Wouldn't it have made more sense ....
Posted: 17 Jun 2011, 10:53
... to delay building the new Grandstand until the new year?
Clearly, for whatever reason, the club were unable to start the demolition/rebuild straight after the last home game which would have been ideal, and so now we are looking at a proposed start date in early July with hopefully the development completed inside 7 months and ready to use in February 2012.
Now as far as I am aware the old Grandstand hasn't been condemned just yet and still could potentially be used next season? If so, why not wait until the middle of January 2012 to start - which would then make it ready for use at the beginning of the new season in 2012-13.
Looking at the fixture list, there are 14 home games that will be played with only three sides of the ground available between now and the end of January 2012 - but that doesn't allow for any potentially lucrative home FA Cup ties or should we progress (fat chance!) any Carling Cup ties. Not only that but included in those 14 league fixtures is the massive home game against Plymouth as well as the potentially very lucrative home games against Swindon and Oxford over the festive period. I would imagine that there is every likelihood that all of these games could now be made all ticket and could easily all sell out given our reduced capacity of c 4000.
If we were to delay it until mid January 2012 then we would only lose 9 league games as we are unlikely to be involved in the latter stages of the FACup - the only downside as I can see it would be that we would "miss out" on the Bristol Rovers game and of course there is potential for one or two of the end of season games to attract bigger crowds depending on whether we are involved in a promotion run and further still a potential Play Off semi Final (wishful thinking!).
Of course the club would need to agree a fixed price contract for the build so as to avoid potentially escalating costs and it might not fit in with Westlands school and their plans - clearly they would need to agree to any such further delays.
So, not only would a delay enable us to maximise income over those 14 games but it would also minimise disruption to the team and the fans and the media! It would seem to make a lot of sense to me but clearly I don't know whether such a plan would be feasible or not but if it is surely it would be worth considering? I mean we've waited so long for a new Grandstand, what difference is another six months going to make in the big scheme of things!
Clearly, for whatever reason, the club were unable to start the demolition/rebuild straight after the last home game which would have been ideal, and so now we are looking at a proposed start date in early July with hopefully the development completed inside 7 months and ready to use in February 2012.
Now as far as I am aware the old Grandstand hasn't been condemned just yet and still could potentially be used next season? If so, why not wait until the middle of January 2012 to start - which would then make it ready for use at the beginning of the new season in 2012-13.
Looking at the fixture list, there are 14 home games that will be played with only three sides of the ground available between now and the end of January 2012 - but that doesn't allow for any potentially lucrative home FA Cup ties or should we progress (fat chance!) any Carling Cup ties. Not only that but included in those 14 league fixtures is the massive home game against Plymouth as well as the potentially very lucrative home games against Swindon and Oxford over the festive period. I would imagine that there is every likelihood that all of these games could now be made all ticket and could easily all sell out given our reduced capacity of c 4000.
If we were to delay it until mid January 2012 then we would only lose 9 league games as we are unlikely to be involved in the latter stages of the FACup - the only downside as I can see it would be that we would "miss out" on the Bristol Rovers game and of course there is potential for one or two of the end of season games to attract bigger crowds depending on whether we are involved in a promotion run and further still a potential Play Off semi Final (wishful thinking!).
Of course the club would need to agree a fixed price contract for the build so as to avoid potentially escalating costs and it might not fit in with Westlands school and their plans - clearly they would need to agree to any such further delays.
So, not only would a delay enable us to maximise income over those 14 games but it would also minimise disruption to the team and the fans and the media! It would seem to make a lot of sense to me but clearly I don't know whether such a plan would be feasible or not but if it is surely it would be worth considering? I mean we've waited so long for a new Grandstand, what difference is another six months going to make in the big scheme of things!
