Quote:
Originally Posted by monkey hanger
actually been to salford this season and sat in the new stand. gave an excellent view and is actually better than the photo. underneath it there is a corporate type bar area and probably other things as a didn,t study it too much. wish i had now. if this is not an improvement on what we have already i,ll put some pepper and brown sauce on my trilby. think it is an improvment on the original plan as it goes the length of the pitch. much better than building a massive structure like at morecambe that is more than half empty most weeks and will give a better atmosphere if we ever did get promoted playing more local sides.
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Just to be clear at Salford there is nothing underneath the stand as the picture shows. There clearly isn't the room for anything under it. At Salford, there is a corporate hospitality area built behind it and there's no mention in the bit from Andy the other night whether what he's considering would include a similar facility or not but i.m told not.
The view issue isn't really an issue is it ? as it would be i.d imagine just as good in either option but i.m a big lad and would question your opinion on the legroom issue for sure. Quite clearly anything would be an improvement on whats there now but that's not really the issue up for debate here is it ?
The question is do you want the cheapest and nastiest structure available just to get something that's better than whats there at the minute or do you want a structure that the club can be proud of and make the optimum use of for the next 50 years.
And to put your mind at rest Monkey what i propose would run virtually the full length of the pitch to but the constraint to this is of course, the room available at the corner with the Clayton end which is the problem that was addressed by the Whittle design.
To compare the situation with Morecambe isn't really a very fair one as they built a single large seated stand so they could leave the rest of the ground as terraced [ therefore it had to have a minimum of 2k seats ] and this stand and its facilities is what make Morecambe a lot of none match day money as well as what it generates for them on game day and to construct what would basically be a tin shed would bring none of these advantages.
Yes there would be cash implications of going for the better structure and facilities and nobody is saying Andy should put the club or indeed his own business in jeopardy or use money that should be spent on the team to do so but i would think if Andy investigated the various ways of raising the cash to put into the pot and maybe looked at the ways other clubs have done it. As i mentioned PNE actually got their 4th stand built for nothing as they did a 25 year lease with the local health authority then went out and borrowed the money and use the rent payments to service the loan if i remember correctly
it will be paid for in 17 years and if they'd done it at today's interest rates it could of been done in just 13. So if Andy could build a structure of the sort i envisage and get half a dozen tenants into the office space i.m sure their rent could service say a ten year million pound loan and add to that a Tiffosy bond, the 500k grant, Andy and the clubs contributions and maybe even some local enterprise funding and there should be enough in the pot to provide a decent structure that would also provide an income.