I have always wanted to see Hull become a city that produces success. Even though I may never directly feel any benefit other than from supporting City. When investment brings jobs in Hull I am pleased yet when it happens in Southampton, I hardly bat an eyelid. I live two miles from Southamptons football academy. Marchwood training grounds where once the home pitch a reasonable amateur club Road Sea. Over the years SFC has developed the area and 18 months ago they started a massive redevelopment. It has not been without its problems but it is nearing completion. SFC has spent 15m on this project so far and it will spend 2m each year. How does this have any bearing on Hull City? Southampton where still in the Championship when they started this project. Their CEO Nicola Cortese has publicly stated that they will increase the commercial revenue of the club by at least 70% and that SFC will be self funding. His vision is to produce players for the future, something that SFC have done to good effect so far. There are plans to upgrade our academy, but will the level of investment be the same our will we simply do a cheaper job and hope that it attracts the right young players? In an area that has the largest number of amateur football clubs in the country, Hull surely has a bigger player resource to exploit. When the name change is opposed, this is the argument that has to be developed. Don't change the name - build a football factory, but don't stop there - build a football industry. The model for industrial development is simple, you need to have the materials close to hand. The infrastructure available and access to markets. Hull has it all now and the time is right.
I sometimes work with a guy who knows about lads football, including his own lad and we were talking about this very subject not so long ago. He told me Hull City's set up is, to put it politely, embarrassing, basically a football pitch and zero facilities, considering we are and intend to be a more permanent member of the Premier League. This doesn't bode well for any aspiring youngster contemplating a career in football when a home town club cannot offer facilities comparable to established premiership clubs. In essence it seems that promising youngsters would take one look at the City set up and sign for someone else with more to offer all round, City need to address the problem pronto.
Instead of building a new stadium at Melton why not use all that Land to build a state of the art academy. In the long run it will bring just as much money into the club as a new stadium would. If you had the choice currently between us and someone else you would choose them, and i think that's something we need to change. Personally i would rather us spend 10 Million on this than 10 Million on a striker who will leave us in two years to someone bigger. It might not be a great benefit short term, and some fans would moan that we didn't spend on players, but if we took the long term view it would benefit us hugely. However would Steve Bruce, who is not going to be here in five to ten years, really accept this? I don't know. Would players joining the first team want to join a club whose spending their money on long term not short term? Possibly not. Its a risky strategy, but i like it personally, but you can see why Bruce and the players might not want it. If i was the Allams, i'd do it, it would also go a long way to putting them back at the top of every Hull City fans christmas card list.
Which football club would exploit this opportunity, as the name change will happen. It's all cloud-cuckoo-land; you been at that Morgan Spice again, Mel? To be fair, this and the excellent music threads have been the only semblance of sanity on here recently.
