Moving grounds?

[Neil]

A hypothetical question really, but when FGR moved grounds they took the Trevor Horsley stand and the Barnfield Terrace with them. How is this done and is it considered a cheaper alternative to building a new stand?

Could this be done with the infrustructure at Meadow Park?

Personally, I don't want to go back to the place again and would encourage any supporter willing to give time, effort or money to our cause to help us relocate.

Remember, this is summer when this has happened and both the 1990 and 2000 floods took place in winter. We could well spend time clearing it up only for it to happen again in six months time.

[Noah]

The newest stand we had at Longlevens made the journey to Horton Road, so there was a precedent for what FGR did.

[Mike]

And I think the old chicken run behind the Whaddon Road end at Cheltenham ended up at Cleeve, or at least bits of it did.

[joycie]

its just the foundations that have to be laid for moving these stands to their new ground. thats why we are having trouble finishing the trevor horsley stand at the moment because of the weather meaning it has been delayed until completition till september/october :( if you were too take bits of meadow park away which you would have to do during a season would there still be enough space for all supporters? i'm guessing you would take the T End and possibly the terrace that stretches along the pitch?

[pylonsider]

If the structures can be dismantled 'easily' then they can be shifted to new foundations. Not sure about yr stand but the T-End and Shed Side should travel.

IMHO, once the short term clear up is done and you're up and running again then the consistent message MUST be to the Football Foundation and Glos City Council that The Tigers re-locate. If possible, in the context of a community club so really you need to be looking at multi-purpose use with space for 'juniors pitches around. That, more than owt, gets the matching funding from the FF.

Do agree that you are in a vulnerable spot and therefore cannot realistically afford to insure - therefore, a well planned campaign would be very hard for the council to deny in planning terms.

That rainfall Neil was almost unique. Jet stream from west up high, warm moist air pushing out from Northern Europe and being 'sucked' eastwards, 2 volumes of strongly contrasted air coming together, almost to a standstill, over south-western midlands and literally emptying sub tropical volumes of water into the same spot.

Usually, bands of rain move westwards instead of staying in one spot and just dumping wet on one place. Extremely rare situation, known to be coming, but absolutely no way to counter the effect.

Only way you'll get that flood peak-flow in winter is loads of snow in the uplands, rapid thaw and whoosh, here it comes again. Lets hope it is a mild winter ..

Out of this adversity, use all the means possible to keep the need to develop a new home directly in the minds of the public. There will be loads saying 'Yes, but, what about our needs ..?' Accommodate those too; their homes ARE more important. But, keep the campaign on.

Maybe see you Friday, certainly see you a week on Sunday (if Meadow Park is open for clean up helpers.

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

Noah, having been supporting City in the Greyhound Garden days was the old stadium on land recently flooded? Was it ever flooded in your memory?

PS I hope your neighbours have been looking after you and sending round meals on wheels etc.

[Neil]

The old ground was on Manor Park, which is the opposite side of Cheltenham Rd to the old dog track, which became Greyhound Gardens. Hwoever, that estate doesn't flood, the affected part is Cypress Gardens & Evergreen Walk which was only built about five years ago on the old Paygrove Farm. That site is several hundred metres away from Chelt Rd.

[joycie]

pylonsider is right - the stadium would have to be for use for the community. you would probably have to prove in your plans how it is going to help out the community and what services it provides. the old lawn was merely a bar but now at the new lawn there is a leisure centre, bars, a huge pub, sauna, dancing studio, conference facilites - everything. the whole thing is now called five valleys leisure and FGR is just the football club that uses the ground. any idea where the money could come from for a new ground? ours cost between £3 mill and £4 mill. if you make the case aware enough then the council would surely have to help.

[Neil]

GHURC, The Football Foundation, Sponsors, The Supporters Trust, Friendlies, The FA...

[bully74uk]

If the structures can be dismantled 'easily' then they can be shifted to new foundations. Not sure about yr stand but the T-End and Shed Side should travel.

IMHO, once the short term clear up is done and you're up and running again then the consistent message MUST be to the Football Foundation and Glos City Council that The Tigers re-locate. If possible, in the context of a community club so really you need to be looking at multi-purpose use with space for 'juniors pitches around. That, more than owt, gets the matching funding from the FF.

Do agree that you are in a vulnerable spot and therefore cannot realistically afford to insure - therefore, a well planned campaign would be very hard for the council to deny in planning terms.

That rainfall Neil was almost unique. Jet stream from west up high, warm moist air pushing out from Northern Europe and being 'sucked' eastwards, 2 volumes of strongly contrasted air coming together, almost to a standstill, over south-western midlands and literally emptying sub tropical volumes of water into the same spot.

Usually, bands of rain move westwards instead of staying in one spot and just dumping wet on one place. Extremely rare situation, known to be coming, but absolutely no way to counter the effect.

Only way you'll get that flood peak-flow in winter is loads of snow in the uplands, rapid thaw and whoosh, here it comes again. Lets hope it is a mild winter ..

Out of this adversity, use all the means possible to keep the need to develop a new home directly in the minds of the public. There will be loads saying 'Yes, but, what about our needs ..?' Accommodate those too; their homes ARE more important. But, keep the campaign on.

Maybe see you Friday, certainly see you a week on Sunday (if Meadow Park is open for clean up helpers.

John Ketley is a weather man, a weather man, a weather man, John Ketley is a weather man and so is Pylonsider.

[nigel]

Exeter city may be quite a bit bigger than us but since they have gone down the trust route, become a real community club, the attitude of everyone seemingly in he city has changed towards them, everyone especially the council are so much more positive towards them.
i think they even made a small profit last year but I might be wrong.

Is this the model we could follow ?

[Noah]

There are schemes afoot to put the club more in touch with the community and they could come to fruition before too long. But the present location does not really lend itself so easily to the concept does it ? We'd also need more people prepared to do some of the outreach work.

[Noah]

The old ground was on Manor Park, which is the opposite side of Cheltenham Rd to the old dog track, which became Greyhound Gardens. Hwoever, that estate doesn't flood, the affected part is Cypress Gardens & Evergreen Walk which was only built about five years ago on the old Paygrove Farm. That site is several hundred metres away from Chelt Rd.

Right on every count, Neil. Longlevens, the football ground, got wet and there were postponements, but nothing untoward and only in particularly inclement weather or when the ground might have been overused. That would happen when we had cup success and had extra fixtures to fit in ! We also had a reserve team playing in the Western League, with attendant cup games.

[Pablo]

If we do go, the T-End must come!

[bobcarolgees]

The future has to be away from Meadow Park. Had some good times there (and too many bad) but end of the day we all know it does not take a genius to figure out this will happen again..and then again.Be gutted to not stand on the T-End but i'd rather re-locate then have the future of the club up in the air every bloody 5 or so years!!!!
SUCH a shame the community stadium was turned down by the rugby club, but surely a stadium on a smaller scale but featuring more businesses, more facilitys for the general public, housing etc could be done instead? The idea surely cant have been shelved already?????

As for the rugby club, they really do piss me off. They are the premier club not just in the city but also in the county and the complete lack of noise from them is disgusting. I have sent frankly a grovelling email asking for help from them but I dont hold my breath for a decent response. I hope I'm wrong.

And as for the Citizen, relations have been poor before but the coverage about this has been really good guys.:thumbsup:

[bobcarolgees]

"I write as a dejected follower of Gloucester City Football club. The clubs stadium, Meadow Park is completely under water causing untold damage and the possibility of playing at the stadium ever again is in jeopardy. This is the 3rd time in just 16 years that this has happened. Due to the terrible flood of 2000, the club then found itself in a position where no insurers would give them cover, thus the club already financially strapped faces a perilous future. Kind football fans from all over the country have been helping by donating or offering support of help. However as the citys and indeed the countys premier sporting team, I and hundreds of other city fans are wondering if there is anything Gloucester RFC can do to help us in this current dire situation.

I look foward to your responses."

[pylonsider]

John Ketley is a weather man, a weather man, a weather man, John Ketley is a weather man and so is Pylonsider.

Yep - you're quite right there. :thumbsup: Luckily for the viewers, not with the Met Office but in another professional life. It was inevitable there would be some sort of disaster once that air flow was tracked.

4 days notice was not enough and it is regrettable that the warnings coming from the weathermen, and the Environment Agency, were not given enough priority. BUT, nobody could have predicted exactly where that rain would actually fall.

And unlucky for Gloucester that their underground pipework had not yet been fully updated. Bristol was lucky. Wessex Water disrupted the centre for 2 years while a new, huge, interceptor drain was installed 2 years ago. But, the inconvenience then is nothing like the inconvenience now suffered by Gloucester.

Now, is there anything else you want to poke at? Or maybe you could rein yourself in before putting your sarky foot in your sarky mouth? ;)

[bully74uk]

Yep - you're quite right there. :thumbsup: Luckily for the viewers, not with the Met Office but in another professional life. It was inevitable there would be some sort of disaster once that air flow was tracked.

4 days notice was not enough and it is regrettable that the warnings coming from the weathermen, and the Environment Agency, were not given enough priority. BUT, nobody could have predicted exactly where that rain would actually fall.

And unlucky for Gloucester that their underground pipework had not yet been fully updated. Bristol was lucky. Wessex Water disrupted the centre for 2 years while a new, huge, interceptor drain was installed 2 years ago. But, the inconvenience then is nothing like the inconvenience now suffered by Gloucester.

Now, is there anything else you want to poke at? Or maybe you could rein yourself in before putting your sarky foot in your sarky mouth? ;)

Rest assured you'd be the last person on earth id like to poke !

Just making some light out of a dark situation, Im sure everyone on here was very interested in your explanation of the events :thumbsup:

As for Sarky comments, I know for a fact that Kev was extremely interested to hear some of your more recent ones ! :thumbsup:

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

Couple of thoughts.

Always believed we need to move at some stage, recent events may work to advantage in removing any doubt, and also giving this need some coverage and higher level support as now a necessity not a desire.

I think that any project needs to be modest, and thought out before possible funders / other support are approached

Finding the land will be the biggest problem

Riding high on the City Council's agenda is the desire for an athletics facility in the City. Any mileage in a joint facility, would attract greater range of funding, support etc. I know Horton Road was criticised for the lack of atmosphere being so far from the pitch but can we be that choosy?

[Dommotyger]

'Riding high on the City Council's agenda is the desire for an athletics facility in the City. Any mileage in a joint facility, would attract greater range of funding, support etc. I know Horton Road was criticised for the lack of atmosphere being so far from the pitch but can we be that choosy?'

It wasn't long back that Terry Haines (possibly Seven Athletics Manager or something like that) wanted to get a new track built down Plock Court (not quite the ideal location now looking at what happended around there recently) but I'm not sure how that all went. Maybe someone from the Club / Trust could contact him and see how they got on and possibly ask them if they wanted to come on board provided we want to share although I feel the only way we will move away from MP would be to share a sports complex with other sporting clubs and with the community.

[bobcarolgees]

Keith Gardners vision of the future had us and the hockey club sharing facilities. They currently play at plock court still as far as I'm aware.

Plock court is a no go area, having lived in Longford before, the place floods with mimimal rain let alone the amount last week. Its worse than Meadow Park.

For me the triangle should be the first place to try.

[Pablo]

What about that massive field next to Escort Road, there is enough space there to put a really decent ground in. Also the transport links to there are awesome what with the 2 laned road next to it. Just an idea?

Does anyone know what they do with that land? Or is it just a green area?

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

I think that belongs to Denmark Road school.

[joycie]

what about the land around the waterwells area? there seems a lot of development going on there and its very close to the bypass and motorway so good for travel use. or is that land just too expensive given all the big companies that are building there?

[yates jr]

yer we could develop Quedgeleys Picthes :confused: lol

[DJhinckley]

A hypothetical question really, but when FGR moved grounds they took the Trevor Horsley stand and the Barnfield Terrace with them. How is this done and is it considered a cheaper alternative to building a new stand?


going back to Neil's original question, when Northwich moved they took their Dane Bank Stand. However it was just the frame work, and new cast concrete (laid onto the framework for terracing) was used for the terracing and new crush barriers up to the new required standards.

Been a while since I was at your place, but if I remember the terracing is concrete cast in place, so you'd probably have to buy new framework anyway. It'd probably be cheaper to use the metal terracing structures that Nuneaton have opted for, rather than buying new framework and then moving and then adapting your current stands to fit that.