All Activity

It’s just little things too @Kmcalpin a new POD or stadium needs a large production/commercial kitchen, the training complex as shown has one (however, only catering to 40? at any time). The new stadium/POD would probably have a hot and cold plunge, the new facility has both, more doubling up. All significant costs in isolation but minor in the overall sums discussed. Everything on one campus has economies where spaces and functions imperative to put on football matches on Saturday’s at 15:00 can be utilised every day without having a satellite clone which has its own costs (construction and ongoing).

Typing into the wee hours on here in a specific thread is my only outlet on this subject.

I think this in itself creates a whole different level of increased local backlash than you maybe assume. A sandstone school (listed?) building with an emotive history of its own being moved to a site elsewhere would be a lot more of a rallying call for a wider set of residents than those inconvenienced by matchday crowds and car parking. Knowetop’s catchment goes down into Greenacres. The school grounds themselves are about two acres, would you be advocating for what is currently the Hunter stand to be the new main stand? One five a side pitch would have to go. If you’re proposing an increase in the capacity of the Hunter it’s dead in the water. Under this you’d image we’d have to contribute to the new school cost, demolition, replace the POD as it’s on life support, then start of the Hunter then the McLean roof and seats. We’d be at £20m all about keeping the centre circle where it is currently? I’d ask when the council is talking about closing libraries and sports centres because they’re broke then asking them to finance a new school is a hard ask. It would be a brace set of councillors to support such a move. Remember our previous Academy was shelved because the Bullfrog (God rest her soul) pub team objected. @Wee Alpha the issue here is you’re dropping our capacity by 2,500-3,000 because I guess 10k is a round number? Our gate revenues are reduced from their current levels. The current operational gap would increase so there’s a lot more emphasis on the hospitality to make it up. using 2,500 seats x 6 games x £24 = £350k, that’s quite a lot of extra cash to find. Maybe scarcity would allow us to charge more? On Thursday we had 8,000 Well fans inside FP due to the nature of the fixture but not far off the heights at the tail end of last season. Move the fans in the McLean into the covered bucket seats in the POD and we’ve maxed out our home availability. Why would we consider capping the easiest revenue source we have available? I’ve tried to stress so much through this, 5,000 extra OF tickets realises £10m over 20 years. The OF orcs finance 25%-35% of our stadium and we don’t touch our current income.

The cost of buying the school out would be prohibitive. The Council would be looking at our club coming good for the cost of building a replacement school, IF a suitable nearby site could be found. That wouldn't come cheap. I'm with G &F in that the case for a training centre should be examined again. His costings make sense. We'd be forking out at least £1.5-2.2m initially for this development and it would be physically distant from either Fir Park or a new stadium. Its implied also that there would be further phases all coming at a cost. My concern too is that this would be located on another organisation's land and outwith our control. Yes, it might be a charitable Trust but personalities and policies change over time, especially over 99 years. Still, it is an improvement over current arrangements. At the very least the options for stadium improvement and relocation should be assessed with the need for the training base. Now is the time to do it.

I mean all.i want is a good team.on the park

We can but dream. 10k steel stadium

Money makes the world go round. Not as easy as it sounds but....... work with NLC, buy the school out - assist them to relocate if necessary, that effectivly doubles the FP footprint when you take into account our pitches. That allows much more of a redevelopment/new stadium on the existing site, keeping us in touch with the town & our roots while realising many of the benefits G&F puts forward. As i said, not easy but its certainly worth exploring, particularly when we have funds which can smooth the process........

I love that you have put so much thought into this. Do you still have access to communication to the club through the Well Society workstreams? I would hope that these are all ideas that have been shared and are being discussed in tandem with the feasibility studies that were carried out. Its a massive decision/opportunity for the club right now as we have never had the funds available to us that we have currently. I trust that the current board are now younger and more forward thinking than before and will make qualified decisions with the best interests if the club at the heart of it. However, the wider the group contributing to the information /ideas side of things, the better for me.

'Well Again says it was 13/2/65. Andy score two and Joe McBride the other. His corners were often "bananas" or "yella hings" as we called them in the frozen wastes of EK.

Another point I've mentioned before, but I think it's worth giving it a post of its own in this thread, is the proposed training facility at Dalziel Park. When the plans were first published, I gave my thoughts on the design and, if I'm honest, I hope the final product is significantly more ambitious than what's shown in the planning documents. However, with the extraordinary tsunami of transfer income we've generated this summer, I think it's only right that we revisit whether Dalziel Park still represents the best long-term investment for the club. The documents submitted to North Lanarkshire Council describe this as Phase 1. That consists of the new building, equipment/storage sheds and converting the running track pitch to an all-weather surface with floodlights. That wording itself suggests/infers there will be a Phase 2? What does that look like? Upgrading the five-a-side pitches? Covering one with indoor dome? Additional parking? Or does it ultimately make sense to become a full club base, allowing us to move operations away from K-Park and cease renting? If that's the intention, there are further costs to consider. We'd need facilities capable of hosting Women's and Academy fixtures. Under current SWPL 1 ground regulations, the minimum capacity is 1,300 spectators. At present we effectively work around this by using K-Park, which only holds around 660 spectators (400 seated). A permanent home would also require things such as (from SWPL guidance): Broadcast-standard floodlighting. A press area. A main camera gantry on the halfway line. A reliable secondary power supply. Dugouts meeting competition regulations. Appropriate changing facilities and supporting infrastructure. When the plans first appeared, a few people took a punt and estimated the building alone at somewhere between £1.5 million and £2.2 million, which doesn't seem unreasonable. Looking at comparable projects, the additional infrastructure isn't insignificant either. FIFA Quality Pro artificial pitch including engineered sub-base, shock pad and drainage: £850k-£1.1m Broadcast-standard floodlighting: £150k-£250k Backup generator and associated services: £80k-£100k A modest 1,300-capacity stand with changing rooms, media facilities and basic hospitality: I'd struggle to see this coming in at much under £1.2m Additional parking, landscaping and site works: £150k+ Obviously not everything would necessarily happen at once, but it's not difficult to see the total investment reaching £4-5 million over any multiple phases. The other aspect I'm less clear on is ownership. Dalziel Park is a charitable trust and, unless I've misunderstood the arrangement, Motherwell wouldn't actually own the land. We may have an excellent long-term lease with favourable terms, but ultimately it would still be a major investment on a site we don't control as an asset. Happy to be corrected if I've got that wrong. None of this is intended as criticism of any Dalziel Park facility. If the club proceeds with it, it will be a significant improvement on what we have now. Few clubs are co-located but that's down to land availability, if Celtic cold have secured 10 acres beside Parkhead, would they still prefer Lennoxtown? What I'm really asking is whether this summer has changed the equation. If Ravenscraig has now entered the fray to genuinely being considered for a new stadium, should we pause before committing several million pounds on Dalziel Park's phase 1 & possibly 2 and ask whether some or all of that investment would be better directed towards a wider football campus instead? We'd still need at least three full-size grass training pitches for rotation, along with 5/7-a-side pitches. But many of the expensive elements we're potentially talking about at Dalziel Park .... hospitality, changing rooms, media facilities, floodlighting, generators, kitchens, parking, offices, catering and security, would already exist as part of a wider stadium development. Would a gym block booked from 9-12 Monday to Friday not be monetised to the public outside those hours? The biggest challenge is the main playing surface. A natural grass stadium pitch simply isn't designed to cope with 40-plus competitive matches every season, particularly when the women's season extends into the summer and removes much of the recovery and renovation window grounds staff traditionally rely on. That raises an interesting question. Is there a technically and financially viable way of incorporating an interchangeable natural grass and artificial surface (or second grass pitch) within the stadium footprint? It would undoubtedly consume a significant portion of any savings made elsewhere and add considerable engineering complexity, so it's far from a cheap solution. However, if it could be achieved, the benefits are substantial. You'd create a venue capable of operating virtually 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It could host first-team, women's and academy football, community use, multi-sport events and commercial hires, while ensuring every Motherwell FC team has a permanent home on a single site. The increased utilisation would also create revenue opportunities that simply aren't available from a stadium that's used for a couple of dozen afternoons each year. Maybe the answer is still Dalziel Park. Maybe a split-site model remains the best option. But even with a rebuilt POD there would be a host of duplication of facilities with Dalziel Park and a weekday disconnect that doesn't exist currently. I'm just not convinced that, after the financial position we've put ourselves in this summer, it isn't worth stepping back and asking whether our long-term infrastructure strategy should be a little more ambitious than it looked 12 months ago.

I resemble that remark. Resent , bloody predictive text.

We used to have fish and chip shops in those days.

Used to lick out septic tank with back of tongue......eeeeeeeee........luxury

Still do in Coatbridge.

Although, if you wanted hot running water you had to kindle a fire in the living room fireplace to heat the water.

Aye! And they also had cheeky wee bastards Like you back then as well 😂😂

We even had electricity and running water in the 60s.

Surely even that nugget doesn't foresee anything other than a 'well win

Did they have bananas 🍌 in they days grandad.

I remember when we drew them away in the cup in what must have been the early 80s. It was a nil - nil draw at Ochilview, but we won comfortably in the replay. 6 - 1, if my old memory isn't playing tricks.

stenhousemuir always triggers an old memory for me when we beat them at fir park, in the Scottish cup, I think. Andy Weir scored the winning goal for us in a 3-2 victory. I think it was the Motherwell times the described his goal as a banana shot. 😂😂 I’m thinking that was maybe mid 60’s??

Definitely and there is an incentive for us to get through. You’d expect Celtic to beat Dundee Utd removing the latter from the Quarters and also that Del and Rangers take care of St.Mirren so we won’t need to worry about playing them in a Cup tie in this tournament.

Happy enough with this draw though Stenhousemuir sailed through their group so it’s definitely not a gimme. Hopefully we don’t burn ourselves out in the (potential) European game on the Thursday night because this one is more important. We won’t be able to wear our new Claret away kit for this one either, which isn’t a bad thing.

Some good games in that draw.

If I’m correct then due to us playing on the Thursday, the game will be on the Sunday or Monday but if we get through against HJK - a big if I know - will it be on the Sunday or will the Scottish league screw us for money if Premier want to screen it live on the Monday?