Plans for the future

Quoted from dicko995

Strange as it may seem, i still reckon Tom Shutes has a part to play in this, looking forward to the next episode

This...

The guy is redeveloping the Ice House. As part of that he's going to have to sort out road access to the docks. That will save us a fortune as any new stadium at any location (Great Coates, Peaks Parkway, Freeman Street or wherever) will require a huge addition cost to sort out access and roads around the site. The new roundabout at the junction of Cambridge Road & Little Coates Road cost about £2 million didn't it?

We’re looking at this from the narrow perspective of how many people we can pack in to the space. The club also needs to consider safe access and egress, provision of decent toilets (already inadequate), other amenities like food and drink (by all accounts improved quality but question mark against capacity to serve). It’s not just about getting people in the ground, but getting them to come back time after time. While we’re winning and it’s exciting, that’s easier. When we have a lull, that’s when other factors come into people’s minds more.

Then there’s the question of other operational space needs at the club - football, maintenance and admin. I can’t imagine any of the current space for these is what it should be.

Getting someone in who understands all those competing demands, and can balance them off, is probably the first priority. I think the stadium manager post was advertised fairly recently?

Does anyone honestly think that 1878 aren't looking to move to a new stadium or significantly redraw Blundell Park?

Be it 3000, 4000, 5000....fans coming through the gates, Blundell Park is becoming less and less fit for purpose.  The developments over the summer are fantastic, but we can't stay as we are.  I fully appreciate that we're riding the crest of a wave at the minute and yet we're still not completely selling out, but the worst thing we can do is just sit back and enjoy the upturn in fans coming through the gates.

Romantic notions aside, there's nothing at Blundell Park that makes it appealing to anyone.  Views are crap, facilities are poor, it's more or less a no-go for disabled fans, you can't park close if you need to, there's no serious corporate facilities to offer.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Does anyone honestly think that 1878 aren't looking to move to a new stadium or significantly redraw Blundell Park?

Be it 3000, 4000, 5000....fans coming through the gates, Blundell Park is becoming less and less fit for purpose.  The developments over the summer are fantastic, but we can't stay as we are.  I fully appreciate that we're riding the crest of a wave at the minute and yet we're still not completely selling out, but the worst thing we can do is just sit back and enjoy the upturn in fans coming through the gates.

Romantic notions aside, there's nothing at Blundell Park that makes it appealing to anyone.  Views are crap, facilities are poor, it's more or less a no-go for disabled fans, you can't park close if you need to, there's no serious corporate facilities to offer.

You’re not supposed to point out that BP is a complete sh!those and that if you stayed we’d have to bulldoze all 4 stands and rebuild them all.

Quoted from forza ivano

they are doing as much as they can - they've only had 5 home games, and the first 2 were 'only' 5000.
Immediately they saw a tick up in sales they opened the Osmond. And the fact that the Ossie has still got a lot of spare capacity shows that we are not selling out,as there are still several hundred seats available

ps rather than missing a trick they've improved the food, the drinks, merchandise, the ticketing & the entire atmosphere. So much so that my guestimate is that they are c£150,000 up on their home crowd budget (and with Yeovil and Notts Co coming up that it will ony increase)

From what I've heard, that is a very conservative guesstimate.

Interesting development at Barnsley this week where they’ve had to close their equivalent of the Main Stand due to safety concerns. A reminder of how we are on borrowed time with BP in its current state. Had some good times in that stand at Barnsley when the seats were the away end

Quoted from BeijingMariner

For me this is a good example of forward thinking. No need to be down on someone for doing this and telling them that we should focus on getting out of the league, that goes without saying and other than going to matches, we don't have a great deal of input. This wider ranging club development, however is a different thing; we can contribute, we should; ideas, however fanciful are the lifeblood of  development and growth. I applaud you, Mr Grim, keep going

Cheers BM 😁. My thinking was that a new stadium is years in the planning and architects designs can often fall short of what the majority of us on here see as a good fit after years of watching Town at a variety of stadiums. For me Donny/ Scunny were soulless whereas the New York allows for a big volume of noise from the home fans , yet caters for a large income from big away followings along with not looking Darloesque when smaller crowds are in it. A good point by White shorts though with regards of acoustics - that’s the idea to voice opinions based on experiences following Town.

Quoted from grimps

If we can get 6000 in non league with barely any visiting fans then we can get double that in the championship , we need a new  bigger ground

This club is absolutely capable of five figure attendances. Not sure why despite BP being all seater a few years ago, the capacity was 10033, now considerably less yet I haven't seen any changes to the set up. I'm old enough to have been in the Pontoon with 17000 plus!

Not sure we averaged more than 7 or 8000 when we were in the equivalent of the championship .So cannot see gates doubling to 12000 .

Quoted from ginnywings

From what I've heard, that is a very conservative guesstimate.

Interesting. I've based my guestimate on a 4000 crowd budget