Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Vietnam91]

Thanks to @David1979 …. Interrupting a UCL presser for breaking dosser news.

We’re #massive lads.

[camer0n_mcd]

A new stadium is a pipe dream, no chance it happens.

[tamthebam]

An indoor stadium with the fans kept nicely in the warm with a moving away end for when the Cheeks visit- it slides out into the cold, a perspex screen comes down to keep the heat in for the rest and the sound of bigotry is kept out by the screen and everyone is happy. 

[Dosser1886]

2 hours ago, Vietnam91 said:

I produced something for the WS to consider recently and I’ll share it on here if there’s interest.

Definitely intested in giving is it a shuftie...

[Vietnam91]

Well we have previous of skewing our stadium to make the most of the sectarian pound.

The question is finding the Goldilocks seating capacity where you can take advantage of that income (which is pretty much unique to our league and maybe Spain), don’t alienate your own fans, keep the atmosphere robust against the other league teams and the build cost. It’s quite a balancing act.

There’s pro’s and con’s on both sides of the debate and as long as you go into it knowing you’re not going to get universal support from the entire fan base, we’ll that’s ok too.

I’ll post the document when I get home. I also feel I’ll have to add a number of caveats before folk start pulling it apart or knee jerk their responses.

[Cloontang]

7 minutes ago, camer0n_mcd said:

A new stadium is a pipe dream, no chance it happens.

Yeah that's pretty much it, Caldwell spoke about it in detail at the Well Society event a few months ago, something needs done though on the stadium front but obviously we need the cash to do it. 

It's no secret that the POD stand is aging, some people might have noticed the black tarp covering seats at the end of the stand nearest the cooper. Apparently we have had a bit of and health and safety hazard brewing with pigeon keech going down the holes of those bucket seats and over time a fair depth has accumulated. We wanted to replace all of the seats in the stand but an issue seems to be that the spacing is too narrow to install similar ones to match the other stands. It going to cost 2 million to bring the POD up to standard or around 4 million to build a new stand modelled on St Mirren's ironically enough.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

According to wikipedia, St. Mirren sold Love Street to Tesco, who also funded the building of a new stadium, before being denied planning permission to build a supermarket on it. Surely that can't be right 

[Desp]

Just now, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

According to wikipedia, St. Mirren sold Love Street to Tesco, who also funded the building of a new stadium, before being denied planning permission to build a supermarket on it. Surely that can't be right 

Nah, pretty sure that's bang on.  St. Mirren agreed a deal with them around 2007/8 IIRC, basically just before the Financial Crash. St. Mirren got their debt paid off and a new stadium built in exchange for their land.  By the time Tesco got around to paying for that, the market went absolutely tits up and the aforementioned planning issues also cropped up.  The land lay derelict for a good few years and there's now housing on it.

As someone said earlier, St. Mirren got an absolutely belting deal (but quite a shite stadium).

[Handsome_Devil]

12 minutes ago, Desp said:

As someone said earlier, St. Mirren got an absolutely belting deal (but quite a shite stadium).

I see this mentioned a lot and never really understood it, sure it's obviously not unique like the old grounds adapted over a century or fancy like the smaller belters out of Scandinavia but in the realm of the possible it's fine - ie neither good nor bad and the atmosphere each game basically comes down to the team and the fans. There have been atmospheres like the moon at FP and I'm sure their ground was bouncing when they beat Celtic 4-0, their playoff win etc.

[Vietnam91]

9 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

I see this mentioned a lot and never really understood it, sure it's obviously not unique like the old grounds adapted over a century or fancy like the smaller belters out of Scandinavia but in the realm of the possible it's fine - ie neither good nor bad and the atmosphere each game basically comes down to the team and the fans. There have been atmospheres like the moon at FP and I'm sure their ground was bouncing when they beat Celtic 4-0, their playoff win etc.

Atmosphere increases massively when people are encouraged to sit together tooth by jowl.

[Mintymac]

1 hour ago, Cloontang said:

Yeah that's pretty much it, Caldwell spoke about it in detail at the Well Society event a few months ago, something needs done though on the stadium front but obviously we need the cash to do it. 

It's no secret that the POD stand is aging, some people might have noticed the black tarp covering seats at the end of the stand nearest the cooper. Apparently we have had a bit of and health and safety hazard brewing with pigeon keech going down the holes of those bucket seats and over time a fair depth has accumulated. We wanted to replace all of the seats in the stand but an issue seems to be that the spacing is too narrow to install similar ones to match the other stands. It going to cost 2 million to bring the POD up to standard or around 4 million to build a new stand modelled on St Mirren's ironically enough.

Yeah I asked the question at the last meet the manager/CEO night . Brian answered the question without any ambiguity.

1. No medium or long term plan to move 

2. Cost would make it a non starter 

3. Would get a fraction of the money St Mirren got for there sale . Prime site for commercial use against use for housing 

So take what you want from that  but it’s pretty clear to me we ain’t moving . 
Straight from the CEO’s mouth

[Ill Ray]

Valakari signs for St Johnstone. 

[capt_oats]

[thisGRAEME]

1 hour ago, Vietnam91 said:

I’ll post the document when I get home. I also feel I’ll have to add a number of caveats before folk start pulling it apart or knee jerk their responses.

You can add all the caveats you like but you can't stop me.

[Ill Ray]

Simo is cool af man. I would’ve appointed him post when Hammel got the job but we’ve landed on our feet with Kettlewell. 

[LarsGunnar Carlstrands Dog]

Look forward to St Johnstone being relegated and you replacing Kettlewell with Valakari and turning him into a world class manager

[Handsome_Devil]

7 minutes ago, Ill Ray said:

Simo is cool af man. I would’ve appointed him post when Hammel got the job but we’ve landed on our feet with Kettlewell. 

Aye, so would I. I get why we didn't go for him before but appointing Hammell - zero senior management experience and no apparent interest in that direction till we named him caretaker - because he was cheaper than the guy with a long record of doing well, if not managing in Scotland, will remain a real puzzle to me.

[boozyBJ]

22 minutes ago, Ill Ray said:

Valakari signs for St Johnstone. 

Bit gutted tbh

[capt_oats]

8 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

Aye, so would I. I get why we didn't go for him before but appointing Hammell - zero senior management experience and no apparent interest in that direction till we named him caretaker - because he was cheaper than the guy with a long record of doing well, if not managing in Scotland, will remain a real puzzle to me.

Aye the other two times he was in for it were 2015 when we went with bringing McGhee back to replace Baraclough (fair enough McGhee got us into the Top 6 with Bara's team) and Robinson to replace McGhee (again, can't really argue as Robinson turned into one of our best managers of recent times).

The Hammell *choice* was just indicative of the "Bad Decisions" to follow - which has quite a nice synchronicity with Dickie's tear stained statement earlier.