Plans for the future

Quoted from HertsGTFC

I hope it’s got heated seats it’s f*****g freezing in that part of the City from October to March 🥶

Quoted from HertsGTFC

I hope it’s got heated seats it’s f*****g freezing in that part of the City from October to March 🥶

Quoted from Poojah

It’s a lot of money for a stadium with a 17,250 capacity, but I think there were some complexities in Brentford’s case; not least the cost of land so close to central London and the nature of the site; tiny with awkward angles and hemmed in by railway lines. It’s certainly not a place the untrained eye would think to put a Premier League football
stadium.

Arguably the most relevant example for us would be Rotherham United’s new stadium. 12,000 capacity (although it looks bigger), northern and built on brownfield land close to the town centre. It’s also probably close to what most people have in their mind’s eye in terms of design; without the architectural flair you get with large, high-end stadiums like Spurs (which cost a billion quid, by the way) but still relatively well thought out and reasonably unique.

As a benchmark then, that cost £20m, 10 years ago. If the consensus on here is that we need to be considering a capacity of 15,000 minimum, then with inflation and in particular the recent surge in the cost of construction materials, I think a figure in the region of £30m - £35m is probably not far off the mark. And that’s a big chunk of change.

The biggest question for me, far bigger than ‘where’ any new stadium should go, is how you go about funding a project of that scale. Through grants and naming rights, there’s a chance you might be able to get close to £10m, but that still leaves a huge gulf of at least £20m.

Borrowing money, at least by traditional means, is difficult where a stadium for Town is concerned as the value of the stadium once completed would be a lot less than what it cost to build it. It’s not like mortgaging a house (which is complex enough in its own right if you’re building it yourself).

In Rotherham’s case, they were lent £5m, interest free, by their local council. Can we anticipate such generosity from NELC? I’m not sure we can. As for the concept of ‘enabling developments’, I think they’re absolutely dead in the water in the current climate, certainly where retail is concerned.

Brentford’s stadium, much like Brighton’s a few years earlier, were largely underwritten by their owner. I don’t know if that’s an option for us either as I don’t think our owners have the personal wealth to lend or guarantee that kind of money.

However, whilst the obstacles in front of us are large, I do feel for the first time we will overcome them and I think we’ll find ourselves in a new ground within 5 to 6 years. Despite what Stockwood and Pettit have said, I believe in the background a stadium is very much on the agenda. They’re not daft; they know that Blundell Park places an artificial ceiling on the club’s prospects in the long-term.

Rotherham we’re forced out of Millmoor in 2008, and were playing in a shiny new stadium by 2012. It’s achievable in my opinion with the right people involved, something that’s evidently been a bit of a problem up until now.