Dean Court Redevelopment

blandford_cherry said:
Sounds positive…!

Surely no room to demolish north and east stands to go double tier though…

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/23063435.bill-foley-outlines-plans-expand-vitality-stadium/
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Thanks for that. As a non-subscriber to The Athletic, which the Echo seems to have C&P'd here, that is great to hear ( or read ).
He isn't messing about is he ? He seems very clear on what needs to be done. First class training facility off-site and grade one academy status. As soon as possible more capacity in the ground ( various options, South Stand favourite for a quick fix ). We'll either buy the ground or build a new one ( a nice little heads up to Structadene there ). No messing about. Also he already has a timescale, five years to get it all sorted.

Blimey ! This guy sounds like he isn't here to mess about !
 
Either he's going big with us, which would be awesome, or he really hasn't understood everything and we'll heading for a crash.

As has been mentioned, on the current site the houses are a real problem. I really hope he has a plan for that.

As for the academy, I thought even the super-super full-on first version of the training centre would still be missing some of the requirements needed in order to get us to Cat 1 status and there wasn't room for them. If we're going with the full shebang and he's also got a plan to handle that then I love him already. If he's only talking a big game, it could get bumpy.
 
Bill Filey said:
the only way to buy the houses would be to pay over the odds as the club would be negotiating with unwilling owners
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Agree but paying over the odds for the houses may be a cheaper option than finding a completely new site. It may be that if the stadium is going to expand that some of the residents may be more favourable to moving in any case given disruption from rebuild, larger crowds, etc.
 
kirsikka said:
Either he's going big with us, which would be awesome, or he really hasn't understood everything and we'll heading for a crash.

As has been mentioned, on the current site the houses are a real problem. I really hope he has a plan for that.

As for the academy, I thought even the super-super full-on first version of the training centre would still be missing some of the requirements needed in order to get us to Cat 1 status and there wasn't room for them. If we're going with the full shebang and he's also got a plan to handle that then I love him already. If he's only talking a big game, it could get bumpy.
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I don't think there's any difference in accomodation requirements between the categories is there? Just non-structural things I thought.
 
yanh_ said:
Agree but paying over the odds for the houses may be a cheaper option than finding a completely new site. It may be that if the stadium is going to expand that some of the residents may be more favourable to moving in any case given disruption from rebuild, larger crowds, etc.
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ys but it only takes one owner to hold out for an extortionate amount and there is stalemate
 
Sorry, I meant two different things. The houses in relation to the stadium expansion that will cause problems.

The training centre is related to facilities. I can't remember what it was we would be missing but I seem to recall there was still something that Cat A required that we wouldn't have. It was a long time ago though so I may be wrong there.
 
I like the way he talks and it's exciting to finally hear words from an owner about immediate decisions and plans, as opposed to the fluff and lip service we've been getting ver the last 10 years... I like the levels of transparency (unless of course it's all just lip service 2.0)...

It's an interesting point he makes about developing each stand one at a time... My guess is that this is a case of talking about things he might not really understand... As we all know, there is no way you're going to two-tier the East and North stands without some sort of buy-out of the houses behind... Maybe the East stand I can see, but no way are the houses in Thistlebarrow Road (which I always thought had a nice ring to it for the North stand) going to be bought up... I just don't see it...

Liverpool have shown how construction can be done over the top of existing stands, so plough on with the Main stand, rebuild the south as. big and beautiful as possible and lets see where we are after that #simples :)
 
Bill Filey said:
ys but it only takes one owner to hold out for an extortionate amount and there is stalemate
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Happened to Spurs with one business on the industrial park. Then there was a completely coincidental and extremely unfortunate fire that burned down their property and so then they had to sell up and move.

To be clear, I not even remotely suggesting such a thing as it's awful. It just reminded me of the situation where one company was completely blocking the Spurs redevelopment.
 
This has cheered me up this morning.
UTC

The things we were told couldn’t be done relating to the south stand we are now being told is quick and easy, certainly a stark change in attitude and communication.
 
kirsikka said:
Sorry, I meant two different things. The houses in relation to the stadium expansion that will cause problems.

The training centre is related to facilities. I can't remember what it was we would be missing but I seem to recall there was still something that Cat A required that we wouldn't have. It was a long time ago though so I may be wrong there.
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I think the issue with achieving Cat A academy status is that it is almost a closed shop now... Moving goalposts constantly stop clubs achieving it... Will be interesting to see how this pans out. I fear the best we might be able to achieve is Cat B
 
yanh_ said:
Agree but paying over the odds for the houses may be a cheaper option than finding a completely new site. It may be that if the stadium is going to expand that some of the residents may be more favourable to moving in any case given disruption from rebuild, larger crowds, etc.
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Having read the article, he quotes the end game is to end up in a "newly developed stadium with 20-25k capacity".

This can be done a couple of ways on the existing site if we remove Strucadene from the argument for the moment.

By filling in the 4 corners and building a double tiered South End (quoted at 6k by Foley) and Main Stand then I think we could easily reach those sort of numbers without major alterations to the North and East stands.

The other option could be to shift the pitch left and down to allow enough space to build all the way round without the expense of buying multiple houses worth £650k plus each.

Exciting times either way I guess.
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
I think the issue with achieving Cat A academy status is that it is almost a closed shop now... Moving goalposts constantly stop clubs achieving it... Will be interesting to see how this pans out. I fear the best we might be able to achieve is Cat B
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I agree, I used to rant and rave about it on here but that has now changed. They've opened it up to other clubs again. After the numbers being stable for about a decade there has recently been an increase in the number of Cat A academies. It's unclear if this is a policy that will remain open so we should try and jump in whilst we can.
 
Main point for me in the Echo piece is Foley’s assertion that we need a new generation to get to games - we need to expand the fanbase and get youth into DC to watch live football. Spot on Bill - this is the crux of the issue. More sane strategic thinking please…
 
kirsikka said:
I agree, I used to rant and rave about it on here but that has now changed. They've opened it up to other clubs again. After the numbers being stable for about a decade there has recently been an increase in the number of Cat A academies. It's unclear if this is a policy that will remain open so we should try and jump in whilst we can.
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Call me cynical but I can see Cat A bloating out some more and then introducing an A* category.

That way they can shed the likes of Burnley, Derby, Reading, Stoke, Sunderland, Middlesborough, Birmingham, Blackburn etc
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
It's an interesting point he makes about developing each stand one at a time... My guess is that this is a case of talking about things he might not really understand... As we all know, there is no way you're going to two-tier the East and North stands without some sort of buy-out of the houses behind... Maybe the East stand I can see, but no way are the houses in Thistlebarrow Road (which I always thought had a nice ring to it for the North stand) going to be bought up... I just don't see it...
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There are around ten house in Thistlebarrow Road that would need to be bought to allow for expansion of the north stand, yes this would be expensive (£8 million ???) but given the difficulty, and cost of finding another site anywhere is it really pie in the sky to suggest that the club might look at this? Other clubs have previously done very similar things to facilitate expansion. As well as removing the issues that the club might have height wise with expanding the main stand near to housing it would also allow the club to fully rebuild the ground rather than ending up with an unbalanced looking ground which would occur if the north and east stands are retained. No criticism of Bradford intended but given Foley's ambitious statements would a stadium that would look something like Valley Parade be what he is after?

Foley also seems keen on growing the corporate side of things and I'm not sure how he can significantly improve this as well as growing the capacity to 25,000 if he can only make limited changes to the main stand along with a new south end.
 
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