Chairman's report on Club AGM

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

The piece I found interesting was not so much sharing a new stadium, which with the Chiefs no longer needing us, is a non-starter now, it was the reference to moving to a new stadium I found strange. As with the St. James Park currently being redeveloped it seems an odd thing to even be considering and how could we finance it as well?

There are a few people who, for some unaccountable reason, are obsessed with the idea of a new stadium. This is as true now as it was 10+ years ago at the time of the Drivers Jonas study. There is a view that a brand shiny new stadium will ramp up attendances and performances on the pitch. Personally, I don't buy it. Too many clubs have gone down that road and then found themselves struggling. The number one draw is consistently entertaining and exciting football. That doesn't come built into a shiny new stadium.

Further, I seriously doubt whether, even if we were to ever make the Championship (the PL is a pipe dream imo), I doubt if our attendances would better than double at most. We have that capacity here, now, and it's slap bang in the centre of town, accessible to everyone with ease, young and old.

The answer, for me, is to make better use of what we have. Acquire the St James Centre, demolish and rebuild with a building fit for the 21st century. That would be a far better long term investment.

Any out of town facility would cost an extortionate amount of cash and could only ever be achieved by outside investment by some wealthy entrepreneur(s) that would want total control. It may be good for some, but not for me.

 

[Bittners a Legend]

He comes across as a mixture of bitter, insular and arrogant. He was reminded last year that ECFC is not his club, nor is it the play thing of his friends. That he seems to genuinely think there isn't a world beyond Paul Tisdale just shows his inward-looking, short-sightedness. As a man that gets paid to be at SJP, rather than pay, perhaps he literally cannot understand the frustrations of fans who endured to the constant 0-1, 0-2 or 0-0's between 2014-2016.

I'm bored of these pointless posts publicised through club channels which are always short on substance and fact but littered with little thinly-veiled criticisms of those who disagree with him. It is his inability to accept criticism or even debate on big issues affecting the club that underlines for me why he is a terrible thing for Trust ownership and probably not a particularly good thing for ECFC regardless of whether his heart is in the right place.

He has threatened to leave loads of times before (so I won't get my hopes up) but as long as the Trust has good notice we really shouldn't be afraid of him going. Get the appointment of a replacement wrong and it could of course be worse, but it certainly has the potential to be much better.

 

[Terryhall]

There are a few people who, for some unaccountable reason, are obsessed with the idea of a new stadium. This is as true now as it was 10+ years ago at the time of the Drivers Jonas study. There is a view that a brand shiny new stadium will ramp up attendances and performances on the pitch. Personally, I don't buy it. Too many clubs have gone down that road and then found themselves struggling. The number one draw is consistently entertaining and exciting football. That doesn't come built into a shiny new stadium.

Further, I seriously doubt whether, even if we were to ever make the Championship (the PL is a pipe dream imo), I doubt if our attendances would better than double at most. We have that capacity here, now, and it's slap bang in the centre of town, accessible to everyone with ease, young and old.

The answer, for me, is to make better use of what we have. Acquire the St James Centre, demolish and rebuild with a building fit for the 21st century. That would be a far better long term investment.

Any out of town facility would cost an extortionate amount of cash and could only ever be achieved by outside investment by some wealthy entrepreneur(s) that would want total control. It may be good for some, but not for me.

Gateshead is a cautionary tale here - as I recall, their massive new out of town stadium killed the atmosphere at home games in the short term as they struggled to get anywhere close to enough fans to fill it, and killed the football club altogether in the end (before it reformed as a phoenix club.) Far from being the only example.

 

[tavyred]

There are a few people who, for some unaccountable reason, are obsessed with the idea of a new stadium. This is as true now as it was 10+ years ago at the time of the Drivers Jonas study. There is a view that a brand shiny new stadium will ramp up attendances and performances on the pitch. Personally, I don't buy it. Too many clubs have gone down that road and then found themselves struggling. The number one draw is consistently entertaining and exciting football. That doesn't come built into a shiny new stadium.


Further, I seriously doubt whether, even if we were to ever make the Championship (the PL is a pipe dream imo), I doubt if our attendances would better than double at most. We have that capacity here, now, and it's slap bang in the centre of town, accessible to everyone with ease, young and old.

The answer, for me, is to make better use of what we have. Acquire the St James Centre, demolish and rebuild with a building fit for the 21st century. That would be a far better long term investment.

Any out of town facility would cost an extortionate amount of cash and could only ever be achieved by outside investment by some wealthy entrepreneur(s) that would want total control. It may be good for some, but not for me.

There’s plenty examples of the transformative effect of a shiny new stadium in sport that I could cite, you’re right to flag up however that it can sometimes go t*ts up.

 

[Grecian-on-Tyne]

Gateshead is a cautionary tale here - as I recall, their massive new out of town stadium killed the atmosphere at home games in the short term as they struggled to get anywhere close to enough fans to fill it, and killed the football club altogether in the end (before it reformed as a phoenix club.) Far from being the only example.

Did you mean Darlington?

 

[Jason H]

The piece I found interesting was not so much sharing a new stadium, which with the Chiefs no longer needing us, is a non-starter now, it was the reference to moving to a new stadium I found strange. As with the St. James Park currently being redeveloped it seems an odd thing to even be considering and how could we finance it as well?

I read it as being something like the "You have x options, but you must pick option y" - reminds me of the Yes (Prime?) Minister episode where Jim Hacker is presented with several options, one of which is bombing France.

 

[Fareham Grecian]

There’s plenty examples of the transformative effect of a shiny new stadium in sport that I could cite, you’re right to flag up however that it can sometimes go t*ts up.

Give us some examples of the transformative effect of a shiny new stadium for L2 football clubs?

 

[The Proper Chap]

It's a very poorly written report.

One of the businesses Tagg owns is:

https://www.lasercamp.co.uk/about

The business states:

"Julian is one of Exeter’s more successful entrepreneurs."

This probably says a lot about the guy but not in the way he intended.

 

[Boyo]

Give us some examples of the transformative effect of a shiny new stadium for L2 football clubs?

Shrewsbury have done very well since moving into their new stadium - one promotion and now fighting towards the top of L1. Chesterfield did well too, following their move, although admittedly have dropped back to L2 since. Similar with Rotherham who went from L2 to the Championship following their stadium move, but have since dropped a level.

Swansea were promoted from L2 in 2005, moved to their new stadium and ended up in the Premiership not long after. Of course for every Swansea there is a Coventry, who did the exact opposite.

Darlington are probably the best example of a club whose stadium move crippled them.

 

[The Proper Chap]

I don't see the point in talking about moving grounds or ground sharing, we have redeveloped / are redeveloping most of our ground, also who on earth is going to ground share with us / us with them.

Pointless.