The Infrastructure Projects

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Olympiakos don't own their stadium either.

It's also a bowl like stadium.

The Karaiskakis Stadium was rebuilt as a bowl on the site of the previous stadium in 2004, crucially Olympiacos have always played there except for a few years away.
They have a 49 year lease expiring 2052.

The problem with this from a CG perspective is that we are building flats on the site and to sell them we need a very long agreed lease over 80 years minimum or to purchase the freehold.

Edit. Olympiacos managed to rebuild their stadium in 14months because it was needed for the Athens Olympics in 2004. Amazing what a bit of political pressure does for timelines, planning applications etc isnt it?

[Red Dog]

That is IF we want to stay at the WFCG. I do not want to move to a new site - end of! I travel from the south of the city, nice drive down the A46 and there relatively quickly. The WFCG is amazing and rocks when things are going well. We face a very difficult choice if the council are not willing to budge. To compete in the EPL we need stability and an increased revenue from many sources but one of them is ticket sales. If we canmot agree to increase capacity to a minimum of 40k in the short term, we are hamstrung. It is looking inceeasingly likely that we will have to buy land and build a new stadium

[Salvatore Matrecano]

My personal order of preference.

1st Demolish the whole thing and rebuild on site similar to Tottenham. Almost certainly unfeasible though.
2nd Move to new purpose built Stadium within city or very near to current site.
3rd. Redevelop PT stand only as per current plans. Still most likely outcome.
4th. Do nothing
5th. Flatpack stadium in the middle of nowhere

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Olympiakos don't own their stadium either.

It's also a bowl like stadium.

The Karaiskakis Stadium was rebuilt as a bowl on the site of the previous stadium in 2004, crucially Olympiacos have always played there except for a few years away.
They have a 49 year lease expiring 2052.

The problem with this from a CG perspective is that we are building flats on the site and to sell them we need a very long agreed lease over 80 years minimum or to purchase the freehold.

Edit. Olympiacos managed to rebuild their stadium in 14months because it was needed for the Athens Olympics in 2004. Amazing what a bit of political pressure does for timelines, planning applications etc isnt it?

Correct SM and the Greek Olympic Committee still own it not the football club.

[DR Forest]

For anyone who hasn’t seen it

Nothing has changed since Doughty first explored the idea of developing the area.
My guess is we are ramping the rhetoric on the lease costs because we want the freehold.
Perhaps I am overcrediting their imagination but a Forest riverside village really would be breaking new commercial ground in the scramble to compete with the PL behemoths

[nffc93]

Council leader David Mellen says he wants the club to stay but a rent increase is "only fair".

Talks between the club and council stalled over the authority's demand the current £250,000 rent is increased to £1m.

Mr Mellen said: "We think the Trent Bridge area is the best place for the club to remain and we will work with them to achieve a settlement that allows that to happen."

He added the council - which has declared itself effectively bankrupt and announced a series of wide-ranging cuts - was willing to negotiate but could not give "mate's rates".

[Sausage Roll]

There's increases and there's increases. Yeah an increase might be fair but a 300% one?

[Jacksbadhobbits]

Nothing lasts forever. The stadium and more importantly the site are no longer fit for purpose. Should look to move to a site which would give us a bigger capacity than 35, 000 and not held to ransom by incompetent councillors who have contributed to their current bankrupt state.

[BomberBowyer]

Council leader David Mellen says he wants the club to stay but a rent increase is "only fair".

Talks between the club and council stalled over the authority's demand the current £250,000 rent is increased to £1m.

Mr Mellen said: "We think the Trent Bridge area is the best place for the club to remain and we will work with them to achieve a settlement that allows that to happen."

He added the council - which has declared itself effectively bankrupt and announced a series of wide-ranging cuts - was willing to negotiate but could not give "mate's rates".

Mate’s rates?? No, but I bet he and his Council buddies don’t expect to pay full price for a ticket or worse, it goes on expenses.

I don’t think there is any suggestion from the club or fans of wanting ‘mate’s rates’, more just a fair price which an increase from £250k to £1m per year is not.

[Forest1970]

The council are holding us to ransom which will back fire on them royally. They also want to get a 300% rent increase to hide more of their own incompetence and give them a nice little bank balance which would get depleted pretty quick because of that said incompetence.

I for one would love to upgrade City Ground and stay where we've been for many years but that's going with me heart but I fear we really will need to move to get the best possible revenue we can get which is going with my head.

[BomberBowyer]

The council are holding us to ransom which will back fire on them royally. They also want to get a 300% rent increase to hide more of their own incompetence and give them a nice little bank balance which would get depleted pretty quick because of that said incompetence.

I for one would love to upgrade City Ground and stay where we've been for many years but that's going with me heart but I fear we really will need to move to get the best possible revenue we can get which is going with my head.

Agree. Think we would all love to stay at the City Ground but the Council aren’t making that easy.  Perhaps finding an alternate site and building a new stadium with improved training facilities is the way forward and whilst that happens, we continue to play at the City Ground so that we can at least maintain current capacity levels. Similar I guess to Everton, Man City etc have done in the past.  It would be a sad day to move from the City Ground but done right and with our fans, any new stadium could see the club move forward in a positive way.

[nffc93]

The council are holding us to ransom which will back fire on them royally. They also want to get a 300% rent increase to hide more of their own incompetence and give them a nice little bank balance which would get depleted pretty quick because of that said incompetence.

I for one would love to upgrade City Ground and stay where we've been for many years but that's going with me heart but I fear we really will need to move to get the best possible revenue we can get which is going with my head.

Agree. Think we would all love to stay at the City Ground but the Council aren’t making that easy.  Perhaps finding an alternate site and building a new stadium with improved training facilities is the way forward and whilst that happens, we continue to play at the City Ground so that we can at least maintain current capacity levels. Similar I guess to Everton, Man City etc have done in the past.  It would be a sad day to move from the City Ground but done right and with our fans, any new stadium could see the club move forward in a positive way.

I am with you on that.