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Post by Antonio Fargas on Aug 5, 2014 9:37:54 GMT
How on earth can anyone love that horrible, run down dump?! Lets list the things that make this place a dump of a football ground shall we... First and foremost it is very clearly a rugby ground disguised as a football stadium! From the large spaces behind the nets to the very ugly looking half length centenary stand, the whole places still reeks of rugby! I think that is the main reason I have never felt at home there, because it always felt like we were borrowing a rugby teams home until we found something of our own.. Fast forward almost two decades... The west stand, can anyone explain to me why on earth we decided after moving in to build a bloody cricket pavilion where a modern football stand should have gone?! I have never ever understood that! It literally couldn't look any more out of place could it?! Looks like it was picked up on the cheap when Lords was having a refurb and dumped at the Memorial Stadium, Bristol. Just awful looking and ironically enough it is the most modern/costly part of the ground as far as we are concerned! The PA system, do I need to add anything to this? Just plain awful! The scoreboards, I am yet to find a superhuman being in the centenary stand who has been able to read the tiny little 1 meter long score board placed at the top of the West Stand and I am sure the same applies on the opposite side of the ground. Just awful and bloody embarrassing! Speaking of scoreboards... Our old one is just as embarrassing! Why has that never been fixed?! It has been stuck on the same thing for as long as I can now remember! I wouldn't mind if it were stuck on 'Gas 1 - Robbins 0' or something else memorable like that, but no! It is instead seemingly stuck on some sort of bloody Japanese riddle! Again, so embarrassing! Santas Grotto... Now when I say Santas grotto I am not just talking about Santas grotto really, but also all of the other hideous out buildings as well! Be that the match day ticket collection point or the merchandise caravan, it all just feels temporary, cheap and nasty! Again, a complete embarrassment! And finally, the real embarrassment of the Mem for me... The South Stand! Every time we open that up for away fans I literally cringe at the thought of them all sat in their wetting themselves at the state of our rickety old tent we call a stand! Can you imagine the laugh the Southampton fans must have had for example?! Again, this was a so called 'temporary measure'... 18 years odd ago!!! For all of the above and many many more I hate the dump and certainly won't miss it to be honest! But of all of the above, the one that really seals my dislike of the place is the fact that it looks and feels like a rugby stadium and thus has never ever felt like home for me, more like we were borrowing a pitch for a while... or 18 years as it transpired. So no, I don't love it and can't wait to leave. While I agree with most of this. Wasn't the West Stand already built (or being built) when we decided to move in?
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2014 9:39:17 GMT
The only thing I'll miss is the terracing, some of the bundles after important goals have been brilliant.
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Gas-Ed
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 74
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Post by Gas-Ed on Aug 5, 2014 10:49:10 GMT
The Memorial stadium is barely fit for purpose. I never quite understood why they didn't build the west enclosure to stretch the length of the pitch and why they designed it to look like a cricket pavilion. Even if we get a decent team together, the ground in it's current state will hold us back.
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Post by lulworthgas on Aug 5, 2014 10:53:53 GMT
How on earth can anyone love that horrible, run down dump?! Lets list the things that make this place a dump of a football ground shall we... First and foremost it is very clearly a rugby ground disguised as a football stadium! From the large spaces behind the nets to the very ugly looking half length centenary stand, the whole places still reeks of rugby! I think that is the main reason I have never felt at home there, because it always felt like we were borrowing a rugby teams home until we found something of our own.. Fast forward almost two decades... The west stand, can anyone explain to me why on earth we decided after moving in to build a bloody cricket pavilion where a modern football stand should have gone?! I have never ever understood that! It literally couldn't look any more out of place could it?! Looks like it was picked up on the cheap when Lords was having a refurb and dumped at the Memorial Stadium, Bristol. Just awful looking and ironically enough it is the most modern/costly part of the ground as far as we are concerned! The PA system, do I need to add anything to this? Just plain awful! The scoreboards, I am yet to find a superhuman being in the centenary stand who has been able to read the tiny little 1 meter long score board placed at the top of the West Stand and I am sure the same applies on the opposite side of the ground. Just awful and bloody embarrassing! Speaking of scoreboards... Our old one is just as embarrassing! Why has that never been fixed?! It has been stuck on the same thing for as long as I can now remember! I wouldn't mind if it were stuck on 'Gas 1 - Robbins 0' or something else memorable like that, but no! It is instead seemingly stuck on some sort of bloody Japanese riddle! Again, so embarrassing! Santas Grotto... Now when I say Santas grotto I am not just talking about Santas grotto really, but also all of the other hideous out buildings as well! Be that the match day ticket collection point or the merchandise caravan, it all just feels temporary, cheap and nasty! Again, a complete embarrassment! And finally, the real embarrassment of the Mem for me... The South Stand! Every time we open that up for away fans I literally cringe at the thought of them all sat in their wetting themselves at the state of our rickety old tent we call a stand! Can you imagine the laugh the Southampton fans must have had for example?! Again, this was a so called 'temporary measure'... 18 years odd ago!!! For all of the above and many many more I hate the dump and certainly won't miss it to be honest! But of all of the above, the one that really seals my dislike of the place is the fact that it looks and feels like a rugby stadium and thus has never ever felt like home for me, more like we were borrowing a pitch for a while... or 18 years as it transpired. So no, I don't love it and can't wait to leave. While I agree with most of this. Wasn't the West Stand already built (or being built) when we decided to move in? I went to the first game at the mem and I'm sure the wooden stand was still there. Also remember games where we only had the blackthorn and dribuild. Made for a dire atmosphere. I could be wrong on the whole wooden stand though as used to watch bristol before we got there.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2014 10:55:10 GMT
The West Stand was under construction when we moved in, changing rooms were housed near to where the Guiness Tent would end up.
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Post by lulworthgas on Aug 5, 2014 10:57:52 GMT
The West Stand was under construction when we moved in, changing rooms were housed near to where the Guiness Tent would end up. Thanks, must be getting confused with the rugby then. Been searching the net for a picture of the wooden stand to no avail.
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Post by gasheadnaboo on Aug 5, 2014 11:01:32 GMT
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2014 11:03:10 GMT
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Post by TwertonKid on Aug 5, 2014 11:03:36 GMT
I am not so sure about this..
I am sure I remember that stand being there as well??
Pretty sure the west stand was started very shortly after we moved in and not before we moved in.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2014 11:05:51 GMT
I am not so sure about this.. I am sure I remember that stand being there as well?? Pretty sure the west stand was started very shortly after we moved in and not before we moved in. See above.
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Post by lulworthgas on Aug 5, 2014 11:11:14 GMT
I am not so sure about this.. I am sure I remember that stand being there as well?? Pretty sure the west stand was started very shortly after we moved in and not before we moved in. See above. That's pretty conclusive.
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Post by Randle McMurphy on Aug 5, 2014 12:26:35 GMT
That game the crossbar was higher than a crossbar is supposed to be lol and both goals went in right under the bar, well archers was bar and in...
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Post by supersteve73 on Aug 5, 2014 12:39:15 GMT
Horrible place and the scene of our darkest hour. Can't wait to move....
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malago
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 77
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Post by malago on Aug 5, 2014 12:52:32 GMT
The ground was 2 sided from August 1996 until the West Stand was opened in February 1997, to make it 3 sided.
Apart from the wonderful view from the East Stand, I detest the place. The West Terrace and Clubhouse End are absolute bear pits.
Apart from a new roof on the Clubhouse, new floodlights and the marquee there has been little change in 17 and a half years.
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irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372
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Post by irishrover on Aug 5, 2014 12:57:15 GMT
Don't like it much but am not keen on dull, sterile, identikit out of town all-seater stadiums either. But it seems that you apparently need to have one now so I hope we get the UWE.
My main objection to the Mem is how lacking in atmosphere is. Yes, Twerton was a dump but the atmosphere there was 10 times better even with a crap crowd in. Maybe it was because we were winning there though - easy to see the past through rose-tinted specs although to be fair out past is was a lot better than our present currently is so maybe that's fair enough when it comes to Rovers.
Can't say I'm terrifically excited about a future watching football in a dull, characterless all-seater. I think Cardiff's new ground is terrible personally but each to their own I guess people like all mod cons now.
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Post by barleycorn48 on Aug 5, 2014 13:03:31 GMT
Being an older supporter, I loved Eastville and twerton park more than the memorial stadium,
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Royal Blue
Michael Smith
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 296
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Post by Royal Blue on Aug 5, 2014 13:05:49 GMT
Your first 'home' football stadium will always be a special place because it's where you first fell in love with football and, more importantly, fell in love with Rovers.
Let's be honest, Twerton and the Mem are both equally dump-like but that doesn't stop some people from saying they like one but not the other.
The UWE is the only way forward for Rovers to have a proper, worthy home though.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2014 13:26:49 GMT
The memories created at Twerton give it an aura, if it was promotion, those derby wins, Marcus Stewart, Ian Holloway, Devon White, Paul Tovey, you name it.
The Mem has had, well, not much.
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irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372
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Post by irishrover on Aug 5, 2014 13:32:45 GMT
The memories created at Twerton give it an aura, if it was promotion, those derby wins, Marcus Stewart, Ian Holloway, Devon White, Paul Tovey, you name it. The Mem has had, well, not much. Chewitsauraus was quite good to be fair.
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Post by Jon the Stripe on Aug 5, 2014 13:43:23 GMT
History & Tradition make football stadiums. It's no good crying over spilt milk, but the day we lost our home Bristol Rovers became what their name implies - Rovers.
I envy clubs who still have their longstanding stadiums, and that includes Bristol City. But ours was lost many years ago now, and generations of new Gasheads all seem to have a different venues where they affectionately call "Rovers home". Hopefully the next generation will see a Stadium that we play in for many generations and buck the trend. Until then, wherever we first saw our heroes pull on the Quartered Shirt will remain our fondest memories. UTG
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