Plans for the future

Quoted from jamesgtfc

I think Tom has well and truly burned his bridges.

I think without the 'tyre kicker' Tom Shutes we may never have got Andrew and Jason. Town owe him a massive amount.

Turning the Osmond into a home stand adds 1800 to the home capacity if needed. Save for three or four games, away supporters can be accommodated in the enclosed corner. So it’s only when home demand exceeds 8000 tickets that we have a problem.

We still need to find £1million to pay off Fenty so it will probably be another two years before a larger stadium upgrade is on the cards.

If we can become a competitive league club in future maybe we can revisit the idea. I'm not keen on going back to how much money was wasted on trying to be the guy to deliver a new stadium as we had under Fenty, he was only really able to do that because people cling to the idea of it so much. I think we have one of the better grounds for the level we are at, the last two away grounds didn't even have a roof on the away end.

Just look at Darlington, built a ridiculous stadium before they had any right or need for it, couldn't fill it then got relegated twice and went bankrupt. Also the head of the project was another egotistical chairman who had a habit of threatening fans who didn't agree with him. I like what the club are doing right now in thinking about practical things they can do now to improve the club while not focusing on pipedreams. They looked at what would bring more fans to the ground and what they can do to help the team improve/increase morale and implemented things with more planned for the future. I think we should have a new ground eventually but the timing needs to be right for it to be worthwhile, I don't think that timing is as a non league team or struggling in League 2.

What would be the rough cost of giving the Osmond open corner some form of roof shelter ?

That would give away supporters a bit of dryness without breaking the bank TOO much, and allow the Osmond to become Town's, giving louder support from both ends.

If the Directors then give their attention to better player facilities to entice them here, we have more chance of progress and making more consistent finances to continually improve each season.

Any new stadium needs to be financially useable for 6 days per week, with community and commercial facilities on board.

It needs a BIG national company to be a main player and a park and ride in place like York has to ALL of their out of city shopping venues.

It's not just local support, it would need out of town visitors as well, to cover 4 days of non football, but 2 of games, as well as off season use.

Our Directors will know the national chains that would need to commit to expand into a new stadium venture, including business seminars and maybe use for music concerts, all of which bring huge sums for places like Hull and Huddersfield on the national music circuit.

They will be looking over this years' finances and make adjustments to the match day experience as first moves to consolidate home attendance income.

At last, it seems that we have responsible custodians in place, putting players and fans both high on the list of importance.

The encouraging thing on all of this is that Andrew Petit has expertise in major property development and capex financing that come the time we’ll be well placed to move forward in the most sustainable way for the club long term. Gone are the days when a fish merchant who believes he’s good at everything dictates the direction on this.

“ It needs a BIG national company to be a main player ”

Does it? Does it matter if the money stacks up?

In some ways it would be more advantageous for a commercial partner to be a local business. Or locally owned. That way as well as jobs, the profits stay in town. Part of the 1878 mission is to create benefits for NE Lincs.

It takes many years to get a new stadium.  Waiting until you need one is not good.

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

It takes many years to get a new stadium.

About 122 years (and counting) by my maths.

Quoted from Grim up north

keep away from the stale Doncaster or Scunny style design of equal stands, and aim more towards Rotherham’s New York that gives one larger home stand

Equal stands keep the noise inside the ground and are better for atmosphere.

Doncaster's stadium has 20 rows of seats all the way around the pitch, giving a capacity of 15,000. Rotherham's main stand has 20 rows, but the opposite side only 14. As a consequence, the goal stand roofs have a weird step design. How is that better?

I suspect you are one of those people who think the matchday experience should involve lording it over noisy Pontoon oiks and gazing at the Humber.

Quoted from acko338

What would be the rough cost of giving the Osmond open corner some form of roof shelter ?

That would give away supporters a bit of dryness without breaking the bank TOO much, and allow the Osmond to become Town's, giving louder support from both ends.

If the Directors then give their attention to better player facilities to entice them here, we have more chance of progress and making more consistent finances to continually improve each season.

Any new stadium needs to be financially useable for 6 days per week, with community and commercial facilities on board.

It needs a BIG national company to be a main player and a park and ride in place like York has to ALL of their out of city shopping venues.

It's not just local support, it would need out of town visitors as well, to cover 4 days of non football, but 2 of games, as well as off season use.

Our Directors will know the national chains that would need to commit to expand into a new stadium venture, including business seminars and maybe use for music concerts, all of which bring huge sums for places like Hull and Huddersfield on the national music circuit.

They will be looking over this years' finances and make adjustments to the match day experience as first moves to consolidate home attendance income.

At last, it seems that we have responsible custodians in place, putting players and fans both high on the list of importance.

I think you mean Constitutional Corner, the corner of the Osmond (Osmond/Main) already has a roof.

Allying the new ground to a large retail development is unlikely to be sustainable, retail as we know it is dying. It would be better to ally it to a residential development.

Why do we need to put a roof on the away section? We've just got absolutely drowned in 2 away sections on consecutive Tuesday nights with no roofs and nobody's picketing the National League.