Exclusive: Cherries spent half a million to stop UEFA shutting south stand for Europe

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THE Cherries were forced to spend half a million pounds on the temporary south stand at the Vitality Stadium to get it approved by UEFA or risk having to close the stand for their Europa League games.

The stadium is undergoing significant change, and this summer saw Bournemouth begin their expansion project in earnest.

However, the club were dealt blows by UEFA regulations that forced them to alter their plans.

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The first saw them pivot away from a modular construction for the new corner infills and south stand to more permanent structures, which meant extended timescales and costs.

The second focused on the current, temporary south stand.

President of business operations Jim Frevola explained to the Daily Echo: “UEFA has a rule that you can't have stands built with tubular modular construction.

(Image: Richard Crease)

“Our south stand, as many supporters know, for the last 12 years or however long we've had it, has been a temporary stand.

“It's been one of those permanent temporary stands.

“Like it's been our permanent home in the south stand, but it's been a temporary stand, and it's why we're doing the big construction with the new stand.

“But when UEFA came to do an inspection, they came, looked inside and said, 'Hey, this doesn't qualify.'

“We were hoping to get special dispensation for one season.

“We showed them that we had new plans to build a big stand and we were hoping to get them to say, 'Nope, it's fine' because we get all the safety certificates, and the Premier League certifies it and approves it, and the local authorities approve it every year.

“We have to have it inspected regularly during the season for Premier League.

(Image: Richard Crease)

“And they came, I think it was July 9 off the top of my head is right, I think it was around July 9th.

“They said, 'No, you're not allowed to have supporters in that stand.'

“And so we had a very difficult decision to make.”

The options for the club were to play their Europa League games elsewhere – which Frevola said was never an option they would have explored – to accept the stand would be closed, or to redevelop the south stand for a single season to get it approved.

They opted for the latter, which he said was the only option realistically on the table, at great expense, but one that Frevola and owner Bill Foley were willing to meet.

“There would be 2,300 supporters that would not be happy [if they closed the stand],” Frevola said.

“Our guys quickly went to work on what was really plan A, it was the only plan, which was: how do we fix this?

The south east corner under construction this summer. (Image: Newsquest)

“And how do we do this in a two-month window that's not opportunistic because of all the other stuff that's been going on around the stadium.

“So we did a complete strategy within a few days, got engineers in, and we basically gutted that stand underneath, pulled all the cladding off of it, exposed all the tubular scaffolding, put in a temporary structure to hold it up while we then replaced the tubular scaffolding with permanent steel.

“And we did that and it was done.

“When the draw came, none of us on the business side wanted a home draw for our first match.

“I know football wanted a home draw because you always want to start at home, right?

“Tiago [Pinto] and I actually even talked about should we ask UEFA for an away match and we said, 'No, let's not do it.'

(Image: Richard Crease)

“We were basically able to get it, and a design and engineer and study done fast enough to do it for the first home game if we had gotten it at home, but thankfully we didn't.

“But the reality came down to the cost to do it was significant, I mean, it was almost half a million pounds.

“We did the math on it, and the ticket prices for that stand times 2,300 times four games is less money than the cost of the stand to put steel in.

“But I talked to Bill about it and I called Bill and I said, 'Bill, we've got this situation,' and it was the easiest decision Bill's ever made.

“He's like, 'We have to do it. Doesn't matter if we lose money. We can't take 2,300 seats away from the supporters. Just absolutely cannot do it.'

“And it was like, 'Yep, I totally agree. We got to move on.'”

(Image: Richard Crease)

That was not the end of the matter, however, as there remained the prospect that UEFA could rule the changes did not meet regulations.

Fortunately, the stand was approved, and Frevola said he and Foley were more than happy to absorb the expense, as the cost was far outweighed by the desire to ensure as many fans as possible could attend European fixtures.

The irony is that the work has been completed on a stand that, all being well, will be demolished next summer, making it 'basically money in the garbage'.

UEFA is also set to use the stand as a case study moving forward for other clubs facing similar situations.

Federation requirements have also created challenges around ensuring maximum availability of accessible seating, which Frevola stressed remains a cornerstone of the project.

Cherries fans occupying one of the new corners. (Image: Richard Crease)

“We've had a Row A issue [in the north stand] for these UEFA games partly because of how the photographers have to be positioned,” he said.

“It's a little bit different.

“They did put the photographers in front of the east stand this past match, which I think helped, I haven't heard about that, but getting the corners done and the platforms done.

“The northwest platform lift shaft is still being finished, so that's the only part of the northwest corner that's not done yet.

“We're hoping to have that ready for after the next international break.

“That had a little bit of an issue in construction, so they're fixing some of that.

“The southeast platform is working, but again, because of UEFA that’s the away end, so home supporters haven't been able to access it as much or at all necessarily for UEFA matches.

The newly completed South East Corner of the Vitaity stadium (Image: Richard Crease)

“But the other two corners will have a lot more elevated platforms, and then the new south stand, getting the elevated platform done, we're going to add 60 elevated accessible spaces on just the south stand alone.

“So that's a big priority to get those pieces in place.

“So yeah, that's another thing that you'll see with this new south stand.”

There have been some teething problems around accessibility, including the availability and cost of accessible parking, but Frevola said the club enjoys a strong relationship with the disabled supporters' association to work through any issues.

“We talk regularly,” he said.

“I sit in on quite a few of the DSA meetings, as many as I can.

“Same with all of our supporter groups, whether it's the FAB or our Cherries Trust annual meeting, or we have the supporter engagement group meeting.

“But yeah, look, it's never easy.

“I think one of the things we've preached about with this construction project is to be patient with us.

“We know there's going to be things that are not going to be super convenient.

“But one thing we did commit to with accessible parking was despite the fact that we've had to eliminate the number of parking spaces from prior seasons because of the temporary ticket office and the construction, the site project is killing parking spaces, we have a higher amount of accessible spaces than we're obligated to by the guide.

“We could have reduced it, but we're like, 'Why would we do that?

“That would be silly.'

“So we kept as many as we possibly could from an accessibility standpoint, and that's going to be always our priority.

“We've added a shuttle from Bournemouth Station to the club, where it's a free shuttle.

“That was something that we had to have a shuttle, but it wasn't anything that we had to do for free, but we've chosen to do that for free.

(Image: Richard Crease)

“And so we've got ways for folks if they can't get parking.

“But the number of spots has really changed; it's just the process and the manner in which you have to book it now is different.

“But that's why we instituted the shuttle from the station there.

“It's why we've worked with the Sovereign Centre to have access to the parking there and some of the other areas around town.

“So 100 per cent, the platforms on the south stand and the corners is really important, and the shuttle bus is important, and just keeping all those things going.”

This is the first of three parts to the Daily Echo's exclusive interview with Frevola. Read parts two and three on Sunday and Monday, where he discusses the updated timelines for the project, whether the north and east stand extensions will go ahead and improving fan experience at the ground.