[Doug]

Originally Posted by maccawozzagod

as nice as a shiny new ground would be, you have to kind of agree with that sentiment. The point of moving would be to ensure ways of building income throughout the year are included, can these ways be included into the existing footprint of The Crown?

Personally I'd rather stay at The Crown and develop it. It could be argued that the footprint isn't big enough but I beg to differ. We only need to add a couple of thousand or so onto the capacity or we'd look daft every week with a ground that is only 15% full.

Instead of spending £5-10m on a new ground we could do a hell of a lot with that money and what we already have. The main stand could be extended backwards by a good few rows and the 'offices' built under the extension. The offices could be built further towards the turnstiles at each end giving another 30 foot or so. The Cow shed can obviously be fully rebuilt the whole way down and used primarily as the family stand with massive deals built in with cheap food and family admission prices designed to fill it. At the new silly (IMO) prices you'd have to look at a family of four for £30 and a bucket of food for a tenner or something similar. The away end wants to be all seater and roofed, then we can rid the Clayton End of the disease of seating. Get the away fans sat down, insulate the roof with sound deadening egg boxes or summat and kill the atmosphere. Spend a right good chunk of money on the clubhouse. Embiggen (Homer says it is a word) it and tart it up properly, get some proper boxes built in so that they are separate (upstairs?) and then it can be used properly. I've always said that the clubhouse should be the heartbeat of everything, it should be used every day for a whole host of things and that is what we have to aim for.


Of course, we still don't fully know what Ilyas has in store or what his entire vision is. It might be that the isn't a cat in hells chance of doing what he wants on the current site. We do know that the stadium build isn't a gift to Stanley per se, but he wants it to be his legacy to the whole community. So perhaps that is why the Central Car Sales at Church is high on the priority list? To incorporate the Sports Centre into the whole shebang? We don't know until the great man speaks, but if that particular thing isnt going to come off then look at developing what we have and put a little more money into the squad and/or training facilities

There's hard graft, grief and tears built into the foundations of the crown; it's the spiritual birth place of ASFC 68 and the whole Stanley community has touched upon it in someway or other. The ultras and generations of supporters have built it's atmosphere out of the clay they've stood on. Why would we want a new shiny sterile stadium that isn't even in Accrington really. It's taken years for some to get over Peel Park; for other they never will accept any other place than the old battle ground.

The reality is that there's little or no change in the fortunes of the Town for years to come if ever. All Accrington has to offer is it's history and a big part of that is built around two Football Grounds and Two Clubs. The blood, sweat and tears of players and supporters is riddle in the clay. That's ours already and if we part with it the bulldozers have had their say and wipe it all away forever.