DN35 Jason and Andrew Interview

I wonder if all the wood was removed from the Main Stand that a stand (Mecano) could be built over the brick built bit at the back.??????

N.B. I an not a Civil Engineer or an Architect.

I don’t think that the Barratt Stand was built by a civil engineer or architect either.  Rumour has it that when it was demolished in the early 80s it was found that there was no foundations.  The weight of the stand (and fans) kept it stable.

(Still remember that my dad sold matches and chocolates in the Barratt (a wooden stand of course) to the many smokers.  This was from 1931 in the glory years.

Health and safety has moved on.

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

If we had a new stadium there would be no seating issues.  Just saying.

Exactly.  Doncaster's Keepmoat has 4,000 seats with unrestricted views on both sides of the pitch.  Blundell Park's Upper has 2,000 seats, and naturally most people want to sit there.

Quoted from White_shorts

Exactly.  Doncaster's Keepmoat has 4,000 seats with unrestricted views on both sides of the pitch.  Blundell Park's Upper has 2,000 seats, and naturally most people want to sit there.

Ok, I’ll overlook your bizarre posting habits and put to you this simple question. How much do you think an adequate new stadium for Town would cost, and how do you suppose we fund its construction?

Obviously money is the big issue before any new stadium can be built so no idea if it will ever happen but I’ve recently been to a stadium which would suit town very well.

I was invited to watch between St Helens and Wigan at the Totally Wicked stadium in St Helens.
While watching the guys with odd shaped balls knock the crap out of each other all I kept thinking was this would be perfect stadium for town.

It’s capacity is 18000 but take a few thousand off that for football as they have standing terraces at each end.

The atmosphere and acoustics are fabulous. The Mariners roar would be deafening.

Total cost £25m at the time so maybe with inflation beyond our reach but look it up and see what you think,  

We can dream UTM .  

Quoted from Jackal

Obviously money is the big issue before any new stadium can be built so no idea if it will ever happen but I’ve recently been to a stadium which would suit town very well.

I was invited to watch between St Helens and Wigan at the Totally Wicked stadium in St Helens.
While watching the guys with odd shaped balls knock the crap out of each other all I kept thinking was this would be perfect stadium for town.

It’s capacity is 18000 but take a few thousand off that for football as they have standing terraces at each end.

The atmosphere and acoustics are fabulous. The Mariners roar would be deafening.

Total cost £25m at the time so maybe with inflation beyond our reach but look it up and see what you think,  

We can dream UTM .  

It's a decent enough stadium, I'll give you that, but £25m in 2011 is probably close to £50m now given the huge inflation in key construction materials. Not that you'd be able to finance a substantial chunk of it through borrowing, but the cost of any borrowing we might what to do is already 5x higher than it would have been back then.

We should never say never, but there is simply no viable way of GTFC funding a new stadium in the shape we are in today and the macro economic climate as it is. I saw a quote from JS the other day saying they won't talk about anything they are not in a position to deliver; there's a difference between not wanting to do something and not being able to.

It's a conversation we can park for the time being.

Quoted from Jackal

Obviously money is the big issue before any new stadium can be built so no idea if it will ever happen but I’ve recently been to a stadium which would suit town very well.

I was invited to watch between St Helens and Wigan at the Totally Wicked stadium in St Helens.
While watching the guys with odd shaped balls knock the crap out of each other all I kept thinking was this would be perfect stadium for town.

It’s capacity is 18000 but take a few thousand off that for football as they have standing terraces at each end.

The atmosphere and acoustics are fabulous. The Mariners roar would be deafening.

Total cost £25m at the time so maybe with inflation beyond our reach but look it up and see what you think,  

We can dream UTM .  

Judging by Google images it's a great looking stadium. I see it was built in 2012 so I dread to think what something like that would cost today. I just cannot see how we can stay at Blundell Park indefinitely. But, as Poojah points out, where is the thirty plus million coming from, to pay for the stadium? Unless a very wealthy benefactor comes along, I fear GTFC have missed that boat!

Quoted from Poojah

It's a decent enough stadium, I'll give you that, but £25m in 2011 is probably close to £50m now given the huge inflation in key construction materials. Not that you'd be able to finance a substantial chunk of it through borrowing, but the cost of any borrowing we might what to do is already 5x higher than it would have been back then.

We should never say never, but there is simply no viable way of GTFC funding a new stadium in the shape we are in today and the macro economic climate as it is. I saw a quote from JS the other day saying they won't talk about anything they are not in a position to deliver; there's a difference between not wanting to do something and not being able to.

It's a conversation we can park for the time being.

£40.2M

https://www.hl.co.uk/tools/calculators/inflation-calculator

Quoted from TheRealJohnLewis

£40.2M

https://www.hl.co.uk/tools/calculators/inflation-calculator

That’s just “general” inflation though. The cost of fundamental construction materials has risen at a much steeper rate - we’d almost certainly be closer to £50m than £40m. And I say that regrettably; I’d love a new ground for Town.

[img]https://www.base-4.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Construction-Materials-Prices.jpg[/img]

I agree with all the comments as they are facts and my post wasn’t to be flippant over cost, as I said we can dream.

There is a more serious point though . Blundell Park at some point has to be refurbished or demolished.
If the club is to be sustainable it has to be ambitious in its approach regarding a new ground or it will inevitably have rein in its long term ambitions. The costs won’t get cheaper.

I don’t have the answers but maybe it is as commented above just a benefactor,  or perhaps corporate contributions plus a hotel plus retail plus a benefactor etc etc  
Grimsby has too many supermarkets but as a reference Tesco contributed to the St Helens ground and that resulted in an estimated £5M less cost to the club (So £20m).

The clubs finances can’t justify the spend I’m sure but as the saying goes build it and they will come.
Corporate revenues at St Helen’s dramatically increased after the new stadium opened.

I did ask a lot of questions of my hosts and their core supporter base was only slightly over Grimsby’s but bear in mind St Helens is a deprived area too.  The increase in attendance and corporate revenues was above their best expectations.

People and business are attracted to a good stadium with a good news story of a club,

Like I said I don’t have the answers but there are many ways to get to the destination.
I’m confident our present owners have far more constructive ideas than me.