tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6702800010273076139.post7025696747379462939..comments2024-02-27T07:10:49.074+00:00Comments on The Football Attic: The Football Grounds of EuropeChris Ohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14451130702323813966noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6702800010273076139.post-72688221220512969942012-08-12T14:47:24.284+01:002012-08-12T14:47:24.284+01:00The Eastern Bloc stadiums certainly did seem to ha...The Eastern Bloc stadiums certainly did seem to have a common look, being, as you say, mostly designed as platforms for the resident dictator to 'grandstand' from.<br /><br />I would also love to see a world version in publication, though I can't help but feel that stadium design, while still producing grounds of note (the Bird's Nest and Allianz Arena), has tended to produce on the whole, more conservative designs, almost as a reaction to the excesses of the 90s - a theme mirrored in football kit design. Stadiums seem to aim more for a mix of practicality, design and longer lasting impact, which is of course a good thing, however it does mean we tend to end up with a raft of mediocre, yet useful stadiums, rather than a large number of staggering white elephants. The last few large tournaments seem to have gone down the road of creating stadiums as a work of art with the building created as one giant whole (Allianz Arena, Soccer City), which makes for interesting designs, but rarely anything so brutal and mind warping.<br /><br />That said, every tournament that passes ends up leaving behind a host of grounds that serve no useful purpose as their capacities far outweigh the needs of the resident team, the stadia built for the 2002 World Cup being prime examples. It seems insane that 20 different grounds were used for that tournament, most of them new builds. <br /><br />Thinking about the 2002 World Cup, that produced a range of grounds with some impressive designs, but none of them really blew me away in the same way that Milan and Bari did in 1990, but maybe that's down to me...the San Siro had a huge impact as I had never seen anything like it, but by the time of Japan / South Korea, I'd got used to super-stadiums with fantastical designs, so I guess I just need a bigger fix for my stadium addiction :)Rich J (Sofa Soccer)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14957094755620065246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6702800010273076139.post-69836439125130924842012-08-12T08:00:36.986+01:002012-08-12T08:00:36.986+01:00As you say, one of the most fascinating aspects of...As you say, one of the most fascinating aspects of Inglis’s book looking back on it was that it was of course published in the teeth of momentous events in eastern Europe – I remember looking with some fearfulness upon the picture of Warsaw’s forbidding Dziesięciolecia as well as the elaborate gantries perched atop the terraces of stadia in Romania and East Germany for the likes of comrades Ceauşescu and Honecker to peer down from upon.<br /><br />I was also a fan of the stadium at Genoa as well as that at Nîmes and seem to remember Inglis being effusive in his praise of both – his influence on stadium design has been enormous although many would have done well to have followed his advice to deploy flourishes in the way of gables and clever colour schemes – we might then have avoided the proliferation of identikit boxes we see today.<br /><br />Like you, I’d welcome a second edition but perhaps even more so a ‘world’ version – achieving such comprehensiveness would be impossible but perhaps a ‘Top 50’ that might include stadia from other sports such as The Bird’s Nest and Boston’s Fenway Park would be a good idea? I should also mention that Inglis’s ‘Football Grounds of Great Britain’ is also marvellous although the forerunner to that, ‘Football Grounds of England and Wales’ was perhaps even better as its appendices seem to bite the dust to make way for coverage of Scotland.Lanterne Rougehttp://thetwounfortunates.comnoreply@blogger.com