AFCB is starting to out grow Dean Court

For the first time on Saturday I could clearly see that on such days with big football matches Dean Court is really beginning to feel the strain. Okay, it's not every week that AFCB play Liverpool but you can see that there is trouble ahead. It is beginning to look ever clearer that the club is starting to out grow the ground which is something that I didn't think would happen so quickly. AFCB has managed in the Championship when big teams have come down, but you can see that if the club went up another division it would not be able to sustain itself with a crowd of 12,000.

The Goldsands stadium was packed from early on Saturday.

While AFCB could have drawn a team like Liverpool at any stage of their previous 13 years or so since the new Fitness First and then Goldsands stadium has been built, it has rarely happened that a side has caused the ground to basically bulge at the seams. But that was the case on Saturday. The electronic hoardings were cramped in down the edges of the pitch, cameras had to be marooned in islands of seats and the car park had to be very carefully managed. As we left the ground it took almost an hour just to get to Wessex Way!

Is there a way to expand Dean Court while improving
traffic congestion around the ground?

The frustration of drivers and local residents will be hard to contain if and when this happens regularly and as a supporter I want the club to do well and to be able to host big football matches. We already know that the Legends Bar was closed in part because the team needed the extra space for match preparation and Hot radio is similarly under pressure to remain at the stadium. We also heard that Jeff Mostyn is looking at plans for a new slip road exit to the Wessex Way to ease congestion from the ground.  A new slip road appears to be heading up the agenda.

In such circumstances buying the stadium back may not be such a priority unless a new stadium with a bigger capacity can be built on the same land. Otherwise AFCB may find that it is looking for a new home and I got the feeling that such a consideration is not a wild pipe dream but a possibility that the club has to take seriously in the next few years. Success brings growth and we know that the Liverpool game could have been sold out two or three times over. But such new stadiums take years to get planning permission for and are fraught with costly planning applications, delays and possibly years when AFCB is still trying to fill a new stadium with enough supporters. 

Standing room at the edges.

Moreover, who would fund the project? Would Maxim Demin and his fellow board members support such a venture? We only have to look at Brighton's Amex stadium to know that such new stadiums are difficult to build, but in the long run it may be the option that the club ultimately goes for. At the moment the temporary stand at the South end is evidence that Dean Court is still in transition, but will expanding that stand to the same size as the North stand itself create problems over more numbers coming through the turnstiles?

There will come a tipping point when some kind of action is taken. The first has already begun with all available space at Dean Court being carefully monitored and ensuring that best is made of all resources at the club. The car parking is an ongoing discussion with local residents and the council as AFCB would still like to make use of all the space by the ground. It is evacuating the immediate vicinity of the ground that is the problem when there is a capacity crowd. I wish I knew the answers but there are cleverer people than me working on this aspect of AFCB every day I would imagine.

While it would break my heart to leave Dean Court I can clearly see the need for the situation to improve as the club continues to grow with more potential supporters becoming aware that they have an excellent footballing side on their doorstep.  

BREAKING NEWS: AFCB appear to be making a bid for Yann Kermorgant of Charlton Athletic.