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The New Raith Rovers Thread


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59 minutes ago, Toddy said:

What would people's opinions be on the club moving out of Kirkcaldy and relocating to Glenrothes?

Edited to add: Do you think our attendances would increase or decrease with a dramatic move such as this?

That'd likely be the end of it for me too, build on the land between  Redhouse and Standingstane Rd would be ideal but is currently designated for housing, mind you they've only just started building again in the town (Beatty Cres/Overton Rd) after a few years of the slowdown in house building. If that land was available it would be ideal.

57 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

Are you a Fife Council member?

No chance the council haven'y 2 bawbees to rub together never mind fund a £MM stadium.

52 minutes ago, pub car king said:

In an ideal world the club would build a new ground in a better location that has no end of facilities that will generate income year round. 

Selling our own ground then trying to put that together is not the way forward, We are effectively making ourselves homeless and then relying on f**k knows who to get this done. That's before the likes of the council get involved and f**k things up even more or find the land or consider things like public transport.

Realistically if the club were to move its going to take about 5 to 10 years to organise and get the funds in place.

If i won the lottery I wouldn't buy the rovers as clubs are a money pit and hugely inefficient at this level but I would buy Starks park so they always had somewhere to play.

 I agree with almost all of this. Where we differ is I actually would invest, but only if I won the Eurolotto and even at that it'd be a new stadium and leisure complex and then it'd be left to board appointed by the trust to run it all.

24 minutes ago, baillieinleeds said:

The land in between the Gallatown and the Boreland. Perfect for commuting and easy links to the motorway.

Beat me to it location, I wholly agree

14 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

There'll be a Fife Council Plan somewhere which will note which areas of land near Kirkcaldy are marked for development and what kinds of development they are marked for. There was a plan, about 15 years ago, to develop an area between Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy into a leisure park. That would be the place to put the stadium. But that's all a bit legoland.

Apart from where the stadium is currently sited, the only sizeable bit of brownfield land I can think of is the bit off Victoria Road by the Lino factory.

Victoria Rd would be another in town site wedged between a main Rd and a railway line, no point moving there.

Edited by Scottydog
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The present board have been trying for some years to get the ownership of Stark's Park returned to the football club. The reason this hasn't happened is down to one man - John Sim. Every director, including the late Turnbull Hutton, has found him to be quite intractable.

Sim's vision for Raith Rovers is that they should be a junior club, so moving to Glenrothes would fit in quite well with this.

At the start of every season the board go out of their way to give the manager as big a budget as they possibly can. Sim has, for some time, wanted to do the exact opposite. Indeed he wants to play all of the U20s to save some money.

All of the above makes me appear to be very pro board or even a board member. I can assure you I'm not. But I am totally against John Sim having any more influence at Stark's Park.

 

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How many come to the games by train? I manage a handful of home games each season and get the train to Kirkcaldy and Stark's Park is pretty convenient for that, short walk from the station and can stop somewhere for a drink too, if I wish. Any move to the edge of town would likely mean me having to drive or get a much earlier train then try and get a bus. (Assuming they wouldn't put on shuttles...). (One positive of relegation is I have four "away" matches a few miles from me....)

Not that there's any money to do it, but I think Stark's Park could be redeveloped to improve the match day experience (with or without an artificial surface) rather than needing to move. Reopen the Railway Stand / close the Main Stand for starters. If we had money, (and a decent architect, who Sim says he's speaking to) I'm sure you could even get some sort of seating in the terracing in front of the Main Stand (or replacing it...). Changing rooms and offices could be put in the North Stand.

As for Sim, too early to tell (for me) until we hear more. Comments made saying it's a positive move or a negative move both sound sensible for the reasons given!

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40 minutes ago, baillieinleeds said:


The land in between the Gallatown and the Boreland. Perfect for commuting and easy links to the motorway.

This would be a brilliant move as we could get the land for £1 as David Murray owns the ground.

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The thought of leaving the San Starko makes me sad [emoji20]


Gives me a semi. Stark's Park is p*sh. We're stuck with no room for commercial growth, if we don't do anything about it we'll continue to be in the shadow of clubs like Dunfermline and Falkirk in terms of infrastructure and potential growth.

Now is the time to change it and I'd much rather have a guy like Sim, with his credentials, in charge than any of the current board. I believe Sims father was a huge Raith fan and that is why Sim helped us out in the first place, he will not want to see anything bad happen to the club but at the same time he'll be willing to make the hard decisions which will give us the best chance of progressing.

It's tough to make big risky decisions for a football club if you're so engrossed in it as a fully fledged fan with multiple connection to the club, both financially and personally. Sim is a guy who is connected but from the outside so he won't be afraid of your average fan complaining about change, he'll just get on with it and do what's best as a business which we need.

The current board must have absolutely zero confidence and quite rightly so after the embarrassing decisions last season. With them staying in charge they'll forever be petrified of making big decisions because of the potential backlash. Stick with them and we'll maybe make it back to 4th in the Championship in 3-4 years before inevitably having another struggle season and end up back down here in League One within 10 years.

I'm excited by this, we're stuck in a rut and hopefully he can get us out of it. This could be one of the best things that has ever happened to our club, let's embrace it!
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The present board have been trying for some years to get the ownership of Stark's Park returned to the football club. The reason this hasn't happened is down to one man - John Sim. Every director, including the late Turnbull Hutton, has found him to be quite intractable. Sim's vision for Raith Rovers is that they should be a junior club, so moving to Glenrothes would fit in quite well with this. At the start of every season the board go out of their way to give the manager as big a budget as they possibly can. Sim has, for some time, wanted to do the exact opposite. Indeed he wants to play all of the U20s to save some money.

All of the above makes me appear to be very pro board or even a board member. I can assure you I'm not. But I am totally against John Sim having any more influence at Stark's Park.

 

 

 

 I look forward to our new derby games with the Strollers and regular trips to darkest Ayrshire in the Scottish Junior Cup.

 

Playing the youth team every season would also be fine with me. Obviously need to get a new youth team every season. And release a few. These are just details. Make it happen. We'll be Ajax in no time.

 

Personally I like radical ideas. John Sim sounds like a breath of fresh air. We can explore new leagues like the oblivion league below us. Regular trips to Berwick, Montrose and Elgin. What's not to like.

 

Where's that GIF of the green goblin?

 

 

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The present board have been trying for some years to get the ownership of Stark's Park returned to the football club. The reason this hasn't happened is down to one man - John Sim. Every director, including the late Turnbull Hutton, has found him to be quite intractable.
Sim's vision for Raith Rovers is that they should be a junior club, so moving to Glenrothes would fit in quite well with this.
At the start of every season the board go out of their way to give the manager as big a budget as they possibly can. Sim has, for some time, wanted to do the exact opposite. Indeed he wants to play all of the U20s to save some money.
All of the above makes me appear to be very pro board or even a board member. I can assure you I'm not. But I am totally against John Sim having any more influence at Stark's Park.
 


[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

What a load of crap. THINK ABOUT IT. So Mr Sim wants to sink tens, potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds of his own cash in to Raith for us to become a Junior club so he makes no return?! No, he wants to run the club more like a business and he's not afraid of clowns like you moaning about it.
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In all seriousness, I think radical change is needed if the club is to do anything more than aimlessly float around the lower leagues giving journeymen footballers a home.

Although we have been making the right noises recently about joined up thinking between the first team and the youth teams, I think a stronger hand at Board level would ensure this was more than just talk.

I also agree that the current stadium is poor. I liked the old Starks, pre-development, better than the current ground. But that's maybe just rose tinted specs talking. Ideally we'd have a new well designed, 5000-6000 capacity ground, with some safe-standing, some seating, all covered. It would have good transport links, pubs and eateries nearby.

The current ground has decent transport links, and pubs and eateries near by. However the ground is a bit of a disaster.

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I probably should have made myself clearer re my comment about being sad to leave Stark's. More to do with the fact that moving to say a St Mirren esque stadium just seems depressing. Yes I know it wouldn't be guaranteed to be a ground like that but can't see it being anything groundbreaking/different to the newer grounds that pop up. Perhaps I'm letting that cloud my judgement on what might be positive move for the club in the sense of allowing us to move forward. Anyhoo it doesn't seem like that's even on the agenda if we're planning on putting an artificial pitch in as early as next year.

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1 hour ago, Scary Bear said:

 


Bit of an Anelka scenario. Right lads here's £200k. Now I'm the manager and I also want to play No.10 and have Socrates printed on the back of my top. And it has to be a Brazil top. And I want a Brazilian band, and some tidy women in those feathery headgear. And I want the stadium named after my dead cat, so that'll be the Puss Stadium. No, that doesn't sound right, let's call it the Fantastic Pussy Stadium. And I want pictures on the seats in the North and South Stand to make up giant photos of my dead cat. And I want to change our colours to red, yellow and blue like Romania. And I want anything else I want. And I want to get pished before giving any interviews to the media. And I want to sign Pavel Nedved. What do you mean he's 50?!!! Get him signed!!! We should also get a woman manager to keep our fans happy. Make it happen!!!

Those are my initial demands when I win the lottery.

Basically, I'll be Romanov on acid.

 

And who could argue with any of it, would be a privilege to have Ayr come up against a club like that. 

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I don't think we will relocate to be honest... that would cost about 20 million. I think there will be serious money spent on upgrading the existing stadium.... that's why they are bringing in architects. I know that the two big stands are in sections... so I think they might look into decreasing the depth/height of both big stands and adding in more modern smaller stands to the sides, this would create a better atmosphere and would give it a "st.mirren feel". The reason I don't think we will relocate is because the old stand is a listed building so who would want to buy the ground?? I don't think it could be turned into flats or that.

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I'd be sad if you guys left Stark Park. Nice wee ground. If you could tidy up the railway end and put something similar to replace the main stand or perhaps even a Bonbonera style stand to bring in corporate & comercial/business revenue outwith matchdays. 

Think an all weather pitch would make comercial sense too.

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Astro at SP will reduce our outgoings.

it would be interesting to hear what we spend on Astro & grass pitches across Fife, by 'we' I mean the 1st team, development team, ladies team, kids teams, community teams etc.

We need to look at how other grounds maximise their revenue from their pitches.

You could get the YM involved and rent them the pitch for their home games etc.

Could KRFC use the pitch too ?

Integrating more than a semi pro football team will open up more funding options

Regarding additional changing rooms that's easy couple of properly rigged out portacabins on the old east terrace.

The current pitch give us none of these options. 

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Realistically what is the land on Pratt street worth its hardly primed for gentrification?

If Starks were to be developed hospitality boxes in the railway stand seem the most straight forward place to put them.

Is the main stand listed meaning issues with changing its appearance?

The north and south stands are quite steep could they potentially put safe standing in the lower portion of these below the entrance points for fans. They could also.be a bit sly and make these season ticket only to help boost sales of books.

Interesting point raised on here about developing the north stand to have offices etc only thing with that is the loss of the scant parking facilities 

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Architects have been brought in to advise the board and mr sim on the best way to move both the football club and the stadium forward as a business, after all it is a business that makes very little money on match days, and during the week. why?Becuase unlike many we dont have a decent matchday hospitality package, no glass fronted boxes, this can be done with ease but a at cost to the railway stand. 

Also reducing the size of the north and south stands would only be a positive move if the parts were then re used elsewhere in the stadium. 

The last few seasons we have paid a company x amount of money to come in pre season to fix drainage and re seed the grass, this has eaten into the budget again eating into what the club can make through the season. 

Mr sim is a clever business man who aill bow be seeing the money he has put in making nothing or littlw profit. 

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The area in front of the main stand behind the dugouts runs the full length of the pitch this can and should also be used for hospitality boxes, these could easily be rented during the week for business use.

Edited by BayRover
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1 hour ago, Geordie_Munrover said:

I don't think we will relocate to be honest... that would cost about 20 million. I think there will be serious money spent on upgrading the existing stadium.... that's why they are bringing in architects. I know that the two big stands are in sections... so I think they might look into decreasing the depth/height of both big stands and adding in more modern smaller stands to the sides, this would create a better atmosphere and would give it a "st.mirren feel". The reason I don't think we will relocate is because the old stand is a listed building so who would want to buy the ground?? I don't think it could be turned into flats or that.

A quick scan of my council computer(during my morning break) states that the ground and main stand in particular is not listed.

The old church opposite the ground is however.

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