Suppose it could be a kitchen showroom?!

Although I generally agree with you, I've just been having a look at the space it takes up & although that flat-roof showroom doesn't look that big from the road, I only noticed once we'd had our last stand taken down that they had a decent sized extension at the back that's bigger. I just measured the piece of land it sits on, it's around 450m/2 so a fairly decent-sized bit of land. If the club could get the building at the right place say 150k, it may be worth a conversation about. Tbh over the years, I've always been amazed that people have kept different businesses going there all these years. I do think though, after our takeover and improvements in that area of the ground, I bet they'd have a bit of trouble selling it. Anyway Matt has plenty of plans and ideas of what he wants to do to the bar & East Stand etc, so he'd probably got enough on his plate but you never know for the right price.

The main issue is the house that sits next to it. If we could get both and level them, that could open a few more possibilities for the club, whether that's some sort of out-of-ground area for fans, to get in some food trucks, stalls etc, a bit like Hull KR. At the very least it would certainly look so much cleaner and nicer entering or driving past because the house in particular is a bit of an eyesore, blocking everyone from seeing our lovely new stand etc . If that house that's been converted to 2 came up for sale, I wouldn't be surprised if Matt at least enquired to see what possibilities there could be. I would bet he's already thought about it tbh.

Saying all thsi and getting back to your original point, when all is said and done we'd be talking about £1/2 a million to get both and then you think what could be done inside the ground etc for that kind of money. Just for a few hundred square meters of extra land. As you say for what we get it'd be awfully expensive, unless you did it just to make the Trinity entrance and area around it so much cleaner and professional in front of the Club if you like, but I bet Matt isn't that bothered about wasting his hard earned cash that way.

Although the Aussie contingent at present live up on the new estate near Stanley ferry , would it not be a great opportunity to get this huge house if it becomes available for these young overseas players .

If your talking about purposing as a housing space for overseas.
Not when you can rent out a property for 700-1000 per month absolutely not. To rent a good quality place you’d look at £12,000 a year for 2/3 sharing. Why spend hundreds of thousands and have the hassle of upkeep.

If and I don’t think it’s efficient use of funds there was appetite to purchase and do something with the building/land. I would look to maximise earning potential or utilisation.

I’d consider as a baseline.

- Drive thru coffee and cake shop open 7 days a week (as this is on a main busy road) and could make this an earner. In fact - Doboy donuts have containers around in locations locally and you could easily introduce them a space/rental in the car park area as an earner for the club. At say £350 a week rental your talking £18,200 a year into the club. At £500 a year you’re talking £26,000. In Castleford there’s a two tier container with a DOBOY upper and a cafe lower. You could be talking £36,400 - £52,000 per year for small area/few parking spaces sacrifice.

- a training centre or classroom centre that could be utilised for training etc and rentable space for training events or educational events.

- a fitted out gymnasium/indoor training centre for player use. Would need to look and see if it’s viable.

These are what would run through my mind to generate some payback or utilisation.

Bottom line is, if it doesn’t have a payback in monetary terms or utilisation value then no point.

All these ideas need staff to run it, insurance, marketing, etc etc and all cost. And business knowhow.

I'd probably demolish but I'm going to remind myself how big it is when I go today.

Quite often when I'm driving past BV I think 'superb new stadium,shame about the 2 eyesores spoiling the frontage'
For me it's either buy them and flatten them,(if a decent price can be agreed) or just forget about them.

Yep. I'd at least knock the little showroom down but I'd knock all that down and use the space differently.
Depending on price of course.

Let me say before I begin, this is an observation not a grumble.

It regards the siting of the big screen in relation to the North stand, the further you go into the stand towards Donny road the less you see of it, never been in the upper part, but would be surprised if you could see it at all. That's quite a big chunk of fans who cannot see it.

Would the South West corner been a better option ?

I have an observation too.
I stand on the corner near to but not immediately under the big screen.
Lots complain on that corner because the PA system is directed under the north stand!
It can hardly be heard from where I stand!

The screen wasn't working properly on Sunday anyway with only half a screen visible. Seems to be very glichy. Hopefully we will have some comeback on whoever supplied it. If/when the NS roof is lifted it should hopefully be more visible.

Let’s hope so, there’s always been the odd pixel missing most games.

The NS upper is so restrictive on what could be a much higher capacity stand. Though I don’t expect it will be on the to do list for a while yet with the south east restaraunt/sports bar seemingly up first in the off season.

If we can up the capacity some way before or during next season then great. Can see us hitting max for games like Leeds/Cas/KR etc.

As for the showroom place for sale. Waste of money that could be spent elswhere.

You’d have the cost of purchase, cost of pulling the property/extension down or refurbishing it. Would probably cost as much as the LED boards.

My thoughts are that Ellis is a business man. You have to consider either monetary or utilisation payback to the outlay value.

The size of the foot print is relatively low and restrictive. The building quality looks poor on the extension especially.

But what would you actually use it for to justify the spend?

A lot of people saying club shop.

That’s an expensive outlay for something we already have and also could incorporate elsewhere.

You could probably secure a shop in Trinity walk and utilise the screen for advertising highlights and deals/matches for 5 years and more and likely still not reach the price you’d outlay but also benefit in neutral footfall and city centre enhanced presence. Or you could just stick with ridings and have pop up shops in stadium locations at match days selling smaller/match day items and accessories at a tiny cost. It’s just not viable unless it’s a seriously small price or Ellis feels like burning some cash.

That said if he can find a use that would make it worthwhile then great.

Maybe player training facility/gym but I don’t think it’s that big at all. I just can’t see how it would pay back. Especially with the stadium needing work, LED etc to guarantee points, options to increase capacity etc.

Unless something has fallen through, the seller accepted an offer on the unit a few months back from the resident of the house next door. I believe the plans are to turn the unit into an education of some kind.

We are getting a bit too comfortable spending Matt Ellis’s money aren’t we, myself included.

However, it’s nice to speculate so, if we bought it I’d probably just demolish it and create more car parking spaces.
I know they’d be a very expensive 20 odd spaces but the purchase would give us 100% ownership of the site with no future considerations required for the owners of those properties, we could also secure the car park properly

No doubt there are more pressing things for Mr Ellis to spend his money on so while it’s nice to play fantasy Rugby Club Owner, I’ll sit back and let Matt do it for real

I got told this afternoon that Matt has bought that building