Interesting post from Skyscrapercity regarding safe standing potential at the new lane.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
andy_Brixton
If 17,000 sitting = 25,000 safe standing ( 1:1.5 ) there's one thing about the comparison I don't understand.
People are still as wide sitting down as they are standing. Therefore the addition space for safe standing must come from depth (saved leg room). That's my problem; Tottenham have said the Stand will have the built in capacity to change modes, but how do you do that when each row/step is deep enough for just one sitting person: isn't the capacity either 17,000 or 34,000 - one person per step/row, or two?
Sorry for the reply to an old post, but I believe this is a common question /misconception. (Plus, I've been intermittentdly scouring the relevant pages from the time of the pdf publications!).
Basically, the norm is two per ordinary seat. Ie: two per tread. So, how do we end up with a different ratio?
How far each venue drops below that 1:2 ratio depends, in a nutshell, on how well designed the extra necessary access, egress, and ancillaries are. When there's more people in standing mode, certain parts of the terrace must adapt to deal with this reality. Hence a small sacrificial loss.
The optimum is roughly a loss of only 0.2. Giving a ratio of about 1:1.8.Conversions in older concourses would be unlikely to get near this efficiency. Good news for NWHL, bad news for those who will be still working with outdated terracing as a base.
Dortmunds Yellow Wall seated capacity is about 14,700, so actually, NWHL will posses the largest kop stand in Europe. It's bigger than the Yellow Wall, if only due to the extra width, but being the same height/depth.
Not only that, but I've previously mentioned that if the tread depth is 780mm (probably 760mm, but entirely possible) and safe standing comes in copying German regs of 260mm per standee, then this stand -as it's not tarting up of an outdated structure with smaller terracing- could legally accommodate 3 per tread. That is certainly a tantalising proposition, and one which would certainly be unique in the PL. A tangible asset over and above other stadia, as well as being bloody awesome!
The lower portion is designed ready for 1:1.8 safe standing at the outset. We know this. What we are seeing in Germany is incremental additions in areas of safe standing at stadia.
We will see safe standing in the PL. I have no doubt about that. The spectacle of it in rival Germany will be the driving factor with the men who sell the PL product. NWHL will effectively be a 65-66k stadium on the day that is passed.
When safe standing beds in I also think that the seated areas of the stand will go entirely to rail seating, as has happened with the incremental increases in Germany. I know some have wondered if the structure could take the weight, but believe me, it most certainly will have been designed with this redundancy incorporated, and then some.
If and when that happens this stadium will see a setting of a new attendance record for Tottenham, well above and beyond the previous 72,000.