Mannie, is that you?

My game isn't spoiled by talking to people. I would guess I talk to hundreds at every game. Much nicer talking face to face. People tend not to carry a keyboard to hide behind when they are at the game.

You could add dodgy walls that fall down and floodlights catching fire, large sheets of glass missing from stand sides and concrete crash barriers that no way would stand the pressure tests that ours had to endure.
It is double standards being applied in respect of each ground but then again I don't expect anything different from this fiefdom of Box.

However having said all that, are you for real when you suggest BV could be made good for 30K to 100K. That's why I have just suggested MC should publish a brief appraisal and then you may realise the futility of your argument.

The reduction of 30-100k in central funding is because of the new minimum standards. Bringing BV up to scratch would be way more then that!

I take it that would be per season ?

Then like you say that's even before all the other stuff and the constant battle to get a ground safety certificate.

Just as a ball park figure to get the ground up to the minimum standard and to be safe and sustainable without the constant repairs, have you done a rough calculation

Can Dewsbury be brought up to standard for less than that? Or is it likely to be elsewhere?

That is every season going forward.

North stand. 400000
Western terrace similar.
East stand? What can I say. Simply unusable as a main stand. Horrible view. Leaky roof. No corporate hospitality. To make trinity a viable business capable of spending the cap, a new east stand would be £7 million.

Oh and don't forget, you still don't own a brick of it. You can buy it from the present owner. Think he wants £7 million for that too!

Oh. I forgot floodlights too. No idea what they will cost but I'm guessing at least £100000.

Easily. If that's where we end up. They have a great facility and we would be able to train at the same base. Nothing decided yet though

Thanks for that. I wonder if Harrogate still has a cunning plan ?

How can anyone even contemplate the sustainability of Belle Vue.
OK we may hang around there for a few more years but the place is like a cancer, eventually it will kill us off.

Cheers MC

£7m for the East stand. I've passed Dewsbury's a number of times, never actually going in but the facilities there don't strike me anything like a £7m main stand. More like a bog standard newish stadium. I'd also imagine it would cost a decent wedge if less than BV to tart up to the standard described above so again if the club has that money I'd rather they save it and use it to purchase their own patch not spend it doing up something they don't own which is the arguement used against improving BV.

It really is a crap situation, there is no good solution short of a Euro millions win for one of the supporters.

Not second guessing you, but surely Fev would be the better option? Already train there, stadium ready to go, pitch is the right size etc?

Dewsbury main stand has 1300 seats, 8 boxes, and 2 restaurants with more facilities then we currently have for corporate. The 7 million is a replacement for the east stand. You could of course do it for cheaper but I suspect that even something akin to dewsbury would be in the region of 3 million these days. You would obviously still be short of seats though!

Thanks for that. I suppose any move away would have to account for a loss in revenue from a reduction in season ticket take up. Selling just 500 fewer adult season tickets would cost the club in the region of £125k so the money saved in retaining central funding would be immediately swallowed up.

As an aside, how mixed up is the approach of fining clubs who are struggling to improve their ground?! Don't have the cash to improve your stadium, let's give you less.

As you mentioned in your radio Yorkshire interview last week I fully understand you not wanting to spend that amount of money on a stadium you didn't own, and at that price probably never would. But surely the same then applies to Dewsbury, even if it is with a slightly smaller outlay? It still would be a pretty penny to bring it up to standard and would realistically be throwing money away if there is any hope of moving back to Wakefield. As has been mentioned earlier wouldn't a ready to fo stadium be a better bet?