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

[oldage]

The Grandstand seems to me that it's become a massive white elephant. If a large chunk of the £4 million needs to be spent sorting out the shortfalls then the question has to be asked why didn't they build new? Buy cheap, buy twice springs to mind. The seating in the upper tier appears cramped and the majority of the lower tier is uncovered and fans get soaking wet when it rains. And to think fans on here mocked Gillinghams away end.

Simple answer they couldn"t afford to build new.Some fans are very good at spending other people's money.

 

[mutley marvel]

Our club his evolving under SH's stewardship- we have come a very long way & we are in exciting times

SH did his upmost best with the money he had at the time with regard to the Mayflower - yes there are well documented issues but at least he tried to make our club better so that revenue streams could be improved

Now that he has new Investors onboard - the sum of money they bring will enable these issues to finally be addressed

SH is not the type of Custodian to sit back & do nothing - we are growing year on year & with this investment it means the the healthy sum of money we have in the bank can be used for other things

 

[Tugboat]

I don’t think some realise just how good we have it right now.

Sure there will be some minor bumps in the road but generally, what we have achieved in the past 5 years coupled with the potential of what will be achieved in the next 5 is unrivalled.

Some people on here need to take a cold shower.

 

[rsp4]

I simply don't get the rhetoric around the main stand. The upgrade with the money spent is superb and the main purpose of the upgrade was to increase revenues that the ground could earn. Its done that in spades and been a complete success. Its nowhere near being a white elephant or a cash dump because its done the job SH wanted to do. Even with the restricted upper tier capacity there are more people sat in it now than we had previously for years.
The design was signed off by clever people who would have known the restrictions it had. Even at the time we were told the upper tier leg room would not be improved. I hated sitting in the upper tier when I was at corporate pre match dos because of that very problem.when the seats were wooden.

Even the lack of catering facilities would have been known

I suspect the 1 x area that has caught the club out is the upper concourse. I imagine with AC and offices its tight.

We couldn't afford a new stand and we could only afford with the Hallets help what we got. Lets not forget that. Without their help it would be the old stand. None of us have put our hard earned into this entire project

All in all the stand has met the original remit. Bring in more money for the club and its done that in spades. Comparing this to the Gills away stand FFS🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.

I understand some upper tier customers are unhappy and the club realise that as well but the leg room was always going to be an issue until more money and a design solution was found.

 

[Biggs]

Totally agree with last three posts.

 

[Frank Butcher]

Sometimes you invest what you can afford, making incremental steps towards the end goal. You might draw an analogy with the playing squad as well. I’m sure the custodians would have been fully aware of capital outlay, projected cashflow, managed debt etc. etc. and made the most suitable choice for the time. Have to say I’ve never been a huge fan of its appearance, but the lower level facilities have made the club appear more professional while creating supplementary revenue streams. Now with the new investment we can build on what we have (again, much like you would with a playing squad) - it may not look the best to some but the end result will improve.

Of course some would like to have seen a big bang approach, which is somewhat paradoxical when that type of investor is often the one most fans don’t want.

Sometimes, oftentimes in fact, incremental growth is best.

 

[Mr Gillingham]

and its done that in spades. Comparing this to the Gills away stand FFS🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.

I was comparing the largely uncovered lower Mayflower seating area to Gillinghams away end. The question has to be asked has supporter seating comfort in the upper and lower Mayflower improved sufficiently since the Championship days? Gillinghams Granstand was purpose built and arguably has better corporate facilities than Argyle. Argyle finally do have a corporate facility that is capable of earning them money 7 days a week, which was much needed. And well done to SH for getting that part done. Of course it should have been done a good 20 to 30 years ago but that's another story.

 

[Andy B.]

My only thought was could it have been an error in the plans or an error in construction? However, this has rightly been indicated to me that both of those were not the case. The reason I said about it was if it were to have been either of the above then Argyle would have been able to get recourse. However as I said it is now moot.

As other posters have said we should be grateful for what we have got. Our stadium is constantly being upgraded and things that are not, or were not correct are being made good. Whats not to like?

The sun is shining, it is matchday, Simon Hallett knows what he is doing, Have a great weekend everyone!!

 

[Biggs]

I was comparing the largely uncovered lower Mayflower seating area to Gillinghams away end. The question has to be asked has supporter seating comfort in the upper and lower Mayflower improved sufficiently since the Championship days? Gillinghams Granstand was purpose built and arguably has better corporate facilities than Argyle.

Don’t think any of that is true, Club Argyle looks much better than what looks like pretty dated facilities at Gillingham.

And comparing the lower grandstand to Gillingham’s away end, just because you might get a bit wet in some seats, is a travesty 😂

 

[IJN]

I've been to both, plus the boardroom, it's not quite as grim inside as out, but Priestfield Stadium cannot be compared to Home Park on any level.

The home end looks ok though.

 

[saxman]

I got soaked on my one visit to Man City's stadium and it cost a helluva a lot more to sit there than the lower Mayflower. Some of their players were a bit better than ours though, I suppose.

 

[Jannerz]

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.

Aside from the fact, Brent and the Club at the time did what they could afford to do, and remembering Simon only came onboard late into the project. If the money had been available how much longer would it have taken to level the ground and build a whole new stand with corners? Could the Club have handled the further loss of revenues? All hypothetical questions only the bean counters at the Club could answer I suspect. coyg

 

[Leon Horn]

We are in an amazing place. For all the nay-sayers, may I remind you where we were just 11 short years ago...

THE PLYMOUTH ARGYLE SAGA​

• 4 March 2011 - directors appoint P&A Partnership as administrators
• 14 March - confirmation of "a number of offers" for the club
• 6 May - creditors agree deal to reduce the club's debt
• 5 July - deal with Bishop International consortium announced
• 12 July - squad accept deferral of wages for eighth successive month
• 13 July - talks begin with Football League about proposed takeover
• 4 August - administrators urge consortium to submit funds for wages in time for start of season on 6 August
• 5 August - administrators announce deal will be done "next week"
• 10 August - administrators take Bishop International to court in failed bid to secure cash for wages
• 26 August - administrator approves takeover
• 1 September - players threaten to go on strike after not being paid
• 8 September - Football League defers decision on Bishop International bid
• 15 September - players defer wages for 11 days
• 28 September - James Brent agrees takeover of Plymouth
• 6 October - Football League bans Argyle from signing loan players
• 11 October - PFA agrees to wage repayment deal
• 13 October - James Brent meets the Football League
• 14 October - administrators threaten to pull out after receiving threats
• 18 October - Council agrees deal to buy Home Park for £1.6m
• 28 October - James Brent takeover approved

Enjoy the good times now - we deserve it!

 

[Tugboat]

How close were we to Bishop international 🤬

 

[Jannerz]

It does remind us how fortunate we were to end up with James Brent, who passed the baton to Simon Hallett. I don't want to dig up the bad memories all over again. The threats and vitriol at the time around Brent I still find disturbing. To be clear, I'm not a fan of James and he appears to have made some bad business decisions beyond Argyle, as some people were more than happy to shout about at the time. But he was prudent and made the right calls for Argyle and that led us to Simon, so for that alone I will always be grateful to James Brent. coyg