Animal is a Ram Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 20 years since Pride Park was officially opened by her maj. Quite the fascinating read, this - Peter Gadsby on Pride Park. Quote By the mid-1990s, after a number of turbulent years on and off the field, Derby County were finally beginning to make steady progress under the stewardship of chairman Lionel Pickering, backed by a new board of local directors. The Rams enjoyed success off the field, which culminated in promotion in the 1995-96 season from the then First Division to the top flight - the Premier League. However, off the field, the club was faced with a dilemma and it involved the future of the Baseball Ground, the grand old stadium which had been the home of the Rams since 1895. With the implementation of the Taylor Report following the Hillsborough disaster and the Bradford City fire, Derby County had been given one further year in which to replace the ABC, Osmaston and Normanton stands, all which had antiquated wooden structures. The removal of these stands would have brought the BBG's capacity down to just 8,000 - clearly not enough for a club the size of Derby County. At the time, as well as running and growing a successful property development company, Peter Gadsby, was a director on the Derby County board. It was him who was handed the unenviable task by the chairman of finding a new home for the club. That new home would eventually be Pride Park Stadium. The stadium is now celebrating its 20th anniversary and here, in his own words, Peter explains why he regards Pride Park as one of his most memorable achievements - not only because it was for his "beloved club" but also because failure to deliver would have been "unthinkable". Property development is an industry that is all about risk and reward - and out of the many major developments I've been involved in the relocation to Pride Park was one that carried the greatest risk. The Baseball Ground had been condemned and we had just weeks to make a decision as to whether to rebuild the Baseball Ground to a capacity of circa 12,000 to 14,000, or move to a brand new stadium. To rebuild the Baseball Ground would have taken two seasons - and, more fundamentally, it would have limited the club's ambition and standing in football. Normally, a major development in any city, but particularly when it involves 30,000 people and issues such as the movement of cars, would take years to plan. We only had 10 weeks. We decided to cease work on the Baseball Ground and look for a suitable site for a new stadium. At the time, City Challenge, a government-sponsored investment fund, had acquired a former railway works, which had a number of contamination issues. This site would eventually become Pride Park. At the time, Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium was seen as very much the blueprint for future stadia. History now confirms this when you look at Pride Park Stadium and, for example, Southampton's St Mary's Stadium. Of course, back in the mid-1990s there was still the problem of football hooliganism. Old football stadiums had limited corporate facilities and an altogether different type of atmosphere that we now have at Pride Park Stadium. Having had tremendous support from Derby City Council and others, the opportunity to purchase 10 acres of land at Pride Park and progress a planning application with a view to having a stadium up and running by the season of 1997 was possible. As the lead director for the club, I put forward a business case to Lionel Pickering, who by now had accepted that the Baseball Ground's time had passed. In early 1996, the club made a statement that it would relocate. As I've said, it took 10 weeks to put the scheme together. We had a team of people. I was fortunate that I had John Kirkland on the board who had considerable knowledge of construction and development. Keith Loring, the chief executive, who had joined Derby from Brentford, was being asked to fill 50 hospitality boxes in the new stadium - compared to the eight we had at the Baseball Ground. He also had to fill seats for 1,000 covers in all the various hospitality restaurants in the stadium. There was also the requirement to fill the membership for the Business Club, to name the ground and put together a financial package on the brave basis (not now) that we would go from a capacity of 12,000 to 30,000. All told, the cost of creating Pride Park Stadium was circa £18m. We started selling two-year season tickets to raise funds - and through my knowledge of development and the support of the city council, they allowed us to have a planning gain for a retail development on the adjoining site, which allowed us £3 million to £4m of profit for the club. However, after all of this, the big secret was that when we pressed the button we were £5m or £6m short. Little did we know then that all our problems would be solved when Derby County gained promotion to the Premier League in the same season. The other staggering fact is that the figure we received for promotion from the First Division to the Premier League was £12 million - nowadays promotion to the Premier League is worth £200m. Looking back, to do the exercise now of replacing the stadium would be almost unaffordable - I believe it would cost over £100m. In 2010, Leicester City was purchased by a Thai consortium for £39m - little value is therefore put on stadiums as they can never be sold outside of football and can only have one tenant. Thus, it is almost impossible to get finance. What cost to a club would it take now to rebuild a stadium? Today, Championship clubs like QPR are looking at more than £150m. Forest have looked for years and would need to set aside £100m. Premier League clubs circa Tottenham Hotspur would need in excess of £600m, Liverpool £300m. For any club to come up with this sum of money would require various serious consideration from potential investors. The problem is, when a football club is taken over, while the new owner may be keen to invest in the squad, they may be more reluctant to invest in a new stadium because of the size of the outlay. So, where would the money come from? If it doesn't come from the private sector then what about the public sector? However, we have seen with Coventry City what can happen then. Looking at Pride Park Stadium today, I think we all did a pretty good job. It still looks as good today as it did when it first opened 20 years ago. It was stressful. At the time, my daughter was five-years-old and there was a period of a few months when I hardly saw her. Pride Park Stadium was taking up almost all of my time - to such an extent that I had started to take my eye off the ball when it came to my own business. That day in 1997 when the Queen came to officially open Pride Park Stadium - the first stadium ever opened by the Queen - was a momentous day in the history of Derby County Football Club. I can still remember the smile on Lionel Pickering's face when he realised it had happened and very importantly had the approval of the supporters - 30,000 of them. Such a lot of hard work was put in to creating Pride Park Stadium - but sometimes, as well as hard work, in football you need to have a lot of luck. As I've said, promotion to the Premier League could not have come at a better time - and it came in my first year as a director of the club - something that we'd achieve again in my first year as chairman 10 years ago. It was fitting that our last season at the Baseball Ground was spent in the Premier League - and even more fitting that our first season at Pride Park Stadium was in the top flight. Clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United were gracing our new stadium. Pride Park Stadium was admired by Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger who were delighted with the quality of the facilities and particularly the pitch for their stars to play on. The new stadium helped Derby County attract its own star players like Stefano Eranio, Igor Stimac and Aljosa Asanovic. The method of then manager Jim Smith was to take them to see Pride Park and the rest was history. Finally, just when you thought that it was all over, having got an ultra-modern stadium, we had to turn our attention to the Ramarena training ground, in Raynesway. The Ramarena was using Portakabins and the team were training on a very inferior pitch to that of Pride Park Stadium, which had raised the expectations of our quality players. One amusing story is when Eranio, a really gifted Italian player who had joined us from AC Milan, was sitting in the treatment room at the Ramarena in his hat and gloves. He said to me: "Mr Peter! Mr Peter! It is freezing. There is water running down the walls!" Jim Smith was not too sympathetic! So, we had another challenge - to find a training ground quickly or fail to keep our key signings. Read more: Immense pride at seeing local boys succeed at Derby County With the help of key landowners in the area we were able to identify Moor Farm, which we were able to obtain the land by lease. We received a lot of support from the local council and, in particular, Dame Margaret Beckett, who recognised the importance of the club to the area. We were the first club in the UK to be allowed to build a training ground on greenbelt land. This effectively meant that we built it all for under £4m and very importantly, quickly. So, there ends the story of a club that was now at the end of the 1990s entering the new millennium filling a brand new stadium in the Premier League and had a training ground which was the envy of many of its peers. As for myself, I am still very much involved in developing Derby as a city. My latest challenge is to create another Pride Park at Infinity Park Derby, 100 acres of key business park on edge of the city adjacent to Rolls-Royce. http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/pride-park-stadium-one-of-my-most-memorable-achievements-ex-derby-county-chairman-peter-gadsby/story-30444219-detail/story.html#XelWHU1PUmhSoot6.99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rample Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 I wasnt there for whatever reason so listened to it on the radio. All I can remember of it was a Radio Derby commentator saying with quite a strange intonation "and now the queen meets Paulo Wanchope" which struck me at the time as being a bit odd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Happens Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 I find it odd there are no official events to mark 20 years.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKRam Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Was a season ticket holder back then. They had a virtual tour so you could pick your seat. I duly picked an end of row seat next an exit for ease of use. Happy days till I arrived first game to discover it wasn't end of row. Ok it was next one along, still I was pretty miffed having chosen on computer. I stayed put till I had to jack in ST due to work commitments. I took a few photos of the ground being developed, interesting looking back! Jeeez 20 yrs. As you say Paul71 extremely oddd there's no celebration. Something surely??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaspode Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 I've been in the same seat since the ground opened (picked via the virtual tour display to try and replicate a similar viewing position to the seats we used to have at the BBG) - think those of us who've been there from the start deserve a long suffrage plaque fastening on our seats..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintRam Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 14 hours ago, Paul71 said: I find it odd there are no official events to mark 20 years.... Promotion, mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Happens Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 3 minutes ago, SaintRam said: Promotion, mate. Hope so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cisse Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 I know there are a lot of fans that are not so keen on Pride Park and I understand that if they have a history with Baseball Ground. However I never got a chance to visit Baseball Ground but I remember when I heard that the Rams would get a new stadium. When they announced it would be named as a Pride Park I thought it was a great name for a club like Derby county. I still remember the first time I saw it and how I fell in love with Pride Park. I hope to visit Pride Park dozens of time in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramsbottom Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 Every now & again, me & my mates used to leave the pub on a Saturday night, drive down, and park up at the North Stand to see how it was coming on. At that time, the only road at the ground was at the top of the North Stand. I'm proud of the ground, and proud of the fact that we were able to establish ourselves in the Prem with so much riding on it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MuespachRam Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 Interesting read....but if poetic license though...it's not as if the Taylor enquiry came out of nowhere and was a surprise. We could have developed the baseball ground if they really wanted to. We too used to call every Sunday on the way back from playing football just to see the progress of the stadium it was an exciting time that's for sure....but looking back at it now I can safely say that without doubt it is the worst decision the club ever made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animal is a Ram Posted July 19, 2017 Author Share Posted July 19, 2017 1 minute ago, MuespachRam said: Interesting read....but if poetic license though...it's not as if the Taylor enquiry came out of nowhere and was a surprise. We could have developed the baseball ground if they really wanted to. We too used to call every Sunday on the way back from playing football just to see the progress of the stadium it was an exciting time that's for sure....but looking back at it now I can safely say that without doubt it is the worst decision the club ever made. Redeveloped to a maximum of 12-14k. Not building a new stadium would have been disastrous. To limit ourselves to that sort of capacity would be nonsense. Derby have never, to my knowledge, dropped below 20k average attendance at Pride Park - that alone suggests the move was justified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodypecker Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 21 hours ago, Paul71 said: I find it odd there are no official events to mark 20 years.... I agree. Of course, the club has preps for 2017/18 going on, within both squad and club-commercial aspects but it is disappointing that (say) the weekends both before and after July 18th were not capitalised upon by DCFC. Open days, heritage displays, perhaps a footy memorabilia fayre, or an all-star charity game would have bought fans & families to the stadium (and the club shop) for several days. Suggestions like these seem obvious (and had been proposed), but nowt transpired - and DCFC's recent loss of the talented & conscientious Faye Nixon (to WBA) has perhaps left that sort of planning & liaison capacity a bit thin on the ground. The Rams apparently plan to mark the stadium's 20th birthday during the new season, though the lost opportunities of marking the actual anniversary reflect rather poorly. Shake it up, Mel! COYR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rynny Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 4 hours ago, Animal is a Ram said: Redeveloped to a maximum of 12-14k. Not building a new stadium would have been disastrous. To limit ourselves to that sort of capacity would be nonsense. Derby have never, to my knowledge, dropped below 20k average attendance at Pride Park - that alone suggests the move was justified. They wanted to do a big development of the BBG, the club wanted to buy the first block of houses on Cambridge Street, expand the main stand out to about 6 foot away from the boundary of the first house, which would have put it in the car park. The capacity would have been about 25-28k I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimbeard Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 18 hours ago, Gaspode said: I've been in the same seat since the ground opened (picked via the virtual tour display to try and replicate a similar viewing position to the seats we used to have at the BBG) - think those of us who've been there from the start deserve a long suffrage plaque fastening on our seats..... Are you sure you mean 'suffrage'? suffrage (sŭf′rĭj) noun.1. a. The right or privilege of voting; franchise. b. The exercise of such a right. 2. A vote cast in deciding a disputed question or in electing a person to office. 3. A short intercessory prayer. Then again, number 3 might be appropriate, I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee_derby Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 my m8 got free tickets for the 1st game as he worked for seating comp. had 30 mins to get there with my 8 and 10 year old lads who wernt derby supporters (letdowns lol).we were at the top against the stand walls with people banging at the perspect what a wicked afternoon even lads enjoyed it.the baseball ground was derbys baby esp with all the standing and chanting what echoed around the ground. too small to convert to all seater so roll on pride park and still a buzzing stadium and too good for this leagh . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoetheRam Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 To damn it with faint praise - it's one of the better new builds. Give it another 20 years and it'll start to fall to bits a little. Who knows; a redevelopment of one stand will add some character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uttoxram75 Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 20 hours ago, Gaspode said: I've been in the same seat since the ground opened (picked via the virtual tour display to try and replicate a similar viewing position to the seats we used to have at the BBG) - think those of us who've been there from the start deserve a long suffrage plaque fastening on our seats..... Had a ST since it opened but have moved a few times, North Stand upper South East Corner upper East Stand upper South Upper currently. Can i have a portable plaque? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Kevin Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 7 hours ago, ramsbottom said: Every now & again, me & my mates used to leave the pub on a Saturday night, drive down, and park up at the North Stand to see how it was coming on. At that time, the only road at the ground was at the top of the North Stand. I'm proud of the ground, and proud of the fact that we were able to establish ourselves in the Prem with so much riding on it... Funny every now and then I get the urge to go and look around the area where the BBG was . PP will never replace the BBG in lots of area's but of course facility wise it is superior .The biggest gripe I have with PP is that like many other new grounds it's based on a soulless retail park not within the city . I like Newcastle's ground in particular for this and even dare I say the City Ground location . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodypecker Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 Yeh have had same PPS seat from Day 1 too; transferred from an equivalent seat in the BBG A Stand E Stand Upper). Was a Popside boy from teenage years, pre-Clough & Taylor. Them wuz the days! Show the current crop of players some of those pics & vids - give them a standard to aspire to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gritstone Ram Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 3 hours ago, uttoxram75 said: Had a ST since it opened but have moved a few times, North Stand upper South East Corner upper East Stand upper South Upper currently. Can i have a portable plaque? All those seats yet you have missed the best view from the West Stand. Time is on your side though. May be you could move there when you get to 65. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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