Ask Green - New roof : Wed Feb 10, 2016 2:26 pm  

Interesting watching the "ask Green" video on bulls tv.

He got asked about a roof on northern terrace. He's been and got a quote of £350k and he's willing to fund half of it if fans set up a fund for the other half.

What's everyone's thoughts. Personally I think it's good that someone has finally come up with a proposal rather than fobbing the question off as "it's something we'll look into"

Think it be difficult to generate £150k but at least Green as come up with a proposal. Get the buckets out again ladies and gents, if everyone at the next game puts fifty quid in, we'll finally have a new roof

#AskGreeng : Wed Feb 10, 2016 2:34 pm  

I don't know if anyone has seen this yet.

Some quite interesting stuff on there. A few highlights:

1. Are you going to put a roof on the Northern Terrace:

After being asked this so many times, Mr Green has looked into it and it would actually cost less than it was expected to. The quotes the club have had are round £350,000. So, Marc Green has a proposal for the fans: If the fans raise half the cost, he'll match it with the other half. Anyone interested in setting this up, please contact the club.

2. Where are we with ground ownership

Little bit of a stall on this. It's with the legals due to some car parking issues outside the ground. But the deal with the council is done, terms have been agreed and now we're waiting for the solicitors to finish running up their bills.

3. Can the shop/ticket office be open passed 17:30

This is up for discussion at the board meeting on the 15th

The rest of it seems to be a few silly questions about cats or dogs and zombie attacks

[Bullseye]

Re: #AskGreeng : Wed Feb 10, 2016 2:51 pm  

So who'd be willing to coordinate and look after the fund if people wanted to put money toward a roof? It's a big responsibility.

Could we expect 3000 fans to individually cough up £50? I doubt it. It would need a lot more people than that.

Nice idea in theory though. I'd love to have a roof.

Good news about the shop/ticket office opening hours being discussed - perhaps it could open at 10am instead to be a bit fairer on staff if they're stopping until 6pm. I asked that one via Facebook. I see the online shop is also open now but haven't looked at it yet.

Re: #AskGreeng : Wed Feb 10, 2016 3:40 pm  

The Roof Fund sounds like a plan, I don't think it would be too difficult to organize, the only thing is it would either have to be open-ended, or maybe a long-stop "if the target of £X is not raised by Z date, then the amount in the fund be paid over instead to {Bullbuilder/whatever}

Otherwise you would have the impossible task of trying to arrange refunds.

I think it could be done. It would need some active fund raising as well as a straight rattling of buckets though, and so I think it depends if there is the willing from a small committee of keen people who wanted to set up and run the project. But done that way, you're not limited to fans chipping in, the fundraisers could approach anybody to try to get them to chip in, for a bit of farly economic free publicity

Obviously it is possible a decent wedge could also come from someone interested in buying the naming rights to the newly covered area.

Re: #AskGreeng : Wed Feb 10, 2016 3:45 pm  

I think the first order of business is to sort out ownership. I'm not contributing to a roof on a ground that we don't even own yet. Seems to me that it is essential to get the ground away from the RFL / Council before we start spending our (and it looks like it will be 'our') money

I'd also be interested to know what exploration there has been into alternative ways of (part?) funding it. Naming rights should bring in something, as well as some form of sponsorship / advertising. And what about seeing if there is a way to incorporate food concessions or even a bar? That would bring in rent and/or commission on sales. I've no idea if that's even feasible, but I thin kit should be explored.

Re: #AskGreeng : Wed Feb 10, 2016 3:48 pm  

I assume the food stands are concessions but is it right that we are now back to taking the income from the bars? I read in the free paper that half of anything we spend on beer counts towards increased salary cap

Re: #AskGreeng : Wed Feb 10, 2016 4:04 pm  

Couldn't the fans contribution be given to the club as a form of 'fans sponsorship'? Surely that would count as relevent income to increase our salary cap

Re: #AskGreeng : Wed Feb 10, 2016 4:13 pm  

Not sure if things have changed but when Gerry and Omar were in charge we asked Gerry about putting a roof over the pop terrace and we were told that there was some specific reason (foundations? drainage?) that meant it was either practically impossible or very expensive to do.

Perhaps they were just lying to us (quite possible) but I had given up hope of ever seeing a roof over that terrace.

Re: #AskGreeng : Wed Feb 10, 2016 4:32 pm  

Nothus wrote:

Not sure if things have changed but when Gerry and Omar were in charge we asked Gerry about putting a roof over the pop terrace and we were told that there was some specific reason (foundations? drainage?) that meant it was either practically impossible or very expensive to do.

Perhaps they were just lying to us (quite possible) but I had given up hope of ever seeing a roof over that terrace.

Pretty certain issue with foundations was to provide an anchor for a cantilevered roof with no posts obstructing sight lines. Think this was costed at 3M plus. For 300k I'd expect were looking at something with supporting pillars and maybe not over full depth of stand. Given they've just renamed pop side not sure selling naming rights and renaming again would be something they would look at, unless membership voted on it and money from naming rights counted as part of fans 150k?

[Bulliac]

Re: #AskGreeng : Wed Feb 10, 2016 4:53 pm  

paulwalker71 wrote:

I think the first order of business is to sort out ownership. I'm not contributing to a roof on a ground that we don't even own yet. Seems to me that it is essential to get the ground away from the RFL / Council before we start spending our (and it looks like it will be 'our') money

The point is, that under the lease, the ground is 'ours' for the next 100+ years so when that lease ends any stand is unlikely to be still standing and any worries about 'our' money going to others [unless there's an internal coup d'etat] is really a non starter. It'll still be 'ours' long after we're all dead and gone.