Never in this mess again

Interesting that you use the phrase 'put up with..'

Quoted from Chrisblor

I absolutely hated going to the MK Dons stadium this year - it's about 8 times bigger than it needs to be, surrounded by a gigantic expanse of carparks and shite chain retail outlets, and they wanted close to a tenner off you for the privilege of parking next to the stadium. They then had the cheek to shove us away fans up in a corner miles away from the pitch, with thousands of empty covered seats sat unused below us. It was a dreadful experience and absolutely something we should be looking to completely avoid emulating ourselves.

I'm not going to argue with you as your opinion is your opinion..

But I don't know where you tried to park, we were literally 20 yards from the gate and parked for free.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

I'm not going to argue with you as your opinion is your opinion..

But I don't know where you tried to park, we were literally 20 yards from the gate and parked for free.

I parked on street in the industrial area south of the stadium on street for free. The retail park has free car parking for customers, but the guidance issued by MK Dons on matchday parking explicitly prohibits match-going supporters from parking there without paying £8 in advance (or £10 on the day) and meant you simply got lucky and dodged a £60 parking fine - https://www.mkdons.com/club/visit-stadiummk/

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Interesting that you use the phrase 'put up with..'

It's walking from the car which is parked a reasonable distance from the stadium...its hardly one of life's insurmountable problems.

I suppose there are two main aspects to the effectiveness of a football ground; how well it works for the club commercially and how well it works for match-going fans.

The commercial side is quite tangible; how much money does it make the club inside and outside match days. Spurs’ ground is a case study in this regard, though admittedly it did cost a billion quid or so to build.

As for what makes a good match going-experience, there’s a degree of subjectivity about that depending on what you want. I remember going to Bolton’s ground as a 13 year old, for Town’s first away game of the 98/99 season (and Lee Ashcroft’s debut if memory serves) and being absolutely blown away by it. The modernity of the design was like nothing else I’d seen before, and the fact we were able to rock up in my old man’s old Volvo, park right next to the ground and nip for a Big Mac at the Maccies on the adjacent retail park was a huge bonus. I’d be a lot less excited about that away day as a 38 year-old, though.

Take MK Dons. Let’s just forget what they represent as a club for a moment. Forget how soulless Milton Keynes is. And forget the fact the ground is routinely 80% empty. For the sake of the argument, let’s pretend the opposite of all of those things are true.

In and of itself, it’s a quality stadium and it wouldn’t look out of place in the Premier League - but however you cut it, it’s  in a poor location. And that’s always going to be hard to recover from.

For me, a good new stadium in this day and age should be within walking distance of the town’s primary railway station, and the town’s core amenities - traditional pubs, restaurants, all that jazz. It should draw people into the town, not away from it. There are exceptions, like Brighton, where it just wasn’t feasible to build a ground in the city centre, but they atone for that well with free public transport.

Ultimately, whether Blundell Park constitutes a good away day largely depends on where it falls on the fixture list. A warm, summer’s day in August is going to be more pleasant than a cold, wet and windy evening in January. But in principle, being able to arrive on the train, have a stroll down the sea front, grab some decent fish and chips and a few pints before walking to the ground is a pretty good recipe as far as a Town of Cleethorpes / Grimsby’s size is likely to offer (not to mention being a lot cheaper than central London or any other major city in England for that matter).

Had our vain attempts to relocate to Great Coates or Peaks Parkway been successful, it would have been a disaster, with hindsight. Who truly wants plastic, suburban football with poor transport connections?

There’s a lot wrong with BP, especially commercially speaking, as our most recent accounts laid bare. But as others have pointed out, for all its obvious foibles, it offers a profoundly better overall footballing experience than a lot of grounds at and around this level. There’s an element of being careful what you wish for.

Quoted from Poojah

Had our vain attempts to relocate to Great Coates or Peaks Parkway been successful, it would have been a disaster, with hindsight. Who truly wants plastic, suburban football with poor transport connections?

York City's new stadium comes to mind

By all accounts a very well designed stadium, but out of the city, in a soulless retail park with not a pub in sight. Drive there, drive back, do not pass go (or any of great things you might actually visit York for, not least great pubs)

A fantastic thread guys and well done to all who have contributed with some well thought out comments. For what it's worth simple maths it's £23 for a match ticket £75 for a corporate match ticket clearly ALL football clubs need to maximise corporate. The problem is was and always will be the punters want to enjoy the football Town's gates the past 2 seasons have been astounding given the fayre on offer.Personally I feel those gates are largely support of 1878 but how long will it remain if the football doesn't improve 🤔
I genuinely hope this time next year were challenging for the play offs and I see no reason whatsoever why that isn't a possible scenario. C'mon GTFC let's roll

Quoted from MarinerWY

York City's new stadium comes to mind

By all accounts a very well designed stadium, but out of the city, in a soulless retail park with not a pub in sight. Drive there, drive back, do not pass go (or any of great things you might actually visit York for, not least great pubs)

York’s a great example. Bootham Crescent was a massivevshíthole - much more so than BP, but I used to love that away day.