The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Mansfield Town Saturday 16th March 2024 3:00pm

Right so we need a new stadium then. If I think at the clubs who have recently (last 10 years or so) had a new stadium then you’re looking at £15-£20million depending on quality of facilities and capacity. Oxford are looking at a new stadium at a cost of £130-150mill which will probably be an all signing all dancing complex and will also be fully electric.
So actually £500k is small change to what it would cost the club in loans and required investment to build a new Stadium.
Lots of clubs get help from their local authorities.. For a city of Bradfords size then the council would be silly not to even consider it.
Yes it’s not ideal losing £500k a year but we don’t have anyone willing to put their hand in their pocket and build us a new stadium.
I’ve mentioned it before.. Wycombe are currently looking to spend £20-£25million on new training facilities. WYCOMBE! We have ideas of being a club better than the division we are in but our infrastructure is really really poor. It’s seen years of mismanagement. I hate the cliche but we are where we are and deservedly.

 

Wasn't Gibb interested in buying the club at some point.That seems the only way we could get ownership of the ground back.I can't see it been available for 5 million.

 

Nope we don’t need a new stadium. We’ve discussed this and aside from Odsal there is no viable alternative site anyhow.
We need to stay at VP but on vastly reduced rental terms or buy the ground back.
We CANNOT enter into a new lease deal with Gibb at 500K a year. It’s killing us and any chance of progression on the pitch.

 

That’s one solution in that Gibb buys the club, therefore almost guaranteeing the pension fund ALWAYS has a tenant.

 

It’s funny you think that we can’t move away from VP.. it’s this kind of nonsense holding us back.
I get the sentimental part but VP is looking its age and is very shabby in parts. It’s in a truly terrible area, there are no decent facilities or amenities really around it and we don’t utilise it for anything other than football. New stadiums offer huge amounts of opportunities.
We could easily have a new state of the art 25000 seater stadium with hotel, fan zones, decent club shop, potential for concerts etc etc. we just have zero vision.
I find your attitude towards it negative and to be honest I feel this spreading through our fan base. Rupp at the stadium yesterday and one person confronted him.. ONE! We’ve previously bottled fly overs etc. We are lying down and taking it and clearly the ambitions of many fans are the same as the owner and CEO. Mediocre.

 

It really isn't the ground rent that's killing progression of this club.

 

This may be pie in the sky but this is what I would do if I was Rupp.
You would assume Gibb controls the pension fund so offer him a share in the club in return for a buy back of the ground
As soon as the ground is in our ownership the club becomes more attractive to potential buyers.

 

It isn't as simple as you make out. This has been done to death many times. Where would you build it and with whose money? I think a 20K stadium would be more than suitable with scope for further expansion if needed.

A decent stadium with all the facilities and other transport infrastructure needed would cost upwards of £40-60 million I would guess.

 

I agree and I also agree it’s been done to death but to take it off the table completely would be daft. It would take an owner with serious clout but I’ll say it again if clubs like Wycombe can spend £25million on new training facilities and Oxford can look at a new stadium at around £130million then our own ambitions as fans should be the same. Yes we have to be realistic but I’m actually jealous of these clubs. There is a vision and ambition and what we have is a CEO explaining our vision is to stay in the football league.

 

Bluntly, the ace that Gordon Gibb's personal pension fund holds is that they can kill the club. They can see us lose our league status if we cannot fulfil fixtures.

I question if that's the outcome he would want. Would he want the vitriol that would come with that and the potential negative impact on his business?

As is a self-invested pension Gordon Gibb isn't bound by the requirements of standard company schemes. Hell, we could use the pension pots from 5-10 posters on here, set up a self-invested pension scheme and buy the ground ourselves if GG would sell, That group could then decide to charge a much reduced rent for the ground, if they do wished, but at the expense of their own personal gain.

It is purely Gordon Gibb's desire to maximise his investment, not any legal duty, that is the issue. As both trustee and beneficiary of his pension fund that owns the ground, he makes the choices.

Yes, he helped the club at the time when it had no where to go really, but he has literally and personally made millions from doing so. Millions from Bradford City fans.

There is a zero sum outcome: no Bradford City, no more income for Gordon Gibb and the pension fund left holding a piece of almost worthless land. There is also a situation where a much reduced rent is charged while in L2, to increase as we go up the leagues. It is in Gordon Gibb's gift to do this.

 

You must not have read my above post #479
Not sure I'll ever be able to come up with the same conclusion as yourself, to go into any negotiations you have to have an alternative and once again given your above we have nothing to negotiate with or am I missing something, as the teacher said, Loyalbantam must do better.

 

Sorry I posted my reply before I read your reply to @Kevin and your quite right would Gibb want to bankrupt the club and lose any sort of future finance for the Pension Fund you would hope not.
Unfortunately that seems to be our only negotiating tool if it can be classed as a negotiating tool, now if we had spoken with lets say Halifax Town with regards going to the Shay on a temporally basis and it was O/K with the EFL then we have something to negotiate with, who knows what's going on in the back ground as I posted if nothing else Ryan has got Gibb back onside even if its only as a sponsor.

Unfortunately as @wetherbywhaler points out the Shay already has both football and rugby played on it, Huddersfield Town the same, I very much doubt Leeds United would want us I honestly can't see the club having any sort of negotiating tools apart from your above which is a massive gamble to call Gibbs bluff if the new terms are not favourable to Bradford City.

 

Why don’t we have anything to negotiate with? Just an acceptance of being the tenant is negotiation when Gibb has no alternative use of the ground / land.
There ARE viable options for us to groundshare or don’t you agree? It won’t suit everyone and yes we’ll probably lose yet more fans who can’t or don’t want to travel to say Halifax / Rochdale / Oldham / Bury / Barnsley.
But once an alternative venue is secured in principle we can go to that negotiating table where we hold some aces.

 

I agree with your reply my only concern is even if we had the backing to build the above where within the Bradford boundary could it be built, as you will know that situation has been well versed and as yet no one has come up with answer with regards an area of land big enough to construct all the above.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I agree that to try and call his bluff would likely be counterproductive.

However, I do believe it could be possible to come to some sort of arrangement with Gordon Gibb that reduces the current level of rent for a period of time. That might involve Mr Rupp being prepared to be flexible and encouraging of a benevolent landlord.

Quite simply, two very rich men could come to an agreement that puts more money into the club's playing budget and gives us hope that the future can be better.

 

Pardon? I’m negative? Where have I said I’m averse to leaving VP? I think you’ll find it’s others on here you might be mistaking me for?

 

Think you might have missed my reply to @Hulmebantam #492, I suggested maybe the Shay as a temporary home but also pointed out they already accommodate both football and rugby, IMO your other alternatives are not viable we'd be down to around the 5000 mark possibly less with regards fans, we cant get fans to come to Valley Parade with the stuff that's being served up at the moment imagine that at the likes of Bury, Oldham or Barnsley.
Let's hope the ongoing talks with Gordon Gibb have been about more than sponsorship going forward.

 

Maybe Ryan getting Gordon Gibb back onside to at least sponsor the club is the first step, I've posted in the past if the stadium was made available it could be in the owners interest (Stefan Rupp) in our case to purchase the stadium and lease it back to Bradford City at a more reasonable rent that may not impact on the clubs finances giving us more money for the player budget.

 

Thanks Rod Yes I guessed Cook was part of the high earnings group as well as Smallwood.McD not sure tbh as many wouldn’t touch him due to medical reasons?

Cook I wouldn’t suggest however he’s CC or upper L1 quality by any stretch of the imagination?