I think if the council didn't own the land we would have more investors and more hope of developing the ground.
SBC have always been bastards about the ground.
If the council didn't own the land, Diamandis would have flogged the whole lot off and we wouldn't have a ground. The council at the time of the Shaw Tip debacle were more than happy to flog it all off to him, but fortunately the next incumbents were "bastards" in that they insisted they would work with the *right* partners, and so scuppered the illegal and unworkable schemes then being proposed. Be very careful what you wish for.