The pledge by Mansfield Town owners, John and Carolyn Radford, to redevelop the club’s Bishop Street stand, has moved a step closer as HBPW’s Senior Partner, Paul Withers, starts to draw on his ‘stadia engineering’ experience with West Bromwich Albion FC.
Paul was the man who originally designed the West Midlands Club’s East Stand, alongside former Mowlem Construction, ahead of its opening in 2001 as a replacement for the old Rainbow Stand.
Now, it is that stadia engineering knowledge that is informing work on this latest project in Mansfield, where the Field Mill Ground club is surging ahead following the Stags’ victory over Accrington Stanley and promotion to League One.
Earlier this year Carolyn Radford told attendees at the club’s annual presentation dinner: “With the One Call Stadium selling out week after week, we must find new ways of maximising our ground’s capacity. We want as many people as possible to enjoy this journey with us.” (Courtesy of Chad Newspaper).
Paul Withers, working alongside contractor, Arromax, is now responding to her ambitious plans to restore the One Call Stadium to a four-sided ground by the start of the 2025-26 season.
He said: “There are already three modern stands at Mansfield to the East, West and Southern sides of the pitch.
“However, the northern side, which backs on to Bishop Street, has an ‘obsolete’ stadium originally built in the 1920’s but, effectively, mothballed in the mid 1980’s following West Yorkshire’s 1985 Valley Parade stadium fire in which countless people died.”
The Bradford FC stadium was made out of wood and, when discarded material which had gathered beneath it, ignited, tragedy struck.
“At the time Mansfield’s north facing stadium was also made partly out of timber so the decision was taken to strip out the wood and mothball the structure which, since then, has acted as advertising hoardings with just scaffold tower access for TV camera service engineers,” added Paul.
But, with the club now prospering, plans are well in hand to reinvigorate and refurbish the mothballed northern stand which will feature both seating and standing facilities below a new canopy.
“The new steel stand will also mean that TV cameras can be positioned over the centre line of the pitch because, currently, they are offset since the existing structure is not symmetrical.
“HBPW and Arromax have been tasked with making these ambitions plans happen and I am delighted to say that my experience for West Bromwich FC is already proving invaluable,” said Paul.