O/T Oyston leaves

[KenH]

I didn't hear this so called majority come out in favour of staying The Pie at the time..... in fact I seem to recall that the majority were in favour of the move relishing the opportunity to watch football in superior surroundings. Granted the reality is somewhat different than expected in some eyes but the fact is that to redevelop The Pie was financially a non starter.

Not much opposition in the early stages, but as the plans changed, (i.e. the boxes!), not moving the "new" stand, the opposition started to increase. Then, when we actually saw the new stadium, lack of facilities, wild boar steaks, etc., I think it became clear that most people weren't impressed with what we had and how different it was to the original plans.

[NPL Daze]

And the airport waiting area / golf club bar which masqueraded as a "Fans Bar"

[marky No.1]

Spot the difference

globe1.jpg (38.61 KiB) Viewed 4636 times

globe2.jpg (175.85 KiB) Viewed 4634 times

[NPL Daze]

I prefer the old club badge on the Main Stand frontage for starters as per the original plans.

[NPL Daze]

Just going back to the "Fan Owned" option earlier in the thread, Chester AFC are fan owned and are in serious financial difficulty once again.

As were FC United of Manchester last season as was reported. Again, another "Fan Owned" club.

[BerlinWaller]

Spot the difference

globe1.jpg

globe2.jpg

Brilliant....the only thing that came true is the amount of people outside the ground on match day!

[marky No.1]

Brilliant....the only thing that came true is the amount of people outside the ground on match day!

Probably Chinese tourists .... and you would have had a different name

[Shrimpy]

Just going back to the "Fan Owned" option earlier in the thread, Chester AFC are fan owned and are in serious financial difficulty once again.

As were FC United of Manchester last season as was reported. Again, another "Fan Owned" club.

Basically, to be fan owned you need to live within your means and accept that you need to operate at a level you can do comfortably. I would suggest the clubs that are finding themselves in financial difficulty have overstretched themselves somewhat and got ideas above their station.

The question is what level would that be for us? If crowds held up around the 1000 mark and we went part time I'd say we could manage as a mid table Conference North club.

[marky No.1]

Yes, we are =18th in the Conference average crowd table.

In Conference North you have:
Stockport 3453
York 2774
FC Utd 2044
Salford 1768
Kidderminster 1591
Darlington 1436
Harrogate 1149
Chorley 1103
Boston 1061
Southport 1011

Many more local games for them obviously

[BerlinWaller]

Would we get bigger gates due to larger away attendence?

[John L]

A spot on quote from a Blackpool FC fan on their forum:

"Morecambe FC lost its way when the heart of the club was ripped out with the move from beloved Christie Park to the spiritless Globe Arena. The majority of the loyal fans were against the move and were ignored by the money men in the boardroom responsible for the failed business plan.

If Bentley keeps the club in league division 4 again this year it will be a miracle."

An interesting read for all those "in favour" of Oy$ton taking over our club:

http://www.backhenrystreet.co.uk/thread ... nmUcGfsKM8

I didn't hear this so called majority come out in favour of staying The Pie at the time..... in fact I seem to recall that the majority were in favour of the move relishing the opportunity to watch football in superior surroundings. Granted the reality is somewhat different than expected in some eyes but the fact is that to redevelop The Pie was financially a non starter.

+1. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[Joel Ninety]

Morecambe as a fan/trust-owned club would not work because nobody local has any bloody money and there's not enough regular paying supporters to sustain it. Andy Holt at Accrington was mentioned further back. He's got loads of money and is a fan willing to blow it on the club. Completely different situation.

The original plans for Wild Boar steaks in the restaurant smacks of someone with money going for a day out to Manchester and coming home with loads of "ideas". That's exactly what happened with Oscar’s Wine Bar in Lancaster and a young girl ended up without a stomach.

Anyway, I'm going to the Houses of Parliament tonight for a work event so I'll see if Morris can lend me the magic money tree for a bit.

[KenH]

Morecambe as a fan/trust-owned club would not work because nobody local has any bloody money and there's not enough regular paying supporters to sustain it.

If, and it's a big if, the function rooms and bar were properly marketed and used a lot more, it could actually start to generate some decent money. Likewise, the likes of children's birthday parties both on matchdays and other days too. It's not generating the profits it should because of poor marketing/administration. Just like the children's open days which are pretty poorly attended because barely anyone outside the club knows they're happening and even those who attend get poor service (i.e. last time there were no M&P pies and no hotdogs!).

[Posh]

A spot on quote from a Blackpool FC fan on their forum:

"Morecambe FC lost its way when the heart of the club was ripped out with the move from beloved Christie Park to the spiritless Globe Arena. The majority of the loyal fans were against the move and were ignored by the money men in the boardroom responsible for the failed business plan.

If Bentley keeps the club in league division 4 again this year it will be a miracle."

An interesting read for all those "in favour" of Oy$ton taking over our club:

http://www.backhenrystreet.co.uk/thread ... nmUcGfsKM8

I didn't hear this so called majority come out in favour of staying The Pie at the time..... in fact I seem to recall that the majority were in favour of the move relishing the opportunity to watch football in superior surroundings. Granted the reality is somewhat different than expected in some eyes but the fact is that to redevelop The Pie was financially a non starter.

+1. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

It is indeed.

If we'd known the scale of the losses at The Globe, it would have made more sense to have gone with PMG's Plan B, which was to build a stand and function room on the old Car Wash side of the ground.

[KenH]

If we'd known the scale of the losses at The Globe, it would have made more sense to have gone with PMG's Plan B, which was to build a stand and function room on the old Car Wash side of the ground.

Alternatively, they could have spent half the money on the Globe, not bothered with the gym, 3g pitches, community block, boxes, etc. Half the money would still have given us a decent stadium and a simple bar/function room for match day hospitality, with a few million left over. A smaller/simpler stadium would have cost less hence smaller losses.

[al1]

It is what it is move on

[KenH]

It is what it is move on

Indeed, but we need to understand what went wrong in the past if there is to be a future. Last thing the club needs is to continue with a flawed business model or make any more mistakes. There is a chance that the club can get through this awful patch, but there's no room for any more errors.

[George Dawes]

Spot the difference

globe1.jpg

globe2.jpg

Brilliant....the only thing that came true is the amount of people outside the ground on match day!

That's Head Wrecking looking at them photos, apparently the 3rd Tier in the main stand came as the expense of the Original Design.

When people talk about Match Day experience , surly with the Original Design what's a Brighter Design having far less Concrete giving the place a Grey n Grim Feeling, might have helped keep Attendences up and helped be more self sufficient, having bigger Crowds and less Overheads.

[marky No.1]

Also with hindsight, we would have kept the seats, rather than "listen to the fans" and have terraces. That way we would have got a grant too.

[Gone_Shrimping]

Also with hindsight, we would have kept the seats, rather than "listen to the fans" and have terraces. That way we would have got a grant too.

Every other club that has built a new stadium seems to have received grants apart from us.

[BerlinWaller]

It is like a big wind up

[shrimpnsave]

If I'm not mistaken you can only receive grants if its all seater

[marky No.1]

If I'm not mistaken you can only receive grants if its all seater

Yep, seemingly we didn't realise this when we did it, we thought we would get it as a percentage of seating ie for the Main Stand - this was from a horses mouth at the time

[Bare Grills]

If we'd known the scale of the losses at The Globe, it would have made more sense to have gone with PMG's Plan B, which was to build a stand and function room on the old Car Wash side of the ground.

Saw the plans for that, looked good even with the car wash. Shame we followed the rainbow, still looking for the pot of gold.

[KenH]

still looking for the pot of gold.

We had the pot of gold, i.e. Sainbury's money, but squandered it on a vanity project.