Fruit Market OFF - Club redeveloping Mem instead.

I used to be more ITK under the old board and said nothing when I did know something. I share a box with Nick Higgs now and I’ve heard him regale the story about Lansdown a few times, that how I know it. I know about as much as you regarding all things club these days and I make no waves about trying to find out what’s going on either.

Why would a family consortium buy a footballing business and assume that the previous owners set up the best deal possible? Why would they not do further exploration of everything in place? That would be even more foolish.

Personally I think them walking away from the UWE thinking they get easily get another piece of land to build a stadium, if indeed that was their thinking, was naive. I do know Ed Ware spent time and money of his own trying to keep it alive long after the Al’Qadis walked away but also UWE weren’t willing to renegotiate what had already been agreed so it became a stand off. Perhaps it would have been different if Wael was the sole person in charge then rather than Hani, who seemed to be the one who was controlling, or rather authorising the spend.

I don’t wish to insult anyone, but sometimes there is no objective long view when it comes to peoples perception on how long it takes to build something from the bottom up as well as the perception that throwing money at an obvious problem, in this case the Mem, is going to work.

I’ve had experience of working for a company like that where the assumption was that a brand new shiny glass car dealership would cure all the issues they had. It in fact made things worse to a large degree, the never cured the internal problems that made everything function, they just moved a whole set of problems to another site with a greater amount of debt and more pressure to return a higher budget to satisfy the investment. And that’s what kind of is happening here.

Let’s throw £75M at the Mem because we need more seats and problem solved is the assertion, without looking at whether it’s going to answer all of our prayers and problems or just cause a massive noose around the clubs neck in terms of huge debt that it can’t pay back in the quantities that would match the investment.

When building the infrastructure from the inside out properly whilst looking for a new site, whether that’s the FM, Lyde Green or A N other, is the most logical thing to do at this stage and certainly puts us on a more sure footing going forward.

By rights, the board have no need to keep us informed until there is something to announce, especially if there maybe some confidentially agreements surrounding it, which wouldn’t be unusual.

The last I heard anything about the FM deal didn’t come from the club but came from a client of mine who has a business operating out of the existing site, which was then repeated by a poster here who’s mother has a shareholding in another company on the FM site. I’m effect, they had exactly the same information. The real hold up seemed to be relocation of one particular business of the site.

Don’t start that whole “the owners have given you a script to post” nonsense. It’s utterly ridiculous. I’m pretty sure Wael, Tom and David are more than happy to speak freely and directly to you to answer any questions you may have without the need for a 3rd party on a football forum.

I used to be more ITK under the old board and said nothing when I did know something. I share a box with Nick Higgs now and I’ve heard him regale the story about Lansdown a few times, that how I know it. I know about as much as you regarding all things club these days and I make no waves about trying to find out what’s going on either.

Why would a family consortium buy a footballing business and assume that the previous owners set up the best deal possible? Why would they not do further exploration of everything in place? That would be even more foolish.

Personally I think them walking away from the UWE thinking they get easily get another piece of land to build a stadium, if indeed that was their thinking, was naive. I do know Ed Ware spent time and money of his own trying to keep it alive long after the Al’Qadis walked away but also UWE weren’t willing to renegotiate what had already been agreed so it became a stand off. Perhaps it would have been different if Wael was the sole person in charge then rather than Hani, who seemed to be the one who was controlling, or rather authorising the spend.

I don’t wish to insult anyone, but sometimes there is no objective long view when it comes to peoples perception on how long it takes to build something from the bottom up as well as the perception that throwing money at an obvious problem, in this case the Mem, is going to work.

I’ve had experience of working for a company like that where the assumption was that a brand new shiny glass car dealership would cure all the issues they had. It in fact made things worse to a large degree, the never cured the internal problems that made everything function, they just moved a whole set of problems to another site with a greater amount of debt and more pressure to return a higher budget to satisfy the investment. And that’s what kind of is happening here.

Let’s throw £75M at the Mem because we need more seats and problem solved is the assertion, without looking at whether it’s going to answer all of our prayers and problems or just cause a massive noose around the clubs neck in terms of huge debt that it can’t pay back in the quantities that would match the investment.

When building the infrastructure from the inside out properly whilst looking for a new site, whether that’s the FM, Lyde Green or A N other, is the most logical thing to do at this stage and certainly puts us on a more sure footing going forward.

By rights, the board have no need to keep us informed until there is something to announce, especially if there maybe some confidentially agreements surrounding it, which wouldn’t be unusual.

The last I heard anything about the FM deal didn’t come from the club but came from a client of mine who has a business operating out of the existing site, which was then repeated by a poster here who’s mother has a shareholding in another company on the FM site. I’m effect, they had exactly the same information. The real hold up seemed to be relocation of one particular business of the site.

Don’t start that whole “the owners have given you a script to post” nonsense. It’s utterly ridiculous and is the sort of paranoia that used to get Jim Chappell and Ken Masters all revved up. I’m pretty sure Wael, Tom and David are more than happy to speak freely and directly to you to answer any questions you may have without the need for a 3rd party on a football forum.

Don’t mind me, just here for my daily moan about us not having a new stadium yet.

For a second I thought that was an Elephant looking at me.

For a second I thought that was an Elephant looking at me.

That’s a fair response 1981 but for three things:
1. No, the owners do not have to keep us informed about anything. But it’s good practice to do so and maintain a line of communication. You do not think they should, I do but I can accept that there is a difference.

2. I didn’t say, as you said in your last para, that “the owners have given you a script to post.” Of course it would be ridiculous and also inaccurate which was why I didn’t say it.Please read what I said which was “you’ve given our leaders the script about why nothing is happening and life at the Mem is going to be the new norm and we’d better get used to it.” It’s the opposite to what you accused me of  and very different.  I’m happy to be quoted on what I said, less so on something I didn’t say. 

3. Wael, TG and David (?) have rarely spoken freely about the ground. Wael let something out on the opening day of the season in 2019 at Blackpool about the FM but there have been no communication since by anyone in a leadership capacity so to say what you did is completely untrue. 

UTG! 

You don't need to go higher (and pretty sure the planning permission for the rebuild was at least as high - if not higher - than the existing structure for the full length of the pitch plus the corner)....a rebuilt seating area that ran the length of the pitch and was built to modern standards would fit around three times the current number of seats. Three times 1160 is 3480 and you'd get more seats due to the improved design and press areas wouldn't run the whole length...4000 was a ballpark figure, the actual number of seats was the least important part of my point....

...my point was that it's the first (possibly only) logical part of the Mem to properly upgrade, so it's not been done for one of two reason - either a new site has been potentially closer to a start than has been made public *or* the owners genuinely don't want to improve the current capacity/facilities for the current fans (and the ones who can't get a ticket when things are going well).

If it's the former it's the usual tale of unlucky Rovers....if it's the latter it's not unreasonable to question why given clubs like Brentford and AFC Wimbledon are making progress.....