According to the BBC the club pay the council 17k a month rent plus all up keep costs which is 200k plus per year.Power is basically saying it is too much to pay for a staduim that is delapidated and costs will only go up.He is looking for a better deal for the club and in my opinion the council should be wary ,if we move out they will loose all the rental income plus they will be responsible for the upkeep.Ontop of this the land can only be used for sporting activity which was stipulated by the Goddard estate when it donated the land to the town of Swindon so worthless for development.
So annual rent is worth 204k to the council, if you looked at that over an extended lease then it's £1m every 5 years (excluding inflation increases) so if the club wanted a 50 years then the rental income is worth £10m to SBC so that's an idea of a likely value of the CG to SBC to replace lost rental income.
The club would need a 50 year lease to make any future ground improvements worthwhile if you look at the Arkells Stand is 40 plus years old and would be up for replacement/renovation by year 50.
If the club are spending £200k pa just keeping it ticking over then that's again £1m every 5 years and at some point Stratton Bank and the Town End will have to be replaced at probably £10m for the two and maybe another £5m for the Arkells.
I guess this means there will be interesting negotiations with the new lease. The club are probably facing a £25-30m outlay over the period of the new lease without even owning the ground. Do the club seek for SBC to fund improvements for a higher rent on the basis the improvements would pay for this from hospitality (we need £500 a day to cover the current rent).
Or do the club push hard on the value of the club in it's current location to the wider Swindon through business rates, expenditure by fans in pubs, shops, car parking which would be lost if the club moved away. Then there are the less tangible benefits such as profile for the town and the social benefits e.g. if the council had to offer FITC for kids what would be the cost.
Either way, we need to pay up the rent but you can see Power's reluctance to pay £200k on maintenance without the back up of an extended lease.
