Richey Edwards Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 2 minutes ago, Shibuya said: Am i right in saying that McCall would have been managing Clydebank at the time? Just shows you how long ago it all happened. McCall was at Clydebank 1997-2000 before a brief period at Morton and then being the last ever Airdrieonians manager. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelson Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 1 hour ago, Richey Edwards said: Why was he never sacked? Surely people must have noticed what a clown he was. Imagine what a McCall or even a Reid could have done with even a fraction of that money. Bill Barr seemed to have a weird father and son relationship with him. Everyone else could see he was a total fraud. Barr chose not to see it and just kept writing cheques. Very sad really. In the end it mattered little as we never could sort out the stadium situation, but the talent Dalziel chased out of Somerset during those years was just astonishing. Personally, I don’t think his reputation ever recovered from the way he treated Ronnie Coyle. As observed, finding anyone from that era who has a nice word to say about Dalziel is not easy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 (edited) 13 minutes ago, Shibuya said: Am i right in saying that McCall would have been managing Clydebank at the time? Just shows you how long ago it all happened. He was certainly Clydebank manager when we bought Gary Teale from them. Think he might have also been at Morton around that time. Edit: as has already been said. Edited February 26 by Iain 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roxanne's man Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Was there not a shite rumour that Barr was going to tear down Airdrieonians stadium and bring it down piece by piece and throw it up at Heathfield for Ayr? I was 8 years old and believed this could happen at the time. He stuck with Dalziel, which, as pointed out, a better manager with the same players would have had us in the spl, if he had done what David Smith has done now and built or expanded the stadium. Looking back, it's actually quite refreshing to have a chairman that is all for the club and has the club's best interests at heart (Ignoring the fact he hired Hopkin and Duffy) The new stand just shows how much time and devotion that David Smith has for his team, something of which previous chairmen, from Barr onwards (I started going to Somerset in 1998) never did. So credit where it's due. I believe this new stand could potentially make the team more appealing to players and fans alike. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eez-eh Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 6 hours ago, Roxanne's man said: Was there not a shite rumour that Barr was going to tear down Airdrieonians stadium and bring it down piece by piece and throw it up at Heathfield for Ayr? I was 8 years old and believed this could happen at the time. He stuck with Dalziel, which, as pointed out, a better manager with the same players would have had us in the spl, if he had done what David Smith has done now and built or expanded the stadium. Looking back, it's actually quite refreshing to have a chairman that is all for the club and has the club's best interests at heart (Ignoring the fact he hired Hopkin and Duffy) The new stand just shows how much time and devotion that David Smith has for his team, something of which previous chairmen, from Barr onwards (I started going to Somerset in 1998) never did. So credit where it's due. I believe this new stand could potentially make the team more appealing to players and fans alike. Bill Barr piled money in and would have built a new stadium if it weren’t for planning roadblocks. Devotion wasn’t an issue, having too much faith in Dalziel was. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diegomarahenry Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 6 hours ago, Roxanne's man said: Was there not a shite rumour that Barr was going to tear down Airdrieonians stadium and bring it down piece by piece and throw it up at Heathfield for Ayr? I was 8 years old and believed this could happen at the time. He stuck with Dalziel, which, as pointed out, a better manager with the same players would have had us in the spl, if he had done what David Smith has done now and built or expanded the stadium. Looking back, it's actually quite refreshing to have a chairman that is all for the club and has the club's best interests at heart (Ignoring the fact he hired Hopkin and Duffy) The new stand just shows how much time and devotion that David Smith has for his team, something of which previous chairmen, from Barr onwards (I started going to Somerset in 1998) never did. So credit where it's due. I believe this new stand could potentially make the team more appealing to players and fans alike. There were a few rumours, we had apparently bought the east stand from Love street when that was knocked down, the pitch was being turned 90 degrees. He was dismantling Airdries ground. The steel work for the new stadium was sitting in a yard in Girvan or somewhere. Barr built the hospitality as a temporary building, the shop and ticket office went from a shed in the car park to more temporary offices. There was always a sense that any day, we’d move to a new stadium. He spent a fortune on planning and bought the ground at Heathfield which he sort of gifted to the club. He also had the ice hockey team and Centrum was his pet project. He must have rented out every flat in Ayrshire for ice hockey and football players. It was good times under him. Daziel was a fud though and he always fell out with the star of the team because they got more praise but at the time they were quickly replaced. Stevie Kerrigan>Ian Ferguson>Glynn Hurst>Eddie Annand The Alarming thing was, Barr was allowed to pack up his stuff and piss off causing absolute carnage. The football club were lucky compared to the Ice hockey team. Because we were always about to move to a new stadium, Somerset was left to rot. The temporary buildings were past there use by date and because of the amount of money he pumped in to the club, left us with a huge tax bill. The only legacy he left was the hospitality. I am glad that Smith has went the other way about. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roxanne's man Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 5 minutes ago, eez-eh said: Bill Barr piled money in and would have built a new stadium if it weren’t for planning roadblocks. Devotion wasn’t an issue, having too much faith in Dalziel was. I'm sure there were a lot of political things that got in the way of Bill Barr building a new stadium for Ayr, again, I was only young and couldn't understand any of it. It seemed to me that he focused more on the Ayr Scottish Eagles than Ayr united back then. At 8/9 years old, when you hear the chairman of the team you support, helped construct parts of Rugby park, you have nothing but questions 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roxanne's man Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 (edited) 12 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said: He also had the ice hockey team and Centrum was his pet project. He must have rented out every flat in Ayrshire for ice hockey and football players. It was good times under him. The Centrum was absolutely brilliant. I'm never completely sure on these things but I believed it was a gift to the public. It's a travesty that I have to take my son to Saltcoats to go skating nowadays, with a shitty Sainsbury's sitting where I once had great fun ice skating as a child. Edited February 27 by Roxanne's man 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diegomarahenry Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 12 minutes ago, Roxanne's man said: I'm sure there were a lot of political things that got in the way of Bill Barr building a new stadium for Ayr, again, I was only young and couldn't understand any of it. It seemed to me that he focused more on the Ayr Scottish Eagles than Ayr united back then. At 8/9 years old, when you hear the chairman of the team you support, helped construct parts of Rugby park, you have nothing but questions Pre devolution, Barr had a lot of public infrastructure work, I think he had the contract to resurface every road in Scotland at one point, when things like that used to happen. Post devolution, he didn’t get any work and there was a perceived problem between him and the Scottish Government who was labour and the local council, that was also labour. That (maybe conspiracy) was thought to be behind the rejection of the planning application. I think it was revised a few times at his cost before being agreed but with a requirement to change Whittlets roundabout added. This was an additional seven figures on to the cost, so he pulled the plug. Asda ended up paying for it I think. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 14 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said: That (maybe conspiracy) was thought to be behind the rejection of the planning application. My recollection is that South Ayrshire's planning team recommended refusing the application and the Council voted against that recommendation to approve it before the Labour administration in Edinburgh called it in and added the planning gains that scuppered the project. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F.T.O.F.1910 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 (edited) 32 minutes ago, Roxanne's man said: The Centrum was absolutely brilliant. I'm never completely sure on these things but I believed it was a gift to the public. It's a travesty that I have to take my son to Saltcoats to go skating nowadays, with a shitty Sainsbury's sitting where I once had great fun ice skating as a child. The Centrum and Ayr Scottish Eagles were fantastic for Ayr/Prestwick/Ayrshire. It goes to show how many local people can and will turn up consistently to local sporting events and get behind it, if the event is fun, entertaining and value for money... I believe it was around 3k seats and they were nearly always full. I've very fond memories of Ice Disca winching and public skating Sundays as well as the hockey. An absolute sin it was taken away. I would like to see far more done at AUFC to make it entertaining and family orientated. My kids both had season tickets but were bored out their skull and patched it... There's only so many chips you can eat, juice to drink and seagulls to chase before you give up, if you're not overly interested in footie. Our lovely fresh tarmac carpark, is crying out for yank style tailgate pre game party and half the teens in the Shire went to the Centrum, solely because there were cheerleaders.... Edited February 27 by F.T.O.F.1910 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shizzlemanizzle Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 I seem to remember that the main stumbling block for the new stadium was that Barr was asked by (possibly) Sam Galbraith to upgrade the Whitletts roundabout as part of the planning permission for the stadium. Barr apparently refused so the planning permission was denied. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roxanne's man Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 What happend to the rumour of Brian Gilmours £45 million stadium? 10000 seats etc? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diegomarahenry Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 6 minutes ago, Roxanne's man said: What happend to the rumour of Brian Gilmours £45 million stadium? 10000 seats etc? He wanted to be given the land at Heathfield, he would sell Somerset, build an entertainment park with the money and then build the football park next to it. That way it would all finance the other. Cameron would only sell if the stadium was in place first, so he fucked off. Which shows how committed he was to the club and the project. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F.T.O.F.1910 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 I'm so glad we never moved, Somerset is beautiful. You only have to go to a league game at Lego Land Livi or whatever it's called this week to see how soulless a 10k seater stadium is with 2k support... No thanks. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thereisalight.. Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 1 hour ago, F.T.O.F.1910 said: I'm so glad we never moved, Somerset is beautiful. You only have to go to a league game at Lego Land Livi or whatever it's called this week to see how soulless a 10k seater stadium is with 2k support... No thanks. I'd take Somerset every day over these Lego type stadiums. Saying that it's very uninspiring along the back of Somerset Road. What ever happend to the mural thing Mathie talked about in the video? There's a few other things I'd like to see upgraded as well as the place does look shabby in parts 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk89 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 2 minutes ago, Thereisalight.. said: I'd take Somerset every day over these Lego type stadiums. Saying that it's very uninspiring along the back of Somerset Road. What ever happend to the mural thing Mathie talked about in the video? There's a few other things I'd like to see upgraded as well as the place does look shabby in parts Probably something that is in the long term basket, next Q&A it would be good to have raised. As, fair play to Mathie, it did seem like he answered pretty much every question they received. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_AUFC Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 2 hours ago, diegomarahenry said: He wanted to be given the land at Heathfield, he would sell Somerset, build an entertainment park with the money and then build the football park next to it. That way it would all finance the other. Cameron would only sell if the stadium was in place first, so he fucked off. Which shows how committed he was to the club and the project. To give big lach some credit, he was good at protecting the club from snake oil / Lyle Lanley types. Remember that Hugh Clarke bloke? 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F.T.O.F.1910 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 1 hour ago, Thereisalight.. said: I'd take Somerset every day over these Lego type stadiums. Saying that it's very uninspiring along the back of Somerset Road. What ever happend to the mural thing Mathie talked about in the video? There's a few other things I'd like to see upgraded as well as the place does look shabby in parts Oh, without a doubt there's plenty of dilapidation but as have seen, money is now getting spent. For myself, even something as simple as the toilets being pulled down and modern worksite type units installed makes a massive difference to the match day experience. I don't know how good murals would look, okay initially they would be mint but 5-10 years down the line? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diegomarahenry Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 19 minutes ago, Andy_AUFC said: To give big lach some credit, he was good at protecting the club from snake oil / Lyle Lanley types. Remember that Hugh Clarke bloke? Absolutely. He said there were a number of people trying to by the club and the majority of them were chancers. The only ones that Went public were Kennedy of Kennedy construction who went bust months after trying. Brian Gilmour who pissed off after being told to sort the stadium first and the Rosta-roof guy who went full breakdown and then went bust. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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