Open letter from our owner

It doesn't look good does it then? So the owners will end up piling on more and more debt to improve the stadium and basically just keep injecting just enough cash to service the interest but not ever reducing the amount of debt. If success and increased revenue doesn't come within the three years, what happens then? The end of Bristol Rovers FC? Really looks bleak doesn't it?

To be fair swiss, pretty sure all League 1 Clubs aspire to be "Championship in 3 years". In reality most sane Gasheads would know that is pretty unachievable.
To give a realistic timeframe about getting there with infrastructure and capacity that would make the journey sustainable and achievable would take much longer.
Let's be honest with ourselves - without seriously wealthy owners and doing it piecemeal - it would take more like 7-10 years IMHO.
I would be happy with that. I think people of my generation would be OK with that.
The 'younger generation' want 'success', and they want it now. That isn't going to happen.
"It's the hope that kills you" they say. I don't think that applies to me any more. Because to have 'the hope' you have to have 'the care'. 

The loan for the South Stand was taken out well before the new owners came on board, in fact given their religious beliefs it's v. unlikely they'd ever take out an interest bearing loan, I'm surprised it hasn't already been changed to a non interest bearing loan.

As far as the loan being for £5m and at 15% interest, where's the actual evidence that's the case given ITB/G1981 as clearly turned "rogue" on Gaschat re the new owners so I wouldn't believe a word he now posts.  

Anyway an interest article in today's financial press suggests one of the Asda brothers won't pay any Stamp Duty when they sell their share of the business as it is register in Jersey, which probably finally explains why DS was also registered in the CI . 

That's a bit disingenuous that picture Swiss clearly taken when it was being set up. The gym is essentially an old industrial style unit which has been internally refurbished and insulated.

The important bit is the equipment inside. I've been in that gym a couple of times and the equipment is absolutely first class stuff.

The plan for a bespoke building was made before the AS. Tom first told me about it about 2 years ago when he showed me around the site and I passed comment about it when you were decrying the move to the quarters. I think I remember you saying I had "announced it" when it seemed more people than me knew about it. I assumed you already knew also?! Anyway I digress. Currently for the first team it's a perfectly acceptable set up from pitches/offices/nutrition/meetings/physio point of view and some players I've spoken to they have said it's better than what they've had at other clubs and certainly better than what DC had when he was here.

What's there at the moment won't cater for first team and U16-U23 currently but a new first team building would allow the U16-U23 to move straight into the existing clubhouse with no additional building required.

I do agree with you about the player development model. It could be set up fairly quickly by recruiting a DOF/HOR and 2 scouts. Jamie Hedges was doing an excellent job for us before JB bombed him out and one scout I know who speaks with him every week and who I speak with very regularly says he has a real eye for a player.

Josh Stokes was one of the players he's found who City signed and loaned back, and he's also found another gem in Laurent Tolaj.

So recruiting the correct people isn't hard and it doesn't take long to get it going as most DOFs and scouts have already done 2 windows work and will have a good idea who they would like, good prospects and oven ready signings.

Brentford and Luton have all worked to a similar recruitment model and it's propelled them forward as much as a new stadium would which is often pointed to as the holy grail.

I'll reply without all the quotes ITB.

The training ground isn't fit for the purpose of accomodating all the players, coaches and staff needed if we are going to prioritize developing our own talent because the facilities are neither big enough nor up to the required standard. The pitches are superb, yes, but everything else is simply not good enough. This was acknowledged by Rovers planning consultants when we applied to increase the size of the club house who said it was designed for an amateur rugby club and was not suitable for a professional football club. If further proof were needed we have it in this current open letter where the proposal for a new fully equipped building is described. For anyone in any doubt take a look at this picture of the present gymnasium and medical facility which is rag bag in the extreme. 


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But we've got to get away from our habit of jumping in with all guns blazing and then falling flat on our faces.

To set up a player development programme we first need to consider what we are trying to achieve, how we are going to achieve it, what personnel will we need and what physical infrastructure is required.

We can look at how other clubs do it and learn from that but we should also be willing to think out of the box and innovate if we can. A couple of years ago I proposed an idea which epping described as being like "moneyball" but it came from my experience with horses and it could work equally well with young footballers.

You have your people monitoring outstanding young footballers who have been snapped up by bigger clubs and identify those which aren't making the progress expected. Through research and contacts (market intelligence) you find out why they are not progressing and work out whether you can overcome these problems be they physical, psychological or something else. If you believe you can, and the player continues to falter so is likely to be released, you make an approach before his contract is up and steal a march on the competition by persuading the player and his agent that Rovers is the right club to kickstart his career. It goes much deeper than this of course and it means monitoring hundreds of players but if done systematically I think it's worth consideration.

The picture was taken eighteen months ago in August 2022.

I do remember you saying there was a plan for a new building to accomodate the first team squad with that being the reason the approved expansion of the existing clubhouse had not been started and if it was two years ago the timescale is :

October 2020.           Rovers move to the new training ground with a club house being constructed from old plans prepared by the Rugby Club                                       

November 2020.        Rovers submit plans to expand the size of the club house by 70%

November 2021.        Plans for enlarged club house approved

February 2022.          Discussion of a completely new idea for a separate first team building to be constructed on the site of the current gym

September 2023.       Proposed new development is announced publicly but with little detail and residents consulted on what they would like to see incorporated                                   

November 2023.        South Gloucestershire include part of the training ground on a list of sites which may be granted residential PP at some time in the future                                        

February 2024           Rovers announce a vision for the next three years which includes additional pitches, an indoor pitch and a new building at the Quarters                                  




That we can agree on.



                                    

It does. This is what I dont understand from your comments about the quarters, we do have a good enough facility there to start the infrastructure.  Whatever the fututre of it may or may not look like.

You mention Luton, their training facility, The Brache, is almost a mirror image of the quarters.  Small clubhouse and until this year, an industrial style unit for the gym which has just been replaced with a modular prefabricated design, no doubt paid for from their premier league exploits.  The only thing they have which we havent is a 3G pitch however they only have 1 full size grass pitch.  Their academy is not housed at The Brache either, yet.

My point is, what they had previously was good enough to get them to the championship and beyond but their success was laid in the people they had running the footballing department.  Mick Harford has spent the last 7/8 years purely working on recruitment and scouting plus 4 analysts for scouting, recruitment and performance. Perhaps having someone like Ian Holloway as DOF wouldnt have been such a bad idea in the same way that Brian Tinnion is doing similar things at City.  


HAS speciifcally said when he took over, or it may have been when he sacked the scouse mafia, that he wanted club people in the footballing department.  But so far has made no waves in doing it and is reluctant on giving MT coaches he needs on full contracts.  

I didn’t actually mention Luton ITB but understand what you are saying.

The Quarters is barely fit for purpose for the first team so I can’t see how it can be used for a player development programme without major improvements to accommodate all the extra people. If you were to get in a DOF and more staff and extra players there would be no room for them. And would these people want to come to Rovers anyway when the see the quality of the current gym and medical facilities ? Some players and staff do come for the money but how many good ones are we missing out on because they have a choice of money AND first rate facilities ?

It’s tempting to ask how this conversion has come about so that you’re now agreeing with me on most things even things which Rovers did 2020 - 2023 and which have now proven to be huge mistakes. But I think the immediate point is that we can stop a major mistake happening right now if fans come together with one voice.

Over on Gaschat I see fans are waking up to the fact that if the team isn’t doing well the South Stand will not be anything like full and many of the Gasheads there are people moving from other parts of the ground. Anyone with Rovers best interests at heart can see that spending money on extra capacity in the East Stand would be a bad decision especially if that money is borrowed at a high interest rate. A new East stand which included bars, restaurants, retail outlets, esports zones and areas for social activities and meetings would be beneficial but we know we wouldn’t be getting that it would just be extra seats like the South Stand and that increased capacity is not needed.

So do you agree it would be a good idea for Gasheads to try to persuade the Al- Saeeds to drop the East Stand idea and concentrate on more important issues ?