Thetownend.com

Is it the end of this season that the lease is up on the CG, with negotiations obviously no nearer for a rebuild surely there should be news on the renewal of the lease, and hopefully this should be a long term at a reduced rent considering what the football club does for the town and the council do not pay towards the upkeep of the ground or surrounding facilities.

Is it obvious? Watkins has said news to come in the Spring. I'm firmly in the believe it when i see it built camp but it doesn't stop me thinking/hoping there's stuff going on behind the scenes. Any sort of planning takes forever and SBC's track record in dealings with the football club speak for themselves.

FWIW i agree with the rest of your points but would be amazed if the council agreed to reduce the rent. Most likely an increase, using the argument of higher gates, meaning we can afford to pay more.

SBC has a duty to get the best deal for its council tax payers, most of whom (obviously) are not Town fans.  So they are duty bound to drive a hard bargain.

That said, there could be a proposition that the club could make that would be attractive in commercial terms.  If the club could demonstrate, for example, that a redevelopment of the site would have spin off benefits for the town centre and Broadgreen areas, there could be a deal to be had.

Maybe there's a reason the club is waiting until the spring. Maybe the plans co-inside with the lease ending?

Current lease expires in March so I would expect to hear something soon.

I'd like to see the redevelopment plans, it's been a long time coming and hopefully when Spring rocks up we'll know if we're staying or looking to move!

Really? Strikes me as an odd time.

Isn't the land set aside solely for sport anyway? I thought the council couldn't do anything else with it even if they wanted to

Both parties will agree new terms and carry on as normal.  Non story

I assume it's because it ties in with the council's year end.

Could we just not tell them? Maybe they've forgotten about it

On that point, and not suggesting this is any kind of 'model', but I read something interesting about those protective covenants on the Sam Hammam Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Hammam#Wimbledon):


I had no idea they could be 'bought out' and I'm surprised this has never been mentioned when the biennial ground re-development discussion raises it's head.

So we could be homeless in March

Good job SBC isn't run with that in mind otherwise we might be in trouble.

nah, it's okay. Safeway is defunct now.

The whole area (cricket club, athltetics track, football stadium etc.) does have a covenant on it (IIRC from the old Goddard Estate) restricting its use for sport and leisure purposes.  This can be got round if you want to build houses or something on say the cricket pitch to pay for a new stadium, but to get the covenant removed in order to do ths is difficult, expensive, and starts getting complicated with fees and profit % being paid to the Goddard Estate before the council and club see anything.

leave our ground alone, i don't buy revenue streans, just leave us alone, we dont want you, you kill the County Ground and you kill me. Back off with your schemes.

Like they do when they sell off council owned houses?

Not sure what the exact legal requirements are for a council disposing of assets but I doubt it's as clear cut as you make out. There is an easy argument that a successful football club is good for the town, a good proportion of the town back the club (40k to Wembley for example), the redevelopment would be good for the area, the club get involved in community events and so on. Which could be used to justify a low price.

There are other factors playing a bigger role. The council can't sell it cheap only for someone to then make a massive profit out of it. The previous financial mismanagement at the club. The council seeing it as an way to make some easy money. Probably some others as well.

When the lease get's renewed it will need to be for a long period of time though probably minimum period of around 99 years unless there is negotiations to purchase the county ground.

Trouble I fear with the Swindon Council at the moment they may see this as a way of increasing their revenues

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/archive/2012/07/12/Swindon+News+(swindon_news)/9811756.Town_reveal_bid_to_redevelop_stadium/


Just hope there's been a lot going on behind the scenes - it may even be a done deal. The council would be stupid not to at least renew the lease on very short terms until some sort of plans for the site come into fruition.

Mr Dos, I wholeheartedly agree…..which is a first.