Barrow fanz wrote: ↑Sun May 15, 2022 7:21 pm
The facilities at AFC fylde are excellent if only we had a stadium like that, if we could really start producing on the pitch we would outgrow our facilities very quickly
The hospitality set-up facilities at Fylde is the best in non-league and puts clubs in the championship to shame. And what's more, they do take money on non-matchdays.
The North Stand itself is nothing special it's just a covered terrace but the concourse underneath is something else its like walking down the stairs from the terrace and straight into an upmarket city-centre bar even though its concrete decoration could be said to be brutal it works. I.ll bet there are a lot of clubs with better-located grounds who are considering developments looking at this as in the right location it could be like acquiring an upmarket bar to use 24/7 for not much more than the cost of fitting it out.
In a way Dog Food Dave has been a victim of his own success with the project in its early years but without doubt, whats hit them most is the fact that in the time since they moved to Mill farm attendances at their nearest rival club Blackpool have all but quadrupled in the wake of them finally getting rid of the Oystons along with a period of stability at Nob End and to an extent, Fleetwood meaning there simply aren't the disgruntled fans of other clubs to mop up anymore that there was previously.
Strangely I think that if they'd managed to get up into the EFL 3 or 4 years back they'd of been ok as they'd have seen a massive rise in away fan attendances and a million and a half quid each year from the EFL without all the money-draining projects like the ground and the academy to fund that Barrow are currently struggling to deal with as that is all already in place and I too struggle to figure out how they're justifying the cost or the need for the new stand. But I really fear for their very existence now knowing pretty well what they're paying in wages DFD or his company must currently be funding it to over a million a year on top of meeting the repayments on both the original development as well as the new stand and not sure how that could continue if they got into the league. In fact, i.d say his only hope is to get permission for more retail developments on the ground that they own surrounding the stadium.