[matt_p]

Took a few pics at yesterday's Bergkamp testimonial. It's the second time I've been to the stadium now, and it is stunning. Even though the capacity was capped at 54,000 yesterday for health and safety regs, the atmosphere was cracking - much better than Highbury.

Full marks to McAlpine for a fantastic job well done. On time and to budget, even with several time consuming delays forced on them by the council. Could teach those Aussies building Wembley a thing or two

[Abbeygoo]

Wow! That stadium looks amazing - will have to come and say hello when City play there. We'll be accomodating guests, we'll let you batter us three or four nil!

Very impressive...

pitch looks as good as Highbury which was always the best in the Prem by miles..

[JohnG]

I watched this on the telly and it looked excellent, fingers crossed for a Forest FA Cup run so we might have a chance of playing there

[Paulie-W]

I saw it in the TV too. Bergies testimonial. Looks fantastic

All i can say is that i hope Roman Ab is a jealous sort of person and digs deep to get Chelsea a nice new stadium.

[hottstuff]

Excellent pics matt.
Raging , i missed this.
Wasn't on telly here .

Stadium looks fantastic , looking forward to seeing Arsenal this season.

Any more pics?

[matt_p]

Originally Posted by hottstuff

Any more pics?

I've got a few more I can upload. I'll sort it out over my lunch break!

[hottstuff]

[thfccambs]

It's ok i suppose.

[hottstuff]

Originally Posted by hunts1uk

It's ok i suppose.

That's the spirit

[Abbeygoo]

Originally Posted by hunts1uk

It's ok i suppose.

What is the capacity of the new stadium? Is it twice as big as White Hart Lane?

[matt_p]

Here's a few more. Haven't had a chance to colour correct or crop/edit, so they're 'as shot' straight from my camera.

[Abbeygoo]

Looks awesome - the only thing is when you look at the pictures via Imageshack you get a load of pop ups!

[hottstuff]

Brilliant thanks matt
It looks fabulous

[matt_p]

Originally Posted by Abbeygoo

What is the capacity of the new stadium?

60,000 vs. 36,240 for the Spuds

[Abbeygoo]

Originally Posted by matt_p

60,000 vs. 36,240 for the Spuds

Nice! Do you know what allocation the away fans will be given?

[matt_p]

Originally Posted by Abbeygoo

Looks awesome - the only thing is when you look at the pictures via Imageshack you get a load of pop ups!

I know... sorry about that. I don't often use photo hosting sites, so I don't know who the good ones are.

If anyone wants the full res jpegs or canon RAW files for any pics, PM me.

[matt_p]

Originally Posted by Abbeygoo

Nice! Do you know what allocation the away fans will be given?

I don't honestly know the figures, but if you look at this photo:

http://img53.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dpp0010hc2.jpg

the away fans are situated around that tunnel at the opposite far corner of the stadium.

[daniel_owen_uk]

Dennis who? haha serioulsy though nice ground.

[tonyli3]

Originally Posted by Abbeygoo

Nice! Do you know what allocation the away fans will be given?

19 seats and no dirty jeans allowed

[Abbeygoo]

Originally Posted by tonyli3

19 seats and no dirty jeans allowed

That would be enough for :

Middlesbrough
Fulham
Bolton
Blackburn

[thfccambs]

Originally Posted by matt_p

60,000 vs. 36,240 for the Spuds

Not our fault the council won't let us build at the moment.We will have to move at some point.

We had nearly 50,000 season ticket applications this year so at least we could fill it ever week.
Safety reason you never sold 6,000 tickets LMAO.

[tonyli3]

Originally Posted by Abbeygoo

That would be enough for :

Middlesbrough
Fulham
Bolton
Blackburn

LOL! One of my m8's supports Fulham and he has enough trouble finding Craven Cottage every other week!

[matt_p]

Originally Posted by hunts1uk

We had nearly 50,000 season ticket applications this year so at least we could fill it ever week.
Safety reason you never sold 6,000 tickets LMAO.

If you want to quote numbers, we've got a waiting list for season tickets of around 35,000. Add to that the season ticket holders we've already got (around 35,000) and that's 70,000 people willing to come to every home match.

Add to that our silver memberships (who get first dibs at the seats not allocated to season ticket holders) and then red memberships (who get second dibs after silver), and it's fairly safe to say we've got enough fans to make sure the stadium stays full.

The Bergkamp testimonial sold out way before it got through to red memberships. As uefa.com puts it,

For security reasons Arsenal have only been allowed to sell 54,000 tickets for Bergkamp's testimonial against AFC Ajax, his first club, and not surprisingly the allocation has been snapped up.

http://www.uefa.com/magazine/news/Ki...Id=438410.html

Chin up mate. When you come down to the Grove, just imagine the seats are white and blue and you'll see what you could have had if your board were as on the ball as ours (no pun intended)

[Abbeygoo]

It's perfectly normal and common sense for the ground to open at less than full capacity. The ground must be issued with a safety certificate prior to opening and for this to be granted a full event must take place at 90% capacity first.

The same thing happened when we moved to the City of Manchester stadium - we had a friendly against Barcelona before opening the week after with the Premiership game against Portsmouth.

Arsenal should have no problems filling the ground, week in and week out. I just hope (unlike Ugh-nited) that you give a decent away support allocation as this can make or break the atmosphere inside such a big ground.

[thfccambs]

Just a shame you have to pay for it now.

[thfccambs]

Originally Posted by Abbeygoo

Arsenal should have no problems filling the ground, week in and week out. .

Unlike City.

[Abbeygoo]

Originally Posted by hunts1uk

Unlike City.

It would be great for Spurs if they could get anywhere near our average gate - go on, give me the sob story about the council again. Look at the teams who have built new grounds in recent years, why can't Spurs?

You're right, our ground holds a shade under 48,000 and our average last season was 44,500 - what a terrible state of affairs, eh?

[overkill]

Originally Posted by hunts1uk

Not our fault the council won't let us build at the moment.We will have to move at some point.

We had nearly 50,000 season ticket applications this year so at least we could fill it ever week.
Safety reason you never sold 6,000 tickets LMAO.

Yeah, but all of them thought it was the queue for council housing!

[JohnG]

I'm amazed that Spurs haven't moved away from WHL as it's not exactly tube friendly as far as I can remember. The last time I went there with Forest was for a Sunday Cup match and we parked near the ground, it took over an hour to even get out of the car park.