Stand and Deliver

Jane Cable tours the new stands with Glenn Delve

Hampshire’s first home game of the season is always a day filled with eager anticipation; and this year, not just on the pitch. This year there are two new spectator stands nearing completion and they were the topic of almost as many conversations as the team’s performance. I was lucky enough to be able to tour the site with Rose Bowl Group Managing Director, Glenn Delve, and photographer Dave Vokes.

We started our journey in the West Stand, which Glenn reckons is about a week behind the East Stand in terms of completion. It was due to be finished first but following the tragic death of a workman, work on this part of the site was stopped for three weeks to enable a thorough investigation to take place.

As we stood at the bottom of the vast structure Glenn explained the basic concept. “They’re pretty much the same as a football stand would be. They have a concrete plinth on which the seating deck is laid and underneath are facilities such as toilets, first aid rooms and stewards’ rooms. Behind that you put what’s essentially a hospitality building that goes up to the side of the seating deck, so providing you with an under-concourse area for food, beverages and other retail. As we walk around we’ll see a long inner concourse and then an outer concourse; this is intentional because in cricket we need an outer concourse where people can mosey around and chill out, and an inner concourse where people are on a bit of a mission to either go to the toilet or find some food.”

I comment that the basic structure and elegant curved sweep of the concourse reminds me of the OCS Stand at The Oval and Glenn confirms that one of the firms used by The Rose Bowl also worked on the OCS Stand project. “It’s a very well worked design and it’s successful.”

We pick our way across the uneven ground and up the concrete stairs to the first floor. Here things are looking slightly more finished, with stud walling going in and mesh cradles to carry cabling well advanced.  At the far western end of the stand are police and stewards’ rooms, directly below the match day control room. There will be an outdoor staircase, similar to the ones in the main pavilion, to allow access between floors where and when appropriate.

Another flight up and the site opens out. “This is what we call the hospitality deck. It’s a bit of a misnomer, because essentially it’s a pitch facing deck but there are a lot of things other than hospitality. There’s the control room, the PA guys, the scorers and a couple of domestic radio positions.” The main hospitality area is closer to the pavilion and a glass wall will give guests an amazing view of the pitch.

One of the things I really love about the new stands is that they do not join onto the existing pavilion. From the northern end of ground you can still glimpse the glorious greenery of the parkland setting for which The Rose Bowl is famous. “At each end of each stand there are external terraces and we have an example of that here” Glenn explains. “This is an outdoor space with stairs up to it and it’s a really good area for getting some atmosphere.  This particular one is the debenture terrace, because the silver debentures that we’ve sold are for the seating just below this point. There will be a debenture bar up here in the corner and on a nice summer’s day this will be a beautiful vantage point and somewhere to really enjoy a cool drink if you’re a debenture holder.” In fact now that the stands are nearing completion there has been a surge of interest in the silver debentures, which, together with the last few gold ones, will remain on sale until the end of May.

The East Stand is laid out on a very similar plan. Downstairs is a concourse with food and bar concessions and some big screens. “On a damp day like today people might stand here and watch a bit of football and have a beer. There’ll be more space to take cover whereas until now we’ve only had The Atrium to do that. I think that’s held people back from visiting us when the weather’s slightly iffy so this could make a real difference.”

It’s clear that work on this stand is much more advanced. The lift shafts are almost complete and insulation and facing are being put up, as well as more of the curtain walling on the outside and internal partitioning. “It looks a lot further progressed” Glenn tells me, “but in fact it’s only a week ahead of the other stand. That’s a measure of how fast they’re working. The internal fit out guys are in here, and as we go up the stairs you’ll see that.
 
“When you build from scratch you have the opportunity to introduce learning from other venues and indeed our own venue – things we’ve really wanted that we haven’t had. But some things are purely accidental.” By this time we are standing on the first floor, in the middle of a vast open space. “The first floor in both stands was really only created for back of house, and due credit must go to our Chairman who had the idea of putting a deck throughout the whole area so that we can use it in the future. This will be one entire suite – bigger than the old Hampshire Suite. It will have windows out towards our fabulous Monkey Puzzle trees, which I happen to love, and it will be very close to a car park. You can just imagine 300 banquet guests in here.”

On the second floor of the East Stand is where the media will be housed until the hotel is built. The area was originally designated for a top end of the market Diamond Club, but these plans were shelved because of the state of the economy. “We now even have a dedicated press lift” Glenn explains, laughing. “It’s called lucking in, I think! This will be your second home for the next two years. You’ll arrive in your lift, and go through into the press lounge, with windows onto the parkland, and it will be laid out like a coffee shop so you can eat, work, or just chill out here. In the working space the first thing you come across are three radio boxes, then the main written press area with three tiers of seating looking out onto the pitch. There will be drop lights, a big screen on either end wall and two slightly smaller screens back to back on the central girder.”

From up here the view of the pitch is tremendous. The players are warming up ready for the game and you can very nearly see boundary to boundary (Glenn assures me that without the scaffolding you will be able to) – as well as being directly opposite the scoreboard and having the bonus of fantastic views of the surrounding countryside. A real plus is that the sun will travel behind the stand so there will be no more squinting in order to follow play. All in all I reckon it will be one of the best media facilities in the country – and it’s only temporary!

Moving to the eastern end of the East Stand we come to Glenn’s favourite part of the whole development. At the moment it looks like a municipal paddling pool but in just a few weeks it will be transformed into a spectacular viewing platform. “This is the eastern most external terrace” he tells me excitedly. “It’s a breathtaking space – where else can you have this kind of view? There’s the golf course and the Nursery Ground behind us, with the hills rolling away in the distance. I can think of nothing better than being up here on a lovely day, with a beer, watching cricket. You can see all these things on plans, but it’s only once you see it in the flesh you get a full understanding of how the space works and how it’s going to feel.”

In order to earn that beer there is still plenty of work to be done, but Glenn can clearly see it all in his mind’s eye. Back downstairs he tells me that the bank behind the site is to be grassed over and will provide a wonderful space for people to take their food and drink to relax beneath the relocated trees, which are just starting to bud. The contractor is due to hand over the stands on 18th June, just days before the England v Australia game on the 22nd. I tell Glenn how exciting it is that it’s just six weeks away. “I think it is exciting,” he agrees. “It’s also terrifying.” Mr Delve doesn’t waste his words and I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Jane Cable

Photographs by Dave Vokes of LMI Photography

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