A point of note though is that I believe there's already a covenant attached to that land for a new developer, in that they have to provide a permanent community sporting facility as part of their development. I would suggest though that space for CTFC needs to be a dedicated space and not one that would serve a joint purpose as a community space.
I'd be interested to understand what community initiatives (affordable housing or community sporting facilities for example) giving this to CTFC would curtail. I'm all for CTFC having their own, dedicated training facility and I agree wholeheartedly that it's one of the top (if not the top) priorities, but I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with CTFC effectively blocking a socially more worthwhile initiative from a community perspective.
Also, buying (or leasing) the land is one thing, but I'd want to understand what the long-term financial implications would be for the club. Having a benefactor stroll up today and stump up the initial outlay is great, but we need to be 100% sure that any longer term financial commitment is sustainable when no such benefactor remains (we've been here before).
In principle I think it's a great opportunity for the club and I'd love to see it come to fruition, but some more detail would be nice to allow people to fully get behind whatever is being proposed.
I suspect that any available land in the town will have developers spouting about "affordable housing" as they do everywhere around the country but looking at the area from above (Google Earth) there isn't a massive amount of space to fulfil a developers wish to pile in the money making 3/4 beds as well as some affordable housing and/or a community sporting facility? I don't see any reason why if CTFC got the nod that any all weather surface couldn't be used by the community? And I think one thing we should trumpet much more is the work done by the Community Foundation and the benefit they would get in their initiatives from use of such a facility in the evenings. Not to mention our COGS as well as the aforementioned Crawley Wasps. I think Crawley as a club although without a huge junior section, do provide as much community benefit as most if not all organisations in the local area. Thankfully (and despite what must be huge financial pressures) our council do seem to try and place a value on outside spaces/gardens/great parks and this would all benefit the town more (IMO) than squeezing a few more houses in?
Most fans would regard their club as a community benefit. Why would public funds have been used to build the Broadfield stadium otherwise? Having a very narrow conception of a football club as a private enterprise is at odds to the actual wider benefits it can bring to the town
To answer the point about public funds building the Broadfield Stadium, they had sold Town Mead for a large amount and were obliged to provide us with a home ground. Furthermore, we then started paying the council a sizeable amount of rent, and, up till about 2009 time, any hiring of the ground or the function suite upstairs was done so by the council and not the club, so they were able to generate revenue. There was no element of the council “giving” the ground to the club.
True enough & well informed JB, but - accepting at the outset that some of this is semantics & juggling ledgers - IMHO omits a few elements:
- The club were tenants at Town Mead, but largely because the Council acquired ownership (I believe in the 60s) to bail us out & charged us a peppercorn rent.
- Consequently the Local Authority were obliged to "re-house" us, but not to the point of providing a Conference standard stadium - this is where IMHO they went above & beyond...(?)
- Yes, funding came from the Leisure Park development & the land (zoned for community recreational activity) was gifted by English Partnerships, but CBC committed to provide a facility way beyond a standard "replacement" for Town Mead.
- While not a direct cost to the local purse, it did diminish their overall financial return & profits from the Leisure Park project.
Even if my spurious book keeping is ignored, i believe that we can all agree that CBC were benign in their balanced approach to the Club & the Community.
To answer the point about public funds building the Broadfield Stadium, they had sold Town Mead for a large amount and were obliged to provide us with a home ground. Furthermore, we then started paying the council a sizeable amount of rent, and, up till about 2009 time, any hiring of the ground or the function suite upstairs was done so by the council and not the club, so they were able to generate revenue. There was no element of the council “giving” the ground to the club.
Thanks for that. The Argus reported a couple of days ago the stadium is provided rent free, was that not correct?
Rent free??! Unless it’s because we now own the freehold (I believe) so technically maybe don’t pay rent if we bought it outright up front (in around 2009)? But even then, the freehold would’ve cost a lot and prior to that the rent was of a commercial rate.
Rent free??! Unless it’s because we now own the freehold (I believe) so technically maybe don’t pay rent if we bought it outright up front (in around 2009)? But even then, the freehold would’ve cost a lot and prior to that the rent was of a commercial rate.
It is a ten year rent free lease expiring in April 2022.
True enough & well informed JB, but - accepting at the outset that some of this is semantics & juggling ledgers - IMHO omits a few elements:
- The club were tenants at Town Mead, but largely because the Council acquired ownership (I believe in the 60s) to bail us out & charged us a peppercorn rent.
- Consequently the Local Authority were obliged to "re-house" us, but not to the point of providing a Conference standard stadium - this is where IMHO they went above & beyond...(?)
- Yes, funding came from the Leisure Park development & the land (zoned for community recreational activity) was gifted by English Partnerships, but CBC committed to provide a facility way beyond a standard "replacement" for Town Mead.
- While not a direct cost to the local purse, it did diminish their overall financial return & profits from the Leisure Park project.
Even if my spurious book keeping is ignored, i believe that we can all agree that CBC were benign in their balanced approach to the Club & the Community.
On the re-housing point, I know a lot of us seem to remember Town Meadow as a derelict eyesore but by the time we were being relocated the ground must have been at Conference standard or pretty close to it already (new main stand, cover and concreted bottom end, terracing along grass bank side etc) so the requirement would surely have been just that? Admittedly the main stand at Broadfield has more facilities than TM but to create a like for like hotch potch would have cost more surely than providing the fairly standard concrete stadium they provided. Still grateful for the fact we have a council that in the main appreciates that we are one of the biggest leisure facilities in the local area and have over time treated us very fairly (a lot of which was due to relationships built up with people like Stan Markham and Les Turnbull and various councillors, nothing untoward just local networking. Also did we ever "own" TM, I thought it was always the councils property, otherwise with our financial mismanagement in the 1960s we would have borrowed against it to our oblivion?!
Also did we ever "own" TM, I thought it was always the councils property, otherwise with our financial mismanagement in the 1960s we would have borrowed against it to our oblivion?!
I recall some sort of "rescue package" - I am guessing early sixties - where the local Council bailed us out by taking over the ground...(?)
But could be way off, as I as a mere lad & the whispers were always 2nd or even 3rd hand (neighbour was a former skipper & chairman, so views expressed about board members were never entirely objective).
Yes, TM was improved towards its end of life, but cannot really be compared to the new Stadium that replaced it.
Post by townmeadleftover on Jun 29, 2019 9:55:51 GMT
Good news, a nice modern facility and only a stones throw away, let's hope this one actually works for a decent period of time while the club can work towards a proper CTFC base
Interesting to see that "The two clubs will also work closely on initiatives such as Crawley Town providing Horsham with loan players ...", at least our fringe/young players will have some chance of competitive football this season
