Ok then , New Ground time

Quoted from White_shorts

Please clarify: are you saying the club would not get permission to rebuild BP at all, or just not increase the current capacity?

I assume the main reasons for refusal would be a lack of parking spaces and traffic congestion on matchdays.

Planners are required to strike a balance between any benefit a development would bring and any detriment to others it’s not just a case of local residents would be impacted so refuse . New development would clearly give a benefit to a much larger group of people and create jobs etc.

Quoted from denni266

Would be nice to have a half decent team first , Before a new ground that would only be half full

Really, that's a bit unnecessary isn't it. This squad is one of the better ones in recent years.

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

Really, that's a bit unnecessary isn't it. This squad is one of the better ones in recent years.

Bottom half of League 2 is pretty good for us, that’s true.

Quoted from White_shorts

Please clarify: are you saying the club would not get permission to rebuild BP at all, or just not increase the current capacity?

I assume the main reasons for refusal would be a lack of parking spaces and traffic congestion on matchdays.

I’m not sure how au fait mrbump is with the planning system, but objections don’t hold a great deal of weight in truth. Objections from neighbouring residents alone certainly wouldn’t be enough to have an application refused.

You’re probably right in the sense that parking would probably be the biggest obstacle to any plans to increase capacity in a meaningful sense at BP. There’s absolutely zero parking around BP and I’ve no idea how far away the nearest public car park is, Ramsdens? Grant St?

Wrexham’s new Kop is an interesting one. The redeveloped stand would put 5.5k on the current capacity but the redesign itself wouldn’t require the kind of measures you might expect from that increase, as they could, in effect, just bring the current Kop up to safety standards which would have the same capacity increase without the requirement for planning permission. That said, they will be implementing (soft) measures aimed to increase car sharing by 10% and public transport use by 5% within 5 years - https://planning.wrexham.gov.u.....5031446&pdf=true

Lincoln’s Stacey West expansion sought to increase capacity by 1500 seats, and Sincil Bank is slightly more comparable to BP given the layout of the surrounding streets. It is better served by city centre parking and public transport though, with 2km seen as an acceptable distance for people to walk. They weren’t even required to implement any measures to reduce the expected 66% increase in car journeys - https://development.lincoln.go.....SSESSMENT-578098.pdf

So while parking’s a problem, it’s not insurmountable given the increase in capacity you’d realistically be looking at.

Ultimately, BP is a relic and anything you can do to improve it isn’t really worth it in the long run. The best you could probably do is fill in the Main/Pontoon corner and knock the police box down. That’d put, what, 750-1000 on the capacity? One aspect limiting income is the number of restricted view seats in the Main Stand due to the pitch of the roof and all the supports holding it up. I’m no architect so no idea if a new roof would be possible, but if you were going to fill that corner in, you’d be as well making what adjustments you can to make the existing seats in the Main more attractive.

But then how much does that all cost? Would you put a stand out of use for a period? If you’re doing that work you might as well look at other things like the toilets and concourse situation in the Main. Then on top of that you’ve still got issues with pinch points in the Findus, which I’ve no idea how could be solved. Is it worth doing if you want to be out in 10/15 years time anyway?

BP looks like a money pit and the board are probably well advised to kick it into the long grass for the time being.

Great insight, thank you.

I can't believe (and don't to be honest), that someone as astute as Pettit in this area believes BP is sustainable in either the short or long-term.  

It wouldn't be surprising at all if 1878 are busying away in the background looking at stadium options, conscious that they don't want to fall down the Fenty trap of having their picture taken every week whilst pointing at an empty field.  Soon as it's announced that there's interest in moving in, expectations are set.  We've already seen this with the Conoco Stadium/The Fenty Dome/The Freemo Flats Arena...and then again with some clamor for more news on the training ground, which could well be something the club are happy to throw out there something for people to focus on.

The investments at the ground in the last 18 months are relatively low-key.  The perspex screen in the Upper the big one, but in hindsight that was probably more of a health and safety need anyway wasn't it?  The rest of the stuff was either already planned or routine.  Stuff that you would expect to be done, hasn't been touched.  Why spend money or energy or something you're not going to be using for much longer?

Quoted from ska face

Yeah, renowned socialist Lisa Nandy (!). You don’t have talk some shíte on here.

Sorry, I forgot you have to be a mouth frothing, raving Bennite to be a real socialist don’t you?

Quoted from diehardmariner

Lincoln's training set-up at Scampton is far from the standard we should aspire too.

Few pitches and then a few small dwellings that house the basic gym set-up you'll find in hotels up and down the country and well below the standard you would find in any bog standard chain gym.  

Cheapside isn't great, far from it. But we can do an awful lot better than the Scampton set-up.  The one thing it does have is a good location.  Easily accessible from all directions without having to contend with the bulk of traffic in the city centre.

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It’s been expanded massively since then. There are at least 5 pitches there and the building has trebled in size since they first moved tthere.

Edited: the video shows the expanded building.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

Sorry, I forgot you have to be a mouth frothing, raving Bennite to be a real socialist don’t you?

Golly, words have meanings! Sorry, I don’t make the rules, you are welcome to try a dictionary though, or maybe a beginner’s guide to political theory. In Stockwood’s own book he calls for a form of “responsible capitalism” -

“There needs to be a greater recognition that the current model is broken, at the same time as an acceptance that we shouldn’t be destroying the fundamentals of capitalism to fix it. This is about a course correction and not an entirely new path; a reboot and not a rewrite. Not moving away from capitalism, but making sure it works better for more people, more of the time.”

Quoted from Tommy

Their younger age groups predominantly play their matches at Gainsborough.

As far as I'm aware, our training facility is intended to be universal in terms of incorporating the first team, academy and ladies, so in addition to Stockwoods previous comments about wanting it in the Town, it just wouldn't make sense to have this universal facility out of town as you can't ask all the local kids in the Academy age groups (particularly the younger groups) to travel miles out of town several times a week.

Lincoln's academies play the majority of their matches between Riseholme (Academy HQ), Gainsborough and at the training complex near Scampton.
The women's 1st team train at Sincil Bank - on the brand new 4G.

What I would say is Grimsby's Academy coaches seem excellent - my son has been there a few times and I have always been impressed. Lincoln cast their net further afield now - Sheffield and Nottingham. However, Lincolns training facilities and the quality of the pitches the players have are fantastic at  L1 level. Our chairman and Chief exec have made some incredible changes to the club. This is the Final Stacey West stand development.

https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/lincoln-news/lincoln-citys-final-plans-stacey-7799035

Burn the main stand down and use the £ to bang up an open terrace in its place for now!