[Official Site] OAKWELL - WE'RE HERE TO STAY

Wow, this is not a wind-up is it? All the adversity the Town has come through and continues to do so following years and years of vindictive Tory attacks. The new precinct etc. Not saying for one minute the council are faultless or beyond reproach, but goodness me.

 

I don't see much moaning. A few questions, for clarity, but it seems to be almost universally acceptable.

 

Most funding bodies will not lend/grant fund on properties that don’t have a long term lease. So if the club wanted to do a long term loan/or get a grant of £20m, they wouldn’t be able to do that. So this clears the path for the club to raise capital and invest in the infrastructure as well.

Also, The council now gain 100% of rent revenue, as opposed to 50% - and part of their agreement is that this will be reinvested (after costs) back into the facilities.

Note: A large rent increase is unlikely, as it is presumed the tenant will be investing money into the facilities as well.

So it’s pretty much what I thought it would be. My only query is, how much did BMBC pay the Cryne’s for their 50% Share - and I presume this is born out of past or future rent too.

Overall, looking at what the council paid back in 2003, and rent charged since, I’d say it’s been a positive investment for BMBC. And that’s not including the time when Cryne sold off the lower part of the car park for those new houses as well - so some funds will have released from that years ago.

 

Who's moaning?

 

New west stand then?

 

Yes

 

If the council can make positive changes to the ground and surrounding area as they've done to the town centre, then this is marvelous news, in my opinion.

 

I hope this is good news & the ground receives some major TLC.

 

That’s the spirit

 

£100 000 isn't bad rent, building s new stadium would be very costly.

 

You'd imagine that any access issues should be sorted out, and hard to imagine the current West Stand lasting another 30 years, so that will need to be rebuilt. Ideally, I'd like to see it become possible to have home fans in the North Stand on a regular basis. Can't see much being done on the Ponty and East Stand, but I think the Ponty in particular suffers from lack of space in the concourse, for the capacity of the stand, so will need to create some space with a better fan zone, bar areas outside the ground

 

I think segregation would be much more challenging though with away fans in the Ponty end.

 

There has been an impasse for years, because of how the original rescue deal was drawn up & the lease situation. I personally can only see this as a massive positive. If anyone else wants to be negative, fine, but this looks like progress. Looking at how the town centre has been redeveloped I struggle to see how people can be negative about the council.

 

This is fantastic news for all parties.

The Council get 100% of rental income, and lock their tennant to a long term deal. The club brings investment to the town and benefits the local economy.
The Club secures its home for the next three decades. It can invest in the stadium. In addition it gets the right to stage concerts and events.
The supporters hopefully get an improved matchday experience and the security of knowing that the ground won't be sold off to property developers.

Spectemur Agendo - this is a big day in the Club's history.

 

Well according to council leader Houghton... The west stand has another 10 years in it if properly maintained.

So I think we can forget a new west stand in the short term

 

Didn't necessarily mean switching home and away ends, meant being able to get home fans in the North stand, like we did when the East stand had to close, on a regular basis.

 

It looks like good news to me and it also seems to indicate, rightly or wrongly, that the council have a good relationship with the current board and that there is consequently greater chance of positive development.

 

Why don't you trust them?