The Future's Bright, The Future's Amber!

Last updated : 22 March 2004 By Paul Robinson

For 28 years now, I've been supporting my hometown club, Hull City. For the last 14 years I've following them from my home in the Midlands. Not for me, then, the easy option of settling for a club close by, no thank you. Not an easy task, made more difficult by the fact that I am a disabled football fan, with the vast majority of the 88 grounds I have visited being appalling in their facilities.

One good thing to come out of the Taylor report is the gradual upgrading of grounds throughout the country. I can't help but despair at the fact that it takes a disaster in this country, the likes of the Bradford fire, & Hillsborough, to galvanise the authorities into doing something that should be done anyway.

Each season, just like any other fan, is greeted with eager anticipation, and more than a sprinkling of optimism. This year for me is different. This year for ALL Hull City fans it's different.

The Council decided to build a community stadium that would house both Hull City, and Hull F.C. (one of the rugby clubs), that the city could be proud of. Opening in December 2002, it will house 25,000 (which can be increased in size to hold up to between 30- 40,000); it really will be a state of the art stadium.

The Kingston Communications stadium, and the complete sporting complex including outdoor all weather pitches & a 1,500 seated indoor sports hall is currently being built on the site of Hull City's old stadium, The Circle' before it was bombed during World War 2. It must be surely be one of the most picturesque settings for a stadium anywhere in the country, being in the middle of an existing park, with both picnic/play areas, and a lizard sanctuary!

The stadium itself will lead the way as far as disabled facilities. There are 10 elevated wheelchair viewing platforms around the stadium- 2 in each of the North, South and East Stands plus 2 in the lower West Stand and 2 in the upper tier of the West Stand.

Each platform can accommodate 8 wheelchair users and their helpers (i.e. 80 Wheelchair spaces in total).

In addition to the elevated viewing platforms there is provision for 80 wheelchair users pitch side. The main corporate areas all have wheelchair/disabled access with every box being able to accommodate 1 wheelchair user as well. There is a disabled access lift roughly in the centre of each stand, which provides direct access onto the concourses and corporate accommodation.

The stadium is also making provision for approximately 200 ambulant disabled spectators.

This is in the form of additional handrails, ramps etc. There will also be seating for visually impaired spectators with guide dogs. Legroom will also be "more than adequate" and bigger than the minimum standard.

There will also be an induction loop throughout the WHOLE stadium, for visually impaired fans to plug into, to listen to match commentary.

Parking consists of 600 at the stadium itself, & a further 1,800 at the fairground at the edge of the Park. Disabled parking will be on the outer perimeter of the stadium itself. An elevated walkway directly links the stadium to both the bus & railway station approximately 1 mile away! As well as this, the council are putting together an integrated transport plan, which may include, rail or tram, links to the stadium itself.

All in all, the stadium looks to be one of the most innovative & disabled friendly sports arenas in the country, well worth a visit.

Gazetta editors note: We have been receiving very good reports on the facilities available at the KC Stadium - If you have any comments, please let us know.

Thanks for Paul Robinson's kind permission to reproduce this article, written before the start of the season. Click here to read the rest of this month's NADS newsletter (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader), or click here to visit their website.