Space Invaders!

I was just thinking last night as I made my way to Larne about the distinct lack of forethought by clubs in providing ‘basic’ amenities. Viewing facilities are to say the least pretty dismal, rarely is there a view of the entire pitch, or you are stuck at one end of the ground as when visiting clubs such as Solitude, Coleraine and until our board complained, Portadown. Glenavon have a great stand for visiting teams, but will only allow you to use half of it, as they keep the other half for their own supporters, just in case they want to use it. Then you have the really’crap’ grounds like Stangmore Park, which is still about 100 years behind the times. These grounds do nothing to encourage spectators to attend games, in fact I would say they drive a fair number of spectators away. Added to that is the fact that no-one appears to know that we’ve entered the age of the motor car, as they don’t provide anything close to adequate parking  spaces. Back in the so called ‘good old days’ of the eighties and nineties, this was okay, as cars were still a bit of a ‘luxury’ item for some people. We have now entered the age of 0 % finance and free insurance, not to mention large credit card bills, all of which has meant private cars are available for everybody. One just has to drive down a typical housing estate now to see the impact of the motor car, as there is hardly room to pass or park, while a fair sprinkling of households have two or more cars in their possession also. While visiting the Oval or Windsor Park you sometimes wonder if your car will be there when you return and wonder how long it will take you to get out of the ‘respective’ ghettos where these grounds are based. One of the clubs, who whether intentionally or accidentally, have provided fairly good car parking facilities, is Lisburn Distillery, but their viewing facilities are quite pathetic to put it mildly. The I.F.A. has given their consent to a new ground being built at the Maze near Lisburn and they are to be commended for this. Too long we have suffered the excessive charges levied by Linfield for the use of their ground, not only for Internationals, but for domestic finals as well. Now we have high hopes of eradicating that system once and for all and giving clubs a ‘level’ playing field. Surely it’s not too much to expect the organisers to provide adequate parking for the ‘private’ motorist, for this new stadium and surely they won’t charge us exorbitant prices either. Only time will tell I suppose, maybe by the time it’s built we’ll be ‘beaming’ into grounds and parking won’t be a problem, or as they say, ‘maybe pigs will fly’!