The next stage in the ground’s story is being written at the moment, as the AFC Bournemouth look to expand, but one fan who has witnessed many of those moments is Sam Davis.

Davis is the founder of the Back of the Net podcast, and has many fond, and some less fond, memories of the ground.

He was there when the current stadium opened in November 2001, with the visit of Wrexham.

“At the time, that was back in 2001, it felt very brand new,” Davis told the Daily Echo.

(Image: Andy Horsfield) “We couldn't quite believe it, really, at the time, because we've been playing in this old and rather antiquated stadium, and there were lots of promises about new stadiums, but nothing really materialized.

“But it happened very, very quickly.”

He recalled the club’s five promotions, three of which have been all-but confirmed at the ground.

“Some really good moments with the fans flooding onto the pitch,” Davis said.

“The last one, of course, being when Scott Parker took us up where we beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 as well, but some famous goals as well.

“Steve Fletcher's iconic one against Grimsby of course back in what was that 2009 to keep us in the football league, that was absolutely huge for us.”

Davis, like many other Cherries fans, have less fond memories of the ground centred on the club’s off the pitch struggles.

That includes selling the stadium to Structadene in 2003, the press conference that could have seen the club wound up in 2008 and ups and downs under chairman Eddie Mitchell.

But, since 2009, it has been more ups than downs – and under new owner Bill Foley, the club’s growth has accelerated.

While Davis said the ground’s small capacity had helped the club in terms of creating vociferous, compact atmosphere, expansion at the stadium has been needed for some years.

The opening of the new training ground at Canford Magna cleared the way for the club to progress on the stadium redevelopment.

“I'm hoping that we can have a capacity of maybe double what we’ve got now,” Davis said.

“I think it seems to be a regular case that there are fans clamouring for tickets week in, week out. We're selling every match day out.

(Image: Richard Crease) “There are lots of people on social media complaining that they can't get tickets. There are existing fans that do go every week that would like to have a season ticket, and at the moment that's just not possible.”

He added: “For me, it's just an opportunity to properly gauge where we're at as a football club, so I don't know what the ideal capacity would be. My last thing that I would want would be for us to have a 30,000 stadium and not being able to fill it.

"I think there's a huge potential with lots of children that have been born over the last 10-15 years that literally have not had a chance to watch the Cherries because it's so difficult to get tickets.

“But also for me personally, the major benefit of having a new stadium would be to improve the atmosphere at Dean Court because at the moment I think it's maybe suffering.”

(Image: Richard Crease) Davis is confident Foley can deliver the stadium’s redevelopment: “He's carried out a lot of what he said he would, so as a Bournemouth fan, whilst the future is unexpected, it's exciting as well.

“So we're on a bit of a roller coaster, but certainly on an upward trajectory, it feels like.”

He said watching the team develop under current boss Andoni Iraola has been brilliant – and he’s looking forward to seeing it continue to grow on and off the pitch.

“It's still a pinch me moment a little bit because I've supported Bournemouth when they've been in the lower tiers for a lot of my lifetime, but now it's come to that tipping point, even in my life, that we've now played in the top two tiers in more years in my supporting life,” he said.

“It's a very exciting time and a new stadium, I think, would just cap that off.”