General Kassam Memories

[OX14]

Funnily enough I was having a conversation with my son about Grenoble Road and he loves the place.
He was around 9/10 when we left the Manor so not many good memories for him.
All his great memories are at the current stadium other than relegation in the Orient game.

For those of us who had fantastic memories of the Manor the new place just couldn’t compete but there have been some fantastic games.

When full it does have a good atmosphere but not having a stand at the West End and the stands too far from the pitch is my biggest complaint

Your son is a similar age to me and I concur. My memories of the Manor are not great as every game I went too as a kid there were fans with buckets collecting donations and SOS banners. You could say if we never moved to the Kassam I may have never followed United like I do now. My parents weren't football fans except watching on TV and it was only until I went to high school where one of my mates went to every game invited a few of us along. We all jumped on the football special bus and from that moment on I became a regular and season ticket holder.

My eldest son is 10 and knows no different and all his opinion on the ground is that a 4th stand should be built . Hopefully we have a new ground by the time my youngest son who is 9 months old Is ready to be the next die hard supporter.

 

[bazzer9461]

And this was their effort

 

[The mighty Aldo]

Your son is a similar age to me and I concur. My memories of the Manor are not great as every game I went too as a kid there were fans with buckets collecting donations and SOS banners. You could say if we never moved to the Kassam I may have never followed United like I do now. My parents weren't football fans except watching on TV and it was only until I went to high school where one of my mates went to every game invited a few of us along. We all jumped on the football special bus and from that moment on I became a regular and season ticket holder.

My eldest son is 10 and knows no different and all his opinion on the ground is that a 4th stand should be built . Hopefully we have a new ground by the time my youngest son who is 9 months old Is ready to be the next die hard supporter.

My grandson is 7 and he knows no different,my son took him to Grenoble Road when he was eight weeks old other than relegation(Orient game) think that’s the only time I’ve cried there.

Ill be in my seventies when we get to watch in the new stadium, but as I have said before if we had a fourth stand and the current stands were nearer the pitch it would be fine, if owned and cared for by the club

 

[OX14]

My grandson is 7 and he knows no different,my son took him to Grenoble Road when he was eight weeks old other than relegation(Orient game) think that’s the only time I’ve cried there.

Ill be in my seventies when we get to watch in the new stadium, but as I have said before if we had a fourth stand and the current stands were nearer the pitch it would be fine, if owned and cared for by the club

Aren't the stands the closest they can be too the pitch? Regulations on new stadiums are different than the old skool grounds. We could probably make the stands steeper to make them feel closer to the pitch.

 

[The mighty Aldo]

Aren't the stands the closest they can be too the pitch? Regulations on new stadiums are different than the old skool grounds. We could probably make the stands steeper to make them feel closer to the pitch.

Didn’t know that but some new grounds look closer

 

[OX14]

Didn’t know that but some new grounds look closer

Yeh I'm sure the new ground will be designed with the stands as close as possible due to the restricted size of the plot of land

 

[bashamwonderland]

Didn’t know that but some new grounds look closer

One of Spurs' stands is just 4 metres from the pitch and their seats start immediately.

 

[The mighty Aldo]

One of Spurs' stands is just 4 metres from the pitch and their seats start immediately.

Yes I thought some grounds look closer than others,anyone know how far the North stand is from the pitch, I would guess 8 metres from touch line to seats which is way to far
You need your home stadium to give you some advantage so in an ideal world whatever the minimum is on three sides of the ground have that,and the other stand housing away fans much further away .
The current stadium doesn’t give us much of an advantage because of the openness and distance of crowd to pitch

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

With the clock ticking on the Kassam Stadium as our 'home' I thought it would be interesting to highlight people's favourite memories of that stadium (positive only).

Football aside both my main memories both involved the military;

1) Caesar the dog running amok and ignoring his handler
2) The helicopter fly past that almost took the corner of the South Stand roof off

On the pitch we've had quite a few but must include both Newcastle games and the Swansea win, the 10 man win against high flying Swindon, Others to note were the late wins in 2009, 1-0 v Wrexham and 2-1 v York.

I'm sure I've missed some key moments but would be good see what others would highlight?

The Luton game in the conference with the Jamie Cook goal, the Aston Villa record attendance game, Alan Judge playing at the Kassam during an injury crisis, Joey scoring at the east stand end, the cup games v Swansea, Newcastle, West Ham, Manchester City and Arsenal, Jefferson Louis just about covering his lad with a towell after beating Swindon and then drawing Arsenal away and the Wycombe promotion game. The return of Jim Smith was good too.

Unfortunately I also remember Leyton Orient fans on our pitch, Billy Turley's penalty miss, Rob Duffy's fluffed 1 on 1 v Exeter, and the Blackpool playoff semi where we didn't turn up.

 

[Oslernorth]

Aren't the stands the closest they can be too the pitch? Regulations on new stadiums are different than the old skool grounds. We could probably make the stands steeper to make them feel closer to the pitch.

I think it may have been a regulation at the time it was built. That seemed to be the general consensus at the time anyway.
But football grounds built in the last decade are certainly closer to the pitch. Rotherham would be a good example. So maybe it’s a regulation that’s been relaxed?

 

[Victor1986]

Yeh I'm sure the new ground will be designed with the stands as close as possible due to the restricted size of the plot of land

"restricted size"? Yes you could say that. The rake of the stands will have to be pretty steep when you consider that our existing ground footprint will not fit the Triangle.

 

[Wallop]

"restricted size"? Yes you could say that. The rake of the stands will have to be pretty steep when you consider that our existing ground footprint will not fit the Triangle.

@Victor1986, what do you include in the ‘ground footprint’ in that assessment?

 

[werthersoriginal]

@Victor1986, what do you include in the ‘ground footprint’ in that assessment?

Victor always seems very negative about the new ground. I wonder if theres a reason?

 

[Victor1986]

The reason is that I assume we all want a bigger, better ground and the Triangle will not give us that.

 

[Victor1986]

@Victor1986, what do you include in the ‘ground footprint’ in that assessment?

Have a look at this.

 

[nick68]

With respect discussing the triangle is hardly on topic for this thread, there's a whole thread about the new ground already.

 

[Mad Dog]

I'll always fondly remember the 2-1 against Port Vale.

They equalised in injury time, and their fans were going mental, goading our fans in the North stand. Then we went straight from the kick off, strung together a bunch of passes, and Tom Craddock slotted home the winner, the whole stadium erupted, and our fans in the North stand absolutely ripped into the Pot Vale fans, very funny!

 

[Wallop]

Have a look at this.

That is interesting and assuming it is to scale, odd given the club’s confidence in the site. @Colin B - perhaps you might provide some detail (without breaching confidences) that suggests a contrary position?

 

[Pompeyyellows]

Strange choice of memory but Coventry this pre season. This was the 1st time my grandson had seen a live match. Making 3 generations of the Pompeyyellows family at the game. He joined in with all the singing and loved it.

 

[Colin B]

That is interesting and assuming it is to scale, odd given the club’s confidence in the site. @Colin B - perhaps you might provide some detail (without breaching confidences) that suggests a contrary position?

We have world class architects involved, and among their substantial body of work they have successfully designed Brentford's 17,500 stadium on a much smaller (also triangular) site than ours. I think I'd rather trust them than Victor.