The Future of Valley Parade?

Michael Gove, April 2016.
“The day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want”.

Imagine City walk away from VP with a massive dilaps bill and two years cheaper rent at Halifax albeit with decreased season ticket, advertising and hospitality income. After brilliant negotiations on reducing rent they return to a VP that’s had no more than essential maintenance performed in the two year empty period. The roof still leaks and the hot water in the ladies is still broken. The shop roof remains in good nick though.

Meanwhile a good part of the fan base has found something else to do with their Saturday afternoons and the reduced rent is once more a burden.

Or an as yet unidentified benefactor pays £100m or more for a stadium to be built at an as yet unidentified plot of land that needs a half arsed council to approve and someone to design and build. City have to pay rent because nobody is spending £100m without wanting a return of some sort. This was Cov City’s back up plan to negotiations which almost to a man Cov fans thought was pie in the sky.

So, like Gove and holding the cards which cost the UK 4% of GDP and which is apparent in all our monthly tax bills, to be very careful about what you wish for.

Gibb might have a useless pile of bricks and steel but to be fair, he’s had his money back. Him converting his ownership of the stadium in to a 50% share of the club would need both parties to swallow some pride and some financial losses but might work out for both. Reduced rent, promotion and a more valuable and saleable club.

 

Spot on. We spent £ millions on delapidation works ( 130 stations) only to win the franchise and then repaint them all again a different colour again costing £ millions. Hence why do we think new roofs are being done and talked about with two seasons remaining? It’s “INVESTMENT” that cannot be ducked, like it or not.

Yes you are more than right , when I replied to the original comment “ Then what” . I didn’t get a reply.

 

You've spelt maintenance wrong.

 

They are linked of course, keeping up with maintenance nullifies delaps , whether it’s done towards the end or at the end its still a huge potential bill. Other than that I may be missing your point. .

 

As fans we shouldn’t even be aware that that the club shop had a new roof, it’s pathetic. They should be able tell us how they are making the club better (i.e. transfers, academy prospects, something exciting) not basic maintenance tasks. Rightly, the club get a lot of shit for this nonsense.

 

Ha, don’t get me started on the franchise system

 

I think what @Petrov is saying is maintenance is not investment it SHOULD be part of overall spending on the stadium, it won’t get us promoted but is part of the physical structure of the club.

 

I know commercial lease agreements are different, but how can Bradford City be liable for putting a new roof on Mr Gibbs assets Surely as landlord, he has a duty to make sure the basic structure is viable, i can understand some of the fixings being the clubs to maintain. Doors ,toilets ,turnstiles etc, but surely not such a major outlay for a new kop roof costing millions.
I rent a building for my company and the landlord is liable for the basic structure , me for internal fittings etc.

 

It is absolutely you are right , but poorly run businesses , as many claim we are, leave it until the last minute, find out they have more to do after surveys and find out they haven’t set aside enough to pay for delaps.
Glad we aren’t leaving it late, but we have to recognise maintenance and delap of such a big structure won’t come cheap. Like it or not with such a “ fluid “ income these could take priority over other spending , aka team. All the devil is in the detail of these lease deals . Gibb has been no mug for sure, Rhodes had little choice?

 

20 years of working with/ for/ in it! Dreadful system

 

Good post, we hear Gordon Gibb said in the past he'd like to get back into footbal but I'm not sure if would be with someone like Rupp who obviously didn't do his due diligence with regards Rahic,

 

It was said in a glowing light, like we should all appreciate it somehow. You just know when Sparks wrote that letter he was very happy with that line.

Like you said, we shouldnt even know about it.

 

Gibbs doesn’t own the pension fund does, or. He would need to buy it off them first in order to convert it to shares.

 

It's a red herring Rupp threw in to try and deflect from the situation, as he should know as the tenant we are responsible for the up keep of the stadium which includes the dressing room/shop/ticket office

 

Not sure if you were around then, but we had a gun to our heads, banks didn’t want to know, and the only person who would talk to us was Gibb. Not sure about the details, all I remember was that the club had to maintain the property to a H&S standard. It was that or open the door to the receivers.

 

A structure where most of its parts are going on for 25 years old and older, the planned and reactive maintenance programmes are always going to be huge factors.Old Trafford has exactly the same problem obviously on a scale factor many times larger. Another example is the John Smiths Stadium in Huddersfield.

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/way-forward-john-smiths-stadium-30150652

Back in 2022 it was revealed a backlog of maintenance issues would see a figure of between £8 to £10 million would need to be spent over a 5 five year period to extend the life of the stadium to 2050. Both our stadiums were built through the 90s with part of ours going into early 2000 if i remember. i would expect we might also have a similar costing coming the way to Valley Parade in the not to distant future.

 

Bang on , which also means that ongoing, expensive maintenance , is critical to negate the huge delaps bill at the end , even if we were to negotiate a renewed lease, delaps have to take place in my experience.