This may be a daft idea, thought up by me after a couple of drinks last night. I'm sure someone has already though of it and rejected it, but here goes. Dr Allam aims to show a commercial benefit to the Hull Tigers proposed name change. Could CTWD counter this by showing a commercial benefit to keeping the name Hull City AFC? And get the East Stand extension at the same time. And get Dr Allam his sporting village. CTWD has opened lines of communication with Dr Allam - could it be the bridge between him and the City Council? Here is my suggestion. CTWD get together either with Hull City Council and with the football club, and offer a 10-year debenture 'golden seat' City Till We Die scheme at £25 per month. The maths of it would be you would try to get 5,000 season ticket holders who want to keep the Hull City name to sign up and commit to a 10-year season ticket (starting next season), at a substantial discount, paying just a monthly fee on the understanding that the Hull City AFC name is retained. This then finances one seat in the 5,000 seat East Stand extension. The exact price could be finessed, but say it was £25 a month over ten years then (ignoring interest rates for the moment!) this would equate to £300 a year. £3000 over the ten years. Multiplied by 5,000 gives you £15 million. Obviously if you take into account OAP/child concession seasons too, you would need slightly more than the 5000 sign-ups. The last figure I saw for the cost of the East Stand extension was £10 million in 2010 - so the money raised should cover it in 2014/15. The scheme is underwritten/guaranteed (and possibly offered at nil interest) by Hull City Council. In effect they would be guaranteeing 5,000 individual ten-year loans of £3,000. (Councils do have the clout to do this - Bournemouth I think recently proposed setting up an actual bank to offer mortgages). In return the council gets the KC stadium extended at nil or marginal cost to Hull's council tax payers. And Walton St car park/Hull Fair is unaffected. In return for the Allams/the SMC/Hull City giving up ten years' worth of season ticket money from 5,000 fans to finance the stadium extension, the club/The Allams are given a 100-year lease at a peppercorn rent on a major portion of the current KC car park in return for developing it into hotel/shop complex with Olympic pool and squash courts. With a covenant saying during off-peak times schools could use the sporting facilities for free (thus giving the council back another benefit). If car parking is an issue, an underground car park could be built, or a rail halt - the Allam Sports Centre station -- built as a green alternative. Fans signing up for the scheme would get: 1. A substantially discounted season ticket 2. A seat with a plaque with their name on it for ten years (in a part of their stadium of their choice) 3. their name as one of 5,000 on a plaque in the new East Stand extension concourse for having funded the build 4. The satisfaction of knowing they've helped build the stadium expansion AND saved the name of Hull City AFC 5. Seats in the extension spelling out City Till We Die in black and amber (this bit v optional ;o) ) Dr Allam would get the kudos of a new Sports Centre in his name (hopefully mostly-funded by the shops and hotel), a larger capacity stadium to play in and make money from, and a new positive relationship with the fans. In return he commits to keeping the name. A potential win-win-win situation for all three parties - The Allams, The Council and Hull City fans. And if Hull FC fans left out, there could be a similar scheme for them to fund an extension to the North Stand for example. There we are. Sorry for the long post. I think it has potential though - is it something OLM could put to the CTWD group if he agrees?
It still doesnt effect the point that the club, with their £15 million from the council would be building on council owned land. Thats the underlying problem.
Wouldn't it need to be twice that amount as we already have 5,000 season ticket holders in the East Stand? Any income would need to be additional.
Yes I think - if the idea had any merit, and maybe it doesn't - the 5,000 debenture holders would almost certainly be existing season ticket holders, living in the Hull area who could attend every home game. However they wouldn't have to move to the new extension. They could have their 'golden (amber?) seat' with their name plaque on anywhere in the stadium, it would simply be that by committing to a 10-year season ticket debenture they would be providing the funding -- £3,000 -- to build one seat in the extension. So yes, the club would lose the income from 5,000 season ticket holders. But there would be 5,000 new seats in the stadium so they could sell 5,000 more (new season tickets). So Dr Allam/the club would be paying in effect £15 million to get the stadium extension. But it would come from a loan financed by the fans buying the 5,000 debentures, and underwritten by the council. And in return he gets the lease on a major part of the car park to build his sports village. It's just an idea though. I'm sure it could be finessed if someone with financial knowledge in CTID thought it had merit.
I think a move to the North stand for the singers is most important.Why do we need to extend any stand when we struggle to fill what we have most of the time? I would hate us to finish up like the Riverside or Reebok. We are a friendly club with 17,000 fairly regulars.I would hate us to be middle of the Champ with 15,000 in a 30,000 ground.
Sod the North Stand, why do you all seem so obsessed with standing behind a goal? The views crap, always hated being stood behind the goal.
Yes sorry it didn't seem to be working and then comes up four times! V embarrassing. If anyone knows how to delete them feel free.
The stadium seems like the perfect size to me at the moment. You can get a ticket if you really want to, and that will only improve as/if seasons continue in the Premier League, and 'big teams' become less of an event. You certainly wouldn't want it any bigger if we happened to be relegated. Similarly, I imagine the East Stand would have to be closed, for maybe half a season? Reducing revenue during a guaranteed Premier League season. I'm not keen to sell something that the people of Hull collectively own - to somebody who wants to make profit from that, especially since that profit will largely be made by charging the people of Hull for entry. If Allam wants to make a profit, then he wants to earn more money than he pays for it - which likely involves us (collective people of Hull) paying more than we receive for the sale. Conversely, if he does not want to make a profit, and it is a 'gift' - then just give us the gift.
The club is trading at a loss, Assem will not fund that loss indefinitely, the point is to generate more income for the club, so that the Allam's don't have to keep bailing us out.
