Lakeside update February 2011

Don't know who gave Athletics Victoria permission to take happy snaps and put them online, but I'm glad they've done so. Here's a few to whet the appetite, and don't forget to click on them to make them larger.

The first photo contains a pretty decent look at the new stand that will be on the opposite side. I'm not a huge fan of the decorative concrete stuff on the top, and it's hard to tell at this stage what kind of view people will have from that side of the ground. But from back row of our stand, and admittedly going on a purely rough idea of how far the field will be from that, it doesn't seem to bad - where they put the benches will have a large impact on the viewing quality. At least compelling people to use the stand might get a bit more atmosphere going.

In the second photo, you get a view of what our grandstand will look like. The old 'SMH' is being removed, which is both sad and somewhat inevitable, and apparently being replaced with something a little bland. No 'SMFC', just white seats. I guess we get to have nice new seats, which after the beating some of the old ones copped over the years, can only be a good thing. Here's to hoping that those who have a penchant for ripping seats out stop and pause before dpoing so this time. Here's also hoping that the people whose names are located behind those seats haven't lost their place in history - whether they are still with us or not, they made an important contribution.

In another photo (not shown here) there's also refurbishment taking place in our corporate boxes. But for those with an eye for history, there's bound to be interest in the progress of the refurbishment of the so called 1926 stand. As you can see, there's still a very long way to go. The structure is fragile, and I wonder how they're going to finish it buy the proposed July/August project end? Or was that only for the rest of the venue, that is, the playing and new stand parts? I don't believe they've started yet with Athletics Victoria's new home either. It looks like even after we've settled in that there'll still be a fair bit of construction happening around the place. But by keeping the old stands, refurbishing them, and adding the several new buildings, the venue will have a point of difference to many new stadia - that of the ground with an obvious history, and not a completely out of the box feel.