Recent talk on P and B suggests that Cowden intend to relocate without taking the Stock Car franchise with them !. How can we possibly hope to survive without the income generated by this mutually supportive enterprise, especially when we currently attract home gates beneath 300 people ???. Surely we will be doomed to being a club with no hope of any improvement if we rely on football income alone?. We are of course a very small team but at least we currently have hopes of promotion !. If the stockies go then we will surely sink even further into the mire???

Closing soon

Can only hope Its true.
Northumbria police greet the first arrivals of Cowdung fans at Berwick train station.

or if you lot get promoted just bump the prices up when the rovers come like what you normally do ya minky b*****dos, or better still come see a better team at starkies

We cant survive paying the money we do at the moment

There's no doubt that Cowden would struggle big time without the stock cars. It has been repeatedly proved on the cwoden.net forum that the stockies contribute a figure in excess of 100K per year to the Central Park operation. How could that void be filled? You would need a helluva lot of astroturf lets or business lunches to provide that level of finance.

Let's not forget that Cowden were using the stock cars as a financial crutch long before Gordon McDougall appeared on the scence. They have been with us since 1964 and - correct me if I'm wrong - we had speedway and dugs before that.

The racing did disappear for a few years at the tail-end of the 80s, coinciding with a rapid accumulation of debts. You don't need a degree in accountancy to figure that one out. If Cowden were suddenly cut loose from their cosy environment, the financial implications woudl be severe and as the original poster said, we would be looking at becoming the next East Stirling of Scottish football as our crowds are (to put it bluntly) pathetic and we have no other significant sources of income outside football (a necessity for all small teams). Okay, there's the market but that too would disappear if the club moved outside the town.

Yes, I know that Forfar and Brechin, similar sized towns to Cowdenbeath, flourish without a race track but they have been able to source other forms of revenue over the last 50 years and are aided considerably by their supporters clubs - we're talking pure cash donations here! By contrast, Cowden never really needed to push themselves upon the community becasue their funding came from an external source. But that's exactly what we would have to do if the stock cars depart. And it will be incredibly difficult to get local public on side at such short notice. The days of wee clubs being run by the local butcher, baker and candlestick maker are long gone and the current economic climate doesn't appear welcoming (not to a new stadium either, mind you). And of those potential benefactors out there, how many have the Pars already tapped into? Businessmen like to be asscoiated with success after all.

It's easy to play the prophet of doom but there's no getting away from the fact that Cowden will suffer hugely if this move is allowed to go ahead.

It's also interesting how public opinion is shifting. The fans almost universally embraced the idea of the new stadium at the outset but many are now wavering after giving the finanical implications some thought and having seen cracks appear in the new regime at Central Park.

All Raith Rovers fans are scum of the earth.

I wish I knew you.

I wish I knew you.

I wish I knew you before.

Aye pal, brilliant.