You are forgetting that the indoor 3g pitch and training facility was made a priority when the club employed Tony Pellock, he advised then that they must have it to tick the box to gain Cat 2 status. He hasn't been in the job 12 months yet. The council offered land for the full academy did they? When was this and where is this land? County Road North cannot have anything built on it and it is already hired out to Hull FC. The PL audit was done two weeks ago which is why the club had to have everything in place, which didn't come cheap. Why are you not in favour of this much needed facility to bring on the area's talented footballers? No other previous owners have committed to the youth system like this, so why the opposition because these owners are? I don't find everything the Allams do acceptable at all but on the subject of the airco arena I am in full support and I do not see why the majority of the city are not behind them too. It is a massive investment in youth football right in the centre of Hull. What is there to oppose? Perhaps you find it difficult to accept the gamble the Allams took when they purchased the club is, at the moment ,paying off for them? Also 'to gain half a million quid from the Premier League' ? The 3g pitch and the cash already spent on facilities and staff for the Academy far out weighs that. So he may as well as not bothered and saved himself a few bob, as the previous regime did and didn't receive any flak for doing sod all.
Well said. The whole ****ing region, let alone just Hull, is crying out for this type of facility. Its criminal its taken this long to get even this close. Finally we have a chairman trying to put generations of wrongs right but of course he'll be criticized. Its no wonder the other local millionaires steer well clear.
I don't forget anything. The indoor facility was a requirement when we moved to Bishop Burton and the Allams had over a year to sort it out. They thought Bishop Burton would roll over and have their tummy tickled but they said no to the Allams' demands. Hull FC have had something built on the land for them. He didn't have to rent it out to Hull FC did he? Has he rented it to them for free? He could have kept County Road for City and put up the bubble pitch after knocking down the buildings. He could have built the Academy at Melton, isn't that what Bartlett bought the land for? Hull City Council offered them land at Orchard Park two years ago for the full academy. In the last two years he could have bought his own land and put a bubble pitch on it from the interest Allamhouse charged Hull City if he wanted. Instead he evicted hundreds of Hull people from the Airco Arena. It wasn't either or so there is plenty to oppose. Hull City Council did a deal with the Premier League over the audit which is reflected in the Premier League statement, there is no deadline. In 3 months time the bubble pitch would have been up and Academy 2 status awarded. Its likely that the 3g pitch will be pulled up the Airco Arena put back to what it was and City's bubble pitch will be on the hockey pitches. He could have had that without evicting the sporting clubs. To me it shows the true character of the man. The Premier League subsidise Academies and help with their running costs. Its difficult to work out by how much but the minimum appears to be just under half a million quid. The gamble isn't paying off. He has painted himself into a corner with the council. There will be no expansion of the stadium under his ownership, no joint co-operation and that is holding us back. He is increasing the debt owed in transfer fees and we are close to the wages/turnover limit with no prospect of a big increase in commercial income. He may be repaying his debt and collecting his interest but that isn't his gamble paying off. Last I heard the Allams had issued redundancy notices to staff at the Airco Arena. He has the money to build a bubble pitch anywhere in Hull or the East Riding. Instead he choose to give hundreds of people 4 weeks notice to get out the Airco Arena. As Ehab said he'll do whats moral and right for him. Pity the City Council haven't got the balls to take him on.
He took £8 million out of Hull City last financial year. With just over a million of that he could have bought the land and built a bubble pitch. If he'd have used the land he already owns it would have been far cheaper. Hull would then have had the Airco Arena filled by hundreds of amateur sports men, women and children and a grade 2 Academy. But because of his spate with the council we could end up with neither. No wonder nobody else wanted to come into Hull City AFC with him when Adam Pearson was looking to get a local consortium together.
I was wrong about that, more's the pity. I was also wrong about the Council having a backbone. If he is selling the new owners may well do a deal with the Council to develop the KC and Walton Street, fingers crossed.
He isnt. If you think the Council will get off its collective arse and develop the KC you are living in cloud cuckoo land. They do nothing. No more open letters from johnson then. Strange that.
I don't think we'll see anymore open letters from Johnson, as I said I thought local Labour had a backbone, they haven't. You're allowed to rub it in. I still think the Council will develop the land if they get the KC back or a new owner. Sometimes living in hope is better than living in despair. I'm generally optimistic, almost always overly so.
That's really not the case, you know. Honestly. I could not countenance supporting a Club called "Hull Tigers". I have my reasons but nothing, really, that hasn't been expressed here on numerous occasions. If the name change goes through, it would feel like being pre-deceased by someone I care about whom I expected to long outlive me. The Club wouldn't be damaged by a name change, as far as I'm concerned, it would have been destroyed.
His name is Tony Pennock and he's been in the job well over a year. We knew this was a requirement before we moved to Bishop Burton, yet did nothing about it, we bizarrely even arranged an audit knowing we didn't meet the criteria required. Everybody agrees that we need Cat 2 status, we just went about it in a ****ty manner, as is standard practice for our current owners.
It seems the argument im defence of Allam regarding the Airco is that the council are ****. They may well be, but that doesn't mean he can just steal their arena. He might be rich but he's still human and there are still rules. I can't just convert my rented property into a 3G pitch without the landlords permission, neither can he. The council have a very good reason for not allowing it and Allam.has absolutely no right to the Airco arena. It's not his, he's just trying to steal it from the community. It's utterly indefensible.
It's odd that there's been no announcement yet, the audit was over a week ago, either we passed or failed, so you'd expect an announcement by now. I wonder if the council's letter to the Premier League advising them that the club didn't have exclusive use has had some effect, even if it's just sowing some doubt and delaying a decision?
I suspect they are waiting for the planning permission to go through and the deposit paid on the bubble pitch as per Alan Johnson's negotiated compromise.
The pitch is in, the compromise has been binned(at least by the club), the audit will be based on the facilities they audited(unless the FA reject it).
I thought that was no longer going to happen now they have gone ahead and laid the 3G in the Airco arena, or have I missed something?
