The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Beastie Russell]

7 hours ago, Beastie Russell said:

Might go for the Rovers top under a work shirt combo.

looks like a winner to me

The boy on the left is what I imagine Steakandgravy to look like 

Edited September 26, 2017 by Beastie Russell

[fiferjon]

Cash flow problems eh ? Lets hope for mild friday nights this winter dont want a couple of cancelled Saturday Home Games

[Broken Algorithms]

18 minutes ago, Beastie Russell said:

The boy on the left is what I imagine Steakandgravy to look like 

Plottwist: Steakandgravy is actually Alan Young. 

[San Starko Rover]

Looks like another win for the development team 2-0 over 2nd place Berwick Rangers, Smith and Court. Young lads extend lead at the top.

[grumswall]

I'm no fan of putting in a plastic pitch but my understanding is that it will save the club money by meaning that we no longer have to hire training facilities in Glenrothes and could actually generate income if managed properly. If you don't put in a plastic pitch then you'd save money at that point but it would likely reduce our budget long term.
Either way I suspect there's not a pot of money in this years budget for a plastic pitch but it's from next years revenue so it's probably kind of irrelevant to the funding another defender debate.

I'm sure sim stated it was costing the club circa 30/40k per season for the pitch as it is. I could be wrong on that but I'm sure I heard it somewhere. That's 30/40k we don't have to spend for a few seasons.

The pitch itself will cost 100kish to my knowledge.

We are losing 100k roughly a year. That's 30/40k saved on pitch costs. Take into account what we are saving by not having our teams train at the Michael woods, whatever we can bring in via renting the pitch which is just shy of £200 for a couple of hours, based on other pitches in Fife and plastic pitch makes sense for a club of our size.

It will take a bit getting used to but how can anyone realistically think a plastic pitch is a bad thing for the club?

[Rovers_Lad]

48 minutes ago, Beastie Russell said:

The boy on the left is what I imagine Steakandgravy to look like 

No need to imagine 

4 minutes ago, grumswall said:

I'm sure sim stated it was costing the club circa 30/40k per season for the pitch as it is. I could be wrong on that but I'm sure I heard it somewhere. That's 30/40k we don't have to spend for a few seasons.

The pitch itself will cost 100kish to my knowledge.

We are losing 100k roughly a year. That's 30/40k saved on pitch costs. Take into account what we are saving by not having our teams train at the Michael woods, whatever we can bring in via renting the pitch which is just shy of £200 for a couple of hours, based on other pitches in Fife and plastic pitch makes sense for a club of our size.

It will take a bit getting used to but how can anyone realistically think a plastic pitch is a bad thing for the club?

Plastic pitch needs maintaining

 

Plastic pitch is bad for the standard of football 

[grumswall]

It costs less to maintain than our current setup.

 

Youl have to explain why it's bad for the standard of football to me. Falkirk have a plastic pitch and have been a better team than us in previous seasons. You have Hamilton and Kilmarnock in the premiership who are using them? We played very well against East fife and won 5-0 on a new plastic pitch a month ago....

 

 

[Broken Algorithms]

We train on plastic. Some teams have plastic pitches and their stadia are fortresses. Other teams get tanked. At the end of the day, it turns our ground into something which is used more than once every fortnight into something which can be used every single weekday. There'll be running costs obviously, but you'd hope it'd give us a good chance to generate some extra revenue. It'll also allow for us to generate some extra community interest too. 

[Hank Scorpio]

The pitch doesn’t cost £30k/£40k a year to maintain. Barely half that.

[Rovers_Lad]

10 hours ago, grumswall said:

It costs less to maintain than our current setup.

 

Youl have to explain why it's bad for the standard of football to me. Falkirk have a plastic pitch and have been a better team than us in previous seasons. You have Hamilton and Kilmarnock in the premiership who are using them? We played very well against East fife and won 5-0 on a new plastic pitch a month ago....

 

 

Yes aware the maintenance costs are less just that was not in your costings

 

Apart from the odd game the football I have watched in the flesh and  live on TV played on a plastic pitch has been generally guff.I,m old school in that footballs played on grass but do understand the reasoning for installing one

Falkirk playing on a plastic pitch is not the  reason they are a better team than us.There are many teams who play on grass pitches who are  better than us,does that mean there pitches are better than ours?Just because the likes of Hamilton,Killie etc have them doesn,t equate to it enhancing the standard of football.

We could argue/debate the pros and cons of plastic v grass pitches till were blue in the face and still not agree

 

[Ro Sham Bo]

[L. Brilliant]

'Plastic pitch' - folk talk as if it's lego.

[Raithie]

"so we will keep trying and see if there's anyone who is available who we can get for nothing or a trialist"

Can't see McKay getting any game time if that's the case and I'm reckoning, if we can't get anyone else in, Smith will persevere with Robertson at CB so long as we're winning and not conceding much.

[Scottydog]

12 hours ago, grumswall said:

I'm sure sim stated it was costing the club circa 30/40k per season for the pitch as it is. I could be wrong on that but I'm sure I heard it somewhere. That's 30/40k we don't have to spend for a few seasons.

The pitch itself will cost 100kish to my knowledge.

We are losing 100k roughly a year. That's 30/40k saved on pitch costs. Take into account what we are saving by not having our teams train at the Michael woods, whatever we can bring in via renting the pitch which is just shy of £200 for a couple of hours, based on other pitches in Fife and plastic pitch makes sense for a club of our size.

It will take a bit getting used to but how can anyone realistically think a plastic pitch is a bad thing for the club?

http://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/councillors-back-bid-for-3g-community-sports-pitch-at-bayview-1-3964900

Installation of a new synthetic surface at SP will cost around £250,000 - £300,000, the above article give an idea of what the total spend at Bayview was (all in over £500k). 
We aren't losing as much on a plastic pitch as some think, many are adding in groundsman wages which is unfair as plastic pitches need attention same as grass ones and if they are played on nightly then they need maintaining daily or they quickly become shit like the ones at Ochilview and other places.

I admire the thinking behind it but feel it's costing and projection is unrealistic.

New pitch £250,000

New lights £unknown but there won't be much change out of £50,000

New dressing rooms (eventually) £100,000

staff wages (during hires)

 

Then there's the fact that it'' only be hired by Joe public from Oct to March, granted the ladies and the dev't sides will use it as will the club for training on but they will still have to do deals elsewhere for the other facilities we won't have like gym's and a pool.

 

If it costs £250,000 to install and another £130,00) to replace (most have around a 5 year lifespan) then you are also looking at laying aside £26,000 every year to pay for eventual replacement.

[Raithie]

Silly question but when the players utilised the Priory Gym in the past did the club fund their membership? The players would still need these facilities if we did move from The Michael Woods Centre as I'm guessing what we're paying to hire the centre at the moment includes the use of all facilities gym/pool etc and not just the pitches. The players are forever saying the training facilities at the moment are first class and I wouldn't be surprised if that's a factor when enticing new players to the club.

[Salvo Montalbano]

Yes aware the maintenance costs are less just that was not in your costings
 
Apart from the odd game the football I have watched in the flesh and  live on TV played on a plastic pitch has been generally guff.I,m old school in that footballs played on grass but do understand the reasoning for installing one
Falkirk playing on a plastic pitch is not the  reason they are a better team than us.There are many teams who play on grass pitches who are  better than us,does that mean there pitches are better than ours?Just because the likes of Hamilton,Killie etc have them doesn,t equate to it enhancing the standard of football.
We could argue/debate the pros and cons of plastic v grass pitches till were blue in the face and still not agree
 

Don't Falkirk have a hybrid pitch like Murrayfield? Mostly grass with blades of plastic sown in? Would the Rovers gain as much footfall with Balwearie having a pretty much brand new pitch and Kirkcaldy High having a really good one too?

[Raithie]

10 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

Would the Rovers gain as much footfall with Balwearie having a pretty much brand new pitch and Kirkcaldy High having a really good one too?

 

Sim, the guy funding this, said in an interview he felt the town needed X amount of community based plastic pitches and that justified us having one. Obviously other reasons were the saving on not hiring the Michael Woods Centre, allowing the development and ladies team(s) to train on it and the hopeful reduction in pitch maintenance in comparison to what we have to shell out on the current pitch at present. I haven't a scooby how much the hiring of said pitches are these days but there's many other factors to think about for community use i.e. floodlight costs, lack of parking facilities, changing rooms etc (these were all touched on by Sim mind you). 

[Rovers_Lad]

1 hour ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

 

Don't Falkirk have a hybrid pitch like Murrayfield? Mostly grass with blades of plastic sown in? Would the Rovers gain as much footfall with Balwearie having a pretty much brand new pitch and Kirkcaldy High having a really good one too?

 

I dont think the falkirk pitch is hybrid.

1 hour ago, Raithie said:

Sim, the guy funding this, said in an interview he felt the town needed X amount of community based plastic pitches and that justified us having one. Obviously other reasons were the saving on not hiring the Michael Woods Centre, allowing the development and ladies team(s) to train on it and the hopeful reduction in pitch maintenance in comparison to what we have to shell out on the current pitch at present. I haven't a scooby how much the hiring of said pitches are these days but there's many other factors to think about for community use i.e. floodlight costs, lack of parking facilities, changing rooms etc (these were all touched on by Sim mind you). 

Think it was said in Sims interview that he had discussed it with Counciller Neil Crooks who said ideally we needed/ would be beneficial having a third community based plastic pitch in Kirkcaldy which in all honesty he would say if somebody else bar the council was paying for it,hes not going to say what a foolish idea,dont waste your money.As you and others say,its not about just installing a plastic pitch,its parking,changing and toilet facilities and all the other things scotty has posted

Anyone know the take up by the community at East Fife new facility?

How difficult is it to secure a booking at Balwearie or KHS and how much does it cost?

Edited September 27, 2017 by Rovers_Lad

[LiamA]

Bayview has only been open for community use for 4 weeks but already the evening uptake is chocka. That's not a problem for any community pitch it's getting it used during the day & at weekends. There are big plans in the pipeline to run projects that will do just that at Bayview. Rovers' problem with the pitch might be that the first team will use the pitch for 2-3 hours per day (admittedly during non-peak times) but playing youth games midweek with no income only expenditure for them meaning that prime time booking slots will be lost.

If it is to be maintained properly & remember the more its used the more it has be maintained then £30k is the minimum that proper maintenance will cost. Remember maintenance will be for 12 months of the year even during the winter. The expected lifespan for the surface is 8 years but we hope to replace it every 6 years 

We are getting nothing but good feedback on the surface from all groups & visiting teams (Rovers certainly liked it!) & it will prove to be a shrewd investment by all parties in the coming years.

 

 

[Beastie Russell]

19 minutes ago, LiamA said:

Rovers' problem with the pitch might be that the first team will use the pitch for 2-3 hours per day (admittedly during non-peak times) but playing youth games midweek with no income only expenditure for them meaning that prime time booking slots will be lost.

It's only 1 night a week for the U20's

That would limit us to 5 days use to sell, not too bad considering we have nothing to sell at the moment.