council want to talk to Town about new stadium

Quoted from ginnywings

I really don't know what your beef is with the new owners but you definitely have one it seems.

I met Jason yesterday when he came to see the work being done on the ground. Very nice chap and the sort you warm to immediately. Of course, he could be a smiling assassin with an outward persona of affability, but that's not the impression I got, or others at the ground who have had more contact with him than I have. Maybe he's just the sort of person who would rather praise someone than criticize, even bearing in mind the fact he was negotiating to take over the business of the person he was bigging up.

What is apparent is that he's a genuine fan, as was JF, but he's one who is, along with Andrew Pettit, putting a lot of time and money into the club. At the moment, I can't see any reason to doubt their intentions and for the first time in a long time, we are being positively proactive, instead of reactive.

The team will be ready, the pitch will be ready, the training facilities will be ready, so it's time to forget the old regime and see what the new one brings. From what I have seen, it will be an upward trajectory.

Ironic really isn’t it. PP made comments about the likes of you and I, Forza etc about having something against Fenty yet here he is with a similar sense of cynicism and almost agenda against the new owners.

My own opinion of Fenty goes beyond his ineptitude at running and in turn ruining our club…

Quoted from trickeymickey

Are you lads sure that this all makes sense?  Tens of millions to replace your ground?  Surely you dont think that there is much money coming from your Council?  If your new owners really have the money and the inclination to spend it on a new ground they will not be sufficiently well healed to also purchase a decent team for you as well?
Do up the one you have.  Plan for 10,000 fans and put up with its deficiencies and spend what money you have on the infrastructure to allow the development of more home grown talent. Then have the patience for the system to deliver.
Recruit the right people to support the system.
I know you are all happy at the moment but it isn't that long ago you were equally happy at having a bold and successful Manager and planning for a bigger future.  How long before you decide this new owner is also a Numpty?
I genuinely believe that this constant banging on about a new ground is an expensive distraction.  Please forget it.

The new owners have said that redeveloping Blundell Park is something they'll look into and they've also said that new stadium plans aren't an immediate priority. They've also talked numerous times about bringing in the right people to support the club and to help develop us. You might benefit from actually listening to some of their interviews before posting about them next time, perhaps? Any criticism directed towards the old regime was born out of a combination of incompetence, an unwillingness to keep up with the modern world of football and a  complete lack of respect towards the fans. The new owners are making a concerted effort to not only be progressive with their plan of where the they want us to be but in engaging with the supporters in a way that the previous owners and board never did. As long as they continue to do this, they won't be berated by the vast majority of Town fans. There seems to be this misguided notion among certain lower league clubs/fans/people that we're hyper-critical of anyone in positions of authority at our club. This is complete nonsense, it's more to do with the fact that we've always had idiots at the helm.

The development of youth players is pretty bloody good right now too, for the size of our club and the category of our academy. I think you're underestimating how much money is needed to progress up to the categories.

Quoted from trickeymickey

OK I can see that it would be nice for you to move to a new ground.  But there are examples of moving ground being unsuccessful.  Why do you want bigger stands? You could modernise what you've got and still house 10,000 people.  You will hardly ever need more capacity than that in the future.
You say that you HAVE to move.  They were saying that when I was working there a quarter of a century agoand somehow you have managed in the interim.
You arent a big rich club so why not spend whatever you can raise to set up a system that reduces the wage bill and the transfer budget instead of dreaming of new stadiums?

A quarter of a century ago we were in the second tier. Since then we've almost gone under, been relegated five times and are kicking off this coming season three levels below where we were when you worked there. If that's "have managed in the interim" then I think I speak for most of us when I say I'd rather we took a gamble on a new stadium. I'm not anti-developing Blundell Park either, the likelihood is though that that's almost certainly a romantic ideal. I'd love for us to extend some of the stands and make it all shiny and new looking but Blundell Park is a relic. It would take a lot of time, effort and money to do it up. If you think this is just about capacity too, you're again barking up the wrong tree. The state of the place has been putting players off signing for us for years now. It will be a sad day if/when we play our last match at Blundell Park, but you'd be hard pushed to find anyone arguing against it being the right time.

At some time in the not too distant future we will need a new ground but for the time being we need to regroup. Consolidate what we have now got and feel our way with the new regime. Wherever that ground is I am 100%sure that it won't be on the docks. Now that the area has Freeport status I don't think ABP would let a potential money making industrial opportunity be used for a football stadium

Well said ginny

Sooner rather than later we won't be issued with a safety certificate for the main stand. Do we start to look at relocating, or rebuild the main stand?

I don't see why some people are not getting fully behind the new owners.

12 months ago we had management and owner singing to the same tune, covid, we don't need quality players, save money it'll all be over by Christmas with clubs going bust. How true that was, it was all over by Christmas for us.

Now we have new management and owners. Investment at Cheapside, ground improvements, and some quality players coming in. What is there to criticise when the season hasn't even kicked off.

Quoted from pen penfras

Redeveloping BP will cost more than building a new stadium, plus there's very little way to recover any costs from an enabling development or sponsorship. And the suggestion to spend £10M+ then think about binning that off if we get to the championship, is absurd. Although we'll unlikely get there in the next 20 years, so I guess it's a moot point.

Incredible negativity again as per the other threads.
The bitterness you seem to possess seemingly overrides any positivity in going forward
What a sad situation.

Quoted from Stadium

Incredible negativity again as per the other threads.
The bitterness you seem to possess seemingly overrides any positivity in going forward
What a sad situation.

Some people never realise that when 99.9999% of people say and believe one thing and you are in the 0.0001% then there is a likehood you are wrong.

Quoted from mimma

Sooner rather than later we won't be issued with a safety certificate for the main stand. Do we start to look at relocating, or rebuild the main stand?

I said it the other day but a derelict Blundell Park would be a huge safety risk too. The chances of us moving out and the bulldozers being in on Monday are virtually zero and there would be a chance of it going the way of Birds Eye, Littlefields and Garth Lane.

Quoted from mimma

Sooner rather than later we won't be issued with a safety certificate for the main stand. Do we start to look at relocating, or rebuild the main stand?

We'll find out soon. The last permit is about to run out and an inspection is due imminently.