Stadium plans - latest.

[morecambe mick]

Are they adding the disabled seats onto that?


They fetch their own chairs

[outsider]

I was under the impression that the league rules were that a ground had to have a minimum of 2,000 seats.
The plans suggest 1,898.

Anyone offer an answer to this ?

Very big dug-outs?

[campdave]

I thought it was a percentage of overall capacity?

Min of 2000 seats by 3rd season in the league according to:
http://www.football-league.co.uk/static ... 386,00.pdf

[John L]

Where such Club remains a Member of The League that Club shall have until 1st May in
the third Season from the date of its admission to comply with the requirement to achieve a
capacity in accordance with the Membership Criteria.

May be clutching at straws, but does that not mean we have to meet the 2,000 seats criteria by 1st May 2010 (which is a Saturday, although presumably the last day of the season), so if we reach the play-offs next season, we won't be able to play at Christie Park?!

I suppose they'll let us do that, in the knowledge that the new stadium will be ready for the 4th season. Otherwise, we'll all have to bring deck-chairs and the like!!!

[heysham_mfc]

it's ok the club are onto it they have hired a local firm that will give out deck chairs to people on the car wash

[John L]

What? Already? That's taking a bit of a risk, isn't it? We might not even make the play-offs!

[Captain Haddock]

Oh please do not sell the name of the ground to someone who flashes a cheque at the club. I really hate that. Called one thing for a couple of seasons and then something else for another two etc. I guess it should be called Westgate? Does anyone ever use the sponsors name anyway? I certainly don't.

Well the Reebok Stadium is the Reebok Stadium. The Ricoh Arena is similar. Usually, it depends on how the sponsor's name is used. I don't like it per se, but stadium sponsorship is increasingly becoming a very lucritive way for a club to get some much needed capital. We need to make money out of this new stadium, don't forget. That's what it's al about (that and Christie Park fast becoming unfit for purpose).

Spot on (unfortunately). Brighton's directors have been advised by their accountants / finance planners PriceWaterhouseCooper that they were grossly under-estimating the revenue to be gained for naming rights to their forthcoming stadium, with a figure of £1.5m being mentioned! Don't know if this is dependant on which division we are in when it opens (also 2010 like yours) but it serves to illustrate the difficulty with justifying NOT having it.

I hate sponsored stadium names but agree it's a necessary evil.

[durhamshrimp]

Let's have a whip round then call it what we like.

[durhamshrimp]

I thought it was a percentage of overall capacity?

Min of 2000 seats by 3rd season in the league according to:
http://www.football-league.co.uk/static ... 386,00.pdf

Is that not only if it doesn't fill the first criterea, which we did.

[PUNKISDEAD]

I am a regular fan age 46 and attend every home game with my 10 year old son, it costs us 21.00 to get in, then theres the pies chips , cider & cola , programme etc. so the end price is thirty quid
plus.

I have another 2 sons who prefer rugby, thankfully, they can watch or play that free of charge at the atoms or the vale of lune, 2 of them play for the u14 team and are fed and watered free of charge
.

I am not a betting man but given the present economic climate, the new stadium is a non starter !

we were boosted yesterday by a very well supported away side to reach a crowd of 2,3.00

The new stadium will house about the same capacity as chrisie park (if ever full), that we will not get.

Who will stay in the proposed hotel?

which firms will take on the retail outlets???

A nice big stand at christie park on the car wash end with good facilities for players, corporate people, & fans wo like to watch from the halfway line , is a sensible idea as apposed to the pie in the sky stadium.


I

[Keith]

A nice big stand at christie park on the car wash end with good facilities for players, corporate people, & fans wo like to watch from the halfway line , is a sensible idea as apposed to the pie in the sky stadium.

I think the quick answer is that by selling Christie Park we can spend that money on an entirely new ground. To put up a new stand at Christie Park, the money has to be found from scratch. It's not either or, it's stay as we are or move.

[Neil G]

Opinion retracted

[shrimper]

I think our chairman and the board may have done a bit of homework with regard to potential retail/hotel uses. They are all successful businessmen with, just looking at a couple of them, a track record of building companies up and seizing well-researched opportunities that come their way.

Most new stadia have seen a decent increase in attendances, which I think we would get (not massive, but enough to help - and that's not the main aim of the move anyway).

As Keith says, any redevelopment of our current ground would have to be paid for, or sourced, by the board. They may not want to do that. Indeed Peter has said he wants the club to be able to stand on its own feet by bringing in more regular money each week, instead of relying on gates and directors' pockets which can be unreliable.

Selling Christie would, as Keith says, bring us a big part of the necessary income for the new build. It would also mean we don't have to keep looking for somewhere to train and the new stadium would bring the regular income from the outlets that we can lease off.

But, in the final analysis, the board have made a pretty good job of running our club in the past decade or so, so I trust them to do what's best now.

[Christies Child]

How many times does it need repeating that we have to move because the up keep of CP as it stands is enormous and will only get worse.

The club needs to develop an independent revenue stream for it to become in the main self-financed. We cannot expect Directors to keep putting their hands into their pockets to fund it for ever and a day.

But probably more important than anything, in 18 months CP will NOT meet FL criteria and in truth has been lucky to have got away with things like blue asbestos for so long.

Training facilities are at present al over the palce including Preston which is not ideal.

On the playing front, a better class of player will be attracted to the new stadium.

I could go on, but you get my drift PUNKISDEAD?

[morecambe mick]

I'm sorry, but I believed that building on the Car wash was not an option because of problems?

Something to do with the soil survey....?


I believe the "club" have looked at all the possible avenues for complying with league rules and have decided that the new ground is the best long term solution.


I have confidence in the people running our club.

[Keith]

How many times does it need repeating...

...I could go on, but you get my drift PUNKISDEAD?

Not picking on CC in particular, but this is a good example.

If we could please all remember that other people are entitled to expressing their own opinion without a 'belittling' reply.

[Mark S]

Who wrote this?

As someone who has probably annoyed a lot on SV's during my time, I've tried always to respect the opinion of others, despite wanting to have 'a right go' in retaliation.

[bigreddog]

It's fair to ask why we cant stay and redevelope Christie Park, if a little behind the curve, and every long term supporter would have prefered that option (including the board by the way) But it just isn't viable for a few reasons, not just the environmental survey but also other commercial considerations.

Yes the credit crunch will undoubtedly make the present site a lot less attractive to developers, but there are still plenty around who will take it on for future projects and "sit on it" for a while.

Lets not forget though that the bulk of the investment comes from private individuals, not least the chairman ( who should at least have one of the stands named after him in my humble opinion). This may make me a complete philistine in the eyes of some, but my attitude is that when private enterprise is willing to take a punt on the town I love (heysham port, british energy, marina planners, urban splash et al) then they get my backing and my best wishes.