St. James Park - Championship Ground

[denzel]

I still think we missed a trick by not building any hospitality into the Adam Stansfield. But I guess at the time we wanted a relatively cheap stand.

 

[Martin Lawrence]

I still think we missed a trick by not building any hospitality into the Adam Stansfield. But I guess at the time we wanted a relatively cheap stand.

We got what the enabling development contributions from developer would allow.

 

[PeteUSA]

We got what the enabling development contributions from developer would allow.

Yes, a stupid half a stand, that finishes just past the halfway line!

 

[Grecian Max]

Yes, a stupid half a stand, that finishes just past the halfway line!

That wouldn't make it half stand though Pete

 

[Martin Lawrence]

Yes, a stupid half a stand, that finishes just past the halfway line!

Yep, that's the one. It's better than having nothing at all, which was a growing likelihood given the perilous state of the Old Grandstand.

It would have been great if we could have hot something better, but alas, the funding was not available. Sometimes in life, you get what you get. In any case, what we got, was an undeniable improvement on what we had before. This point seems to be lost on you.

 

[SEA Grecian]

Yep, that's the one. It's better than having nothing at all, which was a growing likelihood given the perilous state of the Old Grandstand.

It would have been great if we could have hot something better, but alas, the funding was not available. Sometimes in life, you get what you get. In any case, what we got, was an undeniable improvement on what we had before. This point seems to be lost on you.

The timing was unfortunate because we banked over two million in transfer fees shortly after we started the re-development. However, that money wouldn't have been available to spend elsewhere if it had gone towards an improved design of the grandstand.

 

[Cowshed Grecian]

Surely in the future we could redevelop our away end and build a stand? Then put all the away fans in our half stand. When we reach the Championship.

 

[rightwing]

I still think we missed a trick by not building any hospitality into the Adam Stansfield. But I guess at the time we wanted a relatively cheap stand.

The main trick that we missed was in not building a new foundation retaining wall closer to the pitch which would have enabled the stand to be a lot longer, The Doble stand was originally set back to allow the whole pitch to be moved in that direction and space was left on the Stansfield side. Imho it was very shortsighted not to do this, particularly after cutting down the size of the original Doble stand build to make provision for it!!

 

[Avening Posse]

Still not convinced the Trust acquiring the Freehold wouldn’t help. I know in the past those close to it have said the Council won’t sell, but times change and I think we should keep an open mind. With use restricted to x the value would not be out of the Trust’s reach in my view. We can borrow if we own the land and have trust subs to finance debt as well as those player sales and increased gates we so love to rely on. I’m sure it’s still a no though right?

 

[tavyred]

We need to stay at SJP and as Martin says, slowly build up on what we have.

There is a decent footprint for a proper stand in the away end, that would be my next SJP priority at some point. That and stop reducing the capacity by 10% when we don't actually have to.

Rather a tight sold out ground than empty seats everywhere; of this is the Exeter way (and there's no other option) then at some point League 2 beckons regardless so I wouldn't go OTT on ground improvements, rather we focus on trying to move up a category with the youth development side - especially as now Argyle represent a real threat on that front. They've invested and are going to be a issue for our model going forward IMO.

Surely this discussion is about realising a situation where we’re not thinking LG2 is our natural destination after a period of success, but making LG1 our default position with the odd period at championship level.
No one is denying the barriers to City growing the club, but selling out 5 home games in a row is a financial bleddy disaster for a business the size of ECFC and worthy IMO of a response from the club.
The moment we pat ourselves on the back and say everything is rosy and do nothing, we’re going backwards.