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Sons' sorrow


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Rose Harvey was pretty vocal about stopping our move to Renton due to it taking up a huge area of greenspace that nobody other than some cows used. I imagine she'd be apoplectic if we tabled plans to take up an even better greenspace that loads of people actually use. I actually think the traffic would be more manageable there than Renton road but I'd still rather that was kept as a public space.

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Being realistic, there aren't that many viable options within Dumbarton. If land was to become available in the industrial estate then it would be an interesting option. Central and well located for public transport, but traffic would be an issue. The opposite would probably be true of Dumbuck - far better for traffic getting onto the A82 but not great for public transport and a real problem if there was an accident on the A82 (as we see regularly around the Milton/Bowling roundabout areas. Everywhere is going to be a compromise of some sort. 

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I see we have a young goalkeeper from Dumbarton Utd on the bench tomorrow. I mean it’s great for the lad to experience being part of a matchday squad but surely to god there is some cheapo emergency loan we could bring in to cover Smith? I’d rather we let these youngsters experience a matchday without having to be potentially used in a League 1 fixture long before they are ready for it.

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This excerpt from the club accounts, perhaps articulates that we're far from "Fine where we are".
DFC.jpg.bf25184de77fde36a7cbb43fad0853f7.jpg
Grimly interesting stuff Wilf, and if I read this correctly this 'third-party' is underwriting the finances to the end of this season. That closing sentence suggests there may be problems after that, to put it mildly.
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1 hour ago, The Moonster said:

I'll need to be convinced on why moving stadium will put an end to those concerns.

Which goes back to the arguments Brabco were making and the massive gaps in the credibility of those arguments.

Moving stadiums does nothing unless you're getting a massive pay out and rebuilding on the cheap. Even then the money runs out soon enough and you're back to square one. The only thing that'll work for the club is increasing revenue. More fans through the gate. Those fans spending more. People hiring the stadium for non-football purposes. We could move to a brand new stadium tomorrow and it wouldn't make a bit of difference unless we knew how to make that new stadium work for us financially.

Brabco fed us fantasies about renting out pitches for strong money, getting people to take office space or hiring the stadium for functions and events. And if we're talking hypothetically then that's fair enough. All of those things can bring non-football revenues in to a football club. The problem is demand. Is there a demand in Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven for events space? Or football pitches? Or office space? And thats where the argument goes south because if there isnt the demand then there's absolutely no value in having the facilities.

We could make the current stadium work better for us. It would take a bit of money to upgrade. It would also take time to sell the stadium as a facility and to build up a regular client base. Things like the comedy club are important in that respect because you're getting non-football people down to the ground and showing them that they can host a function there and have a great time. So somebody from the comedy audience needs a venue foe a wedding, birthday or retirement party and they've seen that the stadium can be a really good events space. Somebody is there in hospitality and needs something for a work function and sees that it can be a good option for them. All of that takes time and it takes a degree of knowledge and experience to make work. It isnt a quick fix.

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2 hours ago, BallochSonsFan said:

Which goes back to the arguments Brabco were making and the massive gaps in the credibility of those arguments.

Moving stadiums does nothing unless you're getting a massive pay out and rebuilding on the cheap. Even then the money runs out soon enough and you're back to square one. The only thing that'll work for the club is increasing revenue. More fans through the gate. Those fans spending more. People hiring the stadium for non-football purposes. We could move to a brand new stadium tomorrow and it wouldn't make a bit of difference unless we knew how to make that new stadium work for us financially.

Brabco fed us fantasies about renting out pitches for strong money, getting people to take office space or hiring the stadium for functions and events. And if we're talking hypothetically then that's fair enough. All of those things can bring non-football revenues in to a football club. The problem is demand. Is there a demand in Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven for events space? Or football pitches? Or office space? And thats where the argument goes south because if there isnt the demand then there's absolutely no value in having the facilities.

We could make the current stadium work better for us. It would take a bit of money to upgrade. It would also take time to sell the stadium as a facility and to build up a regular client base. Things like the comedy club are important in that respect because you're getting non-football people down to the ground and showing them that they can host a function there and have a great time. So somebody from the comedy audience needs a venue foe a wedding, birthday or retirement party and they've seen that the stadium can be a really good events space. Somebody is there in hospitality and needs something for a work function and sees that it can be a good option for them. All of that takes time and it takes a degree of knowledge and experience to make work. It isnt a quick fix.

There is a demand for pitches yes, as someone involved in football for years, the struggle is there to find pitches week in week out at grassroots level. So I do believe that would be a significant source of income. As for the other points, you are probably right, we are in dire need of income.

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