Nene Park Demolished

[Jemfy]

This is a bit of an FYI type thread for those interested. Most of the clubs currently in the National League will have visited it as an away ground at some point in it's lifespan. Now it has been completely levelled.

local paper article - http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/pictures-no-more-nene-park-1-7958735

[image from local paper - credit: Alison Bagley, Northants Evening Telegraph]

Image shows where the Airwair stand used to be (the big one with the curved roof)

For clarity, for anyone not in the know - Nene Park has never been coupled with AFC Rushden & Diamonds in any official capacity.

Personally it has been mixed feelings since it was announced that it was due to happen, but I think it's a spectre that would always hang over the new club in one form or another largely gone.

 

[E10rifle]

Good. It was fucking awful and a monument to everything wrong with the game over the past 20 years.

 

[Farleigh]

Does Max Griggs have anything to say on the subject? Wiki says it cost £30 million. You could have built it for a fraction of that and given the club a generous endowment to keep going forever.

To be followed one day by the New Lawn? All that eco-bling, soon to be a housing estate and another motorway junction warehouse development.

 

[B2TF]

 

[Heedtastic]

I thought some club may've bought the end stand, a bit like FC United buying the side stand from Northwich and RL club Featherston Rovers buying the two end stands from Scarborough.

 

[dog]

Does Max Griggs have anything to say on the subject? Wiki says it cost £30 million. You could have built it for a fraction of that and given the club a generous endowment to keep going forever.

To be followed one day by the New Lawn? All that eco-bling, soon to be a housing estate and another motorway junction warehouse development.

From what I've heard, the new ground may not be happening until revision of the Stroud District Local Plan, if at all. Let's hope it's the latter. Forest Green should play in Forest Green.

 

[Chris FGR]

To be followed one day by the New Lawn? All that eco-bling, soon to be a housing estate and another motorway junction warehouse development.

The ground wasn't built as an eco bling stadium, that stuff was added a few years later by DV after the takeover and is easy to remove so will be moved to the new ground. In terms of build/design, Dartford's ground is far more of an eco stadium then TNL

I agree with dawg though, not keen on leaving Forest Green, it's where we're from and have played for 128 years.

 

[Farleigh]

Sorry, that was a cheap shot. But the environmental damage involved in building any stadium has been done and incorporated into New Lawn, which could be there for a hundred years. But that is a fraction of the environmental damage of building two stadiums, a housing estate and warehouses. I know greenwash when I see it.

 

[The Terminator]

We lost all 4 of our league visits there in 2002, 2003, 2005 & 2006. Although we did win 1-0 there in an FA Cup 2nd Round game in December 2005.

I had the pleasure of going 3 times. Sad to see the ground is no more.

I enclose pictures I took on my first camera phone from back in March 2006, when we lost 1-0.

 

[GodsGift]

My memories of Nene Park are pretty vague, although I know I've been there twice. I remember queuing outside for a Good Friday match during the Keith Alexander years. Then there was another game when I think Billy Sharp scored. And then there might have been a 4-1 win when Drewe Broughton was sent off for Rushden?

The goal music was annoying.

 

[Chief Rocka]

Hated Rushden back in the day, they even pipped us (we threw it away really, par for the Pools fucking course) to what would of been our first league title ever, plastic everything, fucking Onandi Lowe, Billy Turley, Paul Hall, Marcus Bignot team full of tossers, very easy to dislike.

 

[Jemfy]

Does Max Griggs have anything to say on the subject? Wiki says it cost £30 million. You could have built it for a fraction of that and given the club a generous endowment to keep going forever.

I believe Max Griggs tries to stay out of the public eye. I can't imagine he's happy about it. Frankly it's obvious to anyone around here that it has been demolished to try and reduce the objections to future development of the site for commercial purposes by the owner (and the chairman really responsible for the final downfall of R&DFC). Planning application has already been turned down twice, and while objections were noted over the loss of sporting facilities the main thing was generally about a failure to properly address environmental concerns. By removing the sports site completely legally like this they get around the law of having to provide funding to replace the facilities, at least for the main pitch.

At the time it was built the Griggs group were not in any signs of trouble, and there were no signs that he wouldn't be able to put in the money every year. The idea of an endowment was never thought of, because who thinks of that? Has any owner ever done that? Not to my knowledge at least. They all spend now to improve things, and generally get criticised for spending on the team rather than facilities - Griggs did both. I'm sure given the chance to do it again he'd do it differently.

 

[Jemfy]

Hated Rushden back in the day, they even pipped us (we threw it away really, par for the Pools fucking course) to what would of been our first league title ever, plastic everything, fucking Onandi Lowe, Billy Turley, Paul Hall, Marcus Bignot team full of tossers, very easy to dislike.

I didn't post this expecting a love in, and it hadn't actually occurred immediately to me that it coincides with the start of the migration of Hartlepool fans over, but that's quite bitter!

Frankly I've always thought that year was more you throwing it away than us winning it. Anyone who throws a 12 point lead away doesn't deserve to win a title. I imagine your feelings about the place would have been different if Hartlepool had managed to win the title decider on the last day of the season...

 

[Tom_CUFC]

We had some great memories at Nene Park, dire location but it was probably the best lower league new build in an era of the unimaginative grounds at the likes of Walsall, Northampton, Shrewsbury etc. Obviously a soulless back story that was doomed to failure like all these projects, but there's far more I'd have rather seen wiped off the map.