Simon Hallett's explanation of yesterday's investment news.

[IJN]

And to think fans on here mocked Gillinghams away end.

And hopefully will continue to do so.

A blot on the football map.

 

[Mr Gillingham]

Very surprised the cost of the grandstand remedial works are not the responsibility of the architect and/or the contractors. It is plainly not fit

Where did you get the 40%/50% from?

About £12 million total I would think after the mistakes have been rectified. Which is very expensive. Unless they delay and wait until they can afford a state of the art Grandstand.

 

[Mr Gillingham]

And hopefully will continue to do so.

A blot on the football map.

It cost them a pittance. Argyle have spent a fortune and what's the result? Okay, better corporate facilities but restricted usage of the upper tier with cramped seating for some with a restricted view for some and uncovered seating in the majority of the lower tier

 

[Jenko14]

About £12 million total I would think after the mistakes have been rectified. Which is very expensive. Unless they delay and wait until they can afford a state of the art Grandstand.

With your obvious extensive knowledge, how much would our state of the art grandstand have cost us?

 

[Mr Gillingham]

With your obvious extensive knowledge, how much would our state of the art grandstand have cost us?

£18 million i would imagine. Yes, a £6 million odd shortfall but a 50 year cure. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.

 

[IJN]

I believe it was £22m, but quite rightly it was thought that it was far too much for our club to afford at the time.

 

[Mr Gillingham]

I believe it was £22m, but quite rightly it was thought that it was far too much for our club to afford at the time.

Let's agree to disagree and say £20 million. That would have included the corners of course.

 

[Biggs]

An extra £6m we didn’t have @Mr Gillingham, though I reckon it would have been way more than just £6m (Edit… you’re now saying 10m).

You said it‘s a white elephant in a previous post, which is way off the mark as the opposite is true. The new grandstand has enabled a lot of the good that’s happened at Argyle in the past few years. Lowe and Schumacher wouldn’t have come without it, we wouldn’t have had increased revenue without it, the NHS wouldn’t have used Home Park, we almost certainly wouldn‘t be getting exciting investors on board, the ground would still resemble a 1950s relic that new players and fans would be horrified by.

The positives WAY outweigh the negatives, and the negatives are being addressed. It’s not ideal but it’s really not that bad.

 

[Mr Gillingham]

An extra £6m we didn’t have @Mr Gillingham, though I reckon it would have been way more than just £6m (Edit… you’re now saying 10m).

You said it‘s a white elephant in a previous post, which is way off the mark as the opposite is true. The new grandstand has enabled a lot of the good that’s happened at Argyle in the past few years. Lowe and Schumacher wouldn’t have come without it, we wouldn’t have had increased revenue without it, the NHS wouldn’t have used Home Park, we almost certainly wouldn‘t be getting exciting investors on board, the ground would still resemble a 1950s relic that new players and fans would be horrified by.

The positives WAY outweigh the negatives, and the negatives are being addressed. It’s not ideal but it’s really not that bad.

I agreed to disagree on £20 million. So an extra £8 million. I stated on an earlier post Argyle have better corporate facilities but it could have been so much better. I can't see current Grandstand will last 50 years, pretty much like myself.

 

[gaspargomez]

I believe it was £22m, but quite rightly it was thought that it was far too much for our club to afford at the time.

I think the idea was for the club to sell land for commercial development in order to help fund the grandstand. This was actively supported by the Council and, if I remember correctly, they were also going to contribute something. The rest of the funds would be a business loan. At the time, this appeared to be viable.

But as soon as the Council sold Home Park to the football club, Kagami, Todd, Gardner and other vultures quickly arrrived. The land that was meant to fund the stadium ended up in one of their many companies and was effectively stolen from the football club. Some of this land may now be owned by James Brent, but if he ever develops the site it wont be helping to fund a new granstand anymore.

So at one point in time (around 2008/2009) a brand new grandstand seemed feasible.

 

[Lancastergreen]

And hopefully the awful looking structure will be knocked down one day and a brand new purpose built one will arrive.
Polish a t*** it's still a t***.
It's a lot of money of course to build such a thing but if you're ever serious about moving us on and upwards and want good players in the Championship playing for us and if the stadium is what they look for then you need better than what we have!
No one needs agree, but I've always thought it looked awful and from angles outside it still looks awful, inside it's ok..... just not done properly recently!

 

[Manic minor]

Do players really care about what the grandstand looks like? Dollar is all that matters . Get a grip ffs.

 

[metroace]

Do players really care about what the grandstand looks like? Dollar is all that matters . Get a grip ffs.

Probably not about what it looks like but they do care about the facility inside it for them and their families. The players’ lounge now is a vast improvement on what they had before.

 

[Andy S]

So many experts.

 

[NLG]

From such a positive thread we return to the same old chestnut. Didn't see any of the usual protagonists offering the extra cash to built a new stand at the time and still don't.