Possible takeover & move from Oakwell stalling, according to this

I would absolutely 100% support a move away from Oakwell

or even ground share whilst Oakwell is demolished and a new stadium built in its place. Too many Barnsley fans live in the past, football has and has to move on, we are stuck in a time warp in many ways, a fresh start, new ownership and ideally a new stadium is exactly what we need.

 

Re: I would absolutely 100% support a move away from Oakwell

If we move away under new ownership - they are going to have to fund a new stadium from scratch - if they buy the club, that's all they're buying - a business that barely turns a profit. No land to sell to fund anything new.

Doesn't look promising to me.

 

No doubt there will be objections

as I say too many fans, including a significant number on here, seem to think the clubs standing is higher than it actually is. The town is dying in its ar.se and the club is a sad reflection, our ground will look out dated in League 1, 3 sided and the 4th side being an embarrassing throw back to a by gone age, a museum piece that reinforces a stereotype of the place that the media peddle out every time they visit. We'll attract average attendances for L1 and yet people will argue that our rightful place is in the Championship. It is not.

I would embrace radical change at the club, complete blank page and restart, new ground, new fans, new interest, move on.

 

Re: No doubt there will be objections

As would I, - in fact it's the only thing to ensure we survive and compete imho - but the point I'm making is that a new ownership is properly starting from scratch in terms of infrastructure if they buy the club and decide to move.

They'd better ring Tony Stewart for advice.

 

Re: No doubt there will be objections

Agreed, but that's not going to happen in the real world Steve because the structure that the ownership have placed the club in means that there's no finncially viable way to do this. As EN says any prospective new owners would have to fund the building of a new stadium from scratch with no assets available to help with the funding. So you're talking about £40m of funding needed.

 

Re: I would absolutely 100% support a move away from Oakwell

The way society is these days people are always looking for a bandwagon to jump on. A new stadium gives you that initial burst of interest and provided the performances are generally good these new fans stay.

Someone suggested a new stadium as part of the town centre regeneration - that would actually be a brilliant idea. The plans have already been scaled well back in the town centre but a stadium smack in the middle of town where the markets are would be unique and is bound to attract more fans. Shop units could be built into the sides of it and the market underneath. It would be brilliant for the town centre economy in general.

I'd cry my eyeballs out if I had to witness Oakwell being demolished but if you look at the smaller clubs who have made any progress over the last few years, most of them have done it immediately after moving grounds.

 

Other clubs have done it

Its a real reality check when Doncaster and Rotherham have a better stadium, not suggesting getting into a huge amount of debt or becoming a tenant and running the risk of a Coventry scenario, but modern stadia generate interest and money, concerts, sponsorship, all the basic stuff that most other clubs are doing. The cold hard fact is that the ground is decrepit. The East Stand is 20 odd years old, paid for by John Dennis selling Carl Tiler. We will never achieve 15,000 a week on a regular basis. If we ran away with L1, we'd just about make 10,000. No doubt someone will disagree, but thats the level of apathy and disinterest and the only way to reignite that imho is a complete radical change. Move to Junction 36 in a purpose built complex, get it done.

 

I thought reuniting the assets with the club

was just a paper exercise, or so I was told. Cant see BMBC standing in the way of investment in the town, new stadium complex and what it would bring, reckon they'd snatch someones hand off. If he's selling the club, PC will have to join the bits up, I'd have thought.

 

No way to town centre

On match days it would drive people away. Many avoid town when we are at home anyway, especially if it's a local derby.

If a new stadium is the answer, then it should be out of town, with plenty of parking and good public transport. Dodworth has M1 access and a railway station. Junction 36 is an alternative. The town centre is a complete non starter

 

Re: No way to town centre

Ooh, I like the idea of it being based at Dodworth. A nice stroll to and from the ground for us!

 

It will also help Paddy to track back

 

Someone in this thread said Oakwell would be one of the worst grounds in League 1 **** me that shows a limited knowledge of football grounds. If Wolves go up we would probably be in the top5 best grounds. Come to Gillingham or Stevanage or Carlisle with me then say the same.

We would get a flat pack shitehole in some crappy area.

 

Re: No way to town centre

Would rather pull my balls off with paper clips then move away from Oakwell.

 

Re: I would absolutely 100% support a move away from Oakwell

This new ground we're going to get, does that include all the training facilities? If not, where are the team going to train? And if it's outside town, does it also include a massive car park? If not, well, where are people going to park? How they going to get there?

Seems to me we'll need just as much land as we've already got. So even if a new consortium can buy back the land that Oakwell stands on, they'll use all the money from the sale of that to purchase more land and then have to build the stadium. How would that help?

Oakwell may be close to the town centre but it's not exactly prime land. It's too far out to become part of the shopping centre. It may become a retail park or an industrial estate, but they usually by cheap land, old pits or factories that have been torn down, out of town. They're situated on these sites because it is cheap. More than likely it would become housing. But if the new site can be bought, planning permission given and developed then it would also be capable of becoming housing too, so I don't see why the new land would be any cheaper than what they would be selling. Oakwell isn't a desirable area to live. Not the kind of place where they can stick up a load of executive homes and fill them, which is where the money is. Where as an out of town site is exactly that.

If the new buyers can't acquire the land at Oakwell then they would be funding from scratch, and who is going to do that?

It sounds like pie in the sky to me. No one is going to come in to our club and invest the sort of money required for a new stadium. Particularly when we've already got one that suits our needs just fine. I wouldn't be surprised if the journalist from The Sunday People had got hold of the Chronicle from a few weeks back and just needed to fill a bit of space.

 

Am all for it.....some people just don't like change....especially Barnsley fans

 

Gu on then lets chuck away coming up to 127 years of history for a laugh and a **** new stadium with zero history or character.

 

If true it`ll be another bunch of land grabbers which Patrick will give short shrift to imo. Stalling my arse.

 

History is history....we need to be looking into the future, and make new memories....oakwell is outdated boring no character...the place needs a big lift...which will generate new fans. This will do it, but can't see it happening.

 

**** all up with the stadium we've got,i'd much sooner see any money spent on a squad that could get us out of the mess we are in.the kind of money needed to build a new stadium would buy a very good squad capable of pushing onwards and upwards.We also have a fan base easily capable of filling our ground if we could progress in the right direction.

 

you're living in a 1980s fantasy world.