Club Accounts

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

The discussion around the ground is much more nuanced than capacity. A new build ground will cost substantially less year on year to maintain when compared to BP. That will in and of itself make us more sustainable. Looks like we've spent north of 1.5m on basic backlog maintenance since the new owners came on board with much more to come. That's a lot of money on sticking plasters.

A new ground should also include facilities for 7 day income. It's not purely about capacity.

We could look to build a new 10k stadium allowing modular additions if we ever got to league 1. Even a new 8k new build might be sufficient for a short while.

As regards a new ground, far too much time and money was spent by " The Leech" in pursuing a new stadium project that first and foremost benefited him and not the club. He allowed the grounds infrastructure to deteriorate to such a point that the new owners have had to spend large amounts of money that could have been used for the playing squad.

Quoted from rancido

As regards a new ground, far too much time and money was spent by " The Leech" in pursuing a new stadium project that first and foremost benefited him and not the club. He allowed the grounds infrastructure to deteriorate to such a point that the new owners have had to spend large amounts of money that could have been used for the playing squad.

The issue is it's so far gone to get upto any reasonable standard it's going to cost 10's of million not just the 500k-1million a year which is just to keep it functional/open . You are not going to see any extra commercial revenue from that or much improvement in matchday experience .

Quoted from ska face

People presumably smoked cigarettes in the Main Stand for almost 100 years using matches & lighters. Smoking is banned but vapes - which have about as much fire risk as a mobile phone - are going to send the ground up in flames?  

So you actually think the main stand is viable long term , genuine question ?

Redeveloping BP surely isn't feasible is it?  

To do so, effectively, would require a stand-by-stand approach as none are no longer remotely fit for purpose.  

So if we did that, let's say we start with the Main Stand, we lose those seats until the new stand is rebuilt.  Our capacity then goes down to around 6000.  Hypothetically lets say we lose that side of the ground for a year, for that year we have to cope with at least 25% reduction of ticket sales.  Which, very roughly, works out about £500k less in the coffers for that season.  You would hope that the all new sparkling Main Stand has an increased capacity that means the development of the remaining 3 stands can be absorbed slightly, at each stage we're just increasing it.  

That's massively going on presumptions that a) we can raise funds to redevelop b) it's actually feasible to do the redevelopment and c) we continue to have at least the current demand for tickets, then d) that the additional seats are going to be used in the first place (same with a stadium move).

Commercially I think BP hinders us too.  It's not accessible and even with the greatest revamp in the world it's got excrement parking facilities.  The scope is so limited.

We really, really need a new ground and it angers me more and more that we've missed the boat when funding was available.  So many clubs have gone onto relatively prosper on the back of a new ground and we've just stood watching.

Quoted from Mappers

So you actually think the main stand is viable long term , genuine question ?

It’s not going to be set on fire by children smoking electronic cigarettes, which is the point you made.

We will never recruit the right people until the current owners stop letting applicants blow smoke up their backside.The right applicant is not the one who tells you what you want to hear,rather the one who tells you what you do not want to hear.The whole club is permeated with group think.

Quoted from Mappers

The issue is it's so far gone to get upto any reasonable standard it's going to cost 10's of million not just the 500k-1million a year which is just to keep it functional/open . You are not going to see any extra commercial revenue from that or much improvement in matchday experience .

And I think this is where we are, we need an honest up front discussion about this with all stakeholders. Looking at the value of a new ground has to be assessed over a longer time frame. It's all well and good the owners saying it's not a priority presumably because they consider it unaffordable, but we need to compare the cost of moving against the cost of commercial income forgone and continually high spend on maintenance.

Can they afford circa 900k shortfall for the next 10 years or do we just hope for a cup run and some player sales to offset that now and again. Even a temporary 8k capacity  with modern commercial facilities would go a long way to making us sustainable.

The current do minimum strategy doesn't sound like much of a sound  long term strategy to me.

Quoted from ska face

It’s not going to be set on fire by children smoking electronic cigarettes, which is the point you made.

My uncle used to say that the main stand got hosed down before a game to make the wood wet and prevent a fire. The Main Stand becomes a huge fire risk if we leave BP in my opinion. Vapes almost certainly aren't going to send it up in flames. As you say Ska, we've been using mobile phones in there for over 20 years now.

I'd honestly love for Andrew and Jason to give their candid insight into this situation, but they're not going to.  I think we're quite fortunate in the level of detail we get from them on a lot of stuff but this level of detail isn't one we'll ever get.  

Unfortunately though, I don't think any level of candor or honest conversation is going to change the rock and a hard place situation we're in.  We can't afford a new stadium and yet we can't afford to not move to a new purpose built stadium.

It's like the situation of a modern day renter really.  Renters know that they're chucking money down the drain each month, but as long as they can't afford to get a mortgage of their own then they're stuck.  Best way to get a mortgage is to get a good deposit, but how can you save for a deposit when so much of your income is going on rent each month?

We need a Bank of Mum or Dad to step in.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

My uncle used to say that the main stand got hosed down before a game to make the wood wet and prevent a fire. The Main Stand becomes a huge fire risk if we leave BP in my opinion. Vapes almost certainly aren't going to send it up in flames. As you say Ska, we've been using mobile phones in there for over 20 years now.

Previous issue with the Main Stand fire risk wasn't so much the wood, it was the crap that fell underneath the stand and the risk of that catching fire (as per the Bradford fire tragedy).  Was a Channel 4 documentary in the early to mid 1990's about stadiums and the risks, there was an undercover bit in the Main Stand during a game and it showed underneath (this was prior to the steps being encased), frightening amount of rubbish just thrown down to the bottom.