STATEMENT FROM BATH CITY BID

[Official - Mods, Please Sticky]

Please see the latest statement from the Big Bath City Bid:

http://www.bigbathcitybid.org.uk/

So let me get this straight, because it's not very clear, the plan now is to wait for the community bid to be re-launched after the club has got it's finances straight? Is this is AFTER someone else has invested or is the club again just waiting for the BC1000 initiative to magically do something (before May) that everything else has failed to do?

Maybe I'll wake up in the morning and somebody will have explained how something miraculously new and innovative will have happened and the club will be saved, but something will have to be done before the club continue to get into MORE debt just as they are continuing to do so week by week whilst continuing with the present budget!

Ps I've had a few drinks tonight already but although this normally makes the women in the pubs look better this statement doesn't improve the look of the clubs finances to me

Out of genuine curiousity Too Late - do you ever post about anything other than the Community Bid on here ?

The theory is good, achieving is a very different matter when the product, ie the team performance, is not attractive or successful.

It is a good theory and as far as I can make out is being put into practice. The board are encouraging the Bid team, which appears not to have been the case in the past, and a plan is forming to rescue the club from impending doom.

If Too Late had any credible alternative I would be interested to see it and no doubt so would the board.

I have long held the belief that the ground could be developed and in fact put Manda in touch with someone who could have facilitated it but nothing came of it.

I think that the "new and innovative" that you are looking for, Too Late..., is the ground redevelopment mentioned in the statement.

I have to say that I felt a bit like Too Late... when I read this.

If as I understand it the creation of the 'community club' won't take place until the debts have been cleared by means of the redevelopment of Twerton Park (which presumably in itself means that any idea of relocation is finally dead in the water) isn't this going to increase the timescale considerably? It isn't totally clear what the redevelopment will entail - I seems to recall mention of rebuilding the main stand - but this will presumably require the drawing up of plans, obtaining planning permission etc, which aren't generally quick processes.

If this is the case, is the club going to carry on as it is at the moment, i.e. presumably trading at a loss, until such time as the redevelopment is complete and the debts are cleared?

If (as is more than likely) I have misunderstood the statement no doubt somebody will enlighten me.

and how is the experienced fund raiser doing / helping (out of interest, not criticism)

Apologies if I am being thick, but how will the redevelopment (e.g. A new stand) clear debts? At present, we can't fill the current stand, let alone a new one. I assumed redevelopment would mean another parcel of land around the ground that could be sold off to clear some debt (from what I understand, this it what has been done on several occasions over the years when money has been short). This isn't meant as a criticism, I am just finding it difficult to understand what this talk of "redevelopment " means.....I am keen to invest in the bid when it reopens.

Our understanding is that the scope of the club's current feasibility study into redevelopment goes beyond just a new stand - please see the club's Christmas Eve statement. The feasibility study will be completed in late February according to that statement, things should be clearer then.

Yes this will increase the timescale compared to the original prospectus, but then again that depended on us raising 750k by sept 4.

It must be some sizeable re-developement, to quash the clubs debts all in one go not more student housing i hope.

on a serious note - what actually is meant by " partially redeveloping Twerton Park"? presumably the use of such a precise phrase means there is some kind if (initial) vision of what this could 'look like'.

Thanks Dodgycarpet - all that is meant by "partial redevelopment" is that the club would continue to play at Twerton Park - i.e. it's not a full redevelopment where the entire site is turned into something else and the club moves to a new ground. We are waiting for the results of the feasibility study to get a clearer picture of what this might look like.

Utopia

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/31/fc-united-manchester-broadhurst-park

Funnily enough, I'm going to FCUM this weekend - will be interesting to see what's gone wrong. They certainly seem unhappy with their board, presumably they will exercise their democratic rights to vote them out at the next available opportunity.

Worth noting, of course, that FCUM also has 283 volunteers donating 22,500 hours of time each year, and managed to secure £3 million in grants to build a new stadium.