R.I.P. (the hill)

[Big Tim]

Sunday will be my last day of sitting on that hill, EVER. We are to be taking photos for the memories, so all those who have never sat on the Eastern Hill, get out there as this is your last chance.

Is anyone else gonna miss the hill like me?

 

[Risa]

Dude, I'll be there sitting with you guys for the last time on the hill! When I first went to Marathon (EAS pfft) I really didn't like the hill. Now, after being there so many times, it's become something I'm surprisingly going to miss. I really didn't think I'd ever say that. I was always someone who liked comfort, e.g bucket seats. But that hill has been good to us (except when it rains, lol).

RIP Hill. The photos we can show our kids in future years and say, this is is what the old Marathon Stadium used to be like.

 

[Big Tim]

Yeah, we can say, "Look, no floating vending machines" lol.

We can also show them the best snow cones in all the stadiums across this wide brown land.

 

[Risa]

Yeah, we can say, "Look, no floating vending machines" lol.

We can also show them the best snow cones in all the stadiums across this wide brown land.

Don't you mean GOURMET snow cones..LOL

 

[Parki]

Yeah.....jesus christ get it right.... General Parki will not be as forgiving next time

 

[Kaz]

I only sat on the hill once, that was last year to watch my team get smashed.

All the reports from other fans, I was not looking forward to the experience. But I had bloody fun there.

I was expecting to cop some flack, but if that happened, I was going to be brave & fight like I should.

Yep, I was going to push Risa into them & run like hell.

Sorry Risa, but I told you I would do that if they became savage. :twisted:

 

[Risa]

Hey they love me, I'm one of them remember (minus the black tooth, hahahaha) <-- only Kaz would get that

Yeah the hill's a great place to be, only bad thing is the sore bum, lol!

 

[rourkster]

It's been interesting watching the old ISC change over the years. I can remember when I was 11 and living on Turton Road just up from the ISC. We used to ride our bikes there to watch KB United play soccer (yes, you could actually take your bike into the ground!). The Goninan hill was a lot more sloped then and had a quasi bmx track at the back. You could ride up and down it all day or just sit on your bike on top of the hill and watch blokes like Tredennick, Boden, Curran etc go round. Ah the memories.
Later when I was playing under 18's soccer for Wallsend we actually used the ISC as our home ground when Crystal Palace was being demolished prior to Wallsend Plaza being built there. Getting changed in the sheds and running onto the ISC made you feel like you were in the big time. I can distinctly remember when they started re-configuring the ground for the Knights entry into the NSWRL and they moved the Eastern Hill closer to the ground and made it higher and more raked.
And now, another chapter in the ISC's history is about to unfold and I'll be there on Sunday to farewell the hill. I may even give a nostalgic rub of the scar I have on my thigh from when I was sliding down the hill on cardboard during a KB game and sliced my leg open on a piece of glass. Long live the ISC (and its various incarnations)!

 

[Anonymous]

I will be upset once the hill is gone, so many good memories, even on bad days, great people, great football. Thankfully neither of those two things will be destroyed.

-GS.

 

[~bedsy~]

It is a part of the Stadiums history.... but come on... my ass hurts so much from sitting on that damn thing :lol:
Bring on the seats that's what I say ;-)

 

[Pumba]

MMMM *Homer J Simpson Dribble* GOD DAMN IT DO YOU GUYS HAVE TO MAKE ME HUNGRY MMM SNOWCONE ARGH

 

[Terminator]

(Dr.evil) Riigghhht...

 

[Doctor]

There are a lot of memories growing in that hill - there is more memories than grass.

I remember a Melbourne game where it rained so hard my seat (which has a clothy-material for it's base, flooded with water, my undie-duds were soaked to the point of reaching transparency, and even though I had an umbrella it didn't serve the purpose very well - it was raining more horizontally than vertically.

Ah the memories.......

 

[kingkerry]

YEAh i have plenty of fond memorys of the eastern hill reg regan and I drinking carton after carton of grog, helping Blokes who'd been knocked to the ground to get up again and keep in the fight. ah memorys.OH well time stands still for no one

 

[IanG]

Sorry to all you ppl, I'm not going to miss the hill, the whole stadium is an eyesore, the sooner the upgrade is completed the better.

It always seems to be like a bloody sardine tin in there.

 

[astrogirl]

I love the hill and will definitely miss it, except in rainy weather. I'll never forget the time my sister and I sat on that hill in the teeming rain. Wish I could make it to the game as well as go to the snow - the snow has won I'm afraid!

 

[Moffo]

Knights supporters everywhere....hide! :lol:

In all seriousness though, im trying to get a grasp on what ground reconfigurations over the off season will do to crowd capacities. In terms of Marathon, when is the stadium due to be completed? And will it either increase or decrease the capacity? Any pics would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Moffo

 

[roopy]

Knights supporters everywhere....hide! :lol:

In all seriousness though, im trying to get a grasp on what ground reconfigurations over the off season will do to crowd capacities. In terms of Marathon, when is the stadium due to be completed? And will it either increase or decrease the capacity? Any pics would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Moffo

Moffo,
When construction is finished the ground capacity will be similar to what it is now, but next season some areas will be blocked off so capacity will drop to 16,000.
I suspect the 'powers' will take that opportunity to jack up prices and they will stay higher when seats become available, or maybe i am just being cynical.

 

[Doctor]

Well that makes two cynics here - I think it will come down to paying for the new stadium ourselves anyway.

The actual capacity will drop overall won't it? It depends whether you believe the Knights' dodgy crowd figures - 19,000 one week looks like a crowd they report as 16,000 the next week - 24,000 is often looking more like 21,000 etc. You can tell when it is full by the amount of space there is:
a) In the Nth-East and South-East corners (over the spectator tunnel entrances)
and
b) around you, i.e. if you have bits of grass between your tarp and the next guy's tarp then it probably isn't that full - perhaps 17,000.

The Knights crowds are easily the most loyal anyway, but we have the crappiest stadium to attend. I think the overal attendance will rise once it is all completed, but sooner or later they'll have to expand it further to accomodate for more crowds.

Anything under 35-40,000 is not thinking ahead in my opinion - 20 years from now we'll be discussing attendances again.

 

[antonius]

I'm with Chook on the capacity thing, I'd like to see it upped to around the 35,000 mark. Saying that though I'd like to see the Gonninan end hill retained, it is used mostly by families and it's great to sit on the grass area there with the kids, gives them a bit more freedom to move around a bit if they want to without disturbing the grumpy element who would otherwise be making room for them to pass in the seated areas, and lets face it kids don't sit still for long. I'm sure even retaining that bit of grassed area they could come up with teired seating to bring the ground cap up around that 35k mark. As somebody said if prices go up next year to accomodate the temp reduced cap they wont come back down at the completion of work.