Mark Evans Interview, Part One

By kwin
February 10 2004

Talking on Saturday, Mark Evans clearly spelt out the importance of the planned development of the Stoop. "It's vital to the future of the Club; it's the biggest thing we've done. If we didn't get planning permission for the new West Stand? Well, I'd leave. There'd be nothing else for me to do here

Speaking exclusively to Come All Within on Saturday morning, Mark was clear about what's at stake "You have to decide what sort of club you want to be  You either want to be a big player or you don't. You either want to compete with the likes of Toulouse or Leicester, or you don't.    If you do...then it's simple: we can't keep playing at the Stoop with it's current facilities"

Training Pitch

And Mark firmly refused to accept any  argument over the chief casualty of the plan - the sale of the  training pitch   "There's simply no alternative - there's no other way to raise that money- look: we're a small, loss making company that needs to raise £8m - we can't raise all that from debt, so we have to look at the asset base"

I asked whether the loss of the pitch wouldn't have a big effect on the feel of the Club?

"No, not at all -  and people should stop calling it a pitch! - it hasn't got any posts on it, you can't play a match it.  It's not really a pitch - yes it's used by the amateurs, and the ladies to train- we're going to help them to find a new site, and we're going to protect our Community Dept  - because it's in our own interest to do so.

"But I'd be really, really disappointed if there's a groundswell coming from within the club, or from the support base, that seems to be opposed to this because I think it's misguided and misinformed" 

However, he did concede that the future of the popular and successful Richmond and Twickenham Times mini-rugby tournament is dependent upon the use of Craneford Way playing fields, where residential development has also previously been mooted by the council  "I can't see that happening, none of the current options now on the table includes that"

New West Stand

I asked Mark about the design of the new West Stand, and was enthusiastic about the prospects.

"At first, I'd have liked to have something that was two tiers, and back-loading [ie the crowd enters from the rear] but it turned out there's not enough room: back loading means you have to have two tiers, and then .it gets too high (you can't realistically have a 20m high Stand on this site)  it gets too expensive...and there's not enough width on the site to fit it in- it's actually not an easy shaped site.. So we've gone for something that's similar to the East

"Overall our constraints are
- to be financially viable
- which means to maximise the seating
- to  replace what's in the West Stand currently [offices, changing rooms, physio etc]
- to try to maintain the ethos of the ground while getting bigger  - to be circulatory, so people can move freely, no blocked off areas"
 

The Promenade

I asked about the big talking-point on the message-board: the walkway at the front - were we repeating a design problem?

"The walkway's interesting. Having looked at Northampton, they've got a front loading stand same as we have but  they don't have the same problems as we do. Why not?

"I think the problem with the East is perhaps the simple width of the walkway - it's like a street and with such a wide concourse available, people naturally use it, to gather and as a social area. This is great when the game's not going on, but a problem when it is. And of course a lot of the movement  is to do with the bar.

"But the West is going to be different - it's very tight and the walkway is going to be much narrower. Also in the West Stand the bar facilities are nowhere near as big as the East.  So I'm not sure we're going to see the same problems in the West

"And then think about the East:  what I think will happen is: people will change their choices, and I think the restricted view seats in the East will be the last to be sold,. So apart from when we have a complete sell-out,  not so many people will be sitting in them, so the problem will be less over there"

The walkway also has certain advantages, Mark felt:

"I like the circulatory feel of the ground [that the walkway creates] - it's good to be able to move around a ground, and if you have backloading, or if you develop the corners, you can lose that -  for instance the Causeway has that problem: it's a nice stadium, but once you're in, you're really stuck in your block, and from a Rugby perspective that's not really what we want to achieve"

Around the Ground

I asked what other impacts the ordinary fans would be likely to notice?

"It will open up a lot more space in the East Stand - at the moment there's only one public bar open pre-game, but with the development we'll be able to offer two: the debenture holders' bar will remain, but we'll be able to take the corporate activities in Colours bar, and decant that into the West Stand, and open that area up to the public"

What about the Mighty Quins Village, which obviously won't be able to remain where it is?  "I don't know - but we'll do something. Perhaps behind the South Stand. That's an unused area currently, that's an obvious place we could use"

Suggestions

The plans all go on exhibition later this week, and I asked if there was really any room for change at this late stage?

"Yes, definitely, but to honest a lot of suggestions are non-starters in planning terms or cost terms - I've looked on with amusement at some of the suggestions I've seen.  But understand we're stretching ourselves to fund this - we're not going to do anything that would put a £1m on the cost,

"But ideas internally, certainly:- for instance someone made the point last week- why don't you have the offices off site and use that space for something else?  That's interesting idea that we're thinking about"

Long -Term

I asked Mark about the long term future of the Stoop - given the site, and the East and West Stands designs, I calculated that we'd never be able seat more than 15,000 even with a redeveloped North and South.  Is that big enough?

"Well, East and West gives you 8000. You might just get another 3000 at each end - so around 14,000 is probably the maximum.  Well, let's look at that -  there's not a club in the country (save Leicester) that play with average of more of 14,000 so could we ever get to a situation where we fill it each week? That would be a long way off.

In part two - Mark's tip for the Heineken Cup, outspoken views on the message board, and possible destinations for a pre-season tour...