Thetownend.com

I see Beckham is launching the 2018 bid, but why are the FA doing in planning on using the Plastic Bowl at MK Franchise :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8054261.stm

It is a long list of grounds that will gradually get cut down to ten or eight. I can't remember which but it probably isn't going to be MK.

That's a strange list.  Milton Keynes shouldn't be anywhere near it, for more reasons than I have time to list here.  And Pompey?!

If Mexico or the USA get to hold it ahead of us, i'll be annoyed. I can't believe we haven't hosted it again since '66.

If we host in 2018, it will 52 years since 1966 and the 13th World Cup since then.  I know there are plenty of factors involved, but given that England has less than 1% of the world's population, we would be doing fairly well to get the World Cup back again so soon.

Slightly off topic here, but when Atlanta was awarded the 1996 Summer Olympics, I was stunned that it would return to the US just 12 years after the Los Angeles Games.  Even for a country of 300 million people, you shouldn't really have the event returning there more often than once every 40 years or so.

Its obviously all to do with stadium locations etc.

anyone going to SA next year?

Pompeys main stand is made of old railway sleepers & is not much bigger & definitely older than ours. Unless they are going to have a new ground by then there is no way it could host a world cup game

I was reading a paper yesterday that Pompey are still planning a new ground, despite not having no meney !!!

Of course, Chicago are bidding to host the 2016 Olympics, and trying to use the Obama factor to help get it. If they win, the US would have had 3 summer Olympics in less that 40 years, and they've also had a Winter one in Salt Lake City also.

I hope we DONT win.

Would save the country a load of money on stadiums we dont need.

We have no chance of hosting 2018 - we're not prepared to give kick backs to fifa delegates in return for their vote - most if not all of fifa is corrupt

The stadia is already built (Wembley, Emirates, Old Trafford, etc.) so it won't cost anyway near what the Olympics will.

You say that, but look at the draft names on the list? Do Bristol, Hull and Portsmouth really need 40,000 seater stadiums? Just creating white elephants for the future. Leicester's would also need upgrading. Do Nottingham Forest really need a new ground?

Im also upset because I thought Anfield was saved with the inability of the Yanks to get more finance. From what I understand this bid seems obsessed with building all new stadia.

It gets more rediculous every time we fail to host it. The FA seem to be so desperate for it they feel they have to blow everyone else out of the water with mega bucks.

We dont need new stadiums, we need to reign in people like Richard Scudamore who make other associations hate us.

St Albans? What's going on there?

did it take you that long to think of that 4D?! :D

 :hmmm:
I logged in at 20.54  ;)

The FA should hang their heads in shame again to consider those Franchise Scum as hosting games. Thjey've made an almighty fuck up letting them exist, they should now be doing everything they can to rectify that including trying to freeze the cunts out - not encouraging them further.  

I'll let you off.

I am of course fibbing  :)

In answer to your genuine question........nope. Be good to watch on the telly though.

So who actually pays for the the new grounds and redevelopment work? Will the FA / World Cup be paying some of it or is it down to the clubs themselves?

I'm pissed we haven't thrown out hat in the ring, no worse than Milton Keynes - if anything we're a better location than a number of the grounds incluided. Plus I reckon it would be enough to convince the Swindon Council to cut us a deal on the County Ground and sell it for a £1, which in turn might help convince others to come up with the rest of the cash.

Sure a 40,000 stadium would be overkill for us but what would we have to lose?

Not at all interested in the World Cup being held here.

But yes as a club we are very well situated within our town.

It is a dying breed of away game where you can get off the train, take a 5 minute walk to all the town centre pubs, and then 10 minutes back the other way to the ground.

If I was an away fan I'd love coming to Swindon for that reason.

For us to build a 40,000 stadium would be ridiculous. It'd be one of STFC's biggest mistakers. Thank god it'd never happen.

Whadda mistaker to maker.

We should build a 1 seater stadium and charge £50,000 for the exclusive right to watch a match.

Haha that's exactly what I added to the end of his post when I read it in my head.



Nice idea, but it would have to be a bit more than that.

Alright. 3 seater stadium. £50,000 each.

how much would that make a season ticket then?

around the million pound mark.
the club would make about twice as much money with 3 season tickets for the 3 seated stadium.

It's also why out-of-towners like me love the County Ground where it is.  Every game is away for us.  I know I keep banging on about this, but the (largely out of town) group that I meet up with before & after games would probably fragment and possibly disappear if we got moved to a suburban retail park.


Well said that man.  I can imagine the top guys at FIFA in Zurich disolving into fits of hysterical laughter at this.

[Bad Swiss German accent]  'A serious bid?!  Pfffffffffffffffff!!  Zey want to host ze group stage games at ze home of ze Franchise Mongs!!  It is too much!!'  [/Bad Swiss German accent]

Really?

The stadium wouldn't have to be completed for another 8 years. I'd like to think we'll have made some progress by then, hopefully be at least a Championship club in which case a 15k capacity will be woefully inadequate. If we were in the Championship next season we'd get quite a few capacities.

Sure 40k would still be overkill unless we were back in the Premier League (which is very unlikely), but then the extra capacity will help with other things. More likely to get a rugby club such as Bath to ground share and more likely to get other events held at the ground.

And if a large chunk of the costs will be paid for as part of the World Cup and the council giving us the land for free, what would we have to lose?

I'd hope that within 8 years we'd have gone up to the championship and come back down again.

Twice.

with maybe another stint in league 2 thrown in. Got to keep things interesting.

What is the record for successive promotions/relegations?  Do we hold the record for our up/down/down/up sequence between 1992/93 & 1995/96?

Sorry but its just an outrageous idea to say it'd be good to triple the capacity of a ground we get close to filling maybe 3 times a season at the moment.

We would be playing games in a (almost certainly out of town) stadium only a quarter full. It would be awful.

Birmingham have changed divisions 4 times in the last 4 seasons as well. There's probably something about on the internet which Reg will have read.

I've got a plan. We either brick off the top 1/3 of the stands then put advertising on them, or we remove 1/3 of the seats (alternate rows) so you can stretch your legs properly.

More than enough space at the Country Ground if we got the cricket pitch and running track / rec land as well. Plus the commercial stuff to support it would be worth a lot more there.

I'm intrigued as to how that can work.  In addition, you could talk to one of the other posters on here about brick walls.

I am as well - having given it some more thought I can see some problems. Mainly that you'd have to build the concrete up from the rows you remove and put some railings in, or you're going to get people falling over and probably rolling all the way down.

I'm just trying to think outside the box. And failing.

Was saying exactly that on the train on the way to Peterborough.

Last season's away attendances were very poor considering and Ive got no idea why?

I dont think matchday £22 will help next season. Any club who goes over the £20 barrier always gets moaned at by other supporters, and rightly so.

To be honest I do think the FA are teasing the likes of Hull, Bristol and McDongs. I just cant see why they would want World Cup games there.

Bit worried about the City Ground though. I think its a bit of a classic, would be a great shame to loose it.

City were planning a new ground before this bid. That's why they were chosen probably.

Watkins suggested away attendences were low cos of the credit crunch and people having fewer trips away at weekends.

Bristol City have always had this new stadium in mind for national competitions.

Isn't Spencer talking about the City Ground, as in Nottingham?

oh ok

They've been talking about a new football ground in Bristol for as long as I can remember, normally for City to use but sometimes Rovers are included in the talk as well. I guess the money is the problem and involvement in the World Cup will allow them to push the button.

Its the same with Nottingham Forest, they've been talking about a new ground for a while or re-developing the City Ground. They said recently they'll make a final decision when they know about the World Cup, if we get it they'll build a new ground and if we don't they'll be re-developing. Never heard any mention of County being included.