South End Developments?

Last updated : 01 May 2013 By Bournemouth Co-ordinator

With promotion to the second tier in the bag, the Club is considering its' options to build a fourth stand at Dean Court to increase capacity given the expected rise in gates the Championship is going to deliver.

Initially the Club went on record about building a replica of the Steve Fletcher Stand at the open end, but now the Club is considering a larger stand, with Chairman Eddie Mitchell going on record in the Bournemouth Evening Echo as saying: "We are in two minds as to whether we build a replica of the North Stand or look further ahead and build something slightly bigger. If we did that, we would have to go back to planning. We have got a board meeting the week after next when it will be discussed. If we were to replicate the North Stand, it would only take our capacity to under 13,000, possibly a lot less because you have to leave so much space. As a result, we need to decide whether we redesign and go for something bigger. We would look silly if we had the opportunity to build a stand to increase the capacity to around 15,000 and had to demolish another one. It is something we may want to re-plan to get the capacity higher. One way or another, there will be a stand there but it will probably be a temporary one for part of next season. If we were to build a permanent one, we wouldn’t be able to have it ready for the start of the season. It needs a lot of planning so we might well opt to go for a bigger one".