Colchester United and a number of fans have been working hard on a new design for the seats in the North and South stands.
Both now have Col U Eagles emblazoned in the centre, with this work carried out over the past couple of Sundays by a number of fans and Chairman Robbie Cowling.
We'll leave it to U's fan Andy Crockett to explain how the idea came about and how the two days have unfolded.
"The original idea came from a discussion on the OMB, (official messageboard), about how we could use Club United to personalise the stadium in some way. It was a member of that community, ColuPhil, who originally suggested using white seats in the North Stand to pick out “1937” to commemorate the year of our formation.
Doug Fenner had the idea that if we were going to do that, why not swap seats with S3 and use the spare blue seats from the North Stand to do something at the same time in S3.
That was the inspiration behind my idea to create a depiction of our Eagle crest in S3, in part using the blue seats from the North Stand “1937” as part of that design. However, it was graphic designer Daniel Smith who really brought the idea to life, creating an image of what both would look like in the stadium, and what first captivated Robbie’s attention.
The Club United proposal did very well, I think it recorded the highest total number of pledges to date but didn’t quite get over the line as we had to include the cost of multiple new blue seats, (because of the imbalance in doing the swap), and the ground staff time to make the transformation.
Robbie and I remained in discussion though, and it was his idea to simply replicate the Eagles in S3 and N3. No new seats needed at all, just swapping like for like without neither the additional purchase of extra seats, nor particularly from a sustainability point of view, spare plastic seats potentially going to landfill.
However, the real breakthrough was Robbie’s suggestion that rather than going through Club United, we – the club and supporters together – just got on and did it as a proper collaborative effort.
So, Robbie, Jon Palmer, my son Alfie Crockett and I rocked up Sunday before last to put it in place. To be honest, we massively underestimated the task ahead of us, and by the end of an extremely long and gruelling day, we’d managed five of the fourteen rows at either end. So, the call went out for volunteers to finish the job on Sunday.
And the U’s community didn’t let us down. Aside from the original “gang of four”, we had all ages turn up, from pre-teens to those of the, (ahem), ‘silver’ generation. Participants in no particular order were Ian Mills, Mick Barrett, Donna, Colin and young Ronnie Edwards, Stuart Arnold, John Payne, Charlotte Boreham, Dan and Adam West, Doug Fenner, Rob Cherry and Martin Harris.
And by the end of another hard day’s work for everyone and sustained by Robbie providing lunch for all, (again), we’d done it. Club and supporters truly working hand in hand together to achieve something remarkable!
Goodness don’t we all ache though!
Up the U’s!"
The club would like to thank each and every supporter who gave up their time to get this project completed in time for Saturday's game against Tranmere Rovers.