Ayresome over Riverside

I remember when the Riverside was getting built and you could go down there, they had a little site office you could see the plans and remember that first game and thinking is this great stadium really ours but if you ask me now, give me Ayresome Park back, all day long.
 
Wish I could have been to a match there, it was knocked down when I was young, but I won't lie it looked like a right hole.

Only advantage over the Riverside seems to be that it wasn't in the middle of nowhere, it had a better name and the fans were closer to the pitch.
 
Boro chairman Colin Henderson was a big sports fan and his vision for a redeveloped Ayresome Park was based on central court, Wimbledon. By very steep pitched stands you could fit 15000 people all with a view of a really small patch of green that is a tennis court.
Personally, as much as I loved Ayresome I think it would have been a heartbreaker to have no Holgate. It already didnt seem quite right in that final season with a seated chicken run.
But I always thought it was an interesting observation of Colin Henderson that when he attended Centre Court, Wimbledon he wondered if a football stadium could be built the same way and that was the basis of the alternative plan published in Doom to Boom.
 
TeaCider said:
Wish I could have been to a match there, it was knocked down when I was young? but I won't lie it looked like a right hole.

Only advantage over the Riverside seems to be that it wasn't in the middle of nowhere, it had a better name and the fans were closer to the pitch.
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The atmosphere for big matches in the Jack Charlton era when there was 40,000 in was something very special but it belonged to it’s time and was a relic at the end.

I actually think the at times poor crowds in our last 10 to 15 years at Ayresome were related to the spectator facilities being substandard and outdated.
 
rob_fmttm said:
Boro chairman Colin Henderson was a big sports fan and his vision for a redeveloped Ayresome Park was based on central court, Wimbledon. By very steep pitched stands you could fit 15000 people all with a view of a really small patch of green that is a tennis court.
Personally, as much as I loved Ayresome I think it would have been a heartbreaker to have no Holgate. It already didnt seem quite right in that final season with a seated chicken run.
But I always thought it was an interesting observation of Colin Henderson that when he attended Centre Court, Wimbledon he wondered if a football stadium could be built the same way and that was the basis of the alternative plan published in Doom to Boom.
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I got the impression from the Gazette at the time that he was planning a bit of a re-work and patch up rather than a rebuild. I don’t think it would have stood the test of time and by now would have, once again, needed..rebuilding.

I seem to recall there was also a planning problem in terms of overshadowing the local terraced houses with increasing the height of the stands to completely rebuild Ayresome to an all seater with decent capacity.
 
AP had more character and was better placed for most fans - agreed

Drawbacks though :

Wooden stands
Mainly pre WW2 stands
Part uncovered
Wind blew through of the stands as they had part open backs
Uncovered refreshments
Toilets from 1905
Restricted views in all stands
No alcohol bars except 100 club
Further from the railway station
Too small if capacity dropped below 24k

If the Riverside had terracing behind the goals it would have a different atmosphere
 
HolgateCorner said:
The atmosphere for big matches in the Jack Charlton era when there was 40,000 in was something very special but it belonged to it’s time and was a relic at the end.

I actually think the at times poor crowds in our last 10 to 15 years at Ayresome were related to the spectator facilities being substandard and outdated.
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Agreed there was some cracking nights at Ayresome when Jack was there but but probably the best atmosphere at a game for me was at the Riverside for that Liverpool semi final. Thats since the 4-1 against Oxford in 1967. That will probably never be bettered.
 
Davey_C said:
Sure the illustrations were in one of the books doom to boom maybe?
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I think there were illustrations of the stadium exterior, but I'd loved to have seen the interior plans.

But as has been said, building steep means building high, and I think there were issues and objections from neighbours.
 
Frozen Horse said:
I think there were illustrations of the stadium exterior, but I'd loved to have seen the interior plans.

But as has been said, building steep means building high, and I think there were issues and objections from neighbours.
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Couldn't have happened at AP, unfortunately
 
asredastheycome said:
Agreed there was some cracking nights at Ayresome when Jack was there but but probably the best atmosphere at a game for me was at the Riverside for that Liverpool semi final. Thats since the 4-1 against Oxford in 1967. That will probably never be bettered.
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I was too young for the Oxford match but by all accounts it was probably the last time there was a crowd above 40,000 in Ayresome (unofficially of course) although it was sometimes rammed in the 1970’s and the crowd was ‘declared’ at the official safe capacity.

The Liverpool semi final was a superb atmosphere and there have been plenty of others at the Riverside when it has been throbbing, and not necessarily just for really big matches either.

I think the enclosed roof at the Riverside helps the volume, Ayresome was a bit wide open to keep the sound in but the packed terraces generated a different kind of intensity. I also think our fans generally were more biased and partisan in those days, none of this modern ‘let’s be honest with ourselves’ nonsense you get these days, it was red and white glasses as standard issue.
 
HolgateCorner said:
I was too young for the Oxford match but by all accounts it was probably the last time there was a crowd above 40,000 in Ayresome (unofficially of course) although it was sometimes rammed in the 1970’s and the crowd was ‘declared’ at the official safe capacity.

The Liverpool semi final was a superb atmosphere and there have been plenty of others at the Riverside when it has been throbbing, and not necessarily just for really big matches either.

I think the enclosed roof at the Riverside helps the volume, Ayresome was a bit wide open to keep the sound in but the packed terraces generated a different kind of intensity. I also think our fans generally were more biased and partisan in those days, none of this modern ‘let’s be honest with ourselves’ nonsense you get these days, it was red and white glasses as standard issue.
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I would say holgate in all my years I've never witnessed at a home game such noise & colour that was on show against Brighton was spine chingling
 
Terracing is part of the difference of course. I look at Erimus's plan of AP, and the Holgate held more than double the number of the South Stand in roughly the same space.
Seating can't create the same density of fans in the same space so, when you're in the middle of it, seating really can't compete.
AP would not have been the same as an all-seater.
 
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