The World Famous City Ground - Home of the PROPER WORLD‘S OLDEST LEAGUE CLUB

[Statto]

That no alcohol rule in the stands is really outdated, at this point. There is a few chaps near me that come to games and you can tell they're half in the bag already, plus, you literally have a concourse a 15 second walk away where you can buy a beer. As long as they aren't glass bottles and are in plastic cups, what difference does it make?

Considering how long they cook them, you'd be in more trouble getting clobbered by an overcooked sausage roll at Forest than you would getting a plastic pint thrown at you. For the amount that swill they serve costs, you'd expect to order it to your seat and have them hold the cup while you drink it to be honest.

I don't drink at football, usually, because if I can, I try and avoid wading through other people's piss in the club toilets but it really don't make a difference. We've got the odd yobbo in the Lower Trent End, but it never gets tasty there.

I think you're probably right there.

Considering how when we were at uni people would just preload themselves with bottles of vod and then go out I don't think it matters that the football grounds don't serve alcohol. In that case it was largely because people didn't want to spend the drinks prices in the clubs but it's the same basic idea really. And it's not as though there aren't plenty of pubs or other places where you can get drinks and then go to the football and just have a few extra to last the match out.

It does have to be said that one of the advantages of not really going to matches is that when we're invariably shite, that blow can be softened with a drink or two at home...

 

[Rubics]

i don’t want drinking Pitchside / in your seats. Season ticket holders would be fine due to the fear of loosing your seat - it’s the knobheads that turn up to the tourist games or if we ever play the shaggers again that would be a problem. Stewards have a hard enough time dealing with certain situations as it is without throwing more alcohol into the mix. And this is from somebody who will do an all day session at the cricket a couple of times per season.

 

[Red Echo]

That no alcohol rule in the stands is really outdated, at this point. There is a few chaps near me that come to games and you can tell they're half in the bag already, plus, you literally have a concourse a 15 second walk away where you can buy a beer. As long as they aren't glass bottles and are in plastic cups, what difference does it make?

Considering how long they cook them, you'd be in more trouble getting clobbered by an overcooked sausage roll at Forest than you would getting a plastic pint thrown at you. For the amount that swill they serve costs, you'd expect to order it to your seat and have them hold the cup while you drink it to be honest.

I don't drink at football, usually, because if I can, I try and avoid wading through other people's piss in the club toilets but it really don't make a difference. We've got the odd yobbo in the Lower Trent End, but it never gets tasty there.

The advantages are negligible if you ask me. The downside is that it guarantees you a not insignificant amount of wallies throwing it around every time there's a sniff of a Forest attack.

 

[Master Yates]

i don’t want drinking Pitchside / in your seats. Season ticket holders would be fine due to the fear of loosing your seat - it’s the knobheads that turn up to the tourist games or if we ever play the shaggers again that would be a problem. Stewards have a hard enough time dealing with certain situations as it is without throwing more alcohol into the mix. And this is from somebody who will do an all day session at the cricket a couple of times per season.

I’d love to be able to drink a pint while watching the game, but I’d really not like to get f***ing covered in beer every time we score because some spotty little prick wants to show off on TikTok.

As ever, the morons would ruin it for the majority. No thanks.


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[MaxiRobriguez]

I'm up for drinking in the seats if it means there's always someone getting up from their seat and walking in front of Barry whilst the game is on.

 

[DizzyBala]

I think you're probably right there.

Considering how when we were at uni people would just preload themselves with bottles of vod and then go out I don't think it matters that the football grounds don't serve alcohol. In that case it was largely because people didn't want to spend the drinks prices in the clubs but it's the same basic idea really. And it's not as though there aren't plenty of pubs or other places where you can get drinks and then go to the football and just have a few extra to last the match out.

It does have to be said that one of the advantages of not really going to matches is that when we're invariably shite, that blow can be softened with a drink or two at home...

I'm sure for some games this season some of our support has been drinking TO watch the game, not to drown their sorrows.

@Rubics Thing is pal, the Sporting Events Act was written in 1985, at the height of football hooliganism and when Thatcherism was in full force. It prohibits drunken entry into a football ground, which by itself can be an arrest for disorderly behaviour.

The act actually states you can't drink during the restricted period, which is 15 minutes before the start of the event up until 15 minutes after. You also can't be in a room within the ground where you can see the event and consume alcohol as well.

Yet, you can still hear what is going on because you are literally feet away and you can still see it on the televisions in the concourse.

A law that was made during a really bad period for football violence is applicable today when the game is full of women, kids and even the elderly.

 

[Statto]

i don’t want drinking Pitchside / in your seats. Season ticket holders would be fine due to the fear of loosing your seat - it’s the knobheads that turn up to the tourist games or if we ever play the shaggers again that would be a problem. Stewards have a hard enough time dealing with certain situations as it is without throwing more alcohol into the mix. And this is from somebody who will do an all day session at the cricket a couple of times per season.

I don't actually think i'd mind it.

Surely even daytrippers with a booking history would run the risk of losing their ability to book again if they misbehaved.

Plus if it was limited to getting say 1/2 drinks pre-match and at HT then hardly anyone would be able to get lashed in the ground.

I'd actually say preloading was more of an issue. It's after all an offence for a licensee to serve someone who is clearly intoxicated, but off licensed premises is clearly impossible to control.

 

[Redemption]

I'd actually say preloading was more of an issue. It's after all an offence for a licensee to serve someone who is clearly intoxicated, but off licensed premises is clearly impossible to control.

It's actually illegal to enter a football stadium in the football league and EPL drunk.

The Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985 prevents drunken entry into a football ground - the coppers can nab you for disorderly behaviour.

When they were bringing in the Act, there was a call to close boozers on matchdays. But the government resisted this because of the control.

They even knew, when they were discussing the Act in parliament, that hooligan firms were already using private mini-bus hire to avoid the drinking bans on the football specials.

So they knew there was a limit to what they could control even before they implemented the Act.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

It's technically illegal to attend most public events drunk, but f***ing good luck policing it

 

[Strummer]

What you actually need at the WFCG is this fella:

He wanders about with a big tank of bier, and fills you up from his hosepipe (phnarr) without having to leave your seat. Also this happens during the match (unlike this photo, which was about an hour before kickoff).

 

[Mr. Blonde]

What you actually need at the WFCG is this fella:

View attachment 37594

He wanders about with a big tank of bier, and fills you up from his hosepipe (phnarr) without having to leave your seat. Also this happens during the match (unlike this photo, which was about an hour before kickoff).

Was that at half time?

Not being funny Strummer but that looks depressing as f***!

 

[Strummer]

Was that at half time?

Not being funny Strummer but that looks depressing as f***!

No, as per post, it was about an hour before kickoff. They have the guy with the tank, topping up your bier, they also now (more frequently) have people wandering about with trays of pre-pulled biers (it is all Stuttgarter Hofbräu) and you hand over €5 and they hand you a plastic cup with a half-Liter of bier.

It just saves having to go down to the concourse and join the half-time scrum for the bar (which, in typical German fashion, is never that bad; the Neckarstadion has a system in the bars where they pour loads of biers in advance, so just hand one over to you when you poll-up, to make it faster).

I can easily get from my seat in the Haupttribune to the nearest bar, and back to my seat again at half time, with a fresh bier, with all the crowds, in about five minutes.

Of course, they also do the famous „Bier Carrier“ which is the clever cardboard holder that allows one to purchase six biers at once, and then folder the carrier around them and carry them back to your seat, one-handed. I can neither confirm, nor deny, that I might have done exactly that. Once. Honest.

Bursting for a piss afterwards, though.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

No, as per post, it was about an hour before kickoff. They have the guy with the tank, topping up your bier, they also now (more frequently) have people wandering about with trays of pre-pulled biers (it is all Stuttgarter Hofbräu) and you hand over €5 and they hand you a plastic cup with a half-Liter of bier.

It just saves having to go down to the concourse and join the half-time scrum for the bar (which, in typical German fashion, is never that bad; the Neckarstadion has a system in the bars where they pour loads of biers in advance, so just hand one over to you when you poll-up, to make it faster).

I can easily get from my seat in the Haupttribune to the nearest bar, and back to my seat again at half time, with a fresh bier, with all the crowds, in about five minutes.

Of course, they also do the famous „Bier Carrier“ which is the clever cardboard holder that allows one to purchase six biers at once, and then folder the carrier around them and carry them back to your seat, one-handed. I can neither confirm, nor deny, that I might have done exactly that. Once. Honest.

Bursting for a piss afterwards, though.

As it should be!

 

[Mr. Blonde]

No, as per post, it was about an hour before kickoff

Apologies mate you're quite right I didn't see this

 

[YellowBelly Red]

It's technically illegal to attend most public events drunk, but f***ing good luck policing it

One of my friends got arrested at Sunderland years ago. He was pissed after an all nighter, when he got on the bus to go to the game. Slept to Darlington, then proceeded to refill his tanks at the lunchtime stop. He waited until 10 minutes before KO, then attempted to walk over the car park to the turnstiles. The police just watched him veer this way, then that way, eventually get through the turnstiles, where he was promptly arrested for being drunk at a sporting event.

Drinking in the stands.....absolutely not. I attend Trent Bridge and you can be up and down all day, as people go and fetch beer. It gets more raucous as the day goes along, and beer ends up everywhere. You have beer fountains running down the stands, after it has been spilt, and its just horrible.

 

[Barry]

I'm up for drinking in the seats if it means there's always someone getting up from their seat and walking in front of Barry whilst the game is on.

I'd be falling out every game.

Daytrippers plus beer in seats equals disaster.

Sorry football fans can't be trusted, I'd go one step further and ban alcohol in the grounds full stop.

Would make going for a piss or getting in your seat quicker at half time or pre game with the lack of space we have in the concourses.

The exodus for beer in the ground around the 40 minute mark is a joke already

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[Barry]

No, as per post, it was about an hour before kickoff. They have the guy with the tank, topping up your bier, they also now (more frequently) have people wandering about with trays of pre-pulled biers (it is all Stuttgarter Hofbräu) and you hand over €5 and they hand you a plastic cup with a half-Liter of bier.

It just saves having to go down to the concourse and join the half-time scrum for the bar (which, in typical German fashion, is never that bad; the Neckarstadion has a system in the bars where they pour loads of biers in advance, so just hand one over to you when you poll-up, to make it faster).

I can easily get from my seat in the Haupttribune to the nearest bar, and back to my seat again at half time, with a fresh bier, with all the crowds, in about five minutes.

Of course, they also do the famous „Bier Carrier“ which is the clever cardboard holder that allows one to purchase six biers at once, and then folder the carrier around them and carry them back to your seat, one-handed. I can neither confirm, nor deny, that I might have done exactly that. Once. Honest.

Bursting for a piss afterwards, though.

We haven't the mentality for that here, Duff man would be booted down the stairs for bantz

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[Lady Penelope]

They can still use it for athletics and a number of other things. The versatility of the stadium is pretty impressive. What were they meant to do when hosting the Olympics? It was built pretty cheaply when compared to Beijing.

It's awful as a football stadium and the way costs have been 'spread' means that every taxpayer has contributed. White Elephant? Olympics? Ask Barcelona, ask Athens. It was always a daft idea to proceed without any sort of plan about what to do with the assets afterwards. I don't think they thought they's they'd get the gig. A bit like Brexit really "oh s**t, we've won, what do we do now?".

 

[Statto]

One of my friends got arrested at Sunderland years ago. He was pissed after an all nighter, when he got on the bus to go to the game. Slept to Darlington, then proceeded to refill his tanks at the lunchtime stop. He waited until 10 minutes before KO, then attempted to walk over the car park to the turnstiles. The police just watched him veer this way, then that way, eventually get through the turnstiles, where he was promptly arrested for being drunk at a sporting event.

Drinking in the stands.....absolutely not. I attend Trent Bridge and you can be up and down all day, as people go and fetch beer. It gets more raucous as the day goes along, and beer ends up everywhere. You have beer fountains running down the stands, after it has been spilt, and its just horrible.

If you could only get a drink before the match (with them stopping say 10 mins before so people could get to their seats) and at half time then that would restrict the people getting up and down in the middle of the match to get another drink - and also reduce the amount people were drinking as you wouldn't be able to carry a massive tray of pint glasses to your seat at half time.

 

[REDDERS78]

Now that we have established that its cheaper to drink beer in Vietnam than at the City Ground I feel a lot better about the redevelopment plans

 

[Lady Penelope]

The problem with the „London Stadium“ is that it was an architectural compromise, with central funding only available if athletics were considered a permanent part of the post-Olympics usage.

With the greatest of respect for athletics, you are not going to regularly fill a 60k-plus stadium unless the event is the Olympics, so what should have happened is money funded to properly establish (or refurbish) a venue for athletics, and then the stadium be properly redeveloped for football only usage. But it wasn’t, because of the aforementioned compromise, so you end up with a stadium that is unsuited to football, and when used for athletics, is barely half full.

This is why in Europe, many football clubs who have previously shared stadia with athletics, have instead opted to build their own, pure-football venues - FC Bayern and Juventus went down this route, and its one reason why Paris St. Germain have (so far…) refused multiple offers to move to the Stade de France, a significantly larger venue than their current Parc des Princes home.

Here in Germany, Hertha Berlin have planned for some years to move from the Olympiastadion to a purpose-built football stadium (their relegation last season put the kybosh on that for a bit though). And my own local side when redeveloping the Neckarstadion for the World Cup in 2006, removed athletics provision entirely, demolishing the running track and moving the four stands closer to the playing surface, work which has been extended for this summer‘s Euro 2024.

The two sports really don‘t mix, unless you want a completely messy compromise that does not really suit either one. West Ham effectively accepted this by taking on the „London Stadium“, whereas other potential football club tenants (was it not offered to Spurs as well at one point?) took a swerve.

Even Manchester City‘s „Etihad Stadium“, which previously hosted the Commonwealth Games, was remodelled to remove most of the athletics stuff to make it more suitable for Football.

Absolutely correct.

 

[Lady Penelope]

Re the Spurs ground, I have a colleague who has supported them all his like. He does not like the new place, not at all, despite the facilities. He argues that the 'old' WHL had history, character (it was a unique stadium) and like a classic car, it had a 'smell' to it.

I asked if he would prefer to go back to the old stadium (not possible of course) and he surprised me by saying 'no', despite all that he had said about it. I asked why? He said the new place is designed to generate income, it is working, and that is necessary. The new fans, the younger fans, do not remember the look and feel of the old WHL so it's not a problem for them.
Food for thought.

 

[Quntib Hollox]

Re the Spurs ground, I have a colleague who has supported them all his like. He does not like the new place, not at all, despite the facilities. He argues that the 'old' WHL had history, character (it was a unique stadium) and like a classic car, it had a 'smell' to it.

I asked if he would prefer to go back to the old stadium (not possible of course) and he surprised me by saying 'no', despite all that he had said about it. I asked why? He said the new place is designed to generate income, it is working, and that is necessary. The new fans, the younger fans, do not remember the look and feel of the old WHL so it's not a problem for them.
Food for thought.

Spurs match day revenue has gone from £1M to £7M. That is PER match.
The equivalent of being able to fund the purchase of a Lionel Messi every season.
Damn right they don’t want to go back to WHL.

 

[Strummer]

Spurs match day revenue has gone from £1M to £7M. That is PER match.
The equivalent of being able to fund the purchase of a Lionel Messi every season.
Damn right they don’t want to go back to WHL.

But this also shows you how constrained Forest are with the current facilities at the WFCG.

I refuse to believe there isn’t some way the current site could work better, if there were significant efforts put in to getting an agreement with all the interested parties?

Otherwise, it’s just again justification for moving the club to some out-of-town shithole.

 

[Redemption]

Food for thought

Having a Greg's pasty shop on the corner of Pride Park is also food for thought, just a different kind of proposition.

If 'new stadium' was a spectrum between Pride Park and Tottenham Stadium, considering all the factors, it would depend where on this spectrum Forest's new stadium would be.

We all know what the best case scenario is. The problem is that we also know what the worst case is too.