New Stadium

Quoted from Bigdog

I'm not talking specifically about the Freemo area Barra. I'm looking at the area as a whole. And.. it's an insult to everyone's intelligence for the reports to suggest the training pitches need to be included in that particular site alongside the stadium anyway..

With a bit of joined up blue sky thinking there could be a great many sites dotted around the area that could be improved with a new stadium and enabling developments..

It could take longer and be more complicated but the reward would be long lasting solutions and benefits..

Oh I'm not really arguing with you. It is the report that says that the spec GTFC presented wanted to see the training pitches attached. I'm not "In the know" but maybe they see them as an income earner as part of the move to a seven day usage model. I kind of agree about the availability of other sites but there might be other concerns (business rates etc.) meaning  a one site set up gives the best option. Surely someone on here can advise??

Quoted from barralad

You may have a point but at the moment NELC is a hung council so it hasn't been beyond  the realms of possibility that Labour and the Tories did a deal over this in exchange for other deals....it's the reality of having no-one in overall control. Much as I dislike Tories they have been behind Peaks Parkway from Day 1. You also have to remember that the council have already voted in favour of the site.
I'm no expert on house-building but I do know that the developers of the housing developments currently under construction i.e. the four off Humberston Avenue are having trouble selling them and a hold has been put on more development on those sites. It is a possibility that interested parties are looking at that and thinking twice about committing to the Parkway development but I must stress I'm only guessing.

My first thought when the plans were announced were.. "Where are they going to find 5000 extra people that want to live in Grimsby?". Even if the houses were sold to people moving out of the central areas of town into the suburbs, what happens to the central areas? Certainly can't be knocked down for retail or leisure because the demand isn't there. There are a lot of problems that aren't easily solved, but trying to dovetail a new stadium into run down central Grimsby and scattering enabling developments around existing run down areas might have a chance of creating a final solution rather than maybe Peaks Parkway just shuffling the problems around..

Quoted from barralad

Oh I'm not really arguing with you. It is the report that says that the spec GTFC presented wanted to see the training pitches attached. I'm not "In the know" but maybe they see them as an income earner as part of the move to a seven day usage model. I kind of agree about the availability of other sites but there might be other concerns (business rates etc.) meaning  a one site set up gives the best option. Surely someone on here can advise??

It stands to reason that having all facilities on one site makes sense logistically & financially but the real reason might be that Cheapside is a. barely fit for purpose, b. probably as developed as it's ever going to be and c. not exactly a glowing advert for prospective intake.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

It stands to reason that having all facilities on one site makes sense logistically & financially but the real reason might be that Cheapside is a. barely fit for purpose, b. probably as developed as it's ever going to be and c. not exactly a glowing advert for prospective intake.

And...mark this...I agree with you 100%  

Quoted from Bigdog

My first thought when the plans were announced were.. "Where are they going to find 5000 extra people that want to live in Grimsby?". Even if the houses were sold to people moving out of the central areas of town into the suburbs, what happens to the central areas? Certainly can't be knocked down for retail or leisure because the demand isn't there. There are a lot of problems that aren't easily solved, but trying to dovetail a new stadium into run down central Grimsby and scattering enabling developments around existing run down areas might have a chance of creating a final solution rather than maybe Peaks Parkway just shuffling the problems around..

I might have misread the report but I thought it also said there is a surplus of privately rented accommodation across the area meaning rent returns are depressed meaning in turn developers of rental developments are reticent about committing!

Quoted from grimsby pete

The problem in trying to get anything passed with this council is Fenty is disliked on there nearly as much as he is on here.

You may be right. If you cannot deal effectively with people - fans, media, the Trust - then you would imagine it would also be difficult  with your peers and sometimes betters at the council. It is perhaps irritating to Mr. Fenty that he is only one of elected representatives and has to go through due process with people who have more say.

I sometimes muse how the council would react to other people putting forward the proposals for a GTFC stadium, with the community at the heart of it (not just in the title)  and I guess the way things are going we will get to know in the years ahead...

This may have been mentioned before but why cannot the stadium be the centre piece of a Freemo redevelopment with the enabling developments (housing estates) on other sites?  

In any event for many years I have been in favour of a new stadium for all the obvious reasons, but I now hope it doesn't happen till Mr. Fenty has left GTFC altogether so that we have a new start in more ways than one, and can all get behind a real vision for a new stadium with the community at its heart, and includes the heritage of the club and Grimsby as its main theme.

Quoted from Bigdog

When all's said and done, the club haven't come up with a convincing enough financial plan or framework to make the new stadium happen. It's coming up two years ago this summer from when the council invited a planning application at Peaks Parkway. Where is it?

I think the seemingly single minded approach to Peaks Parkway by the club hasn't helped. Even having a non-chairman who has a seat on the council, which should be a position of influence, seems to work against us. Between the council and the club there seems to be a distinct lack of imagination to create a project that benefits both parties. There's such a plethora of land dotted around central Grimsby that needs regenerating and both parties are missing the chance to present a joined up venture that could solve everything and bring the area into the 21st century. The football club will still need a new stadium in twenty years at this rate and the council's weak proposed plans to regenerate the Marshes with fluffy projects without substance will soon descend those areas into being sinkholes once again..

Years ago I asked on here what the cost of the new stadium would be, what the expected revenue for BP would be, what the capital funding gap was, what the relative operating costs of BP and PP would be and what the expected non-football income from PP would be. And how much was needed from enabling development (and what the likelihood of that was). In other words what the business case was.  It was bloody obvious there was a big gap. I always doubted that enough of a subsidy would be forthcoming from enabling development. The club must have either known that and just hoped that a white knight would ride into town, or the club had no idea what the numbers where. It's wasted years of time on this, after the money down the drain on Great Coates. It's raised hopes when there really was little hope. You can add to the funding gap a credibility gap.

Look at the plots of land Hull, Rotherham and Chesterfield have built their stadiums on. Not huge. Genuine question, why are our perceived needs different to theirs?

Must say freemo seems to make more sense than PP...... if it takes longer for it to happen then I'm still all for it.

Having said that I'm not against PP if that's the only option.

Quoted from Limerick Mariner

It is not a vanity project, only the nimbys would say that, it is more for rugby than football though - they are fanatical about it down there - if they got in the rugby prem I could see them getting 8-10k crowds like Exeter.

And there's one team that have got it spot on imho great set up

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Park