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Remember Jili Buyabu? He was a Motherwell player for about 23 minutes, before mysteriously disappearing back to Sheff Utd. Well, he delivered his own baby this morning because he couldn't get his wife to hospital. Mother and child both apparently doing well.

The gaffer

I think the issue with the corners is the floodlight towers flanking the Cooper form part of its structure. I’ll look closer and check at the Hibs game, but I think they support the front girder that is hidden behind the advertisement. I don’t know how you fill them in with any hope of putting any seats in to justify the expenditure. The McLean needs major work and not only the seats and metalwork in the lower tier that have been exposed to 35 years of rain, wind and Green Brigade but I’d invite everyone to look at the underside of the roof with the triangular support braces at the next home game, it’s almost fully orange with rust.

Not cited directly but part of the final bullet point. It’s also in the presentation. I’ve also mentioned on P&B in the past that not only changing rooms but laundry, commercial kitchen, all hospitality offerings, manager and media offices, press conference space, etc. It also brings Club 100 into play as a temporary sticky plaster of sorts but I’d personally avoid that place like the plague. Relocation costs, temporary leases, loss of ticketing income, limited premium and minimal enhanced ticketing options plus having to segregate the McLean to accommodate the POD spillover, it all adds up very fast.

Actually, there is one here on Guernsey. Just don't really like the idea of it yet, still feel young in my head.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm pretty fit and lean for my age and good for 90 minutes, so hoping that I don't get injured now before the end of the season. I'll be looking to play either left or right back and had been thinking of playing for the away team (just because I like the shirt and have loads of C&A already), but may have to reconsider that.

Great post....we certainly got our 2 cents worth 😁😁

Your last paragraph is the crucial one Dave, the chairman said in his latest youtube interview that going forward the club are hoping to maximise revenues by utilising the facilities 7 days a week for various uses. For me there are a host of reasons why this will not be possible at Fir park as it stands or an upgraded form given the limitations of the site, so the new stadium option for me is the only logical option, time will tell

Excellent, well thought out post Goggles and I know there is a lot more serious thinking behind it. In short I agree with it. I can think of many points on which to elaborate but will concentrate on only 3. Much has been made of the unique character of Fir Park i.e. the 4 completely different stands. You touch on the need / benefit of having a larger stand to accommodate away fans. This is spot on. Whilst Falkirk and St Mirren have enjoyed healthy crowds, their very limited provision for away fans is costing them. This is especially true of Falkirk's stadium, but I know there are ownership issues there So, as you point out its not just a question of overall capacity, but also of how that capacity is allocated in terms of a home/away split. The second issue is that of filling in the corners if we remain at Fir Park. As you rightly point out the footprint is very constrained. That would be easiest at the north east and south east corners. It would also be possible at the north west corner but would mean relocating the offices somewhere else. The south west corner, which constitutes by far the biggest gap is really problematic given the presence of residential properties adjacent to the boundary. I genuinely don't know how that could be satisfactorily addressed. Now, although the 3 corners could be filled, in theory, there would be practical difficulties in terms of the difference in heights. This is most obvious in the south eastern corner, where the difference in height between the Hunter and MacLean Stands is extreme. Finally, I agree 100% that any new facility has to be used 7 days a week to bring in additional off the field income. Current faciliies in the POD greatly limit the income that can be generated during week days. If this were to be in Ravenscraig, then that could be tied to wider community benefits. As for the latter, its important to envisage what it will be like in the future not what it is there now.

I hope wherever he goes, he gets a good severance clause in his contract, get Ange postecoglus agent involved as he will get no time to develop things at an EPL club or especially the green uglies. We might offer less cash but the job security is better at Fir park.

One thing that's missed in this is that we would need to build a decent standard of temporary changing facilities during the replacement. Apart from the cost there is limited areas for locating them.

Didnt have the desired effect! But at least I got some exercise! 😆😆😆

I'll throw my two cents into this debate as she who shall not be named ruined it the last time this surfaced. A year ago I wrote a presentation as I thought we had reached our Rubicon with respect to FP. It was written with Lennon's prospective transfer in mind as we were due to receive a second once in a generation fee for a player four years after the last one. With the success we've had this season we could be facing a high seven to low eight figure cumulative total this summer which only adds to our list of options. I think it's worth pointing out that while the McLean adds to the quirk of FP, since it was completed the second tier has earned us approximately £10-12m in extra revenue over a single tier stand. I suspect that extra income has played a major part in our 40+ top tier status and often kept the wolf from the door. For example, St Mirren will never sell more than 2,000 seats to away support in their 8k stadium. We will sell 20k extra away seats than them over a season which is approximately £400k in extra revenue. I should add, I'm very much a proponent of a new stadium and studied architecture at university, I’m just convinced in the modern game you need to have multiple ancillary income streams beyond hosting 25 or so games a season. However I'll flag some of the issues I've seen brought up on this thread already: It's human nature to be resistant to change, I can't fault anyone for nostalgia being a factor for them. We can't ignore FP is limited in what we can do or achieve. If we strive to be the best we can be on the pitch that should extend to what surrounds the pitch. Training Facility - We were looking at one in Muirhouse, now there's talk of Watling Street. A building with changing, physio, conditioning, gym, rehab, dining room and kitchen and possibly an integrated grandstand. If moving to a new stadium the first thing to consider would be a campus where all facilities are centrally located. The main stand could incorporate all of these functions to avoid duplication with training pitches around the stadium footprint (think Man City). Essentially the cost of a satellite facility could be absorbed and spent on the stadium to give an enhanced experience. Design - When there's so much to admire off the park in recruitment, transfers, etc. why would anyone assume the decision makers would drop the ball and not take heed and avoid the traits of all the poor stadiums constructed in the past 25 years. You'd think they'd look to Tynecastle as a very good basis for ideas. I think this fear is unfounded. Transport - Best not to use 2026 transport links to a pretty much empty site to what may evolve. Not many bus companies that would spot an opportunity and then not act on it. Income - Vast improvement on hospitality offering and revenues. Ability to hold all events PotY etc. in house, ramp up outside/midweek events. Look for business' that may want to be tenants, have facilities available for public 7am to 11pm such as cafe/restaurant/etc. and sweat the asset. Cost - Safe to say since covid base materials have jumped as has labour, what we may have faced years ago have increased at a rate of knots. However there are ways and means to address it. If we pursue a new stadium we would have a sizable down payment. We could easily sell the McLean twice over to the OF and that stand perfectly illustrates the precedent of maximising and exploiting the OF support. Look to grow home support from current 7k (still a bit mad to type that) to 9k and continue to allow away support a minimum of 5k (to maintain current away revenues) moves us into a 14k capacity stadium territory. If you assume every 1,000 away capacity we add we make at least £100k per season (1000 seat x three OF games x £33), expand that to 2,500 seats (17.5k stadium) and it's £250k per year extra over current revenues. Over 20 years that generates an extra £5m + inflation at the conservative end of the projections over and above what we earn now. Get top six in half those seasons, plus Hearts and Falkirk have shown this season could easily bring in excess of the McLean 4,800 capacity if it was possible. The cost, upheaval and disruption of demolishing the POD and it's replacement out of commission for at least one full season cannot be overlooked. That stand is our primary breadwinner and our revenues during the construction would face a 7-figure loss in addition to the build cost. I appreciate a lot of the above is back of fag packet sums but I'm happy to address any omissions, errors or oversights if highlighted. I have one idea that I think would have legs but it would need major central and local government involvement but I don't think there's anything in the pot. Future Stadium - Presentation

Hope you enjoyed the walk!

Don't forget the Walking Football leagues.

Get fit for it, FP is bigger than it looks and drags the legs from you. Try for the home team if you can, our away facilities are terrible and the dressing room has 2 broken radiators you can't switch off for the lulz, Standard is fat fucks to decent amateur whenever I've been involved (maybe 8/9 times) Cost depends if it's an auction style? Rolling sub is your best bet as not many last 90 minutes, I would reckon you'd get a game at CH for less than up front, ball park 100 - your max

Yup, win on Saturday keeps us in mix .that's all we can do and see what happens

Bottom line is we can only just keep doing what we are doing and win. Can’t really rely on anyone to do us a turn.

Correct it wont change , just a pipe dream. I don't do quirky 😆I prefer symmetrical stadiums that don't look like they have a different style stand for each day of the week, like Fir Park and Pittodrie.

At least it would be more palatable

Best just going for a walk and check the score when its over! Much less stressful! 😆😆😆

A game lasts 90 mins mate, or in the case of Celtic, 99 or so.....

Maybe adopting MJC attitude has helped! 🤣 1-1

Ah well, getting hee haw help from dons tonight

I see the Daily Record have run out of people saying "JBA is going to Celtic" and are now running with Ross McCormack saying JBA will snub Celtic and go to the EPL.