I agree. The Manager delivered in 2012, and seems to have a plan for the next stage of delivery - the goal being promotion to the Championship. But the lack of progress/news with regard to ground redevelopment is starting to stand out. We must be one of only a handful of clubs that has done precisely nothing to its stadium (OK, we rent it) during the last 15 years. Without improvements to the ground - which, much as we all love it, is essentially a 1970s ground with 1990s bolt ons - we will not be able to move to the next level, regardless of what happens on the pitch.
This is one of the reasons I was disappointed with the Chairman's comments on Saturday. Maybe there are plans out there that are being kept under wraps for good reason - and I hope that's the case. But SWP's comments at the weekend did make it sound as if, yet again, the issue of ground redevelopment had been kicked in to the long grass.
As I've always said on redevelopment/new ground....believe it when you see it and not before. Especially atm, when the local economy is mightily screwed. There was recent stat that the average wage in Swindon is well below the national average....
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/local/10132012.Swindon_salaries_among_lowest_in_the_UK/That is for people in work....Swindon has a significant underclass funded by the benefit system, many of whom will receive a mighty wake up call in 2013..when Tory cuts start to really kick in.
It's against this background that capital projects have more or less dried up in Swindon since 2008...the bottom line is however desirable, in the real world there is little point in redevelopment.
The original consortium of Black/Fitton/Wray/Arbib etc said if we weren't in the Championship within 3 years they would have failed....this was then extended to 5 years, which is where we are now. It loooks like that's the time scale, and now a turn for someone else to take it on.
It might be a good time to resurrect the Trust...
