I woke up this morning to kindly receive a great gift in some pictures of Dean Court that I thought I would share with you all. Michael Dunne, the creator of All Departments, was busy yesterday catching up on the latest happenings at the ground and took the following pictures.
Make sure you have a listen to Michael's Episode 4 podcast if you have not already heard the interview with Tales from The South End. It is also available to hear on Cherry Chimes, just span down the right hand panel until you come to All Departments and the podcast bar.
All Departments' podcasts are free to listen to.#
I was suddenly faced with quite a few tweets as soon as the Championship fixtures came out from Charlton fans. They were very interested in coming to Dean Court for the first game of the season, but what they were most wanting to know is how many fans could get in the new temporary covered stand and would it all be for away fans?
All I could say is that no decision had yet been made on whether it was for Bournemouth fans, away fans or to be shared. While the stand will be covered, it will not have anything in the way of facilities so fans will have to visit the Main stand or the East stand for refreshments.
Charlton fans seemed surprised that it might not be for away fans and that they could still be squashed into part of the East stand, I began to think that it maybe that we will not see that many away fans at our ground next season simply because there will not be enough space for them.
We have been told the new South stand will hold 2350 people, increasing Dean Court's capacity to around 12,000. Rob Mitchell, AFCB's Commercial Director suggested at a recent AFC Business meeting that the capacity might only go up to 11,500.
If away teams ask for allocations of 2000 or more seats for fans I would expect that the South stand would be given up for away supporters alone. At least it would be easier to police than a split stand with both sets of supporters. I believe the east stand can hold around 1500 away supporters or so.
While our own AFCB season ticket sales continue to rise the need to find more home supporter space will put pressure on the club to restrict the amount of away supporters comming to the ground. We have some interesting decisions for the club to make on the temporary covered stand. What do you all feel about it? Does it give away teams an advantage if they have all of the temporary stand with their supporters all at one end? Are you happy with away fans being in the East stand?
New pictures of the Temporary stand preparations and the ground are now up on AFCB's facebook page today.
Neil Perret of the Echo broke the news on Twitter tonight that it had been agreed by the AFCB board that the club would have a temporary covered stand at the south end of Dean Court for the start of next season. I think most of us expected a temporary stand after Eddie Mitchell's words a few days ago about having second thoughts on a permanent stand if the capacity was going to be inadequate for what the club really needed in the Championship.
There is still much discussion to take place by the sound of things over which fans will be placed in the temporary stand. Perret said Eddie Howe would be consulted on whether it will be all away fans or if AFCB fans would fill seats in the stand.
I understand there are concerns over the small contingent of away fans from Championship clubs this last season. I expect the Echo will have a full story in the morning.
Meanwhile, I also saw pictures today of a new pitch being prepared at Dean Court so things are already getting underway for the pre-season friendlies and next season.
How do you feel about the temporary stand?
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