What Ken Said – East Stand SpecialBy Fax Man On March 22, 2011 · 21 Comments ....Today saw a rather dramatic picture posted on the official Leeds United website of the East Stand Upper at Elland Road with a good few thousand seats missing. For any fan who doesn’t listen to Yorkshire Radio 24 hours a day or religiously watch LUTV’s daily ‘We Are Leeds’ programme, you may be wondering what the hell is exactly going on.
Well, using the aforementioned in-house media channels, chairman Ken Bates has explained over recent weeks in varying detail his plans for the work on the first stage of the East Stand development. For the vast majority of fans who don’t enjoy the hearing the sound of Ben Fry’s voice as much as the man himself does, it’s fair to say you won’t have a clue what is happening.
For such an important change in the infrastructure of Leeds United, costing more than what has been spent on transfers over the last few seasons, you’d think we, as fans who will contribute a huge amount to the cost of the project, would be informed of what the plans are in some detail. But no, unsurprisingly, such transparency hasn’t been divulged. So here are a couple of important things Bates said that you may have missed that will hopefully help you to piece together the chairman’s masterplan.
This first extract is from LUTV’s interview with Bates which was filmed on Tuesday February 22 but shown on ‘We Are Leeds’ on Thursday February 24…
After tonight, basically we are shutting the East Stand other than the lower tier and the existing boxes. It’ll be like a warzone after that. We’re building two more floors in the East Stand – the fifth floor and the plant room on the sixth floor. On the new fifth floor, that will be the new upper concourse for the ordinary fans in the upper tier. Better facilities, wider concourse and better toilets – very important. The new fourth floor is going to become the new boxes – 24 new boxes, the new chairman’s suite – we’re moving over to the East Stand, and two new function rooms which will be providing food to executive members on matchdays. And it will be two more new rooms for Norbert’s empire of venues for putting on events at Elland Road. Further down, we have the third floor which is also being revamped and extended because if fans look at the pillars, the steel pillar framework outside the East Stand, we’re filling those in. We’re getting right out to it and doubling the floor space. Yet more toilets, more catering facilities. And then we’re building a new main entrance and that will have four lifts instead of the existing two. They will be high-speed lifts instead of stuttering ones that are there. It will be much better facilities on matchdays. Now that whole area will be a building site, so I’m afraid the casualties are that we cannot service the disabled season ticket holders in the East Stand because that ramp will go. So there is no facilities for them to get in. So we’re relocating them to the south-west corner. That means, unfortunately, there won’t be as many matchday tickets available for disabled fans but there’s nothing we can do about it. We’ve looked at all other ways of trying to do it but it’s not possible and it’s not safe within the health and safety rules while you have got a building site. So they will be inconvenienced. I’m sorry about that but it does mean next season we will have a much bigger, better, greater East Stand which will be really state of the art and will also provide another 1200 people to have a meal there. That will make their day out as part of the experience and not just turn up at 2.45pm.
This next extract is Bates’ most recent comments on the development from his interview with Yorkshire Radio last Wednesday, March 16…
The first thing they do is set up the site offices and that’s done. They have taken over the Lorimer Suite which is now done for the rest of the season. They have done that and the next thing is to get access into the upper tier where they are going to do most of the work. They have moved the compacter and they have got a big crane in to bang a hole in the side of the East Stand north end. And the next thing will be the removal of certain seats which will no longer be required in the upper tier and we’ll store them safely for use elsewhere. And then they have to start going with jack-hammers, making a terrible noise, smashing holes in various parts of the super structure to ensure the new development can be put in. This is providing absolute chaos for the office staff who won’t be able to work in the indescribable din that will take place. So they will all be decamping to various parts of the stadium on a temporary basis and carrying on their work. I don’t think you’ll see very much, the fans won’t see very much to start with on the outside until towards the end of the season when work will get more and more intense. We have a deadline to complete it but the man who is responsible on behalf of Caddick is the guy who did the Pavilion and did a very good job for both Caddick’s and Leeds United. I have every confidence that he will deliver the job to specification and on time. And incidentally, what’s very encouraging, is the number of enquiries for the new facilities which are going very well.
http://www.thesquareball.net/what-ken-said/2011/03/22/east-stand-special/
