycle to the match you'll get a spot by the door.