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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 12, 2023 14:21:03 GMT
IF the plan is to stay and redevelop, them a temp (5-7) year south stand makes sense. Enables loss of other parts of the ground (North, then East, then west) to be demolished and rebuilt over a year or so each stand. Could then redo south with perm structure inline with all the shiny new stands. I'll stop drinking now. Actually I'll have what your having. This does sound a good shout , what with the pp problems meaning you keep what you have until pp is granted , not pull the damn thing down and hope. Just not sure if the funds are available for ( eventualy) 4 permanent structures
The Dunfords original idea was to redevelop the ground stand by stand. bristolroversmemorabilia.weebly.com/the-mem-redevelopment.html
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 12, 2023 13:06:30 GMT
Given the total nonsense we have seen over the last six months - has all been listed on here before, I am not surprised in any way that this may have collapsed. Just when it feels like we are making some progress up the ladder we come across snake after snake and end up lower down and further away from decent facilities than we have been in years. If you attend the Mem you will now what a shithole it is .... the match day experience is pathetic and it's getting worse and that's before the team have entered the pitch. We accept it though. There aren't enough people within the club who are either skilled at what they do or actually care about their standards.... I can name maybe two who impress and the rest are appalling, the result of awful hiring by the in house HR team looking to do everything on the cheap and poor examples and standrads set by their bosses. I think we are at a crossroads as a club now .... One way is a genuine new owner and proper investment strategy that just might see something come to pass in the next six years . The other way will see us stay in L2/L1 certainly for the rest of my lifetime and potentially beyond. I don't see Wael as the answer - lovely guy but not the massive financial clout we had hoped for (although he is certainly better than Higgs and his cronies who continue to feed from the trough on match days in their hospitality box)- and he has kept us alive albeit on a life support machine of his bank account for the last few years. The new owners wont be around too long if they don't see value - I am assuming they didn't come in on the back of promises at the Fruit Bowl and if rumour is to be believed that they got up and walked out of a meeting with the developers, their exit could come sooner rather than later. In their short tenure they have seen us phuck up on a grand scale twice and now lose out on our future potential home. Equally wont be surprised to see Barton and his entourage up and go at some point this season - again he must be shaking his head at what is going on, the only consolation is there wont be too many clubs who fancy his style of leadership or his track record in L1. Sadly the club treat the fans with an almost air of contempt - here we go again with the policy of 'We will tell you what we want , when we want and how we want' All that said - If the deal was not right for the club then we are correct to walk away - crap geographic venue anyway BUT that's two deals where we were leasing the ground and we expected to call the shots - Never going to happen that way is it. Agree with all of that but I thought Higgs was good right up to the moment Sainsbury's pulled out of buying the Mem because of the less than 'watertight' contract he had drawn up and when he started acting like a dog chasing a bone that he was never going to get, sinking the club into spiralling and expensive debt. Higgs put himself and the club in a position where it needed to be sold fast in order to survive, he might have believed that all of the brilliant work he and everyone else put into the UWE project would be resurrected by the new owners, but he was in no position to play hard ball about it. As we now know Wael was never in a position to decide unilaterally about UWE and it was clear early doors that the pace of the project slowed right down as soon as he took over until it eventually died a lingering but not totally unexpected death. Wael, now, just as he did then has presided over the imminent but also lingering death of the latest project.
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 22:48:01 GMT
Some seem to miss the point that a new stadium at UWE or the FM was to be paid for by selling the Mem site and then leasing a new stadium. Therefore if Rovers were to instead redevelop the Mem, how is it to be paid for? In the same way all the other clubs I listed a few pages back managed to redevelop. It’s only Rovers owners as always that can’t manage either to redevelop or sell, build and move.
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 21:42:44 GMT
Be happy to see Gorringe gone. Wouldn’t trust a word that comes out of his mouth, and if he isn’t responsible for the absolute debacle of the last few months who is? I suppose he’s only doing his masters bidding though. I doubt Tom G makes the call on a Stadium being built to be fair..this is Wael and Hussain decision I would have thought. Yes of course, he’s just spouting whatever they tell him to about the non viability of the Mem redevelopment as he will about the Fruit Market if Wael or the new owner haven’t got the bollox to speak to us themselves.
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 21:39:52 GMT
Good news tho eh? Develop The Mem! Haven't we been here before, one day developing the Mem is the way forward, then the next day it's a non starter as non football related activities can't generate any money? Plus where's the £20m/30m going to come from to develop the entire ground? Where did it come from to redevelop; Home Park, Vale Park, Oakwell, Bloomfield Rd, London Rd, The Valley, Valley Parade, Meadow Lane, Prenton Park, Deepdale, St Andrews, Carrow Rd, Portman Rd, Ewood Park, etc etc?? Why was it viable for all those clubs but never for Bristol Rovers. Nothing ever seems viable for Bristol Rovers when it is viable for virtually everyone else (new stadium or redevelopment) and it seems a lot of our fans are completely accepting of the fact that whoever owns us can be forgiven for not doing what the owners of most other clubs do for their clubs, such as providing facilities for their supporters better than what they had 60 years ago!
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 21:14:43 GMT
So much for this line below from Gorringe in his Gascast interview about any possible future Mem redevelopment. If we didn't know them so well anyone would think they're making it up as they go along and saying whatever will keeps the fans placated at the time. 🤔 Gorringe on Mem redevelopment :
Be happy to see Gorringe gone. Wouldn’t trust a word that comes out of his mouth, and if he isn’t responsible for the absolute debacle of the last few months who is? I suppose he’s only doing his masters bidding though.
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 20:44:02 GMT
Home shirts out literally just before the season starts, Away shirt out after the season starts. South/South West stand planning permission debacle. I have a season ticket in the SW stand and been compensated £10 to stand somewhere else. Some people I know still haven't received their season ticket. JCH disaster and now the Fruit Market is dead in the water after realeasing a teaser video earlier in the year. Jesus f#cking wept Clap clap happy clap
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 19:44:41 GMT
What about the redeveloped Ashton Gate or redeveloped Hawthorns or anywhere else. Why’s it not a problem for other clubs to redevelop their urban based sites but it would be for us? Going to football is as much about the experience of the day not just the match and that in itself drives attendances. For me Gloucester Rd is part of the fun as it is for most of the people I go with. If we played in a bowl in the middle of Filton airfield the match day experience would be a lot diminished for lots of people. I don’t go to football to drink inflated price beer out of plastic glasses on a concrete concourse or to have to drive to it and spend an hour getting off the car park afterwards! That’s all well and good but I don’t think we can expect our owners to fork out millions on a fancy stadium redevelopment and the fans not play a part by diverting one of the potential income streams elsewhere. Our future doesn’t look bright if we can’t find a new site and Mem development is also then deemed not financially viable. Loads of other clubs owners have done it and redeveloped their urban home but we can’t expect whoever owns us to do the same, is that what you are saying?
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 18:30:36 GMT
You literally can't get anywhere less out of town than the Fruit Market, and that's the only one on the table at the moment (no matter how unlikely it now seems). I do agree though that we should redevelop the Mem, I know I've banged on about this before, but we should re-orientate the pitch 90 degrees, build a new east stand behind the current one then in the off season dismantle the old east stand, re-orientate the pitch, use the current west stand behind the other goal, extend the temporary south stand along what would then be the side touchline, and either extend the Thatcher's or add a temporary stand in the space up to the new East stand, giving a capacity of between 15, and 20,000 depending on how big you build, then redevelop each side as and when. I reckon that the footprint at the Mem is roughly similar to Easter Road, Hibs ground, that's a great ground, just over 20,000 capacity and the option to fill in the corners which I think would take it up to around 27,000. Sounds great but: -We are struggling to build a temporary single lift structure at the moment. -Why do we need a ground with 3x our current capacity? -The objections to this would stop it in its tracks. -It won't happen. We are struggling because we didn’t go about it right and watered people off. It will get permission it will be built. As for the other 3 sides, I think the local residents now know if they didn’t before Sainsbury’s were given PP, that if they make it unviable as a stadium they will have something built there far worse, that will affect their lives 24 hours a day 365 days a year, rather than the 4 hours a day 25 days a year they have now.
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 18:08:40 GMT
Interesting when wael are new owner went over the plans with uwe he decided it wasn’t right for the club, again new majority owner has now gone over the plans for the fruity has decided it’s not right for the club, so my question is what is right for the club? Not necessarily what is right for the owner.
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 18:07:44 GMT
Wholly agree with that, Coventry springs to mind lovely stadium and everything but the only place get a pint was at the nearby Frankie & Bennys in the retail park…give me Gloucester rd anyway Isn’t that a big part of the problem? Fans demand a better stadium but prefer to line the pockets of the Glos Road pubs rather than use bars in the ground - a big gamble for the owners rebuilding The Mem as will the revenue streams be limited if fans don’t use our own facilities? What about the redeveloped Ashton Gate or redeveloped Hawthorns or anywhere else. Why’s it not a problem for other clubs to redevelop their urban based sites but it would be for us? Going to football is as much about the experience of the day not just the match and that in itself drives attendances. For me Gloucester Rd is part of the fun as it is for most of the people I go with. If we played in a bowl in the middle of Filton airfield the match day experience would be a lot diminished for lots of people. I don’t go to football to drink inflated price beer out of plastic glasses on a concrete concourse or to have to drive to it and spend an hour getting off the car park afterwards!
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 17:24:44 GMT
If the fruit market deal collapses you have to think there won't be any major investment in the mem, why spend millions on a loss making site? And starting again on another stadium site come on, it will just be patch up the mem and sell it on in a number of years from now. There is plenty of space for a modern fit for purpose stadium on the current site with corporate facilities to use all year round in a rebuilt East Stand. We have already been given approval to build an 18,000 capacity on the site with blocks of student flats attached. without the student flats it would be above 20,000. Time to forget any fancy new plans. The now co-owner of this club walked away from the best deal that this club has ever had or probably ever will have for a new stadium (and with planning permission already in the bag) when he took over. Most of us have had a guts full of these never ending fantasies. Just redevelop the Mem, just do what virtually every club everywhere else seems to manage to do!
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 16:46:58 GMT
Wouldn't it have been nice to hear it from the club first for a change instead? That's what let's us down in my opinion. Don't go holding your breath for Wael to be making any public appearances when there is bad news to deliver. When he pulled the plug on UWE he pushed Hamer out in front of the press to deal with the fall out, and answer all the questions. However, he didn't have the answers or none that he could tell us without getting sacked so came out with his 'Crazy Gang' nonsense.
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 16:37:08 GMT
If we use the South stand as a template, we should be able to get 5K north stand (higher than south stand), 8K East Stand and maybe 3K West stand. The Meccano Stadium, capacity 19,500, and 50 pillars obstructing the views West Stand would be more than the 3,400 South Stand if the existing structure was bulldozed and a new one was built to the same height but further back so that the walkway behind the stand was the concourse. 20,000 is easily achievable on current site to include a spanking new East Stand with all of the corporate facilities and the dressing rooms.
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 11, 2023 16:13:07 GMT
I just don't feel the same outrage about this collapsing as I did and still do about UWE.
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 4, 2023 22:57:45 GMT
How pathetic though that if extensions can be granted for 15 mins extra etc, why would the EFL be so petty about a matter of a few minutes. It’s pretty ridiculous really, a bit like everyone on here either agreeing 100% with the management team of another club with no proof, or visa versa. Yeah, it’s 100% down to the EFL having a petty agenda against Rovers and f**k all to do with us not asking for the permitted extension. Well spotted👍
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JCH
Sept 4, 2023 22:30:54 GMT
via mobile
Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 4, 2023 22:30:54 GMT
The only way he knows what happened at this end would be from JCH or his Agent so it will be interesting to see what he comes out with. Thing is, DMac’s sole raison d’etre is to appear the wily, straight-talking, consummate businessman, who never gets had over and bends people to his will. He is abso-f*ckin-lutely not going to say or admit anything in public which tarnishes that persona that he’s worked sooooo hard to create & maintain. So of course he’s going to blame us for the deal falling through! You’d have to be a bit simple to believe otherwise - and his minion Fergie isn’t going to gainsay him, is he? Agree he would say what he said, whatever the circumstances but equally Gorringe would also say what he said whatever the circumstances. Who knows who is telling the truth but I’m not just going to believe Gorringe simply because he’s employed by the club we support. To be fair to Gorringe though he sure as hell hasn’t got the authority to change any goal posts of his own volition.
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JCH
Sept 4, 2023 21:03:18 GMT
via mobile
Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 4, 2023 21:03:18 GMT
It's for the buying club to usually "push a deal" and as Ferguson said: "That’s the danger if you leave it until the last minute to try and sign someone rather than doing it three or four days previous. That’s the risk they run and they’ve made a mistake. We did everything we could.” I too share Fergie's bewilderment at the failure to put in a extension request before the 11pm deadline despite being given a reminder 25 minutes before. That is the most mystifying thing to me if it was missed by a matter of seconds. “Before 11, you can put a request in to get another 15 minutes and they didn’t do that until 20 past 11. Unbelievable, we were just like ‘what?’ Darren Ferguson said. I’m pretty confident that I know how transfers work. Can you honestly tell me that JCHs agent wasn’t playing any games on deadline day. Also that mug chairman of theirs who was that very day shouting his mouth off on talk sport. We all think that an extra 15 mins would have solved this hold up. Anyone actually know what held the deal up? One things for sure we know how to sign players you may have missed it but we have done it recently lots… Can YOU honestly tell us that Gorringe or whoever was pulling his strings weren’t playing any ‘games’ too? Nah it’s bound to be everyone else’s fault of course. Rovers the victims again of the big bad world!
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 4, 2023 20:10:25 GMT
The only person saying the terms of agreement were changed after the original agreement is Gorringe. Oh yeah right, so it must be true then. All other versions of events can be ignored. Well if they arrived at the quarters between 8 and 8.30 and the agreement was in place it could have been signed by 9.00. Did they all just go to the pub and then realise they hadn't sent it until it was too late? Who knows? But I wouldn’t necessarily take Gorringe at his word. Maybe it was him that tried to renegotiate?
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Post by Feeling The Blues on Sept 4, 2023 19:58:16 GMT
I’m sure DMaC will have no hesitation telling us who’s fault it is. Bottom line, he could have pushed a deal earlier, it’s cost him 800k JCH will sign a pre contract with another club in Jan and leave on a free or they will have to accept “chump change” in Jan It's for the buying club to usually "push a deal" and as Ferguson said: "That’s the danger if you leave it until the last minute to try and sign someone rather than doing it three or four days previous. That’s the risk they run and they’ve made a mistake. We did everything we could.” I too share Fergie's bewilderment at the failure to put in a extension request before the 11pm deadline despite being given a reminder 25 minutes before. That is the most mystifying thing to me if it was missed by a matter of seconds. “Before 11, you can put a request in to get another 15 minutes and they didn’t do that until 20 past 11. Unbelievable, we were just like ‘what?’ Darren Ferguson said. Excellent point. It’s almost like the club wants the fans to believe that they were seriously going to smash the 30 year old transfer fee record but really never had any intention to do so. Anyway clap clap happy clap it’s everybody else’s fault.
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