Kevin Foster - Stadium plans.

Copied uncredited from here:

www.cornwallfootballforum.com/topic/39177-cost-of-herefords-winning-the-southern-league-premier-last-season/

As you say, the key was the council retaining the freehold.

Same story at Chester as at Hereford.

Rob  

While not doubting the accuracy of this statement for a moment (we know that Jon would have called out an inaccurate claim relating to financial figures in an instant) there are some of us less knowledgeable of accounts who will have either skipped the figures and instead accepted Rob's summing up, or are unsure of which figures need to be combined in order to reach a turnover figure in excess of £1 million. A little further clarification would be appreciated.

That’s an error on my part AJ. My apologies. £988k up a fair whack (not a recognised term) on the year before. Turnover alone isn’t something to get too carried away with, of course. Even those crude salary cap rules that were all the talk a few years back don’t bring that any more seemingly in to the equation than for an ordinary business unless you are Champions League or QPR.

Like Rob, I can’t find the origin of the source either which was why I threw it out here in many respects, so perhaps I shouldn’t be elaborating any further without that. I will ever so slightly, but with caution. Seems a strange ruse for someone to have simply made it up, but stranger things obviously happen. And particularly so in the context of Hereford’s not so distant past before subsequent expulsion from the Conference and a season with no football and what appeared for many an outsider to be the end of their history in somethinnother than he limited company sense.

The simpler point about the ground ownership is a matter of record, that said. I hope it’s a favourable lease on those terms stated. An earlier delving into their comeback and their proving a worthy tenant will no doubt have aided that renegotiation process in any event.

Making that small profit with non-playing staffing levels as they appear to aid it’s evolution and perhaps having kept hold of that £600k while on an upward trajectory compared to their past history is something I admire. It’s arguably been sustainable growth and success thusfar and, fingers crossed for them, with that very favourable lease to aid those next difficult steps.

I know a bit about losing a ‘club’, as you know (I know, I said it ) and traversing the come back from losing all in that sporting sense is something close to home. It wouldn’t have been possible without fostering business links, accessing grant funding, a volunteer force, continued support when no product on the pitch and the good will of the local authority since ‘oblivion’, but when all is said and done and without going into the whole mess of the previous ‘business’, those fans have something precious back that was taken away through no fault of their own support and are looking outward in their support now in a positive way with the aim to keep Hereford on a reasonable footing going forward.

It’s self determination, acquired acumen and community resolve in equal measures. It’s not perfect. I hope it works for those fans longer term and I’d like to see us beating them at home or Edgar Street at a higher level at some point in the future. No guarantees for us or them and this next step is proving more difficult on-field for them, but it’s way better than what was. Which was nothing.

link - MOU in draft form. No problem with this in principle but it’s ensuring the delivery of this project and what it will look like for the club subsequently as CO will be off once it has been done or as far as he is willing to take it.

Otherwise known as a conflict of interest which is not always appreciated by all parties and must somehow be robustly managed.

Bit of an oddity this memorandum of understanding as it has no financial implications for the council and is more of a measure to show support by the council for the objective of a new stadium complex but which was opposed by every member apart from the mayor whose term of office finishes next year.

Plans haven’t exactly proceeded quickly for Clark Osborne bearing in mind he took over the club two years ago and suggested a new stadium could be built in three. His initial plan was to obtain the freehold of Plainmoor but he put this on hold back in June 2017 when he encountered strong opposition but nevertheless did not rule out obtaining it as part of any new stadium deal negotiated with the local authority.

I see Kevin Mowat referred to paranoia over the Plainmoor freehold as this apparently has not arisen in discussions with Clark Osborne but hardly surprising considering what has come out of the horse’s mouth so to speak. I do wonder what has been mentioned in those discussions though and as Steve Darling asked, where is this enabling land?

Quite basic plans for the stadium, partly uplifted from elsewhere, were submitted for public consumption a few months ago and while they were little more than a concept package, for a project of this magnitude I still would have expected a bit more professional input. It was stated that a more detailed planning application was to be subsequently submitted in November which still remains to be seen and I wonder if the delay is due to the complexities of this project even at this preliminary stage that were not fully realised? It is not as if there is a long history of building stadia to draw upon. In the meantime the emphasis has been on this memorandum of understanding and I wonder if it is possibly to be used to attract investment from elsewhere?

The problem is if this complex is to be owned by the club as stated previously to allow it to compete at a higher level , what future revenue streams will there be to invest in? Secondly if the club did reach the objective of owning this complex would it then be in danger of asset stripping? Thirdly, how would its use as an events arena impact on the footballing side of things bearing in mind the trouble we had with sharing facilities with Truro this year. Are there any examples of league or premiership clubs with a similar division in the usage that works well?