To Quote the 'earald:
JAMES BRENT has insisted the proposed new grandstand at Home Park will be a ‘stunning facility’ and generate more than £1 million per year in additional income for Plymouth Argyle.
The Pilgrims’ owner and chairman believes that is the key to the club eventually returning to the Championship – the second tier of football in England, below only the Premier League.
New Home Park grandstand will bring in £1million a year and put Plymouth Argyle in Championship
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However, there has been criticism from some supporters, notably the Argyle Fans’ Trust, that the plans are not ‘grand’ enough.
The £10 million structure will have around 4,800 seats and leave Home Park with a capacity of 17,700.
That is an increase of more than 1,000 on the current set-up, but the AFT do not believe it is enough should Argyle achieve success on the pitch in the years to come.
They are also worried the grandstand is overshadowed by the other aspects of Brent’s £50m redevelopment of Higher Home Park, which includes a 1,500-seat ice arena, 10-screen cinema, 120-bed hotel and a variety of food outlets.
Brent has made a robust defence of the criticisms, but admitted the plans for the grandstand had not been properly communicated to the Green Army.
He told The Herald: “If I could think of any group in our community that I would have less expected to show negativity it would be any of our fans.
“It is a stunning facility for a club which deserves it and provides much better quality accommodation than we currently offer.
“It will generate, we estimate, between £1m and £2m per year of net additional income depending on which league we are in, which will enable us to differentiate ourselves from other clubs and move more quickly back up the leagues and then sustain a position. It is an absolute no-brainer for the club.”
Brent continued: “There are a couple of challenges. One is that expectations of some fans are greater than we are able to deliver. I’m sorry to those fans where we are unable to meet their expectations, and I think we have communicated some of it less well than we should have done.
“Hopefully, once we communicate better – and we have taken into account as many of the fans’ views as we can do – we will create the sense of excitement that this should have.”
Brent believes there is ‘very strong enthusiasm’ for the plans for the grandstand among Argyle fans.
An open meeting was staged by the Plymouth Argyle Supporters’ Board before the Devon derby against Exeter City at the Citybus Social Club on March 30 and Brent and his advisers were present to talk about the project.
Brent reckoned that apart from representatives of the club, the PASB and the Argyle Fans’ Trust there were only 11 people in attendance.
He said: “During the administration, where there were matters of concern, several hundred fans would turn up to public meetings, and we had a very small number on this occasion.
“Once we have shown what we are doing, we have articulated it properly and people understand the benefits to the club, I think the Green Army will be incredibly excited by it and very positive. Do I think some people will remain negative? Yes, I’m sure that they will.
“Whatever you propose, when we have so many passionate fans with diverse interests I don’t think we are ever going to keep 100 per cent of them happy.”
The issue of capacity at Home Park has been particularly contentious.
Critics have pointed to the uplift in attendances when comparable clubs to Argyle such as Hull City, Reading and Swansea City have moved into new stadia. Brent said: “We are, on average, filling about 40 per cent of our current capacity, and we are increasing the current capacity by around about 1,000 seats.
“So today’s problem is not one of having too little capacity. It is we are not attracting enough fans into the club.
“If someone asked me whether the issue today is one of capacity, I would say it is not. The challenge we have today is that we have a football club that has just avoided relegation from League Two and is only sustained because we are putting money into it and we need to address that issue.
“Going forward, based on the numbers we have done, with the income from the new grandstand we think the club can get back to the Championship and sustain itself there.
“The capacity we are proposing in the new grandstand takes us up to 17,700 seats, and we can add a further 2,500 seats very simply at a low cost – at about £1,000 per seat.
“Those 20,200 seats will, in our view, give us adequate capacity, given the most recent five years in the Championship. If the club got into the Premier League and marketed itself well, that capacity would be insufficient and we would need to address it. At that point, we get £60m of TV money and it makes sense when you can fill seats to build them.
“The cost of adding seat capacity is about £1,000 per seat and the income you generate from a seat about £500 per year, so you have got a two-year payback, which is a brilliant investment.
“What makes absolutely no sense is building seats you can’t fill.
“And what makes even less sense is taking money out of revenue-generating areas, like the hospitality and grandstand, which you can use to improve your players, and put it into empty seats.”
He added: “Dreaming in football, I totally get. Dreaming is part of what football is about.
“But there is real danger that if you let the dream drive your action, you will never get to a fraction of your dream.
“While I remain as a custodian for this club, I’m not going to let dreaming get in the way of doing the right thing by the club.”
The Argyle Fans’ Trust set up a working group of volunteers to come up with an alternative proposal based around Brent’s plans for Higher Home Park.
They suggested building the ice arena on the adjacent Cottage Field – which is owned by Plymouth City Council – to allow more space around the stadium and not restrict future development.
Brent said: “If all we were looking at here was something that was best for Argyle, and there were no limitations, the AFT working group’s alternative proposal has attractions.
“However, it is not just Argyle that we are trying to get right. We are trying to do what’s right by the city, by the residents and the park users.
“There are a whole series of stakeholders who we are trying to do the best that we can for. That involves balancing the requirements of each of them.
“Home Park is the home of Plymouth Argyle and as chairman and owner of Plymouth Argyle I do have a natural bias to doing what’s right for the football club. But, even if I could and it was purely my judgment, I would want to try to balance that against the interest of the wider city. That is what we have tried to do. It’s quite reasonable for people to turn around and say ‘yes, but you are just one man and you don’t even live in Plymouth, and we think this alternative proposal is better for the people of Plymouth’.
“I totally respect their views, but we do not own Cottage Field.
“Even if I wanted to build on Cottage Field, I could not do so. And the owner of Cottage Field will not sell it to me for development, so it is a theoretical debate. What we need to do is deal with the art of the possible and not follow wild dreams that are totally undeliverable.”
Brent hopes work will start on the new grandstand in September, should all go according to plan, with completion by November 2014.
Argyle manager John Sheridan said: “It will make Home Park the best stadium in the division and it’s something to look forward to.
“It’s really exciting and I wish that we had it now. Hopefully we can get it up quickly and begin to attract even more supporters.
“The chairman has done really well and there are exciting times ahead.”
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Fri May 03, 2013 6:42 am
