5year ground development plan

[mickycarrol]

Didn't Darlington have a 25,000 all seater and look where they are now!! Think that stadium is now catching dust, massive white elephant.

[Steelworks End]

Didn't Darlington have a 25,000 all seater and look where they are now!! Think that stadium is now catching dust, massive white elephant.

Used by the local egg chasers, I believe, but I don't know what sort of crowds they get. But it probably contributed in a big way to the downfall of Darlington AFC.

[mickmike wilson]

The Dover QF had up towards of 1500+ locked out reportedly, what crowd would a Prem Giant expect?

One capacity crowd since leaving the League in 1972 and the prospect of something that happened last in 1968 don't seem a good basis on which to base your argument, Mike! Of course we'd love it to happen and maybe one day...

No point spending money on facilities which will in general not be used. A modest start with capacity to grow in the future, should it prove necessary, is a more sensible approach. I'd prefer to see a full ground redevelopment on a sensible scale rather than a vanity project main stand for a future that may not happen and the whole project stalling as a result.

The use of the facilities at the ground outside match day for BAFC community use and as a source of sustainable income will be an important factor in the growth of the club and its support.

Hadrian, You cherrypicked 1 point out of many to selectively back up your point here

Its a vastly different scenario we are faced with today, with the plans PC has outlined for us, Compared to our 40+ years of barely surviving one crisis to the next with a few good seasons scattered around, We're planning for the future not 1972, the chances of us getting a plumb home tie were improbable compared to now & in the future.

Every season 1 or 2 NL clubs get ties like this, how many would have wanted to watch a replay with Boro or S'land?? I'd guess 10'000 minimum & more like 12'000 or so. We only had a 4400 capacity give or take a few. Hypothetical I know but we could have lost out on 6 or 8'000 x 25 quid, that's 200K.

I agree with you 100% about a modest sensible & sustainable approach, I honestly believe 5k will be too small several times in the near future and the lost revenue (if that happens) could have been invested in a slightly larger capacity.

The vast majority of clubs average attendances are well below their capacities, it must be over 95% of them without checking, But they are able to cope and reap the benefit when they go on good league or cup runs etc.

[mickmike wilson]

Didn't Darlington have a 25,000 all seater and look where they are now!! Think that stadium is now catching dust, massive white elephant.

Course its a white elephant as they were bonkers to build such a large stadium, no one here is even remotely suggesting anything near this....

[John Very Little]

TBH if the present stadium as it is now had things like extra crush barriers and a little more terracing we could easily get the capacity to over 5000.
With the improvements that PC is proposing I'd expect the capacity would be at least 7000 which I think would be fine as I don't think we'd get more than that very often. We need 2000 seats for League 2 so this is presumably why a New Seated Stand is being looked at and would be approx 1000 more seats than what we have now.

Although PC says about the ground improvements taking place every year I'd imagine they would also be linked to our progress on the pitch? If we fail to win promotion this season or aren't challenging when in Conf Prem in a few years I'd guess some of the plans may be delayed?

[Jonty]

The previous "feasibility study" earmarked a 7000 capacity on the existing footprint and that feels about right for what our immediate ambitions are. I'm not saying we'd sell out but I'm damn sure if we are anywhere near the top of the Conference with a chance of regaining football league status they'd be climbing over the walls to get in. That game will be the biggest football event in Barrow since promotion to Division 3 and would be way above any Wembley / 3rd round cup tie.

[barrow-mike]

Would we need the garage spot? It isnt in the ground. Just build around it.

Or above it

[Alhosk]

Every season 1 or 2 NL clubs get ties like this, how many would have wanted to watch a replay with Boro or S'land?? I'd guess 10'000 minimum & more like 12'000 or so. We only had a 4400 capacity give or take a few. Hypothetical I know but we could have lost out on 6 or 8'000 x 25 quid, that's 200K.

That's £200K 'lost' that to accommodate would probably cost upwards of £10million... That's a lot of 3rd round replays we'll need to make.

[mickmike wilson]

Every season 1 or 2 NL clubs get ties like this, how many would have wanted to watch a replay with Boro or S'land?? I'd guess 10'000 minimum & more like 12'000 or so. We only had a 4400 capacity give or take a few. Hypothetical I know but we could have lost out on 6 or 8'000 x 25 quid, that's 200K.

That's £200K 'lost' that to accommodate would probably cost upwards of £10million... That's a lot of 3rd round replays we'll need to make.

That's one way to look at it.....but another is PC Is investing the money anyway & construction costs are always higher when you build anything that is planned to be extended (if required) in the future, then the future extension is always a heck of a lot more expensive than budgeted for due to inflation and increased costs of materials & labour etc.

Our footprint would accommodate a 7 or 8k capacity, We will be applying for outside funding from various sporting grants which PC will have to match/part fund anyway so IMO why turn down better increased facilities that could self generate money for us?

Maintenance & running costs would be comparable as the size of capacity are similar enough etc.

[Alhosk]

[barrowfan_chris]

Truely awful ground for the size of the club. It was ridiculas watching non league football in that ground with 1000 there.

[mickmike wilson]

At least you could have super imposed a ruddy huge white elephant in the middle of this piccy

A third of this size will do.

[Hadrian]

It was ridiculas watching non league football in that ground with 1000 there.

Especially when in a largely empty ground we had to watch from a tiny wedge of seats in a corner, the worst possible location.

[boyliegladbach]

These might have some stuff we could buy

http://www.northampton-news-hp.co.uk/ho ... story.html

I suppose it is a bit of an unlucky ground though isn't it

[Esso Blue]

This and the Darlington stories are very sad. They illustrate how it's not enough simply to spend lots of money to create a new football stadium. You have to have a plan for that stadium to generate funds outside of football otherwise the maintenance, utilities and rates become a drain on the football funds. My wife used to work for Dr. Martens and I went to Nene Park on several occasions, including as a supporter of the away team
Guesstimates were that Max Griggs had ploughed about £20M into R&D and I can see how that could have been easily possible. They had a great ride for a few years. I'd rather we spend less money and have a ground that can generate sufficent imcome to cover its running costs, allowing the football operations to be used to develop and grow the football side. If the ground can generate a bit of a surplus then even better but that would be a bonus.

My observation is that the Furness area is badly lacking in conference, meeting and training venues. I know business colleagues who have really struggled to find good venues in the area. Include these in the ground and they can then be used for corporate hospitality on match days (a la Crossbar but more modern and flexible in configuration). I'm optimistic that PC recognises this and won't get sucked into creating a multi-million pound retail development opportunity.