The statement we’ve all been waiting for

afcb_rednblack said:
Given that this article is positioned as a "Club Statement: Club Strategy", I can't recall ever reading such a lamentably feeble and inconsequential statement emanating from the shareholders and directors of an organisation that has such prominence and a global brand.

To compound the wholesale lack of communication to date, there appears to be no material vision (other than the obvious of remaining in the PL) and no apparent strategy. This is a woefully incompetent statement.
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Agree. The CEO must have had a few strategic away days to come up with that nonsense.

I can see why the players and managers get their dosh, but just what has the CEO done to drive the club forward off the pitch? Utterly laughable.
 
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It became blindingly obvious when those figures showed how little of our income comes from ticket sales. Why spend an absolute fortune for so little return? I am as disappointed as anyone but football is a business and our paymasters are Sky. Don't think for one moment that us fans are important any more. That ended when we hit the big time.
 
But to go from a statement(not word for word) of
‘new stadium is not dependant on our league status’
to
‘This vision revolves crucially, and as a priority, around a team that is stable, established and competitive in the Premier League.

That’s a Mungos change of approach
 
tednphil said:
So you would rather we stopped strengthening the team each season and spend all the PL money on a spanking new stadium? Then with no player recruitment will you, in 3 or 4 years time, be among the 5,000 fans attending our L1 game v Accrington Stanley in our lovely 25,000 stadium?
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Exactly, just ask a darlington fan
 
Used to say Premier League on the pitch, still league one off it. I'd say that needs updating now to non-league. We really do have a pathetic bunch of creatures running the club at business level.

Added to this embarrassing statement we have the long queues to get in if you turn up anything after 45 mins before kick off and nothing being done about it, go to the Etihad, Old Trafford, Wembley Emirates and you're in within seconds.

No contact, email or anything whatsoever from the club to tell me I have 2 days to buy my Blackburn or Norwich seat.

Finally, the incredible achievement of actually reducing the capacity of the ground in 6 years of being in the top 2 leagues in the country. Outstanding work.

Truly embarrassing.
 
wallmth said:
So those are the options huh? A shiny new 35,000 stadium and no player investment or ... nothing ..well thanks for clearing that up
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Yep no middle ground it appears. Did it really came down to a Rico Vs a new academy...they are making it sound like it.

Its absolutely amazing. The club announced they were building a new stadium and training facilities without having the foresight to work out how they were going to pay for it :slap:
Its either total incompetence or they really were stringing us along the whole time.

They could have cloaked that statement in positivity by at the very least giving a time line for the training ground / academy (the cheaper of the two options) with news on the stadium to follow. Instead they've just swept the whole lot under the carpet and fudged the issue.
 
West Moors Cherry said:
Used to say Premier League on the pitch, still league one off it. I'd say that needs updating now to non-league. We really do have a pathetic bunch of creatures running the club at business level.

Added to this embarrassing statement we have the long queues to get in if you turn up anything after 45 mins before kick off and nothing being done about it, go to the Etihad, Old Trafford, Wembley Emirates and you're in within seconds.

No contact, email or anything whatsoever from the club to tell me I have 2 days to buy my Blackburn or Norwich seat.

Finally, the incredible achievement of actually reducing the capacity of the ground in 6 years of being in the top 2 leagues in the country. Outstanding work.

Truly embarrassing.
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It's just my belief, that those at the club in the off-pitch side enjoy being a cottage industry, and those at the top being the big fish in a small pond. Aspiring to anything like the sorts of operations other PL clubs have, would require so much work of them, and a likely increase in the headcount of teams they work within.

It truly is astounding that our capacity is actually less than it was in the Championship.
 
red_house said:
They could have cloaked that statement in positivity by at the very least giving a time line for the training ground / academy (the cheaper of the two options) with news on the stadium to follow. Instead they've just swept the whole lot under the carpet and fudged the issue.
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Absolutely this. This for me is the most damning part. They couldn't even bring themselves to reaffirm their commitment to the new training complex. It would have been a great way for them to sweeten the bitter pill but they couldn't bring themselves to do it. That is quite a worry, suggests that there is a reluctance to commit to ANY SORT of investment at this time.
 
What happened to the project manager allegedly appointed by the board? What happened to the project?? Sounds as if they've given up...
 
thegazzyb said:
Absolutely this. This for me is the most damning part. They couldn't even bring themselves to reaffirm their commitment to the new training complex. It would have been a great way for them to sweeten the bitter pill but they couldn't bring themselves to do it. That is quite a worry, suggests that there is a reluctance to commit to ANY SORT of investment at this time.
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langham said:
What happened to the project manager allegedly appointed by the board? What happened to the project?? Sounds as if they've given up...
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It was Al,that's how he knew it wasn't happening:utc::utc::utc::utc::utc::utc::utc::utc::utc::utc::utc::utc::utc:
 
red_house said:
Yep no middle ground it appears. Did it really came down to a Rico Vs a new academy...they are making it sound like it.

Its absolutely amazing. The club announced they were building a new stadium and training facilities without having the foresight to work out how they were going to pay for it :slap:
Its either total incompetence or they really were stringing us along the whole time.

They could have cloaked that statement in positivity by at the very least giving a time line for the training ground / academy (the cheaper of the two options) with news on the stadium to follow. Instead they've just swept the whole lot under the carpet and fudged the issue.
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In fairness I reckon* there's two different elements at work - 'the club' and Max. As we all know the ground is not a sound investment so only works if he decides to fund it. He might have been for it before but has apparently changed his mind.

'The club' is the people that have to deal with the PR side of an owner that keeps changing his mind. I'm not sure what they can do - they said nothing and we moaned. They've put out a flimsy statement and we are obviously not happy. They can't cloak a statement in positivity if they don't hold the purse strings. Max doesn't seem to care one way or another about PR so they are left in a tricky position.

*just a reckon - I'm not in the know like Al.
 
I wonder if they would have released this statement if we were bottom of the league? Seems to me they were waiting for a purple patch to try and slide it under the radar as best they could.

The only thing that makes me hopeful is on the whole, we have a very young squad which should in theory be better next year than this year. If we can currently spend net £30m and break even, then perhaps next year we can spend net £23m and build the training pitches. The stadium is obviously a bit more difficult as it's a boat load more cash involved.

I reckon Eddie was given a budget and this year chose players over the training ground. If that is the case, we can hardly blame him beause ultimately he as a manager is measured on how he performs, not what kind of training ground was built while he was in charge.

I don't think the training ground is dead in the water, but I the stadium probably is.
 
Just been reading through these two paras at the bottom. It mentions in where resources allow for the squad, staff and fans. It then mentions about purchase for training ground. Have they actually said they will not be building that?

They do mention overly optimistic re stadium below in the second para.

Part of the club’s vision includes, in time where resources allow, to build first class facilities for the squad, staff and supporters. We have demonstrated our commitment to this with the purchase of land for the development of a new multimillion-pound training ground.

The board acknowledge we were overly optimistic that a new stadium would be completed by the summer of 2020. Any future developments will be undertaken around a healthy financial strategy that does not take away our ability to perform at our strongest levels on the pitch and risk what has been achieved to date.
 
That statement issued by the club is so thoroughly disappointing. This is a once in lifetime opportunity to build our support base by getting them into a bigger stadium and yet the club still wont entertain the idea even with the PL £millions flowing in. If they wont do it now then its just never gonna happen.
I know some on here revel in being forever tinpot but its getting boring now. Why can't we just for once show a bit of ambition and use some of the PL cash towards a new stadium and get to a similar size as the three other South Coast teams? Even the bloody council appear to be on board; the last time that happened dinosaurs were still stalking the Earth.
It just feels like the club is forever stuck in a lower league mindset. Obviously EH will have been aware of this latest statement but he has given enough hints over the last 6 months that the club needs to grow off the pitch and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was now open to offers elsewhere from clubs with more ambition and guts than ours.
 
northstandmark said:
With the away end being 1300-1400 in size, and the rule being 10% of capacity =
We can go up to 13k-14k capacity in size without changing any arrangements for away fans.
Current capacity seems uncertain but something around the 11k number.
So it's certainly possible to add at least a modest extension of that end, at no huge cost in the overall scheme of things. Just slightly easing the problems we face for young and new supporters, exiles, people moved for press journalists and TV cameras - etc.
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The club has made it clear in this statement: You the fan are no longer important to the future of this club. We don't need the revenue from your gate money to survive anymore so why should we spend money on a few extra seats? Sad they have forgotten who dug them out of the mire a few years back!
 
tednphil said:
So you would rather we stopped strengthening the team each season and spend all the PL money on a spanking new stadium? Then with no player recruitment will you, in 3 or 4 years time, be among the 5,000 fans attending our L1 game v Accrington Stanley in our lovely 25,000 stadium?
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Why does it have to be either/or? Another ST holder happy because they've got a space while others haven't I guess?
 
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