Apparently Abbot is painting the rosiest picture you could ever imagine.

He could put £20k in every Town fan's pocket and they'd still slag him off.

What do we think? I didn't go so can anyone enlighten us?

Seems town fans think the whole thing was stage managed and TA is a muppet and the Fax fans are quiet.

I'm still not decided - one thing though, do either club need a stadium as big as the one in artist's drawing and is a mortgage on the ground a good idea - not exactly man united are either clubs eh?

Thankfully NOT. Manure are millions in debt as are most "top" football clubs.

We shouldn't be restricted by mediocrity. There is a risk with TA's plans. There is also a risk that a massive comet will hurtle towards Bubba's house. Town fans think that risk is removed when a stadium is controlled by a council.

If the council turn this down they'll face the wrath of an electorate who have grown tired of paying for The Shay. If they turn it down they'll basically have to come out and say " We don't trust TA".

Anyway, apparently Bubba has found another spanner to jam into the Reactiv fun bus spokes - he's citing an EU directive. The General Disposal Consent legislation. EU rules dictate that the Council cannot sell a public asset for under its value to a commercial entity".

Bubba's off to Brussels.

A Town Fan's comment in the online courier:

"Why is Tony Abbot wearing a poppy. It's only October".


This is the mentality he's dealing with.

They are stuck in the past. Do they not realise he will be creating loads of new jobs and the Shay would be in use EVERY DAY! not just the 5 a side pitch.

Gym - yes I would probably join.
Nursery - sounds practical. Especially with the issues with Surestart nurseries.
Coffee Shop - not sure how busy this would be.

More conferences to the Shay with more options with rooms <- i know of businesses who enjoy using the Shay.

Also the possibility of using some of the rooms for gigs? I know some bands who have done very well for themselves who left Halifax years ago but want to do a home coming show but lack of venue has stopped them.

With the chequered history of The Shay I'm not sure what the council will do next. Will they get the monkey of their back? There's no political risk IMO - only 2,700 people would be angry if Shay ended up shutting down.

Another paranoid !!

It was a positive comment.

The meeting went quite well I thought. I read the stuff on Shaymen.net and to be honest I wondered if I went to a different meeting. The truth is that a lot of Town fans are actually behind the idea and speaking to a few its clear they thought it can only be a good thing. A few were obviously sceptical and said as much in the Q & A bit but although they were sceptical a lot of them remarked that they would be in favour if done how he said it would be done.

The only person who seemed to have big problems with it were ShayTrev who seemed keen on confrontation but also came across as a bit of a clown who is representing a tiny minority of Town fans. Even some of the Town fans I were sat near said he is a bit of a joke figure at the club and does not speak for a lot of the fans.

Was it stage managed? Well anyone who wanted to ask a question could do, any question could be asked apart from how much the bid was for. At one point Tony had to ask his financial advisor about the mortgage on the ground which has been jumped on by Town fans.

Stick with the council nothing will be done, give this guy a chance and hes going to give it a shot doing what he said. As long as it is done right and stipulations are put in place then it can only be a good thing. Get out of the past some Town fans and in to the future.

Our very own bluebell girls or whatever they are called have to have their weekly routine practice elsewhere because the council charge too much to make it viable.
Community stadium?
Bring it on Mr Abbott.

Im honored, finally got quoted on their forum. Yes thats right your little minority on your forum does not hold the same opinion as a few of the fans I spoke to. Shocker eh? The Town fans behind me went as far to call ShayTrev a buffoon, an opinion shared by those around him. Shame really because he did actually ask some good questions but got a bit flustered when he had to move away from his script and made a bit of a fool of himself.

There were one or two good questions and heads up to those who asked them as that was what the forum was for but with the best will in the world you are not going to change the views of some people in either camp.Lost it a bit for me when Tony tried to explain how he was going to reduce the rent for both clubs and the question was
" Well how are the Clubs going to buy new players then if you are going to reduce the admission charges" ?
I wondered why I`d bothered going but then they were some good questions after , annoyed me a bit when they tried to go back to how they sold Thrum Hall because it`s not the same at all as we wanted to leave Thrum Hall .It was also good to see around 10 Councilors in the room and a couple of them asking questions too ,they are the ones who have to justify to their electorate the fact that they subsidise the Shay with our money but don`t want to subsidise childrens nurseries.

Coffee shop would work, if it was branded people would stop and call in, use it for its wifi ect. Costa and Starbucksa re opening everywhere now. I noticed the old little chef at Mirfield is now a Starbucks.

If the figures quoted about council savings are correct. It's very hard for them not to sell. It's a massive drain on the public purse in its current state

To be fair that poor chap had no idea, his second rambling went completely over everyone's head.
In fact just before he asked his first question about the players I was going to ask the same question but about the chips
Reduce the price of chips Mr Abbott, that's the future.


I do understand some of the concerns the Town fans have, perhaps they don't trust Mr Abbott because of previous promises by others, but, lets not forget, the Stadium is deteriorating, the Council promised a new pitch last season and an electronic scoreboard for the World Cup, none of these have materialised.
I thought before the meeting that ownership of the Shay by Reactive Media was a good idea. I feel even more strongly now that it is a GREAT idea. (for both clubs and the community)
Bring it on.