Financial results

We dont need a bigger ground just to house a few more people on that once a decade game,, We need better facilitys , and someone in charge that can run the club , but not in to the ground like these merry men have done

Quoted from Roast Em Bobby

I'm not convinced having a new ground is linked to how well the team will do in the future. Chesterfield and Barnet were relegated to the conference last year and both have new grounds, and I'm sure there are many other examples - Lincoln being top of the league with their shambles of a ground being another.
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Brighton, Swansea, Cardiff, Reading, Doncaster, Rotherham, Leicester, Huddersfield, Millwall, Reading, Preston, Hull and Fleetwood have all benefitted from a higher place in the football pyramid and higher attendances in new facilities than in the past and there's a plethora of clubs who have significantly upgraded their original stadiums too with similar results..

While Chesterfield, Barnet, Coventry, Darlington, Chester have done worse..

And West Ham, Northampton, Colchester, Blackpool, Walsall, Derby, Middlesbrough, Stoke, Bolton and Morecambe have all seen very little change.

There's no magic formula, but couple funding of a new stadium that won't saddle a club with debt with a progressive owner, onfield success and a larger and more engaged fanbase usually follows. Players are attracted to progressive clubs with newer facilities. We just cannot contemplate staying at BP for much longer.

If you look at the Premier League and the Championship, there's only Bournemouth and Brentford that have got inadequate grounds for their level and both will be in new stadiums within the next few years and half of the clubs in League One have stadia that would be at least sufficient in the Championship.

With clubs like Salford snapping at our heels, as the years go by there's nowhere for us to hide other than be on a perpetual struggle of holding onto league status or suffering another fatal drop into non-league. We need significant investment and a fresh start. We cannot go on like this.

I'm trying not to have a dig here but I'm trying to deal with the facts. In the past fifteen  years or so after two successive relegations from the Championship we've finished higher than the lower half of League Two once. Once FFS. In that time we've not secured a new stadium and chased away the only significant investor in that time.

Is our club is bigger than one man's crusade to justify himself while ruining the whole fanbase enjoyment of supporting their football club at the same time? There's a bigger picture and there's bigger and more able players that could take us forward. Loads of other clubs find them, why can't we? Our owner shields the ownership of our club like it's his and his alone. In all of this time with our owner professing he'd sell if an offer came along, has the club been publicly put up for sale? No is the answer. All we've had is board members going through contact pages of dusty old filofaxes. I don't believe our owner when he says he'd be willing to sell up as much as when he said that he'd written off the loans in his head. Add another ten years of him trying to leave a stadium legacy to the previous seventeen and that would amount to half of most fans adult lives. That's a ridiculous amount of time for fans to endure this kind of sustained failure.

It's an horrific display of selfishness that I just can't get my head around and for what? Lending us a couple of mill just after the turn of the century and we'll soon be heading into the 2020s. For every Darlington there's five Brightons, for every Chester, there's five Rotherhams or Doncasters and there's plenty of Torquays, Stockports, Yorks, Herefords, Scarboroughs, Halifaxes that didn't go out and secure the necessary level of funding required to be a fully fledged Football League club in the 21st century.

We need a new stadium and we need a new backer. If Jf could secure a new backer it would be the best thing he could do for the club, especially with the potential for a new stadium in the offing. He could leave with some credit in at least stabalising the club financially even if it was at the expense of pyramid position and some really dull and unsuccessful football in that time. As he hasn't got the wealth to bridge any finance for the new stadium, I'm worried that even if he somehow achieves in getting the thing built, due to his lack of wealth we'll be saddled with some kind of financial compromise when it comes to the playing side for years to come. Seventeen years plus another five to ten to get the stadium built and another twenty or thirty years of playing budget compromise, the time of JF legacy starts stacking up to be the whole lifetime of a fan, generations and generations.

My gut tells me that we don't have an owner that can deliver anything exciting and sustainable and all evidence sadly points to the fact that he can't deliver. I'd much rather the club be openly put up for sale at what could be a significant turning point in the club's history. To be led by someone who loaned the club two mill and wants it back is just not enough for a Football League club in this day and age. Just look through the league tables and the balance of probabilities will tell us all that. Pointing to the odd club that's built a new stadium and failed is a really negative way of looking at things. I prefer to look at the multitude of successful examples but then again they've all come to fruition coupled with significant investment from new owners and I truly believe we'll need this to happen for a new stadium at East Marsh to be a long standing success rather than a long standing millstone. We're seventeen years into one millstone, we don't need another..

If anyone out there could map out a compelling argument why I shouldn't be concerned about the future finances and playing side of our club run by JF, I'd love to see a comprehensive reply so we could actually debate it..

This thread is in serious danger of going round in circles. Some brilliant points made but try as I might I cannot get beyond the fact that although there may be people out there with a deeply held desire to invest in GTFC whoever comes in will not only have to consider finding that investment to run the playing side and commercial opportunities but will from the start have to be prepared to deal with the funding for a venue to either replace or completely redevelop B.P.
I said at the time that the failure to get the Great Coates development off the ground would come back to bite us. At that time retail enablement was the tried and tested way of getting stadia built. Those days are long gone. Costs have risen disproportionately for most infra structure big projects. There are many teams in a better position to attract that huge level of inward investment given their league positions. I'm given hope from the fact that clubs such as the aforementioned Brentford and Bournemouth are still pursuing their dreams but the fact that in Bournemouth's case specifically they are not only backed by significant foreign investment they also have the Premierships millions to help tempers my enthusiasm. I would dearly love someone to come in and take the club by the scruff of the neck and propel it into the 21st. Century. Never say never but the task gets harder by the year.

Quoted from barralad

This thread is in serious danger of going round in circles. Some brilliant points made but try as I might I cannot get beyond the fact that although there may be people out there with a deeply held desire to invest in GTFC whoever comes in will not only have to consider finding that investment to run the playing side and commercial opportunities but will from the start have to be prepared to deal with the funding for a venue to either replace or completely redevelop B.P.
I said at the time that the failure to get the Great Coates development off the ground would come back to bite us. At that time retail enablement was the tried and tested way of getting stadia built. Those days are long gone. Costs have risen disproportionately for most infra structure big projects. There are many teams in a better position to attract that huge level of inward investment given their league positions. I'm given hope from the fact that clubs such as the aforementioned Brentford and Bournemouth are still pursuing their dreams but the fact that in Bournemouth's case specifically they are not only backed by significant foreign investment they also have the Premierships millions to help tempers my enthusiasm. I would dearly love someone to come in and take the club by the scruff of the neck and propel it into the 21st. Century. Never say never but the task gets harder by the year.

I think this is the point Barra. As fans we seriously have to have have a realistic long term look at the future of football. As the potential for a new stadium is in the offing, the next few years will define the next century in the history of the club. There are only 72 football league clubs and at least half of them have secured new facilities and owners, possibly a greater percentage than that. There's only a handful left for investors to look at. What do we want as fans? What do we want the football club to look like in 20 years? If it's stay at BP, stick with Fenty, hope for an FA Cup run once every twenty years and develop youth in order to earn a payday once every ten years, then in twenty years I can only see National League North beckoning. New stadium with some kind of bridging loan will probably enable us to stand still as others progress with greater finance and backing. I'm not saying I'm in complete agreement with how much investment is flowing into English football clubs, but it's here to stay and a fact of life. Whether it's local, whether it's UK based or whether it's foreign, we've got to be realistic in our choices if offers come along, because if we stick to long held principles, those principles are going to deliver non-league football in the end. There's ridiculous wealth out there. Eyewatering amounts which building a new stadium wouldn't make a dent. No need for return on investment, just the thrill of owning a club and seeing how successful it could be. Look at the Leicester owner. Wasn't a Leicester fan but lauded for what he's done there. There's no right or wrong in fan's opinions about what they'd like their club to look like in twenty years, it's a personal choice. What I'm scared of is that with JF clinging onto our club like it's his plaything and on a personal mission to be its saviour, we could easily be missing out on greater opportunities at this significant period in our history..

To clarify, have the club made any statements in the last 7 days regarding PP, I know there was a comment in the financial results, that was a good day to bury bad news. Are they positive about Freeman Street or not?

Quoted from rancido

But JF wants out and is willing to sell to any serious buyer. If he sells then he won't be in control so that blows that statement out of the water!

Does that serious buyer have to pay for Fenty's mistakes. ie the benign loan or is Fenty willing to write it off.

Quoted from rancido

But JF wants out and is willing to sell to any serious buyer. If he sells then he won't be in control so that blows that statement out of the water!

I must have missed press releases, articles in the Telegraph and national newspapers, bylines on Sky Sports News and social media campaigns promoting that GTFC is up for sale and the club are looking for a new owner and investment. I must have missed all of that publicity that might spark an interest..

You seriously swallow his lies Rancido? I assume you believe the benign loans are written off in his head too..