It's happening. I don't want to go all melancholy on the new stadium thread, so here's this one. feel free to post any WHL memories/thoughts in here. I know a lot of this forum's regulars never got a chance to actually get there ... it really was a wonderful place to watch football.
Was fortunate to get there once. Was a rather drab match v. 'boro in 1996, but even then, the atmosphere was pretty good.
Yup. As I recall, Juninho was MOTM. Ravanelli was indifferent, and that was disappointing. I was always a fan of his.
'96 was my first time over, as well. League holders Blackburn were at the Lane. Shearer had them up two inside a half-hour, and the atmosphere was pretty subdued. teddy pulled one back on the hour, though, and Armstrong leveled with 10 minutes to go. it was really buzzing as we pursued the winner, only to have Shearer win it for them with his 3rd in injury time. gutted. I wouldn't actually see spurs win live at the Lane until 2006.
Latest pics: http://www.express.co.uk/sport/foot...e-demolition-Tottenham-stadium-sportgalleries They have completely bulldozed the pitch - it looks like it's getting ready for a monster truck event - I'm surprised Daniel Levy didn't think of that as a final event!
As someone who grew up in a socially conscious house, those pictures piss me off. There is a hell of a lot of waste going on.
I know you are being sentimental, but I'm seeing pollution. I started using reusable bags 25+ years ago. I have cut the plastic can holders since I was 12. Every spring, I actually do clean out my closet and donate what I don't need. There is a ******** load which can be donated/recycled. And from the pictures, I don't see that happening.
86/87 was my first ever game, sitting in the old West stand age 6. Sheffield Wednesday the visitors, won 2 0 with goals from Paul Allen and Nico Claesen. For me as a kid at that age the atmosphere was incredible, never heard a wall of noise like it. Favourite match was a 4 0 win vs Norwich in 91, a week or two before the semi final win vs Arsenal at Wembley. Gazza was rushed back early from a broken wrist to make sure he was fit for that, Lineker hat trick and David Howells with the goals. Met Steve Perryman and pretty much the whole squad in the player's lounge afterwards - Gazza, Lineker, Mabbutt, Thorstvedt, Hughton, Stewart, Nayim... What a day.
a nice article from the Observer, with some decent photos: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/may/13/goodbye-white-hart-lane-iconic-stadium
I am a "greenie" myself, but...assuming there is actually a market for used stadium seats, how long would it take to remove the seats so that they can be re-used and how much would it cost in labor to do that? Too long and too much, would be my guess.
OK kids, sit back and let your uncle philly tell you how it was in the old days. I'd seen Spurs live twice before going to WHL. First at Brisbane Road when they had their year in the 2nd Division, a 1-1 draw with Orient. Oct 1st 1977. Dad was an O's fan so he took us, and I couldn't see a bloody thing standing on a terrace amongst adults (I would have been 13). Spurs wore their strange yellow Admiral kits (below) while the O'd had their iconic white with 2 red bars. Peter Taylor scored our goal, didn't see it. Second time was a North London Derby at Highbury, a '79 Boxing Day jawn we lost 1-0, with Jennings in goal for them. The ball got kicked onto a railing and burst, I think. My first visit to the Lane was Feb 2 1980, Southampton. By that time I was saving up some money from a small job, and going by myself. Walking over a mile up the High Road from South Tottenham station, anticipation building, until I finally got to the stadium itself. Turning down Park Lane and past the towering brick edifice that's now being demolished Kids were allowed into the section standing below the Shelf on the East stand. Note the anti-hooligan railings pre-Hillsborough. Really the stadium is unrecognizable from how it looks today. The game itself was an utterly forgettable 0-0 draw. I became something of a jinx to the team and I think there were 4 consecutive games I went to that ended 0-0. But I was there, at the home of my heroes, Ardiles, Hoddle, Perryman et al., that was all that mattered. My best moment was the Tony Parks 1984 UEFA cup final. By that time I was at University in Coventry, and a friend drove 4 of us down the M1. Stood in a similar area to when I was younger (paying full price by now ). When he made the final save, we all went ape, my glasses fell off and were crushed. Didn't care. Best night ever.
The grass can be reused elsewhere (I kinda surprised they didn't replant it somewhere close, if that was an option). Seemed odd that they started in some way in the middle of the pitch which looked haphazard. Yes, I know that whole plastic seats are not really valuable in whole form. But they can be melted and reused. I'm hoping the concrete will be ground and reused. The rebar as well. And the glass from the windows which were broken. And I'm also disappointed with the picture of the chair which was down down from some mid-level box. While each may have some legit reason, and look small, on the whole, it looks like a break-it-down-and-trash-it.
Good stuff. I suspect there will be plenty of these articles in the next month or so. And then, again, when Spurs return. Really like that picture of Son in front of the crowd.
Devil’s advocate, but industrial reuse/recycling doesn’t necessarily look like consumer reuse/recycling it is entirely possible the refuse is going to waste. Certain things like glass windows for example can’t be recycled in the same way glass bottles can and are usually inaccessible to the public. I suspect time is of the essence in demolishing WHL, in which case it would be more expedient to take the lot to a centralized location and sort it out there.
There are many tons (tonnes?) of waste there and if it makes sense economically to recycle it, I expect they will. It would be foolish not to, and Daniel Levy wouldn't hire fools to build the stadium would he?
Don't worry, if there is any use or money to be made off recycling bits of the ground, Daniel Levy has already thought of it - he already has a deal to sell the cranes for profit!
I could be wrong, but I've been under the impression that there are fairly strict statutes in place regarding demolition in the UK. again, I don't know, but if I were to guess, i'd say there will be as much recycling-as-such going on there as can be reasonably expected; but I doubt that it'll be down to either Levy's (questionable) commitment to mother earth or his (indisputable) commitment to maximizing the value of his resources. it's a part of the process over which I don't think he has too much control.
how much bigger did the stadium seem back before they covered the whole East Stand and 'enclosed' the ground, philly? whenever I go to Hillsborough, it seems massive compared to the Lane, despite holding only 2-3k more. I don't know if it's the open corners, or what ... but if you didn't know, you'd think it had at least 50% greater capacity. and when I see photos of the 'old' Lane - before they tied it all together with (what looks like) one roof running around the whole ground, I always imagine it to have felt much larger than the White Hart Lane I know.
I think you're probably right about the open corners, and I never went to it once fully enclosed, so I don't have an apples to apples comparison. Also I was there in the days of standing and so the sheer number of bodies you could cram in gave it a sense of being huge.
I do recall with the standing sections that you would regularly get crowds of over 50,000 in there duiring the 70s and 80s before the renovations began. The record crowd was over 75,000 for an FA Cup tie in the 1930s!