New Ground/ Stands

Quoted from Poojah

I think our friend It Bites is referring to the very corner between the Main and the Osmond, an area of old terracing which is currently inaccessible because of the way it has been ‘caged in’.

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It’s years since I sat over that side of the ground, but you used to be able to see the fixings in the concrete where the old crush barriers used to be. You can see them when that part of the ground was in use in this photo.

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I’m not sure what year that is, but at a guess it’s late 80s or early 90s, pre-Taylor report. When I first started watching Town in 1992, I’m sure that area was in use then but I might be misremembering that through the eyes of a child.

I don’t know why that wasn’t converted along with the rest of the Osmond at the time, perhaps the angle of the corner terracing is too acute to accommodate seats. If it were possible, there would be quite a lot of work needing to be done to the terracing itself as you can’t just bolt seats onto old steps designed for standing.

Interesting idea though.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

We have talked about a new stadium many times but nonetheless it is always good to talk through the options, because like you say the owners will have some decisions to make.

Personally I think they will improve the capacity at Blundell park over the next year or two and see where we are at in say 5 years, both in terms of league standing and support numbers.

A new stadium is such a huge commitment and will take up so much of their time and energy I think it will wait until we are an established league club and all the other things in and around the club have been addressed.

As for a new stadium, if it is characterful, a thing of beauty sited in the right place with a healthy capacity and a jewel in Grimsbys crown then great. If they conclude we could only afford a soulless mecanno box then I would rather redevelop BP and use a new training complex to try to generate more income with conference rooms and public football pitches etc. All easier said than done but whatever they do is going to cost a fortune but I fully expect the owners to find every financial opportunity to share the cost.

Quoted from It Bites

Thank you 💝

Quoted from Poojah

No worries. I think I may have misremembered there being fans in there in my time watching Town though. I can’t remember that many truly packed out away ends in those days, largely as the Osmond will have held over 3,000 at the time with most of it standing, but Newcastle when they won promotion at BP certainly did and it doesn’t like like it was in use.

Probably tricky to bring an area of the ground which hasn’t been used in 30+ years back into action, but who knows.

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Also noticeable that the Osmond still had fences up. I didn’t think I’d ever seen that in my time watching live football, but apparently I have.

Hell of a team Newcastle had out that night. Probably the best I’ve seen Town face in a league game.

Quoted from It Bites

Was that when Newcastle had the bottom of the Findus ?

Quoted from Poojah

I’m not sure. I’d have been 7 or 8 and sat with my mum of all people in the Upper that night; one of the very rare occasions I can ever remember her going to a game.

The thing I remember most was just how many Geordie’s there were in there. I was too young to quite understand what a ‘Geordie’ was back then, I hadn’t even had chance to get into Byker Grove yet, but we were totally surrounded by people who I couldn’t understand a word they were saying. It was just noise, to my ears.

So not sure whether we gave them the lower but we may as well have done - they were everywhere!

Quoted from 1mickylyons

The Osmond  held around during 6k when it was standing with a few seats.  Newcastle were given half the lower they also got hundreds in the Main and a sizeable number in the Upper. At one point during the game around 100 or so where in the terracing with Town fans mainly in the corner between the Pontoon and Lower. They decided to make themselves known to a packed Pontoon and got very quickly removed after a brief but nasty skirmish. The gate officially was just over 14k in reality there were far more in the ground than the 17k V Spurs.I would guesstimate in excess of 10k Geordies got in that night