Bournemouth Reveal New South Stand Plans

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AFC Bournemouth have put on public display plans to build a new South Stand at one end of the Vitality Stadium (currently called the Ted MacDougall Stand). This would increase capacity of the Vitality Stadium to 14,259, which is just over a 3,000 more seats.

Below is an artists impression of how the new stand will look (courtesy of the official AFC Bournemouth website, where more plan details can be found).

The new stand will be effectively single tiered with a capacity of 2,209. In addition the corners on either side of the new stand will also be 'filled in' with another 856 seats. The new stand will replace the current temporary stand that already exists at the ground. 

The proposed development comes as no surprise as the success of the team on the field in recent years, coupled with wealthy owners and the fact that the Vitality Stadium has smallest ground capacity in the Premier League, has meant that this was always going to be on the cards at some point.

Whether this will now mean that the Club will now stay and further develop the Vitality Stadium, rather than look for a site for a new stadium to be built (I believe that the Club currently do not own the Vitality Stadium but lease it) remains to be seen.

Still this is all a far cry from when kids used to climb trees behind the then open (and undeveloped) South End, to watch the game for nothing!