County Ground Lease

[Don Rogers Shop]

I see it is up in 4 years time and the board are speaking with the council in regards to this. Would it be stupid to hope that maybe Sbc may actually notice we have some decent people running this club now and seriously considrer the sale of the county ground to us.

[Samdy Gray]

I think it's a definite possibility. I think the club have already asked about it.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

I think Fitton said at some point last season that talks with SBC regarding the future of the CG seemed to be going well. Fingers crossed.

[Simon Pieman]

Watkins said earlier on in the season that they are in discussions with SBC.

I think their decision to stay or move will hinge on redevelopment possibilities. If it's not possible on the current site then there is no point in renewing a long term lease.

[jonny72]

seriously considrer the sale of the county ground to us.

I thought the option to buy was always there but the sticking point was money. Are there other reasons why the council won't sell it to us?

[Simon Pieman]

Previous plans have inluded some sort of residential property on the land in order to help fund it. SBC would be losing out on money by selling the land cheaper to the club than what they could sell to a house builder.

[Ardiles]

I guess we're fortunate that development in the centre of Swindon has been proceding at a snail's pace in recent years.  Buying a lease on that site is not going to be cheap - but it would have been more expensive still if the centre of town wasn't so shabby.  We need to sign the lease before the rennaissance happens (!) (which probably means at some point in the next 50 years.)

[Spy]

I'm so glad the club are heavily in favour of staying at the current site. Moving to the outskirts would be the death of STFC as we know it.

[[email protected]]

There is a covenant (spelling?) which dictates that the land has to be used for sporting and recreational purposes.  I believe this was a condition when the land was donated by the Goddard Estate, so if anybody (STFC, the council, or whoever) wants to build houses on the land, money has to go to the Goddard Estate as well as the council so it all starts getting messy.

I think that if they were to incorporate things like a hotel, casino, bowling alley etc, these may be deemed as "recreational purposes" so they save on the costs they would have to pay, but the time it takes to recoup the development costs from these things is significantly longer than if they were to build houses and sell them to fund a new stadium.

All in all, not an easy position to be in.

[Fred Elliot]

Are you a ref Rich ?

[[email protected]]

Yes.....cue a barage of abuse!

[yeo]

hahaha can't pretend Im not tempted.

[Fred Elliot]

Stick around Rich..................next season should be interesting now the TEF has it's own resident Ref

[Bennett]

ignore fred, get out you bastard

[Phil_S]

I understand that SBC spent £400,000 on the Radio One big weekend. Which most couldn't get tickets for.

So they can come up with cash when they want to

It's all probably made simpler by the fact that there is no longer a sneaky slimy bastard trying to get a cut of it all