As we stand today, the building of the East Stand, where the old Rainbow stood, is the most recent piece of major reconstruction work at The Hawthorns. 

Far more than simply a new stand, the East Stand represented what was effectively a reimagining of The Hawthorns. At that point, the Club’s admin operations were run over the road in Halfords Lane, in the top corridor of the Tom Silk Building. Pretty cramped it was too, I can tell you. The club chairman at the time, Paul Thompson, could see that this simply wouldn’t do as we entered the 21^st century.  

The new East Stand offered office space as well as completely changing the Albion’s commercial offering with a host of new executive boxes running the length of the pitch, all far better equipped than the ones that had long since outlived their usefulness on the other side of the ground. A number of dining suites were added too, giving the stadium all the year round functionality, while the suites and walls were adorned with choice Albion memorabilia. The ticket office and club shop were also added to bring everything under one roof.  

Amid mad scrambling in the final few days, the East Stand was opened on time with a First Division game against Grimsby Town on 17 August 2001. It was a game of two penalties and as students of the 2001/02 season will know, we inevitably missed ours while Grimsby scored theirs. On the big day, we lost 1-0. Of course we did.