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Soccer

Requiem for the bowl-shaped stadium?

One talking point that came up on this week's Team 33 was Daniel Taylor's piece about the ageing ...



Requiem for the bowl-shaped st...
Soccer

Requiem for the bowl-shaped stadium?

One talking point that came up on this week's Team 33 was Daniel Taylor's piece about the ageing Old Trafford stadium.

Manchester United's home ground is of course 110 years old. But certainly in comparison to new grounds like Tottenham's new state-of-the-art facilities, it does seem more rustic.

According to Taylor's Guardian piece, "the roof is so old and leaky" in the South Stand. That's not all with the writer citing that "Old Trafford has had long periods with a rodent infestation".

However, it's a classic ground and it remains the biggest in terms of capacity among Premier League clubs.

Bowl Stadiums

A lot of the new age of stadiums in the Premier League and beyond have gone for the 'bowl design'.

"Are we looking at in 20 years time where every single top flight football stadium will be a bowl design?" asked Joe Coffey during the discussion.

"Obviously, with the exception of Anfield and Old Trafford.

"I can understand the reasoning behind it but in my opinion, that's where the character is being lost in a lot of the stadia. Particularly, in the new stadia.

"With Spurs, in fairness they've made a big deal of the embankment and the fact that they have one continuous stand like the one at Dortmund. Like the Yellow Wall. So it might not impact them and maybe we'll look at theirs as one with character."

Ciaran Bradley added that it may an example that we are "reaching Phase 2 of new stadia", where atmosphere is being taken more into account in contrast to The Emirates for example.

Joe also had a query about expansion of a bowl stadium like the Emirates and how structurally possible that is.

"How do you make that stadium bigger? I mean, you can't knock down one stand like they would have done in previous times to build a new one."

You can listen to the full chat right below, hereor on iTunes.

 

Requiem for the bowl-shaped stadium?

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Also this week, I spoke to Welcome To Hell author John McManus about Turkish football:

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Bowl Stadium Daniel Taylor Manchester United Off The Ball Old Trafford Stadium Team 33 The Guardian Tottenham