Brandywell Stadium Development

[TenaciousDee]

The first match at the Brandywell will be City v Harps on February 9th

Is this confirmed ?

Eric White had posted it on Twitter. The club hasn't officially said anything yet.

[smileydcfc]

Rumors on fb that it won’t be ready till March!!

[DC-2010]

Youd be surprised how quickly things come together at the end of a project like that. Alot of the finishing work tends to be down to acess for plant etc so once thats done there tends to be massive changes in the space of even a week.

[doll]

https://www.derrynow.com/soccer/derrys- ... ion/201791

Speculation that there might be a delay on our first match at home.

[pmac]

https://www.derrynow.com/soccer/derrys- ... ion/201791

Speculation that there might be a delay on our first match at home.

"three to six weeks of dry weather to settle, leading to question marks over the first home game."

How often have we had three to six weeks of dry weather? If that's a requisite to finishing the ground, it'll never be finished.

[stevebradley]

This is pure bullsh!t from the Council to cover the fact that their project has over-run, and its feckin' annoying.

1) They pin the blame on the weather, but then go on to say “The recent inclement weather conditions are among some of the issues that have contributed to a delay to the completion works and the final and full handover of the project". They're therefore admitting that it isn't just the weather that's caused the delay, yet that is the only reason/excuse they're prepared to expand on. How about they come clean on the other issues too - or would that reveal that they haven't managed the project properly ?

2) They then throw the old 'Health & Safety' card on the table as well to justify the delays, which is a complete aside from the issue of the pitch settling : "“The safe operation of the completed facility was the key priority for Council and that it was keen to continue to work closely with all stakeholders involved with the project to keep them up to date on the work progress and to work with them to facilitate their needs.” This is a complete curve ball and to me shows that they're just lifting an excuse out of the handbook for the delay.

3) The stadium is in Derry, not Dubai. You don't get periods of up to 6 weeks without rain here.

4) What is this bit that the surface is "...believed to need between three to six weeks of dry weather to settle". Surely the council know for a fact, not just 'believe', how long the expensive pitch they've just bought needs to settle ? And surely they can do better than a timespan as vague as 'somewhere between 3 and 6 weeks' ?

5) By their own development schedule for this project, they knew they would be looking to lay the pitch in Winter time. So why has rain only dawned on them now as a problem ? Did they really expect there would be ANY period in a Derry winter where there is no rain for 3-6 weeks ?

As soon as photos appeared of just a couple of strips of the turf being put down in the week before Christmas alarm bells started ringing for me. Why would you put just a few bits down, have 2 weeks off, and then do the rest ? Unless you wanted it to look like progress was happening when in reality it wasn't.

So this all sounds to me like pure bullsh!t from the council to cover up for a project over-run. They need to ensure the place gets finished on time, as it will kill the buzz around the club at the moment (and undermine season ticket sales) if there's a whole handlin' about where our first fixtures will be played, how many games might have to be moved etc. How can people plan for that when they've already bought season tickets in the expectation of going to the Brandywell rather than Buncrana ?

Seriously fecked off at this.

[TenaciousDee]

Steve on your point, I was going to ask the question at the start of last month what the plan would be in regards this Bar access Season Ticket if we could not play our first games at the Brandywell. A rumour started in November that City had made preliminary bookings at Maginn Park for 3 months in case the Brandywell would not be ready. Bear in mind the fixtures had not been released yet and the number of games required would have been unclear at that time.

I personally saw it as a rumour because the press and politicians led us to believe all was going to plan.

[danny hale]

https://www.derrynow.com/soccer/derrys- ... ion/201791

Speculation that there might be a delay on our first match at home.

"three to six weeks of dry weather to settle, leading to question marks over the first home game."

How often have we had three to six weeks of dry weather? If that's a requisite to finishing the ground, it'll never be finished.

Are we growing the grass?!!

[Chalkie]

We have to accept that the Brandywell will not be ready for the start of the season. There is simply no possibility of that happening.

What we need to do now is get a definite date from the Council and determine which clubs we need to aspeask to in order to request a reversal of the fixture e.g. "Sligo, can we change our home match against you to a home match for Sligo and then we'll play you twice in the Brandywell at the end of the season?"

[stevebradley]

We have to accept that the Brandywell will not be ready for the start of the season. There is simply no possibility of that happening.

What we need to do now is get a definite date from the Council and determine which clubs we need to aspeask to in order to request a reversal of the fixture e.g. "Sligo, can we change our home match against you to a home match for Sligo and then we'll play you twice in the Brandywell at the end of the season?"

Unfortunately it does indeed appear that we have to acknowledge that the ground won't be ready for the start of the season. But I wouldn't agree that we should just accept it Chalkie.

Unless there is news to the contrary, this appears to have been a failure by the council to deliver the project on time. And as the vast majority of Derry City fans are ratepayers and voters in the DCSDC area they don't have to simply accept things like this, and are entitled to express their displeasure to the council and local politicians.

It'll be interesting to see what the various politicians who were tripping over themselves only a few short months ago to have their picture taken at the ground and try to claim credit for it have to say about the delay. Particularly Raymond McCartney, who was claiming that the refurbished Brandywell would be "amazing" and "world class", and then got defensive and claimed he hadn't said it when challenged.

The next council election is only 16months away (May 2019), so the councillors will be starting to twitch. City fans should let them know that they aren't happy with any delay to the completion of this project. Otherwise - how will things ever improve ?

[Keyser Soze]

We have to accept that the Brandywell will not be ready for the start of the season. There is simply no possibility of that happening.

This is terrible news for us.

There was a real buzz around about the start of the new season and our return to the new Brandywell. Season ticket sales were supposedly flying and it looked like all was going well.

This will just be another reason for many to criticise our club and say its a shambles, when in reality its out of their hands. Once again it seems that Derry folk have to accept second best.

And it was all looking so promising.

[Chalkie]

Unfortunately it does indeed appear that we have to acknowledge that the ground won't be ready for the start of the season. But I wouldn't agree that we should just accept it Chalkie.

Unless there is news to the contrary, this appears to have been a failure by the council to deliver the project on time. And as the vast majority of Derry City fans are ratepayers and voters in the DCSDC area they don't have to simply accept things like this, and are entitled to express their displeasure to the council and local politicians.

It'll be interesting to see what the various politicians who were tripping over themselves only a few short months ago to have their picture taken at the ground and try to claim credit for it have to say about the delay. Particularly Raymond McCartney, who was claiming that the refurbished Brandywell would be "amazing" and "world class", and then got defensive and claimed he hadn't said it when challenged.

The next council election is only 16months away (May 2019), so the councillors will be starting to twitch. City fans should let them know that they aren't happy with any delay to the completion of this project. Otherwise - how will things ever improve ?

I completely agree, Steve. As was the case when Caral No Cuntybslls was in charge of the stadium money, I urge every DCFC fan to write, tweet, Facebook-mesage, and email all the Councillors on Derry City & Strabane District Council to voice our displeasure at the substandard improvements to Brandywell stadium.

We know that it will be better than it was previously but it is far less than the city deserves.

The Politicians who were falling over themselves to claim responsibility for getting the investment should now be questioned about this.

[stevebradley]

An article in Tuesday's Journal says the synthetic pitch at the Brandywell is set to be "fully installed" this week.

Does anyone know what the craic is with this - given only a few days ago the council said it needed to ensure a 3-6 week period without rain before putting it in ?

https://www.derryjournal.com/sport/foot ... -1-8322064

[pmac]

Why isn't the DC board not making a statement on this. Surely they know what is happening?

[kitwe]

Passed by stadium this morning. Lots of activity going on. Several men on roof of Southend stand, all lights on there, working at roof and edging. I saw similar work months ago so we can only hope for refurbishment of sorts.
Also "green finish" and plastic undersheet being worked at on pitch (a third of pitch looked 'completed' before Christmas).
Tarmacadam finish being applied to entrance area to Southend stand. So generally the work seems to be continuing apace.
I should add that fog didn't make observing easy. Saw several CRL vans (structural insurance company?? -A GUESS!).
Weather forecast of no rain (hopefully) before Saturday. We just might make it yet.

[stevebradley]

Maybe someone read the manual incorrectly, and the pitch needs 3 to 6 DAYS without rain to bed in properly - not 3 to 6 weeks as stated

We can only hope so

[doll]

Here are a couple of photos taken from the cemetery today. Not great quality but they show the progress with the pitch........

[TenaciousDee]

There was a video uploaded to Facebook I was shown earlier. It was taken from the away end of the Brandywell Stand showing the pitch and the stand on the opposed side.

[KEVK]

Are those new support beams towards back row of Southend Park stand? Or were they always there?

[doll]

Are those new support beams towards back row of Southend Park stand? Or were they always there?

I noticed them as well and they look as if they are new.