Show us the money

Quoted from aldi_01

It’s a genuine question but how many people do we ‘turn away’ each home game?

We heard all last season there were loads being turned away yet it never seemed more than a handful of fans who had a mate of a mate who couldn’t get a ticket…

Several times I couldn't get tickets with my brother or a mate (depending who I was coming with) so we didn't bother.

There are a lot that won't go because of poor views , my dad and brother went to the first couple but after being situated behind a post one game and back of the main another ,said they would not bother unless they got better seats .

It does not take a lot for the less hardcore fans to have an excuse to 'leave it ' without an easy yes .

Quoted from OddShapedBalls

Crazy idea - rip down the Findus, expand it outwards into the car park, make it wider so it goes to the Ponny and the Osmond, stick some huge sparkly new changing rooms at basement level on that side with a basement car park for the club officials and then have a stonking great hospitality set up, along with club shop and more food/drink outlets across ground floor and 2nd (or even a third tier!). Solves the changing room issues, the corporate issues, the land issues (maybe) and creates more seats in general. All the money making bits taken care of in this 1st phase means it can pay itself off quicker and then allow a rebuild of the next stand in turn etc

Bring on the red crosses!

Crazy idea or not that car park indeed gives us scope to do all sorts? Obviously, an architect could look at the entire footprint of BP and come up with something really special and in the order it should be tackled, and lets hope next season goes as well as we hope to get the ground and what we can do with it up the agenda.

What a thrill it would be to see some workable plans in place for an improved BP or new stadium, whichever is likely to happen first.

We have issues with the UF, never mind the oldest wooden stand in the country   This stand is likely to be nearly full every game.  The congestion around the Trust bar, refreshments area is potentially dangerous.  Everyone going through 1 set of double doors.

Luton are building a new £10 million stand, replacing an old stand.  They want to do this and have it in place for the start of the coming season.

No idea how or if they can do this. Maybe lessons for us in the future?

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Rebuilding BP is possible, Brentford's new ground was built on a very small parcel of land, but it's the balance between the added expense of that and the cost of a new piece of land with easier access and far fewer restrictions. And the loss of income to the club while chunks of the ground are closed off for building.

Brentford is certainly the best example of a fine new stadium built on a very sub-optimal piece of land, and in many ways is a modern interpretation of old school grounds like Blundell Park.

I've said previously that you could not build a new ground of meaningful size on the site of BP without purchasing and razing at least some of the surrounding houses, which has significant cost-implications and complexities associated with it, not to mention is morrally questionable (see Liverpool's expansion of Anfield). However, I superimposed Brentford's community over the boundaries of Blundell Park (including parking spaces), at scale, and it's perhaps not as far out as I had thought. Brentford's ground holds 17,250, so could you realistically build something similar in style of between 12,000 and 14,000? Probably, with the requisite architectural skill and a concession or two over the odd quirky design element (the likes of which Brentford's stadium isn't completely without).

[img]https://i.ibb.co/DpWqVJL/bfc-stad.png[/img]
Interesting though this is, the only real hurdle it solves is that it removes the need to find a new site. The bigger challenges of planning permission and much more pertinently finance would still loom just as large. It would perhaps offer the option of doing things in more modular fashion which may ease (or at least spread) the financial burden, but that comes with it's own headaches and risks (how do you accommodate the lost capacity in the interim, what if it never gets finished?).

But it is at least an option. How long is the realistic shelf life of the Main Stand and the Osmond? In their current guise, you'd imagine less than a decade. Even with some significant material improvements to their fundamental structures, is it realistic that they are hosting fans in 2043? I very much doubt it.

There are some monumental financial hurdles to climb amidst an unpredictable economic landscape, but as someone who has tended to pour cold water on the chances of a new ground (in any form), the steady rate at which the club is now moving forward at least gives me a modicum of hope that it could happen at some point in the foreseeable future. Not in the next 5 years, but somewhere in the window of 5 to 15 years, I feel we might just see something come to fruition.

Quoted from OddShapedBalls

Crazy idea - rip down the Findus, expand it outwards into the car park, make it wider so it goes to the Ponny and the Osmond, stick some huge sparkly new changing rooms at basement level on that side with a basement car park for the club officials and then have a stonking great hospitality set up, along with club shop and more food/drink outlets across ground floor and 2nd (or even a third tier!). Solves the changing room issues, the corporate issues, the land issues (maybe) and creates more seats in general. All the money making bits taken care of in this 1st phase means it can pay itself off quicker and then allow a rebuild of the next stand in turn etc

Bring on the red crosses!

I think some of that might be a little bit crazy but not totally unheard of. I'm sure Monaco have a car park underneath their stadium.

The part I like is ensuring the more functional and 'in-need' improvements would be done first in this hypothetical redevelopment of BP. It's nothing short of common sense when written or said out loud, but in truth I'd not really considered at which point the corporate side or anything like that was factored in, more simply - get some more seats and make it look nice.

If you said that we'd need to sacrifice some houses to redevelop BP but with minimal disruption, I think you'd be looking at the end few houses near the Findus to extend the length of the pitch. Sorry if you happen to live there, but its for the greater good!  

As you suggested, I think that then gives you the chance to nearly double the capacity of that stand. Creative planners would no doubt be able to figure out how to merge the new and old into one seamless piece with increased corporate etc if you didn't simply knock it down and build again.

Will stop at this point because the mind runs away and I get all excited about something that is highly unlikely inside the next 10 years. I suppose for the moment what we hope is that the team keep doing well, the demand keeps increasing as does the pressure to do something.

Quoted from gtfc_chris

If you said that we'd need to sacrifice some houses to redevelop BP but with minimal disruption, I think you'd be looking at the end few houses near the Findus to extend the length of the pitch. Sorry if you happen to live there, but its for the greater good!  

The greater good...

Quoted from Poojah

Brentford is certainly the best example of a fine new stadium built on a very sub-optimal piece of land, and in many ways is a modern interpretation of old school grounds like Blundell Park.

I've said previously that you could not build a new ground of meaningful size on the site of BP without purchasing and razing at least some of the surrounding houses, which has significant cost-implications and complexities associated with it, not to mention is morrally questionable (see Liverpool's expansion of Anfield). However, I superimposed Brentford's community over the boundaries of Blundell Park (including parking spaces), at scale, and it's perhaps not as far out as I had thought. Brentford's ground holds 17,250, so could you realistically build something similar in style of between 12,000 and 14,000? Probably, with the requisite architectural skill and a concession or two over the odd quirky design element (the likes of which Brentford's stadium isn't completely without).

[img]https://i.ibb.co/DpWqVJL/bfc-stad.png[/img]
Interesting though this is, the only real hurdle it solves is that it removes the need to find a new site. The bigger challenges of planning permission and much more pertinently finance would still loom just as large. It would perhaps offer the option of doing things in more modular fashion which may ease (or at least spread) the financial burden, but that comes with it's own headaches and risks (how do you accommodate the lost capacity in the interim, what if it never gets finished?).

But it is at least an option. How long is the realistic shelf life of the Main Stand and the Osmond? In their current guise, you'd imagine less than a decade. Even with some significant material improvements to their fundamental structures, is it realistic that they are hosting fans in 2043? I very much doubt it.

There are some monumental financial hurdles to climb amidst an unpredictable economic landscape, but as someone who has tended to pour cold water on the chances of a new ground (in any form), the steady rate at which the club is now moving forward at least gives me a modicum of hope that it could happen at some point in the foreseeable future. Not in the next 5 years, but somewhere in the window of 5 to 15 years, I feel we might just see something come to fruition.

Chelsea have an underground car park for staff and players, it's literally under the pitch.

Quoted from Heswall Mariner

Tony Butcher - as always - has come up with an excellent article on Cod Almighty.
Can't download onto here but well worth a read on his insight into the finances of 3 clubs in our sphere.

It is no doubt an unpopular opinion, but the conclusion of this article is totally flawed, saying that the solution is to keep finding people to inject more equity into the club and to run the club at a loss every year.  That means that if new investors can't be found, the club has to painfully cut its costs (ie reduce the squad and/ or the quality of the squad) and experience a rapid drop down the leagues.

There are only two reasons people will invest in a club like GTFC.  Either they love the club and/ or they think they will make a financial return.  They won't make a financial return if the club never becomes financially sustainable and there's only a limited number of high wealth people who support Town.

The current owners aren't mega wealthy but are willing to invest to turn the club around and help it become sustainable and I'm sure they will do that, hopefully taking us to a higher level along the way.  However, they don't fall into the 'more money than sense' category who will splurge for a short while, lose interest and leave the club on its knees.

I think we do also need to consider the impact of future sea level rises - though that's true of the whole flipping town! How high will the sea defences need to be built in the new few decades?