Notts County FC
Re-building the Main Stand
From the Nottingham Evening Post
Saturday 26th March 1994

On the day Notts beat Leicester City 4-1 at Meadow Lane to go 6th in what would now be called the Championship, the Saturday edition of the Nottingham Evening Post published three artists impressions of what the new Main Stand was going to look like. Notts had built three new stands two years earlier, the final construction was to be the "jewel in the crown". This is how the NEP reported the story back in March 1994.......


MAGNIFICENT LANE:
that's Notts' new home
The oldest club in the country completes its new look with the building of a new main stand in time for the start of next season. DAVID STAPLETON salutes the final part of Notts County's redevelopment jigsaw.

THEY should call it Magnificent Lane instead of Meadow Lane! Two red-bricked towers - each soaring over 50 feet - and a long glass fronted gallery will be startling features of Notts County's new £3m, 7,000 seater main stand which is to be opened for the start of next season. It will replace the ramshackle 84 year-old wooden stand on which demolition work will start on April 17. The contrast could hardly be greater and it completes an incredible transformation of Meadow Lane in just two years. The artists impressions show how the new stand will look.


The main stand from the pitch.
(Up the Maggies Note: Notice that we are depicted here playing against Manchester United !
Although it appears to be wishful thinking today, we were occupying a Play off place in
the Championship on the evening that this article was published.)


A rear view, revealing the glass-fronted gallery.


From Meadow Lane, as supporters enter the ground.
(Are those squares in the brick towers supposed to be glass?
and what happened to the flag pole on top of the tower?)

Notts chairman Derek Pavis insists: "Our new stand will be something of which the city can be proud. It's the last phase in our ground improvement programme and I've no hesitation in calling it the most exciting period in the club's 132-year history."
In 1992, in line with the Taylor report which ruled that grounds should be all seater by 1994/95, three sides of Meadow Lane were rebuilt at a cost of £3.2m. Now, when the new main stand is complete, giving the ground a 21,000 capacity.
Notts expect it to attract prestige fixtures like Under 21 internationals. The two towers at either end of the stand aren't simply feature entrances. There will be staircases inside them providing emergency exits. The expanse of glass at the rear of the stand - across which the name Notts County is depicted - will provide a vantage point for all the hospitality features housed on the top floor. These include a restaurant, a sponsor's lounge, a boardroom, media room and function room.
The ground floor will house the club offices, dressing rooms and a gymnasium/fitness room for players, while the first floor consists of 6,000 square feet of office space to let. Mr Pavis made it clear: "Our ultimate challenge is not to make a mark in the First Division but to become one of the best teams in the Premier League."

Looking back...... by Up the Maggies
Of course, history now shows that the dream would soon turn into a nightmare. Much of the behind-the-scenes administration work had been based in the old stand and this all had to be moved to temporary offices whilst the new stand was built during the summer, the result was apparently chaos. And just as matters on the pitch had become de-prioritised by the construction and opening of new stands two years earlier, County suffered another miserable start to a season in front of brand new seating. Only this time it was to be worse, far worse. Just one victory was recorded in the opening 15 League matches of Season 1994/95. Manager Mick Walker was sacked after just 7 fixtures, many would argue that his dismissal was somewhat premature, although it has been claimed that Walker was given the push for something other than his results. His replacement was Walker's assistant and former school teacher Russell Slade which proved to be an unmitigating disaster, two further management changes that season could not avoid the inevitable relegation, a stadium built for the Premier League was now about to stage lower leagues football and if we'd known for how long, I for one would have chained myself to the old wooden Main Stand demanding the money be spent on the team instead.......but as the man said, "Hindsight is a wonderful thing". But who knows, maybe the new Main Stand will yet welcome two Premiership teams onto the pitch from its' dressing rooms beneath, let's just hope we're all still around to see it!
Up the Maggies, December 2007

See also
Ground History