Thetownend.com

We've just published the results of the Trust survey we conducted last season to investigate how much fans spent in Swindon as a result of the club being located at the County Ground. The results are impressive: the club brings in 150,000 visitors a year, spending between them nearly 10 million quid. And that's on the basis of the comparatively low crowds of the past five seasons, a period in which there's not been a lot to cheer on the pitch overall - the potential to bring in even more visitors, spending even more is huge. Even as it stands, a visitor attraction that brings in 150,000 and £10m a year is not to be sniffed at - it's something a lot of towns would give their eye teeth for. We think this is a compelling argument in the debate over the CG redevelopment to prove the worth of the club to the town, even for people who don't support STFC.

Big thanks to everyone who helped out with doing the survey, or filled out one of the survey forms - this was a major effort and we couldn't have done it without you.

Full story and link to the survey write-up on the Trust site:
http://www.truststfc.co.uk/news_item.php?id=748

Interesting to hear, and now maybe the council will take their thumbs out of their arse holes and do something about helping the club out in their quest to improve the stadium!

Sadly even the most pig thick SBC planner, and there are a lot of them....will rip this to shreds straight away...in their twisted world STFC's existence means that 4000 fellas waste their Saturday afternoon, when they could be out shopping with the missus.

interesting stuff however you still haven't answered the main question, who won the signed shirt  :mrgreen:

A Mr B Jones of Cheltenham. Although it's arguable whether a shirt signed by last year's first team constitutes "winning"

Damn that peskey Mr Jones :x

Cheltenham?! Bit close to be a Town fan surely?!  :mrgreen:

i live in hampshire and have been coming to the country ground since 1990 to watch the town play. i must have given local businessman a small fortune in the process, car park, fish n bloody chips, the bloke in the newsagent, the pub, the list goes on, oh and the texaco garage i can go on

 :nod:

The football club is the only reason I go to Swindon, and there are plenty of others like us.  More so than at the vast majority of clubs I would guess.  Swindon isn't that bad place really, and I struggle to find a reason why they wouldn't do everything they could to keep something that gives the town something other than cosmetics and prosperity.  The cold free-market hearts in their body's should at least tell them they'll lose money if the football club goes.

agree with the above posts, i havent been to swindon since the last game of the season, and what with popping into town to pick up a couple of things sometimes going over to the outlet village, down the pub, these things all build up.

Unfortunately SBC realises by turning the CG into a housing estate it will get the consumption 24/7....and money from Council Tax...which will far outweigh any rent paid and match day income into the local economy.

Reg are you a manic depressive?

All we ever see on here is you spouting negativity, take your doom and gloom somewhere else

 Oh all right then... :run:

Sorry, Reg, but that's just bollocks. Have you actually spoken to any councillors about this? Because we have and that's miles away from what most of them think.

reg is wrong shocker :shock:

Right which is why we did the survey - we kept finding ourselves making the argument to non-football fans that keeping the club at the CG was important to everyone, not just Town fans, but having to point to "intangible" (but still important) benefits, without hard facts to back the case up. At least now we can say "Right, if company X approached you and offered to build you a visitor attraction that would bring in at worst 150,000 visitors a year, spending £10m, wouldn't you bite their arms off? OK, well, you've already got one, you need to pull out all the stops to keep it."

Sounds like a lot of work has gone into this.
Wel done! It is good to hear that there are people out there really fighting the council to provide for the club. Which it should given the results of this survey.

I just hope your efforts have not been a waste of time!

 Macca because my opinion is at variance with that of Paul Davis doesn't necessarily make it wrong. I'm long enough in teh tooth and have had sufficient dealings with SBC to know that individual councillors with the odd notable exception put the dupe in duplicitous.

 I cannot think of one example in recent years where the Council have stood up for the majority wishes of the people of Swindon.

  I'm happy to be proved wrong on this...and await to see vision and leadership over the matter of the new ground...whererby our civic leaders push through a development involving STFC in keeping with the aspirations of the townsfolk for first class sporting facilities, until such time I'll continue to call things as I perceive them.

ok

Absolutely not, usually it's a surefire sign of being 100% right! :-) But I do think you're underestimating the willingness of councillors to get this issue sorted. I understand (and in 90% of cases would tend to agree with) the cynicism, but it's based on (as you say) long years of being let down by SBC and a general perceived attitude rather than necessarily having spoken to councillors about it. I'm not claiming that suddenly SBC have come over all "good of the people", but there is a willingness to sort this issue out, if only because most councillors, whether well-disposed towards STFC or not, are heartily sick of hearing about it. If a solution can be found which allows them to not worry about it for another decade or so, they'll be very glad to firmly consign STFC to the box labelled "Remember to climb on bandwagon in unlikely event they win something" rather than the current "Ongoing running sore".


Which is completely fair enough. Forgive me if while you do so, I occasionally point out that you've pulled the Eeyore hat too firmly over your eyes.  :D

I'm sure you're right that if a solution could be found they would be happy....so for example if someone came along with a pot of dosh, said they wanted a major redevelopment, stumped up the cash for the CG site....said here's some section 106 money  for some affordable flats on some of it.....bobs your pervy uncle...sorted innit.

   Its the lack of the pot of dosh being waved at them, which SBC finds tricky.