I'm sick to death of all this "souless flat-pack carbon copy, one tier" bull:censored:. What do you people actually think we're going to be able to afford to build or even fill?? A mini Wembley?? Get a frickin grip. We're a League One (just) club with an average support of about 4k. Perhaps rising to 5-6k if we start to play well. Take a look at Wigan. Big ground with tall sides. And still half empty every game. Is that what you want??
The people of Oldham aren't going to suddenly pack out any stadium of ours regardless of design. Away fans aren't going to suddenly come in their droves if it's some spellbinding unique design. People are going to come or not dependant on the football. It's very, very simple.
Any stadium can generate an atmophere - it just needs the right type, and amount of fans to fill it. BP is a :censored: hole death trap, sorry, I mean it's full of character and charming. There's no atmosphere there either.
As for the planning proceedure and the residents objections? If it helps, my Mrs works in the planning dept at Rochdale council (she's good with the kids though....) and she says that generally, it doesn't matter how many objections there are - as long as a project doesn't break any planning regs or laws, it gets passed.