Mr Fenty on Look North

League status is irrelevant surely? Same goes for attendances? Surely there's a bigger picture, the club's future existence for example?

How would not relocating guarantee promotion?  

...
I for one have notice the queues at half time for food and drink, especially for booze. I believe the club is losing out of potential extra revenue with the lack of facilities at Blundell park, and that the only way to solve this, is to relocate to a more up-to-date stadia with better facilities.

Just my opinion of course.  

While JF is both politician and major shareholder he is in a weak situation, treading a fine line over using his position as a councillor to benefit a business he effectively owns.

This is because the new stadium will depend on a backer who can only be attracted if the council of which JF is a member allows them to build a large housing development in the same vicinity.

I don't know about anyone else but the words 'conflict of interests' spring to my mind.

League status irrelevant? Are you serious? The longer we're in this cesspit of a league the shorter our existence as a club will be.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

If he wants to state that he's propped up the clubs finances for 13 years then he has to accept responsibility for the clubs achievements (?) over that period. Where we are is as a result of a decade of questionable decisions, including some on stadium projects, league status must be the first objective, nothing less.

He wasn't on his own was he for the full 13 years and he wouldn't be on his own now if it wasn't for the boardroom failings and MP shares fiasco.  

When all is said and done he has been in charge of the club and is fully responsible for the last 5 seasons, what will be will be, it's Fenty's legacy so it's his call, he dodged the question and left it vague, what is he going to do if the new ground move fails.

Quoted from LH

League status irrelevant? Are you serious? The longer we're in this cesspit of a league the shorter our existence as a club will be.

I don't see how promotion and a stadium can be connected? Why can't we have both? Promotion is what we want now, a stadium is what want for the future.  

Quoted from GiveUsAG

I don't see how promotion and a stadium can be connected? Why can't we have both? Promotion is what we want now, a stadium is what want for the future.  

This
Why should we be happy with just one when with work and some good fortune we could have both.

This bloke is absolutely killing me, I can't take it anymore.

I don't want to be overly critical, but this post might sound like I am being - so if you're one of those who won't hear a bad word said against him, then just stop reading now.


The problem here, and pretty much throughout this entire process, is that I'm yet to hear a single, quality, succinct statement on how this development will benefit the community. That's coming from someone who is on this board almost daily, follows the club religiously, reads & listens to almost everything that comes out of the club - so how the frig is Joe Bloggs going to know why they should support a new development? I know the club haven't decided on specifics yet, but again we keep hearing this "community" term bandied about without any explanation on how this will benefit the community. It's pretty basic.

The Look North piece was probably the biggest & best opportunity the club had to showcase the benefits of the development to hundreds of thousands of people. What happened? Fenty allowed, and pretty much encouraged, it to become a "discussion" (read "massive whinge") about his funding of the club and the possible negative implications of the development not going ahead. This bloke's supposed to be a politician, is he not? How the intercourse has he allowed that to happen? Now, I don't think anyone's expecting him to have delivered a performance straight from the Alastair Campbell school of spin, but Peter Levy is hardly Jeremy Paxman - would it really have been so difficult to...I dunno.... not let an interview designed to promote a development descend into a argument about how copulated we're going to be if/when everything goes to excrement and he is forced to leave?

The whole campaign is being run from the wrong angle, seemingly. Almost everything I've seen has been Fenty/the club pitting objectors / complainers / NIMBYs / etc. against the club's supporters, in some kind of fire-fighting excercise where people are expected pick through objections point-by-point and argue the case for the club. The YouTube video posted above demonstrates this perfectly. The entire issue is being framed as a problem, and the club are allowing this to continue by engaging objectors on their terms. There is a real need to reframe the issue as a positive for the community (by demonstrating some benefit, as mentioned above) and engage with people through a more positive context. Again, it's fairly basic stuff that anyone who works in PR/Comms would be able to help with & make a positive impact with in a matter of minutes, but we're content in sending out a man whose name is mud even with the people who have the most reason to like him!

There's a popular phrase used throughout politics - "if you're explaining, you're losing". That's what the club doing at the minute, and they're losing badly. You know why De Freitas and others are able to get away with the statements they're putting out in leaflets & promo material? It's because they've been able to build on the strength of (certain) public opinion & tap into the fears and concerns of the local population using a small number of statements and comments that, though not 100% accurate, mean a lot to people. It's all well & good saying that the development will be 850m away from the hospice, or 400m from the crem, but people would be less arsed about that if they had some sort of idea about how the stadium would benefit them directly. Change the general view of the development and you'll not only spend less time fighting a battle in enemy territory, you'll also put more strength behind the statements that you do make when addressing specific issues (such as transporting fans from the station).

Well said. I posted a while ago that without the support of the public this would be dead in the water. So I got slated as the Nimbys still do. It will never happen becuase of this.

Fenty needs to frame the stadium in terms of:

Jobs
Economic boost to the town
Tourism
Putting Grimsby on the map
Proving excellent facilities for the next generation

Not his bank balance

Quoted from GiveUsAG

I don't see how promotion and a stadium can be connected? Why can't we have both? Promotion is what we want now, a stadium is what want for the future.  

Of course we want both. But if you're a NIMBY, it's a much easier argument to say 'a non-league club doesn't need a new facility' than 'a newly-promoted club doesn't need a new facility'.

The attendances have stood up really well all things considered but the truth is that only a small percentage of the population of NE Lincs have signed the petition and an even smaller percentage actually go to BP.