County Ground

[Power to people]

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.

[Paolo69]

with negotiations obviously no nearer for a rebuild

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.

[Ardiles]

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.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

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

[ahounsell]

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

[TheMajorSTFC]

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!

[Bogus Dave]

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

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

[nochee]

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

[Simon Pieman]

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

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

[Flashheart]

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

[Peter Gibbons]

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

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):

Hammam bought out a covenant held on the ground by the Council that required it to be retained for sporting use.[3] Once this was removed, Hammam went on to sell the site to supermarket giants Safeway, for a substantial profit, leaving the club without a home ground.

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.

[DRS]

So we could be homeless in March

[Dozno9]

SBC has a duty to get the best deal for its council tax payers.

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

[sonicyouth]

So we could be homeless in March

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

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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

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.