So what would be involved for an investor/supporters buy out?
what would the stadium’s value be?
How exactly did the council take ownership
Income options for ownership
advertisement opportunities
etc……
Swindon Town bought back their stadium from the local council. It's a 15k seater but needs a lot of work doing on it. They paid the council £2.3M. Maybe our ground would cost a bit more, who knows???
How do fans think that WVRLFC could pay for the upkeep of the DCBL Stadium?
I 101% accept that owning your own stadium would be the tops, and you then would / could then rake in the dosh from renting it out when the RL's not on, but.............
What price are you talking for it, and has any Widnesian got that in their back pocket?
All seater, all covered, plastic pitch, that makes it usable seven days a week, means it an ideal arena, so it wouldn't come cheap by any means, but............
Good luck if it comes off. and.........
I wish we had a similar problem!
Spelly.
Swindon Town bought back their stadium from the local council. It's a 15k seater but needs a lot of work doing on it. They paid the council £2.3M. Maybe our ground would cost a bit more, who knows???
Having been to the County Ground in the fairly recent past, I think you're doing it a great disservice.
It's one of the "more than decent" Stadiums in League 1 & 2.
Only thing I noticed from my visit there was, the seats in the old main stand could do with freshening up, other than that, it's in decent nick.
I would be interested to know what the council need it for as it’s a drain on the residents of the town and if an investor was interested they could maybe sign it over on the condition that it would be signed back over to the council if it ever came down to it. Maybe it’s a good thing that the club didn’t own it when rule was in charge as HMRC could of somehow repossessed it 🤣
I personally think that the stadium would have to be part of the package for any potential buyers. That’s the only way we can get back to super league
If there is so much money to be made from the use of the ground, how can it be a burden on the residents of Widnes? When the ground was redeveloped, it was meant to be a joint venture between the council and the club, but the Council took over full control when the club fell into financial difficulties.
Perhaps the club could approach the council to reconsider the joint partnership arrangement, whereby the club could take on more control (and costs) of operating the ground, in exchange for retaining any additional income generated. It is quite common for local authorities to outsource the management of sports facilities to private management companies.
If the main aim of ground ownership was to use it as collateral to raise loans, the financial management of the club would need to be controlled to ensure that raising funds for short term success, does not lead to long-term financial meltdown as we have experienced. Would owning the ground been beneficial under Rule and co, or would it have just expended the period of financial meltdown?
I think the co ownership would be ideal in this current state as our aim must be to go back full time as a club to attract the players needed to gain promotion.
People will give me featherstone as a current example but there’s no way a part time club can win promotion and go up, become full time and stay up the next season. It’s too much of a transition, that’s why Leigh are putting together a super league squad for next season already
Another chance to bang the drum for a supporters buy out of at least 50% + 1 shares (The German round ball League model).
If we envisage the club ever buying the stadium the last thing we want is a Sugar Daddy buying it with loans that can be withdrawn in a heartbeat, bankrupting the club (sound familiar?).
If the supporters own the majority voting rights we would at least have a say in whether a purchase should go ahead and under what conditions (payback over x years and such).
In the meantime we could make use of the many micro-sugar Daddies in Widnes and, who knows, we might be able to fund a full time team ourselves.
How do fans think that WVRLFC could pay for the upkeep of the DCBL Stadium?
Exactly plus stewarding insurance etc.
@mick-george by using the facility for what it is, a conference room a party room a social club a function room a playing pitch for other local sports teams to pay to use the facility
advertising boards, match day entertainment would bring in more fans, boxing gym/martial arts/mma facilities
stadium tours, open air concerts, school sports days,
all these events would bring people through the door and if we can suitably price refreshments we can make money.
@mckeeverviking
That is basically what the council use it for.
Why would they give that income up???
We can’t afford to run a full time squad, we don’t have any marketing or commercial capability, we are a semi-professional local sports club that can’t raise anywhere near a decent amount to support a squad of 25 players and about 5 permanent staff. How does anybody imagine we can find the money to manage the upkeep of the stadium for a year let alone afford to buy it ? Serious question.
The idea of fans buying the club is equally far fetched. VIQI does a good job but take the amount they raise each year (as the amount fans contribute freely each year). Then imagine the cost of purchasing the asset from the council is around £5 m. How many years would it take based on current voluntary contributions to buy the ground. Then add on the running costs for the first 5 years …..
The “best” hope is ne of us wins the lottery, loses our marbles and decides to through millions down the plug hole 😁.
Another chance to bang the drum for a supporters buy out of at least 50% + 1 shares (The German round ball League model).
If we envisage the club ever buying the stadium the last thing we want is a Sugar Daddy buying it with loans that can be withdrawn in a heartbeat, bankrupting the club (sound familiar?).
If the supporters own the majority voting rights we would at least have a say in whether a purchase should go ahead and under what conditions (payback over x years and such).
In the meantime we could make use of the many micro-sugar Daddies in Widnes and, who knows, we might be able to fund a full time team ourselves.
We don't have enough supporters for a credible 50+1% buy out.
That's why we are where we are.