Home Park News (grandstand & Training piches)

Grandstand

PLYMOUTH Argyle are on track to submit a planning application for a redeveloped and expanded grandstand at Home Park before the summer.

Director Simon Hallett and his wife Jane will fund the £5 million project, which will include a new conference and banqueting centre, with a £4.1m long-term loan and a £900,000 purchase of new shares in the club.

The aim is for work, which would increase the capacity at Home Park to around 20,000, to be completed by the end of the 2018/19 season.

Chief executive Martyn Starnes gave an update on redevelopment plans when he was a guest on The Herald's [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] podcast.

Starnes said: "We have already started putting together working parties.

"We have got an internal group that is meeting fortnightly to discuss what the grandstand should look, and what we need as far as facilities are concerned.

"We have also got a fans' group as well to give their input.

"Following those meetings, which has involved architects and surveyors, a planning application will be submitted, which we hope will be done before the summer.

"Then we are in the hands of the planners, which we hope will get a comfortable ride through, and we can start work in the early part of next year.

The internal group that Starnes referred to involves staff who work at Home Park. "I don't think you can ignore the people that are working at the coal face," he said.

"They are the ones who know their area of work better than anybody else, so to get their feedback and input in something like this is really important."

Starnes added: "We are in the consultation process and getting the feedback.

"At the moment I think that what we may have started with as a rough idea may well be modified quite substantially.

"I'm sure once the architects have come up with a scheme that we all feel, collectively, works the best for the club then it will get published."

Starnes has been Argyle's chief executive since the summer of 2013 but is aware of the numerous false dawns in the past when it has come to replacing or upgrading the 1952-built grandstand.

He said: "The finance that we hope will be raised by the additional facilities which will be available here – bars and restaurants – will help us fund the team to a greater extent."

Training Pitches

Plymouth Argyle to use FA Cup cash for more training ground improvements

PLYMOUTH Argyle are to make a further investment into improving their Harper's Park training ground.

The Pilgrims spent 'a couple of hundred thousand pounds' last summer, which included new drainage.

Fencing was also installed to prevent trespassers from gaining access to the site, which is adjacent to Home Park.

There had been numerous instances in the past where damage had been caused to the two grass pitches.

Club chief executive Martyn Starnes told The Herald's [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] podcast that there were plans for new irrigation at Harper's Park this summer.

That, and other infrastructure work around Home Park, will be funded by some of the revenue that came from the Pilgrims' FA Cup run.

Starnes would not disclose exactly how much Argyle made from their FA Cup adventure, which included two lucrative ties against Liverpool.

He said: "It's obviously substantial additional funds for the club, and we are in the process at the moment of determining how that is best going to be used.

"Over the years this stadium has been short of the maintenance that is required to keep it in the state that it should be.

"We have had leaky roofs and that is having to be addressed.

"We have also got a very poor training ground and so some money is being put into that.

"We put in drainage the last close season and we are now looking to put irrigation in during the next close season.

"The training pitches will need additional work as well to bring them up to the standard that we think the team deserves.

"At the moment we are struggling with training facilities to be quite honest.

"What Derek (Adams) is doing with the team on the pitch, given the training surfaces we have got, is remarkable."

Starnes, who was appointed as Argyle's chief executive in the summer of 2013, believes it is imperative that the training facilities are improved.

He said: "I was astonished when I came down here that a club which had been in the Championship had only got two grass pitches that tended to get waterlogged during certain months of the year.

"It has been something that we have wanted to address but you are talking about big finance in order to upgrade pitches to bring them up to the standard.

"They are basically just recreational pitches that you get in the park that have had a little bit better looking after.

"Well, that is not good enough. We have to have better surfaces than that.

He added: "The two grass pitches that we have got access to will remain grass pitches.

"We would like to get additional grass pitches, and we would like to get an all-weather surface, but that is very much a vision rather than a definitive plan at the moment."

Tgwu wrote:

Grandstand

PLYMOUTH Argyle are on track to submit a planning application for a redeveloped and expanded grandstand at Home Park before the summer.

Director Simon Hallett and his wife Jane will fund the £5 million project, which will include a new conference and banqueting centre, with a £4.1m long-term loan and a £900,000 purchase of new shares in the club.

The aim is for work, which would increase the capacity at Home Park to around 20,000, to be completed by the end of the 2018/19 season.

Chief executive Martyn Starnes gave an update on redevelopment plans when he was a guest on The Herald's [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] podcast.

Starnes said: "We have already started putting together working parties.

"We have got an internal group that is meeting fortnightly to discuss what the grandstand should look, and what we need as far as facilities are concerned.

"We have also got a fans' group as well to give their input.

"Following those meetings, which has involved architects and surveyors, a planning application will be submitted, which we hope will be done before the summer.

"Then we are in the hands of the planners, which we hope will get a comfortable ride through, and we can start work in the early part of next year.

The internal group that Starnes referred to involves staff who work at Home Park. "I don't think you can ignore the people that are working at the coal face," he said.

"They are the ones who know their area of work better than anybody else, so to get their feedback and input in something like this is really important."

Starnes added: "We are in the consultation process and getting the feedback.

"At the moment I think that what we may have started with as a rough idea may well be modified quite substantially.

"I'm sure once the architects have come up with a scheme that we all feel, collectively, works the best for the club then it will get published."

Starnes has been Argyle's chief executive since the summer of 2013 but is aware of the numerous false dawns in the past when it has come to replacing or upgrading the 1952-built grandstand.

He said: "The finance that we hope will be raised by the additional facilities which will be available here – bars and restaurants – will help us fund the team to a greater extent."

Roughly translated......."We always planned for it to be small and cheap. Now we feel we can make it even smaller, and cheaper!"

All is looking rosy in the garden...

We've had six years of Bullshit with no improvements to the ground, the mythical Mankey Makeover wont happen it will just get Bullshited way into the future with a proposed start date of season 2081/2082. if everything goes to plan.

I'd have thought it will get done, Simon fronted up the 5 mill after all and Brent chipped in????
I don't suppose 5 mill gets too much but I'm sure that a makeover will happen. Not convinced the crowds will flock to a bar at HP during the week though.

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

We've had six years of Bullshit with no improvements to the ground, the mythical Mankey Makeover wont happen it will just get Bullshited way into the future with a proposed start date of season 2081/2082. if everything goes to plan.

Of course it will happen, green jimmy said it would be in place for the Mayflower celebrations in 2020 he's a man of his word.

akagreengull wrote:

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

We've had six years of Bullshit with no improvements to the ground, the mythical Mankey Makeover wont happen it will just get Bullshited way into the future with a proposed start date of season 2081/2082. if everything goes to plan.

Of course it will happen, green jimmy said it would be in place for the Mayflower celebrations in 2020 he's a man of his word.

As long as the money is not coming out of his pension pot

I will believe it all when there are diggers and shovels hitting the ground.

More fluff and bullshit from that gormless twat Starnes, no actual news here.

£5m doesn't get you very much, certainly not enough to polish an asbestos ridden turd. Brace yourself for a sub 20k capacity eyesore

Fans Groups, Working Groups all utter bollacks. All lip service to the Avivas.
The plans are already drawn for the abortion thats coming and the groups are just a charade to give the impression that content can be adjusted to a design thats already completely done and dusted...

That abortion will go completely tits up when they start removing the cladding covering the asbestos and realise the enormity of the job in hand. We will be left with the existing unit still there but now completely out of grounds.

Whatever you do, don't read the corresponding thread on pasoti. Unless you're also enthusiastic for half arsed, small, crap and very cheap.

harvetheslayer wrote:

Fans Groups, Working Groups all utter bollacks. All lip service to the Avivas.
The plans are already drawn for the abortion thats coming and the groups are just a charade to give the impression that content can be adjusted to a design thats already completely done and dusted...

That abortion will go completely tits up when they start removing the cladding covering the asbestos and realise the enormity of the job in hand. We will be left with the existing unit still there but now completely out of grounds.

The eternally grateful will love it when it's finished, Lord Jims crowning glory!

Czarcasm wrote:

Tgwu wrote:

Grandstand

PLYMOUTH Argyle are on track to submit a planning application for a redeveloped and expanded grandstand at Home Park before the summer.

Director Simon Hallett and his wife Jane will fund the £5 million project, which will include a new conference and banqueting centre, with a £4.1m long-term loan and a £900,000 purchase of new shares in the club.

The aim is for work, which would increase the capacity at Home Park to around 20,000, to be completed by the end of the 2018/19 season.

Chief executive Martyn Starnes gave an update on redevelopment plans when he was a guest on The Herald's [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] podcast.

Starnes said: "We have already started putting together working parties.

"We have got an internal group that is meeting fortnightly to discuss what the grandstand should look, and what we need as far as facilities are concerned.

"We have also got a fans' group as well to give their input.

"Following those meetings, which has involved architects and surveyors, a planning application will be submitted, which we hope will be done before the summer.

"Then we are in the hands of the planners, which we hope will get a comfortable ride through, and we can start work in the early part of next year.

The internal group that Starnes referred to involves staff who work at Home Park. "I don't think you can ignore the people that are working at the coal face," he said.

"They are the ones who know their area of work better than anybody else, so to get their feedback and input in something like this is really important."

Starnes added: "We are in the consultation process and getting the feedback.

"At the moment I think that what we may have started with as a rough idea may well be modified quite substantially.

"I'm sure once the architects have come up with a scheme that we all feel, collectively, works the best for the club then it will get published."

Starnes has been Argyle's chief executive since the summer of 2013 but is aware of the numerous false dawns in the past when it has come to replacing or upgrading the 1952-built grandstand.

He said: "The finance that we hope will be raised by the additional facilities which will be available here – bars and restaurants – will help us fund the team to a greater extent."

Roughly translated......."We always planned for it to be small and cheap. Now we feel we can make it even smaller, and cheaper!"

Why is there nothing in the construction media or any media outside Brents Herald?

What my mind keeps returning to is the replacement of the old atmospheric Devonport End roof, covered in all round to the Grandstand with the cheapo pillar riddled new stand that looked and was cheap as shite. Same again this time round I reckon.

Hugh Watt wrote:

Why is there nothing in the construction media or any media outside Brents Herald?

Maybe in house to Akkkkkerron Global Building Inc. or some such manifestation ?

beesrus wrote:

Hugh Watt wrote:

Why is there nothing in the construction media or any media outside Brents Herald?

Maybe in house to Akkkkkerron Global Building Inc. or some such manifestation ?

His Rumanian farming division could be mobilised to knock something up, anyone remember the cowshed up the road

Am not winding anyone up here re the asbestos issue and how it can derail any project financially. Either those clowns at Home Park Starnes and Brent KNOW there is no asbestos issues in the Grandstand or they will be walking into a world of issues if they dont....

In the mid 1970's I joined the Yard as fitter and in 1977 on first posting outside of training centre I got placed in Maurice Hampsons gang (brother of Dave Hampson) both former far post stalwarts on conventional powered subs.
I forget the name of the individual motor but it had been in for previous DED's (Docking and essential defects) but this was its first complete refit.
We were assigned to engine room which on a Nuke is small and a Conventional tiny. We are talking a space of 1/100th of Argyles Grandstand at best.....As we started to strip the place asbestos was found behind lagging etc etc.....All OFF......The entire Engine room and Forward spaces were closed for removal......after 43 days "waiting time" the boys were allowed back on the boat......The cost in man hours was Millions and Millions let alone the actual removal costs

You gotta think of Starnes and Brents current CV as regards delivering. I guarantee asbestos will scupper the whole project at £5 million if its there nailed on with massive rivets...

I have often wondered why the Grandstand was not rebuilt or spruced up when the rest of the stadium was being done all those years ago. Was it a case of money not available ?.

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

We've had six years of Bullshit with no improvements to the ground, the mythical Mankey Makeover wont happen it will just get Bullshited way into the future with a proposed start date of season 2081/2082. if everything goes to plan.

Exactly suffers heard it all before same old same old bullshit  spewing out as if we aint all heard it before 

VillageGreen wrote:

I have often wondered why the Grandstand was not rebuilt or spruced up when the rest of the stadium was being done all those years ago. Was it a case of money not available ?.

It was imminent.

When sutton played Arsenal the comentator claimed they had a ninty six seater stadium, that should be big enough for Basement and his gang of gratefuls!
Sustainable progress at its finest.

I'm afraid that sometimes I can't get my head around this 'vile' site, all this talk about Brent not delivering - there's the 900 thousand pounds into his pension pot from the Pavillions, the three and a half million pounds worth of shares he owns in the club for starters...........

New safty measure as been bought in for the Mayflower lower stand and terrace

Tgwu wrote:

New safty measure as been bought in for the Mayflower lower stand and terrace

Shit football to ensure its half full?