Open Letter to the Board

[everyman]

I’ll pick you up on the new stand we so dearly need. Why would anyone invest £10m odd on a new stand at a stadium which sits on land which isn’t even owned by the club? It does not make commercial sense for an investor.

Also we have just invested in solar on the stadium which will reduce overheads and produce a small income at times when not in use. That’s forward thinking as was purchasing the training ground.

It is a challenge, but if I recall correctly the lease is for well over 100 years so it is not as if they build a stand and hotel for example and 20 years later we are evicted. Also the council is our LL not some fly by night property developer.

Many multi milion pound developments are based on the land being leasehold from a council or large land owner and it is not a problem. I just don't belive the Board are really pushing it, for over 10 years we have the same old excuses, why not work with the Cheltenham Civic Trust type of organsiation to create a re generation vision for Cakebridge, Whaddon Road and The Social CLub with the ground at the heart, just like they have done for Cav House. It would generate more excitment about the what could be possible if we looked at all the council owned land. A high level vision is reasonbly cheap and would at least show some positive action, rather than, well we spoke to the council and nothing has changed.... A bit of proactivity would be nice.

I wonder if the council could build their much needed offices on the ground including a new stand with office space on the car park side ?

[London Exile]

There’s a lot of talk about the role of the council but they’ve been supportive of the club in loaning money for the Solar panels. When it comes to the new stands it’s the additional land not owned by the council that the club want that’s a problem!

Any new stand is about generating extra revenue but does the club really need a new stand to do that in the short term?
Could repurposed shipping containers be installed on the car park and offered as office space to rent? Put a small 3G area in the car park like the one in Prestbury Field that can be rented out (fans of a certain age might remember that gravel area we once had)
Any scheme will cost money but surely there’s options where the outlay and return on investment is palatable

[CS85]

What's incredible is how everyone flip flops from one extreme to the other at the drop of a hat. It's been run the same way for decades, as Paul Baker said on the Trust podcast - no outright owner, no one who can determine the fate of the club on their own, etc...

In that time we've seen more success than we could dare to have dreamed of. There's been stumbles along the way, but in my 30 years following this club, I'd say it's been a lot more ups than downs. I speak to a lot of people who followed this club before I did and they all say, almost to a man, that they never dreamed of us being in the Football League, let alone in the 3rd tier.

When we're doing well, we're the perfect example of how a club should be run. When we're struggling, we've the worst set up in the World and are non-league off the pitch.

I've said it many times before - in this social media age everything has to be black and white. There are so many layers of grey though. How the club is set up works for us. It's not infallible and, of course, there can and should be improvements. But I'd rather our set up than a Dale Vince coming in and changing the club's identity because he's able to flash a bit of cash.

Si I completely agree we are very well run,fantastic achievements for how are club is set up.....and here's the point it's still set up like a non league club,in 25 years the facilities and business should have been levelled up the majority.
We have got to this level three times now and have failed to step up and consolidate because of the off field issues.
And guess what if we ever get back to this level it'll happen again because bugger all will be done to change it.
I'm not talking about a quick turn around now spending millions to get there....it should have been done in that period of time slowly but surely.
Two times we got to this level before and went down because of it,we never learned,we sat back and thanked our lucky starts because we played afc dog and duck 30 years ago.
There's a whole generation who have seen 25 years of league football(bar the 1 season tour) and they now expect a football club who's run like an FL club and I feel that's where the frustration is creeping out from.