Headingley's big draw is its location but yes, it does need some upgrading. Surely with the space along the top of the west terrace, there is scope to maintain if not increase the capacity at that end and still provide cover. Also, the viewing from the west isn't that great as the terracing is too shallow,

Thats simply not true.

We've had 1 game, it rained.

Wire beginning of last year it rained, a lot, i remember because the 200 mile drive home was a little uncomfortable.

Sort out the North. Then tart up the south.

It's just not true to say Leeds haven't spent on their ground. They've spent more on the stadium in the Hetherington era than any club other than St Helens, including Warrington who got an entire new ground for less than Leeds have invested. This is manifested mostly in the Carnegie Stand (which wasn't "paid for" by Leeds Met - they helped the ongoing finances stack up very well but the £7m build cost came direct from Leeds' own cash reserves) and the corporate areas. But there is also a reason that Headingley's rugby side isn't completely falling down like the Jungle or, it seems, the cricket side - all that money spent on reroofing the north and south stands, strengthening the south stand so it can operate at full capacity again etc etc.

And the primary reason for the delay in further work is not so much to do with Hetherington being tight, although if there is a free lunch for the club in the form of any kind of grants or subsidies he will be all over it. It's all because Yorkshire are a bunch of insolvent idiots who keep saying they want to do the north stand project but never have the funds when it comes to making the decision. Leeds can immediately afford to do one or the other, north or south (the south was going to be paid pretty much in cash like the Carnegie was, the north is a lot more expensive so will have to involve borrowing). But even Leeds can't afford to do both. Since the south stand planning was granted, Yorkshire decided that yes the football/north stand was suddenly a shorter term project than Leeds had expected. Given that, the south stand project had to go by the wayside and is probably a non starter for the next decade or so.

Complete rubbish - unless you took a tanning lamp with you, every other year the game is played on a thursday night at easter!!

I've been entrenched on the Western Terrace for the last 15 years and the last time we got wet at a home game we have to go all the way back to... last week!!

We all view Headingley with affection. I'm sure Wire fans did with Wilderspool and Hull fans did with the boulevard. But, like those famous old girls, Headingley is a tired old dump. Most areas are barely fit for purpose.

In an ideal world they would move to a new, purpose built stadium but I recognise that is unlikely so they will continue to patch and mend.

Ashes already been said Leeds were all set to start on the south stand as the North stand was a no go as it required investment from YCCC. YCCC didn't have the funds so this was set aside and Leeds wanted to move on with the South stand. However this tack has changed late last year as YCCC have realised they now need to improve the shared stand in order to compete for the England tests in the future. From the last I heard YCCC had 60% of their part of the funding in place.

As for the western terrace, is there any legs in the rumour Leeds own a number of the properties towards the rear of it? I think the western is the last stand on the list to be rebuilt but if capacity can be increased over the next 15 years with new stands to the North and South then capacity could be slightly reduced on the west and a shallow cantilever stand could be created.

With hindsight, going back 15 years or so, the best thing that could have happened to Headingley would have been for YCCC to move to Durkar.
The cricketers could have had a new ground similar to Hants with the Rose bowl.
The rugby side could then have sold off the cricket ground, which they owned at that time, & used the money to completely redevelop the rugby side.
Provided all that had gone ahead before the current financial crisis then we may all have been in clover right now.
Isn't hindsight wonderful?
To put some other comments into context, the current YCCC management is far from being the idiots portrayed elsewhere in this topic.
Colin Graves with his financial support has saved the club safeguarding its future such that we are the current county champions.
The new Chief Exec is doing an excellent job with the support of the board & his staff - playing & non-playing - such that I fully expect the rebuilding of a joint rugby stand to go ahead for completion before 2019.
That should then go a significant way towards resolving the complaints about the state of the stadium.

I loved Wilderspool, and people may say the HJ is identi-kit but i love the functionality of the HJ, it is a far superior stadium.

You seem to know a bit about this

Yes ,but LCC were desparate to keep 1st class and test cricket in the City of Leeds and they helped out YCCC to acquire the Cricket side,, unfortunately the RL club hasn't had anything like the same kind of assistance

I know that the council was desperate to retain test match cricket in the city but whether in the long term that was the best decision for both clubs i'm not so sure.
At the time I agreed with the outcome now I'm having second thoughts.
Leeds Rugby sold the cricket side for about £10m, that was only due to the support of the council for YCCC so indirectly they did benefit.
Also don't forget that the funding for the Carnegie stand (IMV the equal of any faciity in any other RL stadium, excluding shared football grounds) came from Leeds Met Uni, so the club has had substantial external help.

I agree entirely. Wilderspool was fun, and the away end gave a terrific atmosphere with it's low roof, but the new ground is streets ahead. It's got great facilities, it's well designed and has a superb location. And the atmosphere is still pretty good.

The HJ is a cracking stadium. It was built in the right way and the right size for the club. I cringe when I see the Salford stadium by comparison. Some might say what's the difference? The HJ got the configuration right. One side and one end seated, one side and one end standing. It's crucial to have one side as standing as that's where RL fans will make a noise from. At Salford most of their fans only populate one end whilst the away fans go in the end (both standing) whilst the 2 seated sides are virtually empty. So there's no atmosphere generated in the stadium and it looks terrible on tv as the cameras are pointed at a stand that's empty.

Having all those fans down the side at the HJ is what generates the atmosphere

From the M.E.N -:

[iHeadingley looks set to have a reduced capacity for Lancashire’s NatWest T20 Blast clash with Yorkshire this season.

The Roses showdown is usually a sell-out on both sides of the Pennines. But the 83-year-old Rugby Stand at the Leeds venue may have to be closed this summer for safety reasons meaning the ground will have a reduced 14,000 capacity.

Ticket sales for seats in the stand have already been suspended for both the T20 clash and England’s one-day international against Australia and Yorkshire on September 11.

Chief executive Mark Arthur has explained the area may not be used again over the next two years before plans go ahead to rebuild it in time to host an Ashes Test in 2019.

He said: “The upper-floor balustrade at the front of the balcony has been condemned, awaiting a further structural engineer’s report.

“It’s basically corroded at the front of the stand – some of the plaster has come off the front of the balustrade, and it’s just not safe. If somebody leaned against the front of the balustrade, they could fall straight over and straight down.”

Arthur added: “Obviously, the safety of spectators will always come first.

“Until we know the extent of the problem, it’s better to close the stand and not sell any more tickets in case the repairs would prove to be a greater expense than any derived income over the next two years, bearing in mind that we will be rebuilding that stand in time for the 2019 season.

“If it’s going to cost over £100,000, we’re not going to spend that money and throw good money after bad. We simply wouldn’t open the stand unless it was absolutely safe to do so.”[/i

Didn't it chuck it down for them supposed "last ever" Bulls game a couple of Easters ago?

The long term answer is simple - redevelop the North, South & West stands to give us a ground fit for the best team in the country.

The short term answer is more complex:

-The South Stand is easiest to do - it's a simple like-for-like replacement (albeit more modern) that sits entirely on Rhinos-owned land, is away from the road and has few facilities that need expanding. With funding in place up front, this could probably be structurally complete in a close-season, with fit-out work taking off the first few games of the new year.

-The North stand is more complex. It needs to be scheduled optimally for both LRFC and YCCC, and can only happen when both parties have funding in place for it. As such our ability to do anything will be contingent on our ability to co-ordinate with YCCC. Additionally, the North ties in with a lot of the other infrastructure in the ground, such as The Old Pavilion and the floodlights. This is likely to be a much bigger, more complex piece of work which (due to the desire to expand corporate facilities on both sides) will take a lot longer to do. As such, an opportunity to do this work can't be passed up because we don't know when the next one will come along. There's also schedule pressure from YCCC to do this soon so they can guarantee Test Matches - recognise that YCCC get no benefit from our doing the SS.

-The West Stand is even worse, given it involves building close to / over houses and changing access/egress arrangements to the ground. It also has the worst business case, as there's nothing wrong with the stand at the moment, little scope (without a huge spend) to expand facilities and a rebuilding would require moving the existing big screen to another location. The council won't let us CPO the houses behind the stand, so the club just needs to be aware when those properties naturally come on the market to develop a long-term opportunity.

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Correct. Bulls at home late last season. I got drenched

Been.

Nice.

I wouldn't have noticed that at all,but I new what he meant

Oop. K.