Grandstand Update

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Trust owned club getting a stand built.

Millionaire owned club not getting stand built.

How, exactly, is James Brent's ownership beneficial to the club at all?

"He saved us from liquidation" I hear the response. Except he didn't because the old PAFC was wound-up.

"We'd've gone out of the league but for him." Maybe. So what? Is what we have had to endure since he took over any great improvement on the probable rise back up through the leagues which might have happened?

The time has come for Brent to either piss or get off the pot because he is bringing absolutely nothing worth having to the table anymore.

Great post Sir Fran, agree with every word! Brent is not and never has been benefical to the club, its just layer upon layer of Bullshit, he's done Nothing in four years.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Trust owned club getting a stand built.

Millionaire owned club not getting stand built.

How, exactly, is James Brent's ownership beneficial to the club at all?

"He saved us from liquidation" I hear the response. Except he didn't because the old PAFC was wound-up.

"We'd've gone out of the league but for him." Maybe. So what? Is what we have had to endure since he took over any great improvement on the probable rise back up through the leagues which might have happened?

The time has come for Brent to either piss or get off the pot because he is bringing absolutely nothing worth having to the table anymore.

Yeah but......

Plenty of examples exist of where millionaire owners have indeed built stands without the aid of a trust and achieved it hand in hand with success on the field. Agree with the general summing up in the last sentence but not with the implication that trust run clubs are necessarily likely to be more successful than clubs backed by individuals or groups with money. Doesn't hold water at all-bit like the Far post club actually.

I was thinking of all the sneery "a trust owned club will never be able to do anything because it doesn't have the financial backing" comments made in various places.

Well seemingly a trust owned club can get stuff done and our minted backer seemingly can't - and if that is the case then what point is there in having him as an owner?

If we're going live a hand-to-mouth and permanently skint existence then I'd much prefer it happened under trust ownership where financial transparency reigned rather than in some sort of corporate financial merry-go-round where nobody knows what the hell is going on.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

I was thinking of all the sneery "a trust owned club will never be able to do anything because it doesn't have the financial backing" comments made in various places.

Well seemingly a trust owned club can get stuff done and our minted backer seemingly can't - and if that is the case then what point is there in having him as an owner?

If we're going live a hand-to-mouth and permanently skint existence then I'd much prefer it happened under trust ownership where financial transparency reigned rather than in some sort of corporate financial merry-go-round where nobody knows what the hell is going on.

I think it is slightly premature to be considering that a Trust owned club (such as Exeter City) is delivering on a new grandstand when their private development partner on the project has not yet completed their due diligence on what form and size grandstand can be built on the back of profits from a major student accommodation development on Exeter City Council owned land (see the quote from the WMN below as stated by the Exeter City Chairman.

What is does demonstrate is what can be potentially achieved when a private development company, City Council as owners of the Stadium and a community based football club can achieve by working together. What is ironic is that I believe Yelverton Properties to be a Plymouth area based company.

Argyle's difficulty is that for even for a grandstand to be built that even matches the current capacity of 16,388, let alone exceeds it will cost at today's prices around £8-9m or may be more with all the facilities to provide and with construction cost price inflation running at 8-15% it will cost even more in a year's time.. You will need an awful lot of profit (at around 20% margin as the market requires) from an awful lot of adjoining commercial development to generate enough money to build a grandstand on the back of it. A development massively in excess of what Exeter City are proposing in fact. Ironically, in fact, something of the scale of the ill fated HHP even and then the market has to believe in it as a suitable commercial location for it to happen and in as sensitive a location as Central Park.

Exeter City Chairman's quote
"As yet, it is not known exactly what the new development will entail, but commercial partners Yelverton Properties are undergoing a due diligence process to work out the cost of what can be done at St James’ Park, and on the council-owned Yeo and Davey site behind the ground’s Big Bank"

Precisely, all I've seen so far are a few CGI sketches, so to claim its certainly happening based on them is silly.

Graham Clark wrote:

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

I was thinking of all the sneery "a trust owned club will never be able to do anything because it doesn't have the financial backing" comments made in various places.

Well seemingly a trust owned club can get stuff done and our minted backer seemingly can't - and if that is the case then what point is there in having him as an owner?

If we're going live a hand-to-mouth and permanently skint existence then I'd much prefer it happened under trust ownership where financial transparency reigned rather than in some sort of corporate financial merry-go-round where nobody knows what the hell is going on.

I think it is slightly premature to be considering that a Trust owned club (such as Exeter City) is delivering on a new grandstand when their private development partner on the project has not yet completed their due diligence on what form and size grandstand can be built on the back of profits from a major student accommodation development on Exeter City Council owned land (see the quote from the WMN below as stated by the Exeter City Chairman.

What is does demonstrate is what can be potentially achieved when a private development company, City Council as owners of the Stadium and a community based football club can achieve by working together. What is ironic is that I believe Yelverton Properties to be a Plymouth area based company.

Argyle's difficulty is that for even for a grandstand to be built that even matches the current capacity of 16,388, let alone exceeds it will cost at today's prices around £8-9m or may be more with all the facilities to provide and with construction cost price inflation running at 8-15% it will cost even more in a year's time.. You will need an awful lot of profit (at around 20% margin as the market requires) from an awful lot of adjoining commercial development to generate enough money to build a grandstand on the back of it. A development massively in excess of what Exeter City are proposing in fact. Ironically, in fact, something of the scale of the ill fated HHP even and then the market has to believe in it as a suitable commercial location for it to happen and in as sensitive a location as Central Park.

Exeter City Chairman's quote
"As yet, it is not known exactly what the new development will entail, but commercial partners Yelverton Properties are undergoing a due diligence process to work out the cost of what can be done at St James’ Park, and on the council-owned Yeo and Davey site behind the ground’s Big Bank"

So... Reading between the lines it's impossible to build any sort of new stand.

Where do we go from here? How can we get something/anything done?