the liberty cannot function without the swans. we are the major reason why it was built. if we ever decide to pull out they would be in trouble. The council who employ stadco to run every day business of the running of the stadium. It has no way or say how we do things and we take preference on any decisions. without us they are just a sports complex..... A three way split cuts down the cost of the upkeep of the stadium so it makes sense...
Dai - the ownership of the Liberty and its' operating regime under Stadco are accepted, but it has very little to do with the thread in general. The point is that clubs who have no asset base save for players who can generally be written down at cost rather than up as an appreciating tangible asset are less likely to be attractive for inward investment (if needed). You apparently don't need it now and that's fine. To say that the City Council will be in trouble if you pulled out maybe true, but how does that help your club when you'd need to finance a new ground to replace it?
Asda, Tesco, Argos, B&Q and many more would jump at the chance of buying that land from the council, prime retail land.
I would suggest the profit sharing is based on income percentages otherwise the Ospreys may be in trouble. The stadium expansion will begin during the next close season and I believe it will finally have a 32,500 capacity. Not sure how this will help the egg chasers but the Swans will do okay out of it methinks.
Come on Dai keep it real, The stadium was built for the Ospreys !!! Swansea was just about keeping there heads above water and your league positions never lent itself to building a 20,000 seater stadium. The Ospreys at the time were the bigger team in your region. Credit to Swansea though they have taken the help they were given and repaid it 10 fold
When plans were first put forward the Ospreys didn't even exist. The idea was as Dai rightly says for the city, it's football team, it's rugby team (Swansea RFC) and for any other events that could be held there, eg music concerts.
Dilli - I agree with that, but it comes to something when a poster makes such virtue out of renting a stadium to play their games. I've no idea who's funding this proposed expansion at the Liberty, but unless SCFC are allowed to buy the stadium or at least acquire some tangible equity in it, nothing will change as far as their worth as a club is concerned. That was the point of the thread which seems to have been totally missed by Dai. Any expansion at the CCS will be funded internally by the owners and will add substantially to the club's balance sheet value, and make it far more investable to outsiders. Vince may well decide to float off some equity on the KL stock market - Huw will probably launch his club at Swansea Market......... Then again, such is their stature already, I expect SCFC will never be in the position of requiring additional capital to progress.
My understanding is that any funding for the planned expansion is to be paid by the football team Sparks. Rumour has it that the rugby team are skint anyway and may decide to play elsewhere. As for all the delicate ins and outs of how it works I'm buggered if I know but they have made it abundantly clear that the stadium is for the city and not for one sole sporting team. Personally I don't see anything wrong with that. There's been a few concerts there, Pink and Elton John are among them and Bon Jovi was recently at your place. That just brings revenue to the area, I'm just surprised that there haven't been more at both grounds
Thanks for the info guys. Does that mean that the Swans will receive some level of equity in the stadium?
I read something like that a few months ago Sparks regarding proportional equity, however the Swans have officially said there are no plans to take ownership off the council.
I've been told that whilst the rugby is there the Swans don't want to buy the stadium. Things could well change if the Ospreys move out, so to be brutally honest I'm buggered if I know what's going on down there
I suppose I was hoping for a bit much when I said I didn't want it to deteriorate into a 'Swans Council Ground' debate. Hey ho. There must be a lot of worried clubs out there though. Leeds have been crying out for investment / new owner for some time, but with no ground, no one seems interested. I'm sure investors will look at a lot of balance sheets before deciding on where to put their cash. It could mean a downward spiral for a lot of clubs. How are Coventry going to attract investment when they are playing 30 miles from home and are already in the mire.
remote - this has developed into a decent discussion thread mate - nothing to do with deteriorating into a Swansea Coucil Ground debate on my part. Having a chat with a bit of a laugh is what we're aiming for on here, and it looks like there are a few like minded who think that way too when given the chance. Shared information tends to do away with misinformed and wum posts.
the ospreys even though they are the biggest rugby club in wales are proposing to use other grounds in the future, they will still play their biggest games at the liberty and it will still be their home but they want to promote the team at other smaller grounds. they obviously pay the same for ground maintenance as everyone else and where we pay more is the space we use at the liberty. we all pay our police costs which ours is 5 x what it would cost the ospreys and the upkeep of the building is shared. Whichever way you look at things it has to be thousands of pounds cheaper than going it alone and i can see a lot of clubs looking to do that in the future.....
Newport County ground sharing Rodney Parade with both the Dragons and Newport RFC. This has got the backs up of a lot of die hard rugby fans but it makes good sense for all 3 apart from one regard. The pitch has been poor even for rugby in recent seasons - recall the evening game a couple of seasons ago (televised) where half the pitch was under water after a sudden downfall. They delayed the start by an hour but even that was not enough to stop the one end looking like the venue for a high diving contest. A lot of money has been spent on upgrading the pitch in the close season but they are a month short of time to get the work finished. Even the groundsman says the pitch will not last the full season and poor autumn and winter weather could mean very poor playing conditions for all come February/March time. So good from a financial point of view particularly with the Dragons struggling and County on the up but at Cardiff we have seen what sharing with egg chasers does to a pitch with a downturn in the quality of football in the last 2/3 months of the season. After a difficult first season with their pitch the Swans have managed to keep it very much up to a high standard due to investment in quality staff and the right equipment. I think it will be some time before the Newport enterprise can get to that healthy position.
