Pitch rotation......

[pauld]

This might help enlighten the discussion - it's the text of the article that was in Saturday's Adver. Bearing in mind previous "It will be like this" articles that appeared re Front Garden, Shaw etc, I'd take it with large pinches of salt.

"Is County Ground on the move?

15th August 2005

EXCITING new plans for Swindon Town’s County Ground will see the stadium turned by 90 degrees.

Senior councillors say the football club’s redevelopment plans are exciting but challenging and will need support from a lot of groups.

And they are taking legal and financial advice on whether the proposals are viable before any details are made public.

Coun Justin Tomlinson (Con, Abbey Meads), lead member for leisure, culture and recreation, was part of the informal cabinet group which saw the plans.

“Personally I am pleased that the football club has been listening and the plans that we are now looking at are reflecting the meetings that we have had with councillors, community groups and partners like the New Swindon Company,” he said.

“The plans in my mind are both very exciting, complicated and challenging.

“There are a lot of groups who will need to support these plans for them to come to fruition and I will be doing all I can to make sure the process continues along swiftly.”

No members of the cabinet or the football club would be drawn on the detail of the plans but it is believed that they do not differ greatly from the vision revealed in January this year which included a hotel, conference centre, housing and retail facilities.

The main change is the football pitch being turned by 90 degrees. It is believed that the Nationwide stand would be the only one to be retained.

But full details will not even be released to all councillors until the authority has taken advice on whether the plans are viable.

“We are trying to ascertain if the ideas financially stack up and if it is legally possible for the council to do what they want us to do,” said Coun Tomlinson.

The council and the club are both keen to avoid a repeat of the scenes last year when residents came out in protest against plans to a new stadium at Shaw.

If the advice is positive the plans will then be circulated to all councillors.

And the football club is not unduly worried by the issues the council is checking on.

“They are not major stumbling blocks,” said chief executive Sandy Gray.

“I think we can get over them and start working together.”

In Tuesday’s match programme Mrs Gray wrote that she hoped the ‘long-awaited’ redevelopment could start in the close season next year.

Yesterday she admitted that was an ambitious target but said the club needed to make progress on the redevelopment.

“We are excited about the future plans for the club,” she said.

“We all want to work together to redevelop the stadium and improve facilities for the people of Swindon.

“I see the club as being the gateway to Swindon.”

[STFC Village]

Pie in the sky methinks....

[Nils]

To be honest I can see it as a good thing. If we did this and say that we did have a capacity of 20,000. At the start it would be shit because we don't create a great atmosphere anyway. But IF we managed to make a success of this then we could actually run a profitable club, at the least breaking even. If we were to make this happen then not at the start admittedly but we could slowly reduce ticket prices. Also if we were to manage to make a profit we could give the manager money to spend, hopefully this would transfer into success on the pitch bringing in more fans. This can only work though if it is done in a good efficien proffessional manner. This is not something that I have come to expect from Swindon Town recently tho. And although all these plans seem good in theory I can't actually see us pulling it off. We also have to remember that we don't even own the ground.

[Reg Smeeton]

We also have to remember that we don't even own the ground.

  This is the key point.....the whole scheme is dependent on the disaster area which is Swindon Borough Council......so its highly unlikely to ever happen.

  What should concern us as fans is the fallout from this.....because the Board have made their position clear......

[Dazzza]

What should concern us as fans is the fallout from this.....because the Board have made their position clear......

To be honest with the exception of SSW I get the impression that for certain members (including the odd unofficial board member) that has been the position all along.

Hopefully if things get moving one of the key brokers will hopefully be attaining a reduction in the rent from the council.  If the club has the sense to go down the community facility path as Hull City have done with the Kingston Communications stadium then the development acquires the shiny tag of ‘community facility’ and it no longer becomes a limited companies private concern.

In theory this would allow the SBC to make a contribution to the development with public funds.  Something they ruled out some time ago, but it would allow them to cap the rent at a nice low figure without it being a conflict of interest.

[Reg Smeeton]

To be honest with the exception of SSW I get the impression that for certain members (including the odd unofficial board member) that has been the position all along.

 Are you implying that Mickey D, wants this scheme to fail?

[Paynie1]

Well this is swindon and this will be all talk and no action as usuall

[ron dodgers]

Haven't Colchester council just lumped in £10 million of public money for their team

[Paynie1]

Probably every other council lumps in money for their teams and ours are luky to get a fiver !!!

[Dazzza]

To be honest with the exception of SSW I get the impression that for certain members (including the odd unofficial board member) that has been the position all along.

 Are you implying that Mickey D, wants this scheme to fail?

No, but I don't think he's here for purely for the love of the beautiful game.

Can't see him hanging around if the stadium plans get booted.

[Dazzza]

Just read the article in a bit more depth having just skimmed it at work and a couple of interesting quotes in there...

“Personally I am pleased that the football club has been listening and the plans that we are now looking at are reflecting the meetings that we have had with councillors, community groups and partners like the New Swindon Company,” he said.

Interesting to see the New Swindon Company get a mention.  Any speculation as to what sort of involvement they might have?  Certainly sits within the scope of their mission statement.

http://www.newswindon.co.uk/

“We are trying to ascertain if the ideas financially stack up and if it is legally possible for the council to do what they want us to do,”

Presuming ‘they’ is referring to the club I wonder what exactly the club are looking for from the council.  The financial aspect surely points to a degree of investment, possibly linking back to the New Swindon Company?   The legal side I’d hazard a guess may be something to do with ownership of the site.  If the council are going to relinquish control of the site, which they own in any sort of capacity then they would have to justify it to be in the interest of the tax payer.

Maybe putting two and two together but making a tentative presumption I’d say that the club have kicked St Mowden into touch.  That may well be linked in with the 750k invested by SSW a few weeks ago after he had claimed that he would not pump any more money into the club.  That cash would then be used to pay back the loan from  St Mowden.  

If that’s true then it looks like the club may well be heading for a Hull City style Kingston Communications development.  

http://www.kcstadium.co.uk/feature.asp?catid=10&subcatid=1

[McLovin]

The grass is 100% natural, comprised of 90% sand and 10% loam.  It also has 3% additive of man-made fibre. - is that not 103%?

[Ben Wah Balls]

25% football 80% bollocks.

[Leggett]

and surely not 100% natural, if its got 10% 'loam' (what the fuck is that?) and 3% man-made fibre...

[Nils]

You put loam on a cricket pitch, dunno why though.