: Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:52 am
Duckman wrote:
Excellent work that red, good stuff. All so positive and open - its given me a huge reassuring boost in my thinking about where the club is heading.
On the above question, so if it all goes to plan then next season we need to be somewhere else? I would imagine any temporary move would be scheduled for whole seasons rather than moving out mid season.... So we could possibly only have
6 home games left at Odsal in its current guise?
The words used were something like "early next year" - I took that to mean not necessarily at the start of the season. Some bits I can add to Andrea's excellent summary of the more interesting bits:
1. It is clear that the club will not allow a repetition of what happened last time we moved out. Hood assured us that the club will not move out until and unless we have "cast iron" guarantees about moving back - and with a timetable. He was quite emphatic about this, and said e.g. we will not get landed in a situation where we are told "its going to be developed, worry not...we just don't know when" - and referred indirectly to another big hole in Bradford where that is currently the situation.
2. The Club's capital contribution to the OSV is the stadium site. The club holds that on a 150-year lease (at peppercorn rent) which is to all practical purposes freehold, so that is worth a lot of money in its own right.
3. Hood stated emphatically that - contrary to a lot of misinformation at the time (he said) the return to Odsal had SAVED Bradford council £17m. Apparently their officials had prepared a report saying that the cost of running and maintaining the ground over the remaining 17 years of the 1986 agreement, plus the annual payment to the club, all of which were contractual, would have cost £22m over that time. The Council settled with the club £5.2m all-up (including the initial capital works) thereby saving £17m for the council taxpayers.
4. In the discussion on where we might temporarily move to, he did say that VP was "high on the list of candidates" and pointed out it was now owned not by BCFC but by the Gibb family's "Flamingoland Pension Fund". He also mentioned Dewsbury, as Andrea said, and pointed out that it would not be that difficult to add additional temporary stand capacity there fairly quickly. he also said there were other sites in Bradford (he said the preference had to be to remain in the city) although which would need "some adjustments".
5. Of the 300k cubic metres of infill, 160k m3 will come from the hill on the NHS land next door. The rest will need trucking in so there will be environmental issues. If the whole 300k m3 had to be trucked in, it would take 200 trucks a day every day for six months. Some hole!
6. The Odsal site is only just over 10% of the total OSV site! Shows how big the whole project is. Its the key part, of course - being the entrance area.
7. The plans showed - as Andrea said - and new roundabout entrance of Rooley Avenue, with a main road running down through the whole site. Could not tell from the plans if this road carried on to the Euroway or maybe to the new units built on Staithgate Lane but would seem logical - and if they DID would massively improve access. (anyone else any better info on this?)
8. The stadium and maybe the hotel (integral part) would be finished by 2012.
(error fixed - not 2010 as prev - Thanks Duckman) but no way would the whole scheme be finished by then. The Council is committed to delivering the stadium by 2012 though.
9. The present stadium design and capacity is provisional and may well change now the detailed planning work is carried out over the next six months. The present plan is all-seater but that could change. The capacity could well increase - it is "very unlikely" to decrease.
10. The hole has to be filled in because structurally it would be far easier and cheaper to build on a levelled site. There would be major engineering challenges in trying to build in the bowl itself.
11. The funding already announced does NOT yet include the proceeds of sale of the Richard Dunn Site "which would remain open until the OSV was complete). This was valued a year or two back at £14m, although in the current market who knows now? But Hood suggested that by the time the land comes to be available for sale things may well have significantly improved.
12. Regarding questions about the apparent funding shortfall, Hood said he had seen a Council list of additional funding opportunities totalling over £70m, mainly asset sales and consolidations. He also said they were hopeful of more from Yorkshire Forward, and from "Europe". Someone on here well placed to know a bit about such things remains a bit sceptical on this score, so we have to go on what we have been told I guess.
13. It is not yet determined whether the complex should be run by a stadium operating company owned by the various stakeholders (Council, University, College, Bulls etc ) or maybe the Bulls just pay rental to the end owner. The Scheme at Leigh - very similar in scope and objectives - cost over £90m, and is effectively run by the council there.
14. As Andrea said - and for me the most worrying bit - was that whilst Hood is very confident regarding the capital cost, there remained uncertainties about whether the subsequent income streams would be adequate. Lot of work still to do on this.
15. Regarding the next franchises, Hood believes that next time it will not be sufficient to just show plans - there will need to be bulldozers on site.
Anything else I come across in my notes I'll append.
