Stadium Redevelopment Gathers Momentum

[flammableBen]

It would be great if any big ground redevelopment had a very small carbon footprint.

[reeves4england]

I've said it before and I'll say it again....I love the way when talk of new ground comes along, people get completely carried away.

 If you read, Watkins' statement in the Adver, it gives a pretty clear idea of the sort of thing in their mind....

 “It is a company which has got a raft of experience in and around the areas we are looking at, which is redevelopment of a stadium in situ, maximising the potential capacity during that redevelopment."

 

Good point, insofar as some are considering quite a dramatic change. However, it is possible for a slight move to take place, like Blackpool did. One example would be to move the pitch towards County Road a bit to give us more options for redevelopment of the SB.

[pride_of_wilts]

Rotating the pitch and having the DRS behind one of the goals and building 3 stands like the DRS would look very good!

[Reg Smeeton]

Good point, insofar as some are considering quite a dramatic change. However, it is possible for a slight move to take place, like Blackpool did. One example would be to move the pitch towards County Road a bit to give us more options for redevelopment of the SB.

When Watkins says 'raft', I don't think he's thinking of floating the pitch, like Brunel building the Tamar Bridge.

Trust me...the pitch is going nowhere. Far more likely is something like the Orient model.

 This from their ground description...

"The ground has seen a lot of re-development in recent years, with the construction of three new stands. Finance for this has chiefly come from the proceeds of selling part of the Brisbane Road site to a property developer. In this ground breaking development, the corners of the ground have been filled with blocks of residential apartments, which certainly gives the stadium a unique look. Some other clubs are looking at the scheme with interest and I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar take place at another league ground at some point in the future"

[Simon Pieman]

Watkins talked about a Hotel. Hotels or other income generating facilities aren't small. I can't see it all fitting onto the current County Ground (football) site even if the stadium itself is not a mega structure.

Although as Reg has just mentioned, flats on site could be one possibility.

[jonny72]

I've not seen any such quote, tbh. Be interested to see if you could dig it out.

I'm 99% certain the quote was from Fitton, was in the Adver, referred to residential development and was in response to a comment from the council. It was along the lines of "we're not talking about building massive tower blocks that would dominate the skyline but something that would be in keeping with the surrounding area".

As Si Pie said, I don't get how self funding re-development of the CG can take place within the existing footprint. Along with comments from Fitton and co I just assumed, quite possible wrongly, that it would expand on to some of the surrounding land. Though I don't actually recall anything 100% being said about this either way by anyone.

Is there any potential to build on the land behind the DRS? Or are the trees protected? Or is there some really, really rare worm that lives there?

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

I'm 99% certain the quote was from Fitton, was in the Adver, referred to residential development and was in response to a comment from the council. It was along the lines of "we're not talking about building massive tower blocks that would dominate the skyline but something that would be in keeping with the surrounding area".

As Si Pie said, I don't get how self funding re-development of the CG can take place within the existing footprint. Along with comments from Fitton and co I just assumed, quite possible wrongly, that it would expand on to some of the surrounding land. Though I don't actually recall anything 100% being said about this either way by anyone.

Is there any potential to build on the land behind the DRS? Or are the trees protected? Or is there some really, really rare worm that lives there?

No the trees are resident to a pair of Goldcrests Britains smallest Bird so fuck off and build the ground on Shaw Tip.........happy days.

[dogs]

well said tel

[pauld]

Watkins talked about a Hotel.

What he actually said was:

That will require some thought in terms of what we can put on the site but, more importantly, also finding out what there is a demand for in and around Swindon – be it a hotel, a conferencing venue, a fitness club, primary health care or whatever it is

ie one among several examples of the kind of thing that could be done, but which there's no point whatever in doing if there's no demand for.

I'm 99% certain the quote was from Fitton, was in the Adver, referred to residential development and was in response to a comment from the council. It was along the lines of "we're not talking about building massive tower blocks that would dominate the skyline but something that would be in keeping with the surrounding area".

Again, that might not mean residential development so much as be referring to the potential size of any build up of the existing stands. But there is scope for building residential elements into a redeveloped stadium itself.

You also don't need to expand the footprint hugely to dramatically increase the floorspace available within the stadium - by building up and out (slightly), the amount of available floorspace increases substantially, a lot of which the club itself would not need and hence could be made available for commercial use, for example.

But sure, it's a lot easier to do if you can expand out to encompass the whole site, or a majority of it as part of an overall redevelopment of the whole site. But that doesn't then necessarily mean you get the bulldozers out and build over everything that's currently there.

I really think there's a large element of people (mis)reading between the lines as if the really rather general comments that the board have made so far about the kind of things that might or might not be feasible are some kind of mystic utterances, like a cross between scripture and the Da Vinci Code.

[RobertT]

Of we all just read a little more between the lines, I'm sure we can see a CG blueprint for a Camp Nou 2

[pauld]

Thinking about it, they're definitely going to have to expand the footprint to fit the moat in

[Simon Pieman]

I think you read too much into my post Paul. Watkins mentioned a hotel, I didn't say the club definitely wanted to build one or had to.

Clearly the Board feel that if the demand was there, they would look into the possibility of building something sizeable into the site that's all.

[Oaksey Moonraker]

There are quite a few hurdles to get through with the ground redevelopment and Nick Watkins mentioned the next stage is a 12 week consultation process so I don't think we'll get too many answers in the near future.

The biggest issue is going to be the council and the leasehold on the County Ground which if I think runs out in 2012. What will the council look to do and on what terms will they want to re-negotiate, it's been quite favourable to the council with a share of gate receipts.

Will the council look to re-negotiate on more commercial terms or will they recognise the club's community impact. Is the current board interested in purchasing the freehold on the CG, it the figures coming out of Pompey are true their ground had a value of £10 million. It might suit Fitton and Co to puchase as this would provide an asset to provide security for their investment so far. Interesting, then if that's owned by the football club or the holding company.

We will also get the question of the covenant on the CG that it must be used for the leisure purposes for the people of Swindon. This might allow the health club, concert venue facilities route and would the Council want to participate in that.

I am sure this discussion is going to go on and on until we see plans, the physical building work is probably the least complicated.

[pauld]

I think you read too much into my post Paul. Watkins mentioned a hotel, I didn't say the club definitely wanted to build one or had to.

Clearly the Board feel that if the demand was there, they would look into the possibility of building something sizeable into the site that's all.

Yeah, sorry Si (and jonny). I was using your quotes as examples to make the broader point about the whole "reading the runes" thing. Which is rarely a good idea.

I think Oaksey's post makes the broader points better. We don't know what shape the proposals will take, clearly the board have taken considerable time and effort to ensure they try to do it all right and so will not endanger that by lifting the skirts before everything's been done properly. Which is a refreshing change. I'm happy to wait and see what they come up with

[Simon Pieman]

Don't apologise. Call me a cunt and disagree. It's far more interesting.