Sorry, should have been clearer. I ment the lack of investment in a decent training ground, lack of investment in and around the stadium in things that could bring in extra revenue streams ( hotel, conference space, casino etc just as examples) The training ground is the main one though so sorry I wasn't clearer Also to add, you could argue us not owning out own stadium doesn't help in certain ways either
I don't really know much about this stuff - but is that a common revenue stream for clubs? Is it a proven fund source? I'm still dubious about the training ground - I think its a poor area to have it near the stadium personally and would be a wasted investment from the club - but it would make the area better. At first I was pleased the club didn't own the stadium - but I do think we're increasingly seeing a problem with the current model. The Council don't have the money for upkeep/development but the clubs don't want to go all out in case they don't get a return on their investment. I'm not sure what the best route is here.
You’d like to hope that if we went up that we finally have the wherewithal to put some investment into the club infrastructure. There is probably a timeline where we explore a new stadium but we would need the prem money to do it
The training ground shouldn't be around the stadium or anywhere close, brantingham area would be perfect for it imo
I said i doubt if we will ever see that again. Local businessman investing in the local football club and the surrounding area. City have been in existence since 1904 and before the Allams only the Needler family invested in the team and the stadium, so two families in 120 plus years, so on that score alone that's why i doubt if we will ever see it again. I hope we can reach the Premier League again one day now that particular monkey is off our backs but as we've already found out sustaining our presence there are building a dynasty ( which was the dream) is difficult playing from a stadium we don't own, have no assets, and only have a capacity of 24,500. It's hard enough making a fist of it in the Championship these days under those circumstances.
Disagree that only Needler and Allam invested. Pearson did to a point then handed it over to Bartlett who did again until the property crash, and we currently have still a relatively new owner putting money in, with varying degrees of success but not for lack of investment. Think the days of local owners being in a majority have passed nowadays though, certainly in the top 2 or 3 tiers. As long as we're in this league though there's always a chance.
Pearson gambled someone else's money and a bit of is own on the team when we were in the lower leagues then sold when he could take us no further. Bartlett ran up millions of pounds of debt and nearly left us bankrupt. Only the Needlers added to the value of the bricks and mortar and I'm not going over the Allams involvement again but they had a similar idea to the Needler family. Both were local. The current owner has put money into the team but we are yet to find out the cost of it. Hopefully it will pay off. If it doesn't we will be in a similar position we were in when Bartlett threw the towel in.
There's so much money from other sources the size of the stadium is neither here nor there, and certainly not a deciding factor in sustainability.
Agree it's not as important as it used to be, But if it had no bearing at all why are the really big clubs (not the yo- yo clubs) building bigger stadiums? There are not many with a capacity as low as ours in the PL. Bournemouth maybe?
Further down the leagues it's more of a factor, but in the prem it's almost insignificant due to the prize money and TV and commercial revenue. I think anyone looking to make large scale improvements to the MKM would need premier league revenue to make it possible though, and at the moment the stadium meets our needs. But there's plenty of examples of non local owners investing in club infrastructure up and down the leagues however, and local owners at our level and above are becoming a rarity.
We're arguing about probability, but if you look at the championship, it's littered with clubs that have been there in recent memory, including ourselves, there a fair few in the lower leagues too, so statistically there's a reasonable chance our time will come again. Or are you saying we'll never see local owners again as opposed to never seeing the prem? In that case then yes, you're probably right, but the fact owners aren't local doesn't mean they won't invest if they have the resources and it makes financial sense to do so.
Bournemouth, Brentford are the only smaller ones. Crystal Place is around the same. I would say getting on for half the Championship clubs have a larger capacity than us. All 3 of the teams coming down, whichever ones end up in the bottom three will have a larger capacity than us.
Half of the Premier league clubs have under 33,000 capacity. Even at £1000 a season ticket an extra 10,000 capacity only gets you £10 million extra revenue. Why are clubs building new stadiums? Maybe selling the old inner city ground for building houses on while building new stadiums in the suburbs?
