"you are all invited. Come for a game, maybe a concert (coming soon), or join us on a live stream. It's the greatest. Fashion, Music, Football". It's hard to differentiate when she's referencing Oakwell and when she's referencing her own brand. I think we've been long overdue in turning Oakwell into a venue that hosts more than just football.
Seperating fantasy and reality would be a start. Fashion and music? We serve beer in a car park and the place is falling to bits.
I'd only bother with concerts if they were worldwide stars. The Daily Mirror article with Julie mentioned Rihanna being a fan, so try and get her. Kanye West has worn stuff with Barnsley on a few times. Time for him to visit the place?
I think the undoubted success of the RateMyTakeaway guy performing on pitch before Xmas has given us the belief that Coldplay and Harry Styles are up next. Imagine the headline? "Harry Styles roasted alive by Oakwell flamethrowers as Fans reminded to stay in their seats and not use racist or sexist language" Oasis for an Oakwell reunion ?
The only realistic possibility is a Simpson fight. If you think about it logically at stadiums one of the stands behind the goals can’t be used as the stage will be at one end of the pitch so that the other 3 stands can view it face on. That means you’re reducing the capacity by 5-6k. You’ve also got part of the west stand that can’t be used & there’ll be the top & bottom corner of the east stand that will be closed as they won’t have a view of the stage which probably means you’re down to about 13k Granted there would be a couple of thousand on the pitch (a lot less at a boxing event due to seating & ring), but you’ve really got to question who on earths going to play a concert there given the extra costs over a purpose built arena 20 minutes down the road at centertainmemt? And if a bands really that big that they’ve outgrown the arena they’ll be playing bigger football stadiums with better facilities. I’d say the only hope is if we have a successful local band or local boxer. Even Simpson would need a big name opponent to justify it. There’s no way his promoters going to stage an event at Oakwell unless he’s confident they’ll sell more than the capacities at Sheffield & Leeds arena. He’ll need something like Kell Brook got with the Matthew Hatton fight that launched him from been a leisure centre headliner to an arena one.
Does this mean the BBS Friday fight nights are one step closer to reality? I'd paid top dollar for some of tag team match ups that were discussed years back
The only good thing about concerts at Oakwell is that there isn’t a venue of that size anywhere else in Barnsley. If you could get a decent stadium rock band to Oakwell you’ve a decent chance of selling out. The other option would be to do similar to race days where you have a high profile football friendly followed immediately by a music concert.
Who on earth would want to play a concert at Oakwell? There’s no band or musical act from Barnsley big enough to justify it really. Boxing might happen, but then again would it work? The only way it could work is in a brand new stadium…
If a concert. Temp stage built over dugout/into west stand Then you have pitch and 3 stands to go at. Boxing. Centre circle. Pitch and 3.5 stands at a guess
The Piece Hall in Halifax is staging a lot of outdoor concerts these days. They used to stage concerts at Huddersfield Town's stadium but Halifax seems to have captured that market, especially as the Piece Hall can stage multiple events throughout the summer. With the football season running from early August to May (if you're involved with the playoffs) it only gives a short window for concerts especially as you can almost guarantee that some remedial work will have to be done on the pitch after the concert.
Backstage facilities include open air urinals, a condemned stand with holes in it and walls with broken glass bottles set into the gobbo.