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Rebuild POD stand for me. New stadium in ravenscraig a no for me, no infrastructure at all and no transport links

A new roof on the East Stand and rebuild of the Main Stain should be within financial limitations of the club. Last I read somewhere upgrading the Main Stand would be circa £2million a complete rebuild £5 million. Ayr Utd built a new stand with excellent corporate suites / Function Suite for £3 Million. However only 800 seats. Unless substantial outside investment is available a new ground would be very difficult to realise.

I very rarely post but have posted on this a few times in the distant past. I love Fir Park dearly and believe we must preserve our history and stay / redevelop if at all possible. If we leave Fir Park we will lose something we will never get back. Realistically, we would not get anything special or architecturally interesting, it would be Almondvale with different colours and a bigger away end. That is the economics. I don't know the ins and outs of course, but surely rebuilding the POD from scratch would provide a platform to modernise the stadium / facilities while addressing the worst of the problems, and though expensive would be a more manageable project than a complete move to RC?

At Austin FC opening game this afternoon. Their 25000 capacity stadium built in 2021 cost $260 million and was privately funded.

this game imo is up there with the most important of the season. It’s the game in hand we really need to win. 3 points will put us 1 behind the h#ns and potentially ahead of Celtic if they don’t win midweek. Even if they do beat Aberdeen it still keeps us really close. ive not bought a ticket yet but I will. We need a good support up there. it’s only Sunday and I feel quite nervous about it….. I’m too old for this carry on

If the best option is to re-locate then lots of avenues need to be approached before that final decision can be made. Can a supposedly cash short Local Authority assist in any way? Community Club etc etc with initiatives already in place that improve the lives of locals and lessen the burden on the LA. You would hope the LA would therefore try to find some ways to assist us. Providing the land itself as a start and then ensuring the new ground is reachable by local transport. Could MFC provide modern facilities within the ground to support the LA in their own local initiatives? How about Government ....Scottish and UK....Development Grants? I don't know if Lanarkshire was included in the UK Government's allocation of millions to assist deprived areas. Lottery funding perhaps? A major Company securing naming rights and providing up front funding? There must also be other areas way beyond my understanding. Perhaps the Feasibility Study will have addressed what is available beyond MFC? Clearly none of the above, if available, would cover the full cost. But they might just reduce the Club's commitment to a level that is bearable. My own view is that we should have moved years ago when the Economic climate was much better and LA's were in a far better situation. I still think re-locating is the best solution as we must have already spent millions just keeping Fir Park within safety requirements. Hopefully our now forward thinking Board can come up with a proposal acceptable to all of us.

I think the problem with moving to a new stadium is the lack of joined up thinking when it comes to national or local government and the political will for urban regeneration. Without this becoming a political post (its hard to avoid) its been more than 30 years now since they shut The Craig and we are nowhere near to realising any re-generation of the site. The fault of that lies at the feet of governments of all persuasions both at Westmister, Holyrood and locally. My preference would absolutely be a new purpose built stadium at Ravenscraig. But we would need buy in from government and local councils to ensure that planning allowed for railway lines, roads, bus links, retail and leisure infrastructure that could support the project as part of the bigger venture of re-generating a community long left behind. In the absence of such co-operation, the club is left to try and generate the revenue required to build something fit for purpose, whilst allowing us to remain competitive on the pitch. Thats a big ask. Looking forward to seeing what the feasability studies say, but my feeling is that the path of least resistance will be to demolish and rebuild the POD. The other 3 stands can be maintained in the short to medium term and a new POD would allow us to generate further revenue and bring down some of our costs. Not gonna be an easy fix, but a league win and Champions League money might help! 😉😉😉

i agree about deserving modern, good facilities, but I don't see much of that on offer at the other newer stadiums. And that is going to be the challenge unless some serious money is available.

That old question has resurfaced again following an update at the AGM. In some ways nothing has changed but in other ways it has. The Club Directors had commissioned a report addressing the dilemma as to whether we upgrade Fir Park or whether we move. A Iengthy tome has now landed on their desks and rightly they will take time to digest it. Its interesting now though that a completley new regime is taking a another, fresh look at the issue. I suppose one catalyst is the state of the POD. Anyone sitting in there yesterday will share my concerns. Whatever the directors decide, doing nothing isn't an option. Other parts of the ground also require attention especially the East Stand. However, that can't be redeveloped whilst the school is still there and I doubt if that will close anytime soon. Demolishing and rebuilding the POD will be costly and complicated and disruptive, especially as we don't own the houses at the south western corner. The new regime is maximising the use of every available pocket of land that it can i.e. Mrs Baillies and now the corner between the East and Cooper Stands. But thats a sticking plaster exercise, albeit a creative one. Like Spiderpig, I favour moving to a new stadium. That of course, comes with its own problems namely cost. Whilst the club is now in an extremely healthy position with the prospect of more substantial transfer income to come it certainly won't stretch to constructing a new stadium; nothing like it. If we ever do move in my lifetime, It'll be hard leaving my second home of decades behind but I think that time has come. New generations of Well fans want and deserve modern, good facilities not memories. It'll be interesting to learn what the Directors make of the report. Watch this space.

A jinx would mean nobody ever wins anything.

Do not underestimate the power of the jinx.

Would be nice if we could influence league titles by starting a thread.

I’m with you on that !! Everyone can just speculate on their own

As soon as someone starts a thread on that, the wheels will probably fall off the bus, best left well alone mate.

Was just looking and unless I've made a mistake Hearts are due 4 away games and Hibs are due 4 home games post split which obviously won't happen. Which means there is going to have to be some 'unfairness' in the post split fixtures. I'm guessing the most obvious way to fix it would be to have Hearts play Hibs at Tynecastle 3 times.

Their run is OK, but only one win in their last 6 games. (1 win, 3 draws, 2 defeats). It's going to be another tough one, but our mean defensive record gives me hope in all these matches. (We have conceded 42 fewer goals than Killie!)

He'll have the usual choices then. Sign an extension and get first team experience with us next season, or move to a "big" team to play in their youth side for a year before a permanent move to Ross County.

Only contracted till May according to the club site.

This will be difficult, pressley actually doing a decent job and they have been on a decent run. Fingers crossed a big travelling support and another massive 3pts

The way I look at is if a player goes down when there's no contact then that's blatant cheating. If he goes down when there's even just minimal contact he's every right to try and gain an advantage and at least make the ref and VAR team have a look. Today's and Slattery's last week fall into the 2nd category as far as Im concerned..

Who gave him the hug?

If Celtic were going to tap up JBA, they wouldn't be doing it in the middle of an OF game. I'd be surprised if he ended up at Cetlic, tbh, but not surprised if he moves in the summer.

The Sky coverage of the uglies game showed, JBA and his agent, leaving Ibrox at 80 mins today, obviously chevking the opposition but why was his agent there? However Alex Ferguson was also there so maybe he was being tapped up for the Man Untd job.

He’s having a great season

Well, Livi did draw with Rangers so still hoping Aberdeen can take some points off Celtic. Would be great to go into game at parkhead above them. Of course we have to take care of our business and get 3 points at Dens first.