How to get a stadium (eventually) : Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:00 am
First of all apologies for starting a new thread on Stadiums, but I didn’t want this one to get lost.So in reply
Eastern Wildcat ‘Maybe the plans for Newmarket have been tweaked a little. Didn't Vastman have the ideas of temporary structures built which were a fraction of the cost and time, than that of bricks and mortar.
I seem to recall that MC had invited him down to the ground at some point to share ideas.’
First of all no he didn’t but that doesn’t matter I know a lot of people got the idea.
I think in this country we think to directly and want everything at one, rather than some lateral thinking which IMHO is needed here.
I'm assuming the original idea of Yorkcourt funding the stadium in full is a lost cause. In which case I doubt we can find ten million in the current economic climate any time soon so for me the full N/M straight away is a non starter.
That said we actually have a far better opportunity at N/M than we think. We potentially have the land and we certainly have full planning permission. These are the two hardest things to secure for any new stadium - the hard work has been done but certain people seem to be missing that point - Box for starters.
Nowhere in the planning does it say the stadium has to be built in one go, there is no reason why it can’t be built in stages over say a 10-15 year period. So here goes…
PHASE 1
1: Land and infra-structure in place, not the club or the Trusts responsibility - WMDC and Yorkcourt.
2: Built a main stand with all the facilities holding approx 4,000 - there is such a stand available at Rotherham. I reckon they would sell it at scrap value and we could re-erect it at a cost of around a million pounds if we use volunteer labour where possible.
ROTHERHAM STAND as it is now
3: Put up some floodlights, 3,000 temporary seats down the other side and a security fence and other bits and bobs, about a million. Bingo a very basic 7,000 capacity stadium for 2-3 million pounds..
4: for bigger games hire 2 x 1,000 seats for each end giving 9,000 capacity or more if needed. Don’t think we’ll be defeating that figure to soon.
Now I assume the stadium will be owned and run by the Trust. They will get a basic income from the club which I would make quite high as I feel the club should contribute to the future development.
Along with that income the trust can look for funding and partners for future development. It’s much easier to sell the idea of investing in a community stadium when you can put forward fully working, well planned and costed ideas in bite sized chunks rather than some vague notion of tarting up BV.
PHASE 2
The rest is pretty obvious, redevelop the other side, a nice modern terrace holding 4,000 would be my choice. Then each end with a 2,000 seater stand (again don’t need to be new, and a full main stand can easily be converted into two end stands) - final capacity 12,000.
It’s so do-able imho but who am I.
