Scum & Their Stadium

Yellows1

Yellows1

Level: Callum O'Dowda
(106 Apps, 14 Gls)
bit.ly

CLUB NEWS: JOINT PURCHASE OF THE COUNTY GROUND

Swindon Town Football Club (namely Swindon Town Football Company Limited) and Swindon Town Supporters (represented by Swindon Town Community Mutual Limited) are delighted to have reached an agreement in principle with Swindon Borough Council, to jointly purchase the freehold of the County Ground.
bit.ly bit.ly
 
I see the Scum council have got Involved whereas our council don’t want football in Oxford hence the shot we’re getting over someone trying to purchase the ground. Mind you a thought if the OCC were to get involved with a buyer maybe the potential buyer could offer to build in a few student flats..... that will clinch the deal.
 
This certainly puts our own stadium problems back into sharp focus. We really do need to get the situation resolved ASAP. Owners and managers might get the supporters backs up and cause concern, but they come and go. The stadium is the single biggest factor that’s holding the club back and the situation can’t be allowed to run on and on.
 
yellowbow said:
The stadium is the single biggest factor that’s holding the club back and the situation can’t be allowed to run on and on.
Click to expand...

Like it has since sometime in the 1970`s ? Pretty much everyone "in charge" since then has tried & failed until FK tried & succeeded in moving the ground. The chances of the City Council supporting another move is zilch.
The best bet, from our perspective, is doing exactly what Scum have done.
Buy the ground, improve it and take the millstone from the football clubs neck.


Anyone got £20+ million to spare??
 
Essexyellows said:
Like it has since sometime in the 1970`s ? Pretty much everyone "in charge" since then has tried & failed until FK tried & succeeded in moving the ground. The chances of the City Council supporting another move is zilch.
The best bet, from our perspective, is doing exactly what Scum have done.
Buy the ground, improve it and take the millstone from the football clubs neck.


Anyone got £20+ million to spare??
Click to expand...

Maybe their support will be a little above zilch if housing can be built on the kasStad site and a conference centre built on our new stadium site.
 
Essexyellows said:
Like it has since sometime in the 1970`s ? Pretty much everyone "in charge" since then has tried & failed until FK tried & succeeded in moving the ground. The chances of the City Council supporting another move is zilch.
The best bet, from our perspective, is doing exactly what Scum have done.
Buy the ground, improve it and take the millstone from the football clubs neck.


Anyone got £20+ million to spare??
Click to expand...

Not strictly true though, the ground was already WIP when the money ran out and the council did a dodgy deal with uncle Firoz to take it over.
 
It would seem to me Swindon got a fair price for their stadium. Obviously, football clubs at our level tend to be loss making organisations so valuating the stadium can be tricky. I would like to believe the kassam had some protection as an community asset but if I remember correctly, the Manor also had some law protecting it from commercial development. Cynically I believe there are ways of getting round such laws.
 
Swindon’s ground has a long standing covenant on it which means it can only be used as a sporting/recreational facility. I guess this might affect the price.
 
Difficult for anyone to be supportive to the club when everyone has to deal with Ka$$am.
He holds all the cards and he knows it.
It all comes back down to this one overriding factor and it will not change until he sees further financial benefit to himself or he is no longer in charge.
As the lease runs down we have a choice to make... Renew on more favourable terms or find somewhere else. I personally don’t think that Ka$$ams valuation of the ground is doable, so we are unlikely to find someone or someone’s who can put together the funds to buy it.

Hard enough to make money in football as it is, but stumping up huge capital for an overpriced three sided stadium and any business plan that sees us Making a profit from any purchase is plain crazy.
I don’t really know what the answer to our ground problems are, unless Ka$$am moves on we are in our own special kind of Groundhog Day.
One speck of comfort I see however is that he cannot live forever and rest assured that his legacy over this club will be seen as one of stagnation.
A saviour that became a dragging weight that only time will break.
I just hope that I live long enough to see his connection to our club severed and our club restored to some kind of ownership within our community.
I live in hope of this day.
One day my friends... One day!!!??
 
Big Ronaldo said:
Difficult for anyone to be supportive to the club when everyone has to deal with Ka$$am.
He holds all the cards and he knows it.
It all comes back down to this one overriding factor and it will not change until he sees further financial benefit to himself or he is no longer in charge.
As the lease runs down we have a choice to make... Renew on more favourable terms or find somewhere else. I personally don’t think that Ka$$ams valuation of the ground is doable, so we are unlikely to find someone or someone’s who can put together the funds to buy it.

Hard enough to make money in football as it is, but stumping up huge capital for an overpriced three sided stadium and any business plan that sees us Making a profit from any purchase is plain crazy.
I don’t really know what the answer to our ground problems are, unless Ka$$am moves on we are in our own special kind of Groundhog Day.
One speck of comfort I see however is that he cannot live forever and rest assured that his legacy over this club will be seen as one of stagnation.
A saviour that became a dragging weight that only time will break.
I just hope that I live long enough to see his connection to our club severed and our club restored to some kind of ownership within our community.
I live in hope of this day.
One day my friends... One day!!!??
Click to expand...
If anyone buys our current ground it will be to make an overall profit, if anyone builds us another ground it will be to make an overall profit, bit of a dream to think OUFC will get anything back as a club, the owners are the club..
Would we also expect the owners to get rid of the circ £14m debt around the clubs neck, that's more than the stadium cost.
I suppose we will have to wait and see what the current boards ambitions are, we might end up debt free with a shiny new fit for purpose stadium or we just might have another FK on our hands, frying pan/fire.
 
Ka$$am won’t sell. Why would he unless it was for daft money?
Ka$$ams return is ongoing, bound up tight.

If someone somehow were to get him to sell for silly money, you would have to ask the question why?
As a business, why would anyone buy it? In its current state it needs work, the long-standing lack of investment in its upkeep is starting to show. Money would/will need to be spent to get the stadium fit for purpose and then there is the access and parking issues.
When you look at a club like ours
(not just ours) with the ongoing financial burden, it does make you wonder where is the incentive for owners to get on board? Unless you like pouring your personal wealth down the plug hole of course?
 
The ground is not fit for purpose. Lots of maintenance issues & i hate a 3 sided ground. Its awful. However what is the alternative? Land is so costly & funds are not there to build. Where would an alternative be. K***am holds all the cards & club is screwed
 
If tiger and the board are willing to fund the club and all its monetary outgoings for the foreseeable future, whilst having a plan to maybe try and relocate or buy the stadium outright/better leasing terms in the long run, also trying to be sustainable by selling on players that have been developed, I think it could work if it’s done over many years, if fans, favourably council members and all other interested parties work together, tiger could have/leaves a legacy that he could be remembered for with oufc and the city of Oxford, many ifs,but we need something to change to avoid long term decline maybe this board is the one to take us forward. It’s up to them I’m skint.
 
SteMerritt said:
He was exaggerating [emoji6] although I agree with the sentiments. I ran the MK Marathon today, that ground is outstanding and puts our half finished effort to shame. Rotherham have a top ground as well.
Click to expand...

You say outstanding, yet one of the biggest criticisms of the kassam is its soulless, mk dons is probably the most soulless stadium in the country. Not fit for purpose, holding us back, hard to get to, lots of negatives get thrown at it, but most aint true, or easily put right. And yes 3 stands doesnt “look great” but when on average we already have 4k empty seats, and a larger stadium than bournemouth, its not vital. I think its great the new board are seriously looking at all possibilities , rather than putting all their eggs in one basket as previous owners have done
 
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