…….Feb 1980? What the hell has happened to Bristol Rovers since that month? A big ground needing modernisation and a side capable of beating Chelsea. Greater Bristol is a big rich city and yet West London of similar size has 2 Premiership sides and 2 Championship sides.
Chucked out of a ground we didn’t own, exiled to Bath, years of lack of investment, still no decent ground, poor managerial appointments and a dearth of ambition from successive owners. That’s the story. If only we had a Roman Abramovic! Bristol and the surrounding area is populous enough and wealthy enough to sustain two premier league clubs but I can’t see it happening in my lifetime and I’m only in my 50s!
Investment was and still is a major issue. I can/could see why no one wanted to take that gamble on us to invest in us in the 80's and 90's because we had no home. We had no assets. We weren't even playing in Bristol anymore as had to move to Bath and share their non league ground with no light at the end of the tunnel with a return to Bristol. Through those dark years, the owners we had were not rich and there were a lot of close calls if we were going to survive or not. We did make several attempts to get planning permission for a new stadium in Bristol but every single time the Council refused permission. So, whoever would come in with investment would need to find land in Bristol to build a stadium, land to build training facilities and spend money on a good manager and squad. A move back to Bristol was made possible thanks to Bristol Rugby who had financial difficulties so offered us a home back in Bristol to share with them and pay them rent. A deal was done where if the rugby clubs finances became so bad then Rovers could buy the ground off of them for 10k, which eventually happened. So the rugby ground became ours. But being a rugby ground, it ain't really fit for purpose and its worse than most non league grounds today. Redevelopments attempts and new stadium plans keep being rejected or ends up being screwed over. So we are stuck in a stadium that is crap so we have an asset but not an asset to be proud of. Our current owners are apparently very rich. They have wiped out our debt and nearly completed our new training ground (been hiring gyms and leisure centres until now for training). They say they've been trying to get a stadium sorted but nothing so far. As for investing in the squad, he believes in self sustainable so not much investment happens in the squad. So we have a crap stadium, crap squad, crap manager, no money being spent to improve any of the situations we are in but we are debt free. A lot of teams got new investors and ended up building a new stadium. Swansea, Cardiff, Reading, Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford to name a few and not long afterwards, they shot up the leagues and all made it to the Prem. If we can get someone to gamble on us and sort us a stadium, and is willing to sort us a decent squad, everything else will fall into place because the fan base is there. We took 40k to Wembley for a league 2 play off final game and we could have sold more. 1 person who was very rich tried to invest in us in the past but his offer was refused by the owners at the time because they didn't want to lose shares in the club. That person ended up becoming the owner of Bristol City and he has spent a ton of money in redeveloping their stadium (probably 1 of the best outside the Prem), new state of the art training ground, millions in transfers fee's and written so much debt off. They've missed out on getting to the Prem on a couple of occasions and when they get it right, they have everything in place to keep them there. That could have been us. Meanwhile, we sit 22nd in league 2, in a crap stadium with a crap manager and squad and I actually feel there is a high possibility we could be a non league club again next season. What a depressing post this is.
Pretty awful luck for Rovers. The chap that now owns Bristol City seems more interested in the rugby. You write of Brentford, I drive on the A4 regularly alongside their old and new ground and watched the new ground being built. Then Brentford got promotion after a few seasons knocking at the door. Theirs is the business model to follow. As for Chelsea, we nearly lost the ground to redevelopment in the 1990s - but the builders went bust. The ground now belongs to the Chelsea Pitch Owners - and not to Abramovich - to stop that happening again.
Isn't it about time Chelsea redeveloped Stamford Bridge or built a new ground? It's a bit of a dump with really low capacity. Not what you would expect from a top club in England.
…….41,000 is not a really low capacity. There were plans for a redevelopment to a 60,000 capacity Stamford Bridge but the plan is on hold for whatever reason. I actually like Stamford Bridge the way it is and it’s a vast improvement on how it was.
It falls about 20-30 thousand short of all the other top clubs in England. A new/bigger stadium raises the profile of the club as well as the additional revenue it brings in as well as looking after the supporters of the club by allowing more of you to watch your team. Isn't there listed buildings around Stamford Bridge which stops the redevelopment of the ground?
……all I know is that there was concern over disturbing bats in the cemetery behind the East Stand. Someone else wanted/got compensation for natural light potentially being disrupted to their property. To be honest, I’m quite happy with Stamford Bridge as it is and we don’t seem short of money for top players considering our ‘really low capacity’ ground.
That's all well and good if you live for today. Roman won't be around forever, though. He could look to set the club up to be more profitable and sustainable for when the time comes for him to leave Stamford Bridge just creeps into the top 10 attendances in the country. Time to upgrade from the scrapyard.
