So it looks like the new Riverside Stand is finally going to be built after gaining planning permission from H&F Council yesterday. I've got very mixed emotions about the design. Especially the view from the river but the main thing this means is our future at Craven Cottage is secure. The capacity will be increased from 25,000 to 29,600 and it opens up the river walk between Bishops Park and Hammersmith. The new stand towers above the Hammersmith and Putney Ends which are hardly small. Fulham's new £80m stand to increase Craven Cottage capacity to 29,600
Looks like some nice cunt hutches by the river. Increased capacity is not really something Fulham need at the moment.
I dunno, it looks quite nice. [Aesthetics only, I would add] Cunt Hutches is a fabulous description, though...exactly what they are... Not as if they're oversupplying down at Nine Elms or anything, though is it? Or as if the Nine Elm stretch is almost completely unsold given the hesitancy on the part of overseas buyers, what with having to give away free cars as enticements. Cunt Hutches. Marvellous.
We’ve had full houses (or not far off) a few times this season so No, it’s not somerhing we need at the moment but our games in the prem were pretty much always sold out thanka mainly to 1000s of tourists wanting to see premiership football. Like I said the most important thing is our future secured at The Cottage which is very important to us and something we’ve had to fight for on a few occasions over the years.
You under estimate the value the river walk being opened up to the public. That’s a big deal for the locals.
I should hope so too, it's outrageous that developments restrict public access to the riverside. I agree it'll look fairly hideous from our side of the river
When completed, Fulham will have one of the ugliest exteriors to a football stand in England opposite one of the most charming and beautiful, the Johnny Haynes stand. And great news about the towpath.
I think it looks alright. Purely on an aesthetic level. Better than the entire design for Chelsea's new stadium anyway which looks like a curved slinky.
Excuse my ignorance but securing your future at The Cottage? I never realised it was under threat. I think your new owner will be making plenty from the cunt hutches as well as securing your future. I have a thing about football owners but I digress...
It looks like they won't be cunt hutches after all, or not quite in the way people think. There are to be nine apartments incorporated into the new stand, all of which are for use by the club or their sponsors. None of the nine apartments will be available to buy or rent on the open market. The rest of the glazed area at the back of the stand is corporate hospitality, restaurants etc.. Fulham have had a couple of chairmen in the past who were quite open about their desire to sell the ground to private developers. That's probably why they're a bit sensitive.
Al Fayed made a huge effort to get his hands on that land for luxury flats. Its a very long story I've not got time to go into. We moved to QPR under the promise a new stadium was going to built on the cottage site. After a year there he said we were not going back as it was financially viable and the people who doubted him were not 'real supporters'. Those very supporters formed a group called BTTC (Back to The Cottage). I was one of the originals members. it was a long battle but we won. We uncovered his plans. he'd quietly formed a company called Fulham Riverside Projects and sold the ground to them. The reaction was volatile and people started hating him. He got the message. Took us home and started to lose interest. Thats a very short and rushed version of events that went on for years.
Sadly, that's all too common a story when it comes to both Owners and the Developers with whom they either throw in their lot or even go so far as to set up separate companies to whom they 'sell' land. NB that 'selling' is often just a transaction on paper. The thing to remember is that We, the fans, will collectively outlive them. The Club, whichever it may be, will always outlive them. You just have to grit your teeth and stay in there - as you guys showed at Craven Cottage. If only the Hammers' fans had showed the same resolve and borne it out at the Boleynn Grounds, not descended into the Temple of Dildo.
I really feel for West Ham fans. I actually went to the Liverpool game in your last season at Upton Park as wanted to experience the place one last time. It was a lovely old ground. Fulham fans are famous for our lack of passion and meekness from the terraces on match days and not being a rowdy bunch on match days (and Its justified - we are crap) but start messing with our beloved Craven Cottage and its another matter. The BTTC movement was massive and later became the Fulham Supporters trust and we really made a difference.
This film was shown at our meeting at Hammersmith & Fulham Council Town Hall. 500 people made it, things were looking bleak at this point.
I accept that but.....you really never know what is coming. Look at Leicester. Bournemouth (and Brentford too). And on this particular evening back in 2010 we could have done with those extra seats. Small clubs like ours can make an impact and long may that continue. It keeps is interesting. Watching Fulham beat Hamburg, Juventus. Wolfsburg, Shakhtar Donetsk (the best team I've honestly seen at CC) was special. Fulham 2 -1 Hamburg
Someone is trying to outdo cunt hutches! Most West Ham fans I know where looking forward to the move! I told them (I was working on the conversion) that it would be awful for football and they should try and campaign to stay at Upton Park.
Can't claim credit on that one, it's property of Barney Ronay, of Grauniad fame. He first coined it last autumn, but I'm not trawling through the Tweets for that one. Have you not seen this, then? Soz for going off-topic, but, you know, Temple of Dildo. World Class Journalism.
When the ground was built well over a 100 years ago, the surrounding area was all fields. So the "development" is opening up public access to the river that has never been there since people lived in the area.
aye, i wasn't having a pop at Fulham, more like celebrating that a stretch of river frontage will have public access rather than being sealed off for the rich.
