New board press conference thread

[Bukkake Regiment]

If we were to get promoted we may have to do something short term with the Statton Bank like putting a roof on it. Bristol Rovers/Bristol Rugby put a roof on the open terrace a few years ago for under 100k. If we did something like that, we could give over to the away fans giving them 2500 seats under cover. With no immediate plans for redevelopment it could bring this part of the ground into play more regularly. Might pay for itself with larger away attendances in the Championship.

It's only 2100 seats.

[Bukkake Regiment]

I don't see why we don't stick away fans in the Stratton Bank only. Hardly any teams bring many and we only have to give 10% of our capacity to them, putting them in the Stratton Bank every game makes sense, keeps the away fans cold and quiet.

[Dr Pierre Chang]

I don't see why we don't stick away fans in the Stratton Bank only. Hardly any teams bring many and we only have to give 10% of our capacity to them, putting them in the Stratton Bank every game makes sense, keeps the away fans cold and quiet.

Less revenue for the club.

No point putting a roof on the Bank - it's a dump and will hopefully be the first to go if/when the ground is redeveloped.

[Oaksey Moonraker]

I am sure you have to offered covered seating if you have it. If we were to redevelop then we might need to use Stratton Bank for a couple of seasons. If we don't do anything in the next 5 years, a quick upgrade like Pompey and Rovers did with their open ends means we use more often.

[ghanimah]

I am sure you have to offered covered seating if you have it. If we were to redevelop then we might need to use Stratton Bank for a couple of seasons. If we don't do anything in the next 5 years, a quick upgrade like Pompey and Rovers did with their open ends means we use more often.

Aye, offer at least 200 visiting supporters under cover...rule 34.2.1

[pauld]

As a person, I'm warming to Jed.  But the unanswered questions are still the 'elephant in the room' for me.

• Who are the backers?
• What's in it for the backers?
• If you are completely sure that you cannot reveal the identity of the backers, are you at least able to explain why?
• Do the backers have an exit strategy and, if yes, what is it?
• Ground redevelopment or relocation?
• If neither of the above are a part of your business plan, why not - and how do you propose to maintain the ageing asset of the County Ground?
• What are the salaries of the new board members?

All that is just for starters.

Impressed with the MacDonald appointment, and with the initial soundings about youth development.  It demonstrates that the man at the top knows his football (and probably a lot better than I do, given that I'd not even heard of Kevin MacDonald before last week.)  Otherwise, jury still out until we get the full picture.  As a club, we have too much bad history to be able to offer any newcomers - and especially newcomers that none of us have any prior knowledge of - the benefit of the doubt.  That isn't ingratitude; it's common sense.

Agree with all that and very well put Ardiles. However (and this in the sense of "as well as" rather than countering anything you've said above), they've had two big decisions to make in their first week and IMO done well in both of them. And that quite rightly has done a lot to calm people's apprehension. Doesn't mean we don't need to still be asking all those questions and treating the whole thing with some caution for the reasons you set out, but they've earned some credit already and most people I know are a lot more optimistic than they were this time last week.

[RobertT]

I understand the residents behind would probably object which is why there is talk of moving the town end back and shifting the pitch in that direction

There would be no grounds to withold planning consent, certainly given the current height of the back of the structure as it stands.  The 1994 effort was in fact granted approval to replace the Bank with a smaller version of the DR stand, which from memory was still a little bigger than it is right now and would be even with a basic roof structure plopped on top.

The development has to be about corporate and other facilities.  For anyone going on about our attendances not being big enough, the point is being missed.  Yes it would be good to have some spare capacity should the attendances go up, but the real purpose has to be commercial revenue.  100 Hospitality guests = 500 to 1000 normal paying supporters, financially.  Simple fact of the matter is we are at capacity for corporate facilities right now, and to be fair to the previous owners and Watkins, they squeezed probably double out of the space that previous people had managed.  On top of that you lease out some of the dead space.  Ultimately you still need the right management and sales teams in place to bring the opportunities to reality.  That's why for every Swansea or Norwich you can point to a Darlington.  You can't just go for the Field of dream approach, sometimes they don't come, they need enticing.

[Bukkake Regiment]

Less revenue for the club.

No point putting a roof on the Bank - it's a dump and will hopefully be the first to go if/when the ground is redeveloped.

If a team isn't going to bring more than 2100 then you aren't losing any money.

[Bukkake Regiment]

Aye, offer at least 200 visiting supporters under cover...rule 34.2.1

Bugger.

[jonny72]

Aye, offer at least 200 visiting supporters under cover...rule 34.2.1

Would handing out umbrella hats count?

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

The £5m is just the increase in centrally distributed funds (ie the Football League, primarily the TV deal).

I'd guess the increases in ticket sales, merchandise, TV fees, sponsorship and so on would be a minimum of another £2m.

The wage bills of some of the Championship clubs is beyond scary, reckon Brighton's must be £15m (based on their loses and the additional income). No way we can compete with that even if we wanted to.

Even more scary is the fact that they get close to 25k every week and still can't cover their wage bill.

[ghanimah]

Would handing out umbrella hats count?

It doesn't appear to say you can't, so I guess you can...neither does it rule out covering them in shrink wrap either 

[RobertT]

I want to believe it was some whimpy West Brom fans who got just the Bank a number of years back that caused this issue.  Granted t was pelting it down the entire match and it was fucking cold and windy as well, but I'd survived plenty of similar games on the Bank without getting hypothermea

[FreddySTFC!]

I want to believe it was some whimpy West Brom fans who got just the Bank a number of years back that caused this issue.  Granted t was pelting it down the entire match and it was fucking cold and windy as well, but I'd survived plenty of similar games on the Bank without getting hypothermea

I remember that game. Mark Walters scored a cracking free kick & Lee Hughes equalised for the Baggies!! It absolutely hammered down if memory serves me correct!!

[tans]

So, who is going to the q+a then?