Why did we move from Filbert Street

[theessexfox]

Doing a geography essay on stadium relocation, and as I'm not old enough nor local enough to remember why we moved, can someone help me out?

I need to know:

a) Reasons – Include thorough details about why the change in location took place. Push and Pull factors – what made the club want to leave their old stadium and what were the attractions of the new site? Include quotes if you can.

b) Impacts - How might different groups of people feel about the move?

E.g. locals, business people, the police, long-term season ticket holders

And perhaps the same for the renaming of the stadium.

Cheers

[MONreborn]

Wish my essays at uni were so interesting. We had been a pl club for 4 years so to push on and j crease revenues a bigger stadium was needed. Reasons for a move included booming house prices so costly to purchase houses backing onto the away end and behind the north stand. That's started you off!

[theessexfox]

Wish my essays at uni were so interesting. We had been a pl club for 4 years so to push on and j crease revenues a bigger stadium was needed. Reasons for a move included booming house prices so costly to purchase houses backing onto the away end and behind the north stand. That's started you off!

Thanks, its only a couple of pages, in the sort of design that would go in a matchday programme.

[mrsizzett]

all i remember is they wanted to increase the stadium capacity by extending Filbert st, but would involve knocking down the terraced houses, all home owners were offered a decent pay off for their houses, but some of them wouldnt agree to it so couldnt go ahead

might be something online about it......

renaming it to Walkers stadium was a 100 % no from the fans too, we wanted Filbert or Fosse in the name of it..... but obviously money talks and we lost !

good luck with your essay

[Guest shearfox]

Increase stadium capacity and new facilities.

[Bellend Sebastian]

The main reason was capacity - it was less than 21,000 (I think) when it went all seater and when we were in the Premier League it would often sell out for even relatively unglamorous fixtures. When the likes of the Man Utds came to town you could have probably sold it out twice over.

The main barrier to redeveloping the ground was the row of terrace houses that backed on to the East Stand (the Shed), but I don't know whether attempts were made to buy these up. I heard at the time that there were people living in several of them that would never have entertained the thought of moving out, but no idea if that was true. It took them ages to select the current site - at one point they were considering putting the new ground somewhere completely different - there was quite a bit of talk of it being moved to Beaumont Leys, and there was another strong contender but hopefully someone else will remember where that was

[ithuriel]

Filbert St. simply was too small and required a lot of cash to get it to the size the board thought was adequate.

The capacity when it closed was 21,500 maximum if i remember correctly.

The Filbert street end was too small a patch of land to do much with and the east stand needed all the houses behind it to be brought and demolished to make enough room to expand there.

The owners of those properties were rumoured to want an awful lot of cash and it was proving difficult to get the planning permission to i believe.

At the time O'niell was here there was a grand scheme to have a huge stadium across the canal that would have cost a small fortune.

Towards the end of our time in the top flight at that time the land where the stadium is now situated became available after Morrisons could not get planning permission due to Sainsburys being just down the road so we built a new stadia and entered a decade of craptastic football bar the odd season

Personally i would have preferred to stay at Filbo but it was not to be.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Just make sure you don't write that it was to get bigger crowds through the doors!

[Karljohn]

Ran out of room on 3 sides of the ground, in the early 80s the club owned most of the houses on Burnmoor St I Believe but the Shipman regime sold them, we couldnt extend the double decker due to the substation behind and Filbert St only chnage was the executive boxes put in during the 70s again any extensions scuppered by houses.

The Carling Stand was huge, and I believe we also looked at selling it to Rotherham for about 1/10th of its cost, but the logisitics and cost associated with dismnatling, transporting and erecting again proved too much.

I might be slightly out with some of the above, im sure some of the guys on here can give you much more.

Capacity was reduced to just short of 22000 when it went all seater, you could add another 10000 to that for most of the period from the 70s onwards, im not saying we would get 32000 in, but there was room for it, I think the biggest gate I ever saw at filbert st was Burnley in 82/83 season which was just over 30000. Again I believe the official capacity throughout the late 70s and 80s was 32k, the kop could take around 6000 downstairs with pens 1 and 4 being the biggest.

[purpleronnie]

Filbert St. simply was too small and required a lot of cash to get it to the size the board thought was adequate.

The capacity when it closed was 21,500 maximum if i remember correctly.

The Filbert street end was too small a patch of land to do much with and the east stand needed all the houses behind it to be brought and demolished to make enough room to expand there.

The owners of those properties were rumoured to want an awful lot of cash and it was proving difficult to get the planning permission to i believe.

At the time O'niell was here there was a grand scheme to have a huge stadium across the canal that would have cost a small fortune.

Towards the end of our time in the top flight at that time the land where the stadium is now situated became available after Morrisons could not get planning permission due to Sainsburys being just down the road so we built a new stadia and entered a decade of craptastic football bar the odd season

Personally i would have preferred to stay at Filbo but it was not to be.

I didnt have a problem with the move I just wish a little thought had gone into the design.

[Happy Fox]

I didnt have a problem with the move I just wish a little thought had gone into the design.

Likewise although having said that when the extension does happen, it will look much better.

[Danny the Fox 95]

I miss Filbert St, I was very young when I went, but I can still remember it, the atmosphere, the tiers everything you would want for a football ground!

Why couldn't we just extend the capacity a d make it bigger?

[theessexfox]

Thanks everyone - how did this affect long-term season ticket-holders, and businessmen, etc.

[Karljohn]

Thanks everyone - how did this affect long-term season ticket-holders, and businessmen, etc.

I dont think it had much impact on long term or even short term ST Holders, the postcode stayed the same.

Try this http://www.lcfc.com/...,,10274,00.html

In terms of business, the old filbert street was even rebranded to be called "the city business stadium"! is was antiquated inside, and wouldnt be the greatest setting in order to entertain clients, obviously the king dong has much more in terms of facilities.

Years ago the extent of LCFC commercial arm went no further that a tiny club shop called "promotions" which had just about enough room for a few scarves, programmes etc, you couldnt swing a cat. commercial activities would probably be a golf day or a guest speaker in the belvoir suite! now its a different ball game. Big sponsors like Kirby and West, Walkers etc would maybe give you a better insight into how it changed their business relationship with LCFC.

[Horibbly Wrong]

Martin O'Neill used to say that he brought new signings / visitors out backwards so they could see the main stand rather than the shed..

I dont think it had much effect on local businesses due to the relatively same location of the place. Maybe hooliganism dropped off around the ground a little due to the open space and lack of dimly-lit streets to hide in

[Houdini Logic]

I didnt have a problem with the move I just wish a little thought had gone into the design.

Yep, very inconsiderate of them not to stick any pillars or stands in the way of my view...

[nuttytimmy]

Like others have said, we had become established in the PL and it seemed only right to aim for a larger capacity at our ground. The issues were, as already discussed, in the ownership of land around the site and the constraints of it. One solution would have been to move the whole stadium back into the car park, but this was quickly dismissed due to cost. In any case, neither the Filbert St end nor the Double Decker could be built any further back due to Filbert St itself and the substation, which still operates.

The original plans once a stadium move was announced would be a 40-odd thousand seater stadium on Bede Island South, where the new housing development now stands. This could have seen a whole complex centred around the new stadium, akin to the Ricoh Arena. However, for various reasons this failed to materialise and, after the closure of PowerGen's site on Raw Dykes Road it was decided that the current site would be chosen, with the ground at a reduced capacity. The decision to move to a new stadium was taken after the departure of MoN, under P***r T****r, hence our decline corresponding directly with the move into the then-Walkers Stadium.

It did see good Premiership football and full attendances for a couple of seasons - the record, beaten only this term by the visit of Real Madrid, stood from a fixture against Newcastle in those first few years - but has since failed to live up to its promise. Only the recent investment by AFA/King Power has seen it looking better than the tired and uncared-for white elephant it was fast becoming.

That it has been sited where it is has hampered the opportunity to impact on local business, with the redevelopment of Bede Island (mixed tenure housing/technology park/de Montford University) and expansion of Freemans Common (Morrisons, Odeon, etc.) doing far more for the local economy than the expansion of the football club into the now-King Power Stadium has to date. Indeed, its only contribution is the erection of the Holiday Inn Express adjacent to the ground, with subsequent development along Raw Dykes Road firmly tied to what existed before (car dealerships, gym, stationery warehouse).

I would like to see the rest of the PowerGen buildings (behind the East Stand) developed by the club, utilising it as a community sports facility (astroturf pitches, etc.) or for shopping and eating. The problem with the latter, of course, is that the stadium is so far removed from the city centre.

[Kitchandro]

Likewise although having said that when the extension does happen, it will look much better.

Knowing the club they will try and make it as unnoticeable and boring as possible.

Things never change.

[Guest Bilo]

I didnt have a problem with the move I just wish a little thought had gone into the design.

Agree.

I'd have loved something with four distinct stands, or at least a clearly defined main stand rather than what we ended up with.

A smaller version of FC Köln's Rhein Energie Stadion with four double deckers and the lower tier connected would have looked great.

[davieG]

The main reason was the opposition from a local protest group OFFSIDE supported by Councillor Mary Draycott . The last plan was turn the pitch 90 degrees and build a new Mainstand on Burnmoor St. This was rejected by the Council on the basis that it would block the daylight out from those living across the road on Burnmoor st .

[Kitchandro]

Agree.

I'd have loved something with four distinct stands, or at least a clearly defined main stand rather than what we ended up with.

A smaller version of FC Köln's Rhein Energie Stadion with four double deckers and the lower tier connected would have looked great.

It does look better than ours with the two tiers but isn't that symmetrical as well?

[Guest Bilo]

It is symmetrical but I just think it's a nice understated design.

The floodlight pylons in the corners with the swooping cables across the roof combined with the four separate stands just make it look very sharp in my opinion.

[DANGEROUS TIGER]

It does look better than ours with the two tiers but isn't that symmetrical as well?

very worrying, but I agree with you.

[Guy]

Interesting with the timing of your essay too - as it will be exactly a decade on this May from when we left Filbert Street behind - with our 2-1 win over Spurs being the final game played there under Dave Bassett and Micky Adams' experimental management......with Matt Piper being the goalscoring hero of an otherwise disastrous last season there that saw us relegated to the Championship before we even got to the new ground, then administration et al! I didn't even have to look that up on Wikipeda as I was 33 back in May 2002 so I remember it like it was about two days ago - obviously unlike yourself! I am surprised nobody else has remarked on the "decade ago factor" in this thread too but maybe most see it as being rather off topic, which I suppose it is in most ways!

[stourbridgefox]

I think we are a bit hard on the new ground.

I loved Filbert Street too but it was proving impossible to bring it into the modern era. Would we have received investment from King Power if we were still at Filbert Street? I think not. Would we have been able to pack 32000 in to see the odd game? We would not.

So what the new stadium gives us is potential. When we were in the Premier League in the new ground we were getting 32000 ish attendances. If we ever get there again then I would expect the same, and if we manage to spend a decade there then maybe we will have 45000 and being filling it for the odd match.

Filbert Street, God rest her soul, would have increasingly held the club back.