Redevelopment Closer Than Ever?

[Michael Walker]

Her name is Millie 😀

What I was “trying” to say 😂 Was. It doesn't matter who could’ve and who would’ve. DB and KT have done what they said they would. And I believe they will do more with the ground.

Easy when you try, isn’t it 😀😀

And what does Millie think?

[Terryfenwickatemyhamster]

And what does Millie think?

She agrees with Beds. 😀

[Tabasco Kid]

She agrees with Beds. 😀

Has Millie ever consumed a Hamster?

[Terryfenwickatemyhamster]

Has Millie ever consumed a Hamster?

She probably has. She has significant murderous tendencies.

[Observing]

Is it time to move on from Fenners pussy?

[guest3732]

Perhaps said pussy needs its own topic?

[Melbourne Cobbler]

Apparently the comedy legal advisor is still trying to argue across platforms. With regards to the clubs debt to the owners he appears as confused and bewildered as ever when he explains the irrelevance I raised this way. “Every pound the owners old & new have advanced is by way of loans & the lenders' expectation is that they will be repaid from NTFC's only asset, the land”. What our esteemed council has failed to explain is what prevents any owner from selling any assets and taking the cash regardless of whether there is a debt or not? Perhaps it’s me but the outcome appears exactly the same. Alternatively it might just be yet another tiresome attempt to weaponise any and all available opportunities to suit the relentless anti-owner rhetoric.

To perhaps illustrate further, amazingly in a new low even the IACTM podcast 3 word review appears to have been similarly commandeered. For those that don’t know it’s a rather popular harmless bit of fun where listeners are asked to review matches in 3 words. The end of season podcast went a bit further asked for some 3 word reviews to summarise the entire season. One of the Trust Board members took it upon themselves to even weaponise that in summing up the teams season by choosing instead to review the East stand on X in 3 words “World's dearest expansion”. Of course the ever popular advisor soon reposted that. And these chaps want primacy with the owners, hysterical, they’ve got no chance.

[BedsCobb]

Have you actually been inside the East Stand now it is finished?

There were about 250 people + at the Open Forum heĺd in the ES and almost to a man/woman they all went 'cor, this is amazing'...

Obviously in an ideal world it would have been bigger but it was half built so it probably made sense to finish it?

It's a fair point to say that the Cobblers are not a charity and no one has compelled our current owners to invest their money into the club, but where would we be without them? Insolvency, step 6 or the championship?

We can't re-run history to find out, but the fact is that they have lent/ invested that amount of money and until someone else turns up with more money, I think we'd be pretty foolish to not be grateful that they have...

And to me, but I know not to everyone,  the Cobblers is not just about the 1st team. It's about the community programmes, the women's team, the impact that the club has in the community.

And in these areas we score highly - remember the manager and players ringing vulnerable people during covid?

I've got some stick for saying, in a post on here, that the owners have 'largely done an outstanding job'.

Overall though, look at where we were in 2015 and where we are today? Yes, mistakes have been made, but who doesn't make them? And the point I'd make is that the mistakes have been made at their expense not ours.

I genuinely don't understand why people can't take a balanced and objective view about their time in charge. Before, muttering about non league standard stand etc go and have a look!

No one outside the present owners knows what's next in terms of future ownership, investment etc.

The owners have made clear that the money from the industrial land will write down some/all of the debt, but no one should ignore the fundamental lack of financial sustainability of EFL clubs at the moment.

How the Cobblers can start to tackle this is the thing that we should be talking about if we want the club to prosper in the future.

It is all about the first team, yes as a community based professional football club all those other bits have to be in place...All clubs have these.

Why should the sixfields land all go to these owners when the football club has got very little from such vast swathes of land?..That tiny stand fit out is no where near enough..For such a vast amount of land, the very least we should expect at our  ground is a capacity increase by another 3000..
Only at NTFC could so very little be openly celebrated by those claiming to have NTFC future interests at heart.
Obviously they dont.

I see things clearly, it's taken them10 years to fit out that tiny non league stand..
An astonishing £5.8m has been wasted on just fitting it out to contain just several boxes and little more than 100 seats!

Wasted opportunity #2... Discuss....

[tcobb]

100 seats Beds ? You sure ? 7,653 capacity when the old stand was taken down 8,203 now , Discuss

[guest3732]

One thing i have noticed about beds is that he won’t respond if you agree with him. Destroys his entire modus operandi 👍

[TVOR]

And these chaps want primacy with the owners, hysterical, they’ve got no chance.

First step would be primacy with the fan base which they will also never get.

[Observing]

Beds is right. Everyone move on. Done.

[guest3732]

Beds is right. Everyone move on. Done.

That's the spirit 

[Melbourne Cobbler]

It is all about the first team, yes as a community based professional football club all those other bits have to be in place...All clubs have these.

Why should the sixfields land all go to these owners when the football club has got very little from such vast swathes of land?..That tiny stand fit out is no where near enough..For such a vast amount of land, the very least we should expect at our  ground is a capacity increase by another 3000..
Only at NTFC could so very little be openly celebrated by those claiming to have NTFC future interests at heart.
Obviously they dont.

I see things clearly, it's taken them10 years to fit out that tiny non league stand..
An astonishing £5.8m has been wasted on just fitting it out to contain just several boxes and little more than 100 seats!

Wasted opportunity #2... Discuss....

Be delighted.

Pity you and those like you didn’t identify minimum completion standards along with the demands to finish the stand in the 8 or so years there was an opportunity to do so Bubbles. People were advised to on many occasions, but unfortunately chose to ignore that and follow somewhat more controversial advice with rather disappointing results. Like you say, wasted opportunity, particularly when it’s a clearly defined responsibility of certain bodies to get the best outcome for the supporters. As stated previously, obviously should the owners have made concessions to any recommendations regarding completion standards it would have made attacking them in the current manner rather challenging, perhaps that was the motive? Still, whilst there remains a reluctance for people to take responsibility for their failings and continue with the original approach of taking any and all opportunities to attack the owners, the relentless vitriol and attacks from all sides looks set to continue indefinitely. And you have played your own small part in that, how’s that working out for you? Meanwhile the supporters trust is more divided powerless and irrelevant than ever, which of course is apparently everyone else’s fault but the individuals running the show.

[Michael Walker]

It is all about the first team, yes as a community based professional football club all those other bits have to be in place...All clubs have these.

Why should the sixfields land all go to these owners when the football club has got very little from such vast swathes of land?..That tiny stand fit out is no where near enough..For such a vast amount of land, the very least we should expect at our  ground is a capacity increase by another 3000..
Only at NTFC could so very little be openly celebrated by those claiming to have NTFC future interests at heart.
Obviously they dont.

I see things clearly, it's taken them10 years to fit out that tiny non league stand..
An astonishing £5.8m has been wasted on just fitting it out to contain just several boxes and little more than 100 seats!

Wasted opportunity #2... Discuss....

I don't accept that it's a 'tiny non-league' stand. That's an extremely perjorative way of looking at it.

I wish people would actually go and see it and look at the overall ambiance and finish of it before saying that.

 I'm sure in an ideal world everyone would have liked it to be bigger,  but from the position of it being half-built what did you expect the club to do?

If they had bowled it over and built another much bigger one how much would that have cost?

Or should they have permanently moth balled it and spent the money on expanding the north or south stands?

Now the moth balling argument I can recognise is a valid one, but it would have left the club without pitch facing hospitality as well as all year round conference and business room meeting facilities. 

And, I'm no expert here, But I think once you decide to build boxes and provide hospitality, you can't do it on the cheap. A round of egg sandwiches isn't going to cut the mustard.

I've never been in any other hospitality setting, but the review from the independent podcasters gave us a high rating.

We will have to see how much extra revenue the stand brings in but it will certainly help narrow the gap between income and expenditure.

And it doesn't increase capacity by a little more than a 100 seats. It's about 500 all up.

This isn't a eulogy towards the owners if that's how you were describing my last post. There are things, such as much better supporter facilities, that I would like to see, but I think it's a fair assessment of the situation.

I don't understand why discussing the situation has to be a binary one? All a binary discussion does is entrench people into two camps unable to take a measured view.

The recent Trust statements couldn't be described in that way - something that I think the club would agree with.

At our next Trust meeting we will be discussing 'engagement' in the broadest sense. Any Trust member who wants to listen and take part is welcome to do so.

As I've said previously,  we need to keep in perspective how important all these discussions are...but the Trust has played an important role in the clubs past and might be needed again in the future.

In any case, it could have a positive role in putting forward supporters views once it has the legitimacy it requires to do so.

That legitimacy can be viewed from different perspectives but that's a discussion for another day. I need to go and check if we've bought another Forest midfielder.

[Omega]

Apparently the comedy legal advisor is still trying to argue across platforms. With regards to the clubs debt to the owners he appears as confused and bewildered as ever when he explains the irrelevance I raised this way. “Every pound the owners old & new have advanced is by way of loans & the lenders' expectation is that they will be repaid from NTFC's only asset, the land”. What our esteemed council has failed to explain is what prevents any owner from selling any assets and taking the cash regardless of whether there is a debt or not? Perhaps it’s me but the outcome appears exactly the same. Alternatively it might just be yet another tiresome attempt to weaponise any and all available opportunities to suit the relentless anti-owner

Firstly what I find interesting whilst it is clear there has never been any recent direct dialogue between the two protagonists here, one seems with an amazing level of certainty to know the long term plan of the other.

Secondly whilst the asset that NTFC own, may or may not be used to pay off some or all of that debt perhaps the critics could clarify how that asset came to fruition- was it Mr Cardoza, was it the earlier board of directors?  or perhaps they could explain how the so called “other” viable contenders to purchasing the club were going to finance building the stand, support the typical annual loss of a L1/2 club and provide some ongoing revenue to the club.

Of course we would all like owners that gift rather than loan money to the club, create an asset where all the revenue goes to the club but the constant criticism seems to fall into the old socialist cliche of “you earn the money and we will tell you how to spend it”

[guest3732]

Engagement? I’ll be very happy to engage with the trust once the board has resigned and the advisor consigned to history. I want nothing to do with bullies, thank you!

[DavCobb]

On the corporate topic.
Is it designed or are there any known plans to try and make it a 7 day offering? Probably the worst time to try and prise money out of businesses for weekday corporate events but is the intention there?
At the moment I can just about get away with spending £40 at Costco for my monthly team meetings.

[Michael Walker]

On the corporate topic.
Is it designed or are there any known plans to try and make it a 7 day offering? Probably the worst time to try and prise money out of businesses for weekday corporate events but is the intention there?
At the moment I can just about get away with spending £40 at Costco for my monthly team meetings.

It's a good question about how the club intends to use the facilities - maybe Tom Cliffe could ask James Corrigan, NTFC commercial director, on the clubs plans?

Generally, I think there's a lot of 'soft power' in having executive boxes and hospitality which can't be easily quantified.

On match days there could be a different cohort using them who might not have been exposed to the club previously,  leading to new sponsorship and even investment opportunities.

And, I think we should never underestimate the view that outside business takes of a club with a finished stand built to a high standard vis a vis one which moth balled it and built an extension to the North Stand instead (desirable though that is).

[Tabasco Kid]

Michael, dont rise to the Luton plasterers bait. He is like a child, seeing how many "hits" or "likes" he can get. If you ignore him he will in due course, drift back towards FB and bore everybody there.  In the meantime he can have a nosey at his trade journal.

https://www.construction.co.uk/construction-news/319073/grs-completes-east-stand-at-northampton-town-fc-8203