Tagg's Trust AGM speech - 3 option

[StudentGrecian]

I'm unsure how moving out of the city centre would improve things in terms of fan base. Surely being in the centre of town is part of the draw of our club?
It obviously would provide additional income through other ventures, but then we would have a nice modern stadium with all the extras and be laughing stock with the thousands of empty seats.

Does anyone have figures on how Coventry's relocation to the Ricoh went attendance wise? Whenever I have visited the Ricoh it has been more than half empty.

 

[StudentGrecian]

Also isn't the new bus centre development bringing all those things to the city centre anyway?

 

[Legohead]

I know people who have travelled all over the place supporting city in the darker days but won’t chuck anymore money away on a club that still remains a club in the lower leagues, older and wiser was words used by one of them.

I hope we move out to a new stadium that we can own.

The club has always been in the lower leagues though so what's changed? People's expectations? We're a league 1/2 club who might get very, very lucky one day and enjoy a stint in the Championship ala Yeovil, Burton, Scunthorpe et al. Who expects anything different?

 

[IndoMike]

As far as I'm concerned we have missed the boat. I believe that when Ivor was still in charge this topic was discussed. There was a perfect piece of land available within the City borders but nothing was done. That site would have been perfect
Now that we have made the ground more than half decent we want to move?
It"s true the population of Exeter will increase dramatically, but the people coming here, if football fans, will.probably have supported a team higher up the food chain and will not be interested in lower league football, not to mention the fact that people don't switch their allegiances so easily.
Exeter Chiefs have cornered the market for all those boring conferences and business meetings : if there was no Exeter Chiefs it would be a more feasible idea
Finally, as soon as the word "investor" appears one starts to cringe. There are very few Tony Rowe's in this world and many Russell and Lewis. Mr. Tagg, if you want to do that please deposit your own money in a special.deposit account as a guarantee in case it all goes pear-shaped.
Of course the club has to progress, but the risk of ending up with a soulless concrete roundabout and white elephant is real.
Now that SJP has been improved, let's just focus on the playing side. If we can become an established League One side with regular crowds of 6k, then just maybe we could consider it Imagine if we started the project (planning alone costs a hefty sum) and then we got relegated to the conference - what then?

 

[IndoMike]

....Also we don't want the club chucking hundreds of thousands of quid away to hire "consultants", pay for feasibility studies, and cough up all the other monies that the various "experts" demand for doing basically fark all.

 

[IndoMike]

It's time that Exeter City Council sold us the land at a very fair price in lieu of the rent we have paid and the money brought into the city every year by fans who travel to SJP.

 

[IndoMike]

And finally, is a post-Brexit world the best time to make big investments? There is still a lot of uncertainty about how the economy will react.

 

[ryancooper327]

I don’t understand how people think we ‘should’ be a championship club?! We have never been, according to my sleep deprived brain, in the second tier in any incarnation of the pyramid. My London side of the family have similar views that West Ham ‘should’ be playing champions league football. I just don’t get it!

As I have stated numerous times, I have gone to city for nearly 20 years out of my 30 on this Earth. I go because I support city and want to enjoy a football match. I don’t care if that’s in the 4th tier or the 14th, I don’t need to be in the 2nd tier for that to happen.

Is it just about trying to get more fans in? I could see that argument if we regularly sold out, but those fans only turn up to cup games and derbies... Not sure that would change with a out of town stadium...

May have got the complete wrong end of the stick so sorry if I have.

 

[Legohead]

I don’t understand how people think we ‘should’ be a championship club?! We have never been, according to my sleep deprived brain, in the second tier in any incarnation of the pyramid. My London side of the family have similar views that West Ham ‘should’ be playing champions league football. I just don’t get it!

As I have stated numerous times, I have gone to city for nearly 20 years out of my 30 on this Earth. I go because I support city and want to enjoy a football match. I don’t care if that’s in the 4th tier or the 14th, I don’t need to be in the 2nd tier for that to happen.

Is it just about trying to get more fans in? I could see that argument if we regularly sold out, but those fans only turn up to cup games and derbies... Not sure that would change with a out of town stadium...

May have got the complete wrong end of the stick so sorry if I have.

Your second paragraph is spot on. I also don't care what league we are in so long as there is a well run club to go and support that values its own supporters and that we are generally competitive in said league.

Bury fans I'm sure would really like to go and watch their side today even if they were in National League North but they can't do that.

Having said that, I wouldn't be going to watch a club that persistently treats its fans like idiots. Even if they were in the Premier League.

 

[Hants_red]

The way that any sizable piece of land big enough to build a football stadium on, within a few miles of Exeter, is being snapped up by developers and granted planning permission for hundreds of houses, makes it almost impossible that a suitable site could be found. Maybe if the search moved across the 'boundry' into EDDC a suitable plot might be found, but then you are outside the natural catchment area and the related problems accociated with fans travelling to and from matches.

I think we would be talking about EDDC. Cranbrook/Science Park type area.