Right. I've had some wine so I'll try to put this specific post to bed for you. Borrowing money over 30 years for the CPP and having the profit from the SPark sale minus Lloyds Bank guarantees is different to having to knock down current stands and build around new ones. New stadiums are cheaper per sq metre or per seat than old grounds. Further, it's not all done and dusted all at once. Spark will take years. 10? More maybe.

Also, as I have said, 'looking to build a new stadium' is not a plan. It's just putting the feelers out to see what objections there may be from NIMBY's and what external financial interest we may get.

The problem with CPP is that it's on 3 boroughs. We would never have got the go ahead with all the Tory voters round there. Another reason was that it was at a time before West Ham got the Olympic Park contract and there was faint hope GB Athletics would move to Stratford all year round, keep it's athletics track, no West Ham or football pitch and leave CPP redundant and clear for us to take it over, possibly as a training facility for athletes.

Now we are facing a bigger expense and as I'm mentioning that, the point of the main stand first is to introduce 2 levels of exec boxes and as much corporate and expensive addons to the matchday experience for the shirt and tie. No good having that it if we're not in Prem. You'll have 20% take up of corporate and the rest of the ground in decay. In each of the 3 seasons that has not been guaranteed. (I never thought we'd go down this season but I can imagine the conversations between the US and Parish)

COYP

No I understand and agree with the first 3 paragraphs,i was never disputing why it didn't happen.

Where I disagree is the last one, you say there's no point without being in the Prem, does redeveloping the main stand gaurentee us a place in the prem, no, so what would they do if we get relegated, demolish it. Would we get 30k in the championship, no, so what, do we never extend or take the seats back. Is it only prem teams that have decent facilities and a stadium ?

You can try and justify it all you want but the fact is our stadium is not good enough, that's not a dig at the owners as it's obviously not them holding it up.
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But you could tell me we will spend the next 50 years in league 2, our facilities and stadium are still not good enough.

I've always thought the ground is sh1t and the 92 year old main stand is poor, inside rehaul or not.

The matchday earning revenue in the prem is in corporates, massively so. I bet the corporate premium sales pay for corporate decor quite quickly. They are definitely what can give you an edge in the Prem, probably be completely empty and redundant in the champ. No doubt 3 times higher for a bog standard corporate compared to a normal seat. A lot more for the boxes, complimenatary drinks and food areas.

Therefore they want to

a) maximise those corporates and size of the rest of the stand rather than plough ahead for what's suitable for the Champ only.

b) wait till Prem status is definite before looking absolutely stupid if relegated. Have you seen what Wolves did behind the goal with local exec boxes for pint and chaser type fans? All been a waste of money and it's crippled them and return to the Prem.

c) the yanks might have got twitchy and there may be clauses in the contract re: projects if not in the prem.

COYP

How many of them have made it as much for the corporate as possible? Only the very recent ones which is the point. SP is trying to build one for the here and now and very near future, not one like Stoke or Bristol City with a few ordinary bars and restaurants inside.

If you had any clout you'd realise that a corporate spends multiple times more than a normal fan and that is the way football is going, only SP wants to have them all in one or 2 stands of exec boxes, as many as poss of those, and probably 1 stand of normal type seats on 1 or 2 tiers with easy to access bars etc. You don't get that in the football league. Mainly because they were built a while ago when the corporate in its current form when Jordan was gambling hadn't happened yet.

SP has been to all of the Champ grounds and Prem grounds. No doubt they all wish they had corporate revenue in the Prem but a lot have already rebuilt, we haven't.

COYP

Are you deliberately obtuse or is it natural? I could post you a link to the definition if you like. Your deluded intelligence is quite amusing.

Get back to planning your £20 Pizza Express meal out and leave important stuff to the board. They know why they need to do it the way they are, just like SP knew we needed players yet AP though we were ok.

COYP

You do realise there's a difference between plan, planning something and planning permission don't you ?