Welcome back Bristol Rovers

[South Bristol Gas]

If we would of lost that wembley final we would of been down there for few years, hopefully your get back soon!

The conference was a lot worse than i thought it was going to be, very happy to get away from it and never want to see it again!

 

[Gassy]

Really, I actually quite liked it. Completely different atmosphere, to the football league. A lot friendlier.

It's a bit like London for me, nice to visit nut I certainly wouldn't want to live there

 

[Wombling Kiwi]

very happy to have Rovers back, I have a pint on each game between AFC and Rovers. I was getting thirsty

 

[Ciderup]

Massive day for the rovers tomorrow with the high court judgement from their battle with Sainsbury's. I wish you luck but genuinely cannot call it.
Will the UWE still be a goer after tomorrow? I have my doubts TBH.

 

[Aber gas]

Massive day for the rovers tomorrow with the high court judgement from their battle with Sainsbury's. I wish you luck but genuinely cannot call it.
Will the UWE still be a goer after tomorrow? I have my doubts TBH.

I'm optimistic but fuck knows how it's going to go . At least we'll know one way or another . I'm staying off twatter until I know the verdict , too many " experts " and theories

 

[Gashead]

Massive day for the rovers tomorrow with the high court judgement from their battle with Sainsbury's. I wish you luck but genuinely cannot call it.
Will the UWE still be a goer after tomorrow? I have my doubts TBH.

I'm very pessimistic. I think at most we might get our 'extra costs' back in compensation, because there is evidence of Sainsbury's using delaying tactics etc. even in the public domain.

However that would still mean no new stadium, plan B (whatever that is) but it would mean no real financial damage.

 

[Ciderup]

Therein lies the dilemma fellas. 2 staunch, if a tad misguided gasheads and 2 totally different opinions. It's a crazy situation and probably won't be over tomorrow.
I'm intrigued by the whole process, as I was with ours, and have followed it closely yet I have no idea which way this is going.
Good luck.

 

[Grecian O'Grecian]

Good luck, Rovers!

I don't know how many more times I can bare standing in your current away end. Yes, I know ours isn't very good either

All the best!

 

[Gashead]

Judge finds in Sainsbury's favour.

We're utterly fucked everyone.

 

[TheGas]

Going bust

 

[Aber gas]

It's a shit day . I didn't expect sainsburys to get a full judgement in their favour but it's done now . Higgs needs to stop banging on about appeals which we can't afford and find a way to secure our short term future , regroup and formulate a new plan . Preferably with new investment and a new board .

 

[WTTJ]

I know I'm a city fan but I would have been on Rovers' side on this one had it not been for the planned demolition of a war memorial. I hope you find another site and give the mem land to the people of North Bristol as a park or something or expand the mem.

 

[Gashead]

I know I'm a city fan but I would have been on Rovers' side on this one had it not been for the planned demolition of a war memorial. I hope you find another site and give the mem land to the people of North Bristol as a park or something or expand the mem.

There was always going to be a war memorial garden at the Mem site, which in fact would have been a much better way to honour those who fought in WW1 than a dilapidated old Rugby ground which is no longer used to play rugby in. Frankly, the 'war memorial' argument was never even mentioned until TRASH ran out of ideas - funny that.

All your suggestions are lovely, but they disregard the elephant in the room, which is money. You lot are in a lucky situation - a billionaire owner who is willing to fund a stadium redevelopment. Not every club has that.

 

[miagsygas]

So we lost, we're going to appeal (more financial strife, doubt we win an appeal either), we have to pay an amount of Sainsbury's legal fees and we've got the loan repayments.

I'd say not too long until administration if i'm honest.

 

[WTTJ]

There was always going to be a war memorial garden at the Mem site, which in fact would have been a much better way to honour those who fought in WW1 than a dilapidated old Rugby ground which is no longer used to play rugby in. Frankly, the 'war memorial' argument was never even mentioned until TRASH ran out of ideas - funny that.

All your suggestions are lovely, but they disregard the elephant in the room, which is money. You lot are in a lucky situation - a billionaire owner who is willing to fund a stadium redevelopment. Not every club has that.

As a Rugby ST holder as well as City it was always a concern of mine. There must be a way of getting some money for an expansion though. Looking at teams in your league and league two who imo are smaller than you with better facilities there must be a way. Without wanting to come across as patronising I'd love us both to be fighting at the same level.

 

[gashead88]

We can only appeal on legal grounds? I find it highly unlikely that we will appeal

 

[Gashead]

We can only appeal on legal grounds? I find it highly unlikely that we will appeal

They said they were considering it.

Frankly I think we give it up now and concentrate on the football pitch for a season, would make a change. Pretty important season too.

 

[Aber gas]

They said they were considering it.

Frankly I think we give it up now and concentrate on the football pitch for a season, would make a change. Pretty important season too.

I completely agree , the priorities have to be on the field and paying back the high interest loan . Then we can start looking at alternatives for the future. Utg

 

[rudebwoyben]

Commiserations guys. I remember having a similar feeling after the Secretary of State decided to rule against us building on the Copthall site after Calling in our application in 1998. At least for us we weren't liable for any legal costs.
On what grounds did they find in favour of Sainsburys?

 

[Gashead]

As a Rugby ST holder as well as City it was always a concern of mine. There must be a way of getting some money for an expansion though. Looking at teams in your league and league two who imo are smaller than you with better facilities there must be a way. Without wanting to come across as patronising I'd love us both to be fighting at the same level.

Fair enough, apologies for earlier. A lot of City fans jumped on the 'war memorial' bandwagon when TRASH did, and the reason TRASH brought up the war memorial stuff was because they were running out of options - which was wrong.

Funnily enough, I've been looking at the stadium developments of Rotherham, Chesterfield and the potential Wimbledon one this afternoon. That sort of thing may well be the way to go, especially Wimbledon with an initial cost of £13 million with room to expand to 20,000. Unfortunately, looks like our board are going with the 'appeal against Sainsbury's' option, which will get us nowhere. Any new ground would still have to be funded via the sale of the Mem though, and I suspect housing is the safest bet. I would like to see a nice memorial built, I just don't think the stadium is a particularly nice 'memorial' anymore. It's old and a bit depressing in places

Commiserations guys. I remember having a similar feeling after the Secretary of State decided to rule against us building on the Copthall site after Calling in our application in 1998. At least for us we weren't liable for any legal costs.
On what grounds did they find in favour of Sainsburys?

We are indeed responsible for both our own and a fair portion of Sainsbury's legal costs, which is a bit of a shitter. Hopefully in the short term we can manage ourselves financially, but appealing etc. really isn't the right thing to do in my opinion. The case is a bit complicated, but it just looks like some onerous conditions weren't met which allowed Sainsbury's to walk away - pretty stunning.

 

[WH_Stag]

Sainsburys 1-0 Bristol Rovers. To be fair a 21,000 seater stadium would of been a waste. Is it just the stadium you've lost on out or is there more to it? Quite like having rovers in the league

 

[Gashead]

Sainsburys 1-0 Bristol Rovers. To be fair a 21,000 seater stadium would of been a waste. Is it just the stadium you've lost on out or is there more to it? Quite like having rovers in the league

To be fair, there's no way anybody can say that until the thing was built. We got 11,000 in the Conference last year, and you look at the likes of Brighton, Swansea etc. to show that clubs who get a bit of success can see their attendances sky rocket. The new ground would have also helped out financially, regardless of whether we sold it out each week or not.

Legal costs etc. make the decision a lot more daunting in the short-term than just 'we've lost out on the stadium'.

 

[BeesKnees]

Commiserations Bristol Rovers. If I understood it right the directors put everything into getting the UWE stadium and the Mem was used as collateral for short term loans to pay for this case. If so the priority has to be getting those debts sorted so you still have a home. Really hope things aren't as bad as they currently appear and the BoD have something up their sleeve to enable a swift change in fortunes.

 

[Aber gas]

Commiserations Bristol Rovers. If I understood it right the directors put everything into getting the UWE stadium and the Mem was used as collateral for short term loans to pay for this case. If so the priority has to be getting those debts sorted so you still have a home. Really hope things aren't as bad as they currently appear and the BoD have something up their sleeve to enable a swift change in fortunes.

Thanks for the commiserations , sorting out the short term loans is as you say a massive priority . Hopefully we can sort it promptly and not have it hanging over us for what should be a good season on the field . I also hope the board keep supporters informed as silence just ramps up the anxiety and discontent although frankly the board have always been shit at communicating so I can't see much change in that respect .

 

[Ciderup]

Commiserations from me too guys. While it's good news for my club as it will be less competition for the corporate dollar, it's devastating news for you. Where this leaves Higgs et al now, I have no idea. It onlt confirms that it's nigh on impossible to get anything sporting built in this great city of ours. Someone or something always seems to derail every single plan. I would guess it's time to revisit the mem redevelopment plan?
As for the appeal, don't you have to provide new evidence to do that?

 

[Gashead]

Commiserations from me too guys. While it's good news for my club as it will be less competition for the corporate dollar, it's devastating news for you. Where this leaves Higgs et al now, I have no idea. It onlt confirms that it's nigh on impossible to get anything sporting built in this great city of ours. Someone or something always seems to derail every single plan. I would guess it's time to revisit the mem redevelopment plan?
As for the appeal, don't you have to provide new evidence to do that?

Our genius legal team are suggesting there are 'grounds', but you're right I'd imagine new evidence is necessary.

Re: Mem redevelopment, it's a possibility, but to be honest I forget how that was even going to be funded!

 

[Ciderup]

Our genius legal team are suggesting there are 'grounds', but you're right I'd imagine new evidence is necessary.

Re: Mem redevelopment, it's a possibility, but to be honest I forget how that was even going to be funded!

Building a load of student flats around the rebuilt stadium and flogging them to a student landlord company IIRC. Something like that anyway.

 

[Gashead]

Building a load of student flats around the rebuilt stadium and flogging them to a student landlord company IIRC. Something like that anyway.

Yeah I remember that now, had a look and there was the student flats, a restaurant and some other stuff too.

I'd either sell the Mem land for housing (between £15-20m) and build a basic stadium at the UWE site with room for expansion, a la Wimbledon (there's is 11k with expansion to 20k for £16m). If UWE are no longer interested in giving us the land, revisit the redevelopment plans for the Mem.

 

[Wombling Kiwi]

Not wanting to be funny or anything, but looking at the aerial view of you stadium, if the club filled in the gaps between the stands how many more could they fit in. Also just over your back fence I see the Muller road recreation ground, pity you cant do a swap, not sure where you would get the money to build from scratch though. I will have a good chat with the Gashead I see each friday this week. Chin up enjoy the season on the field. cheers.

 

[Luke_ciderhead]

Redeveloping the cabbage patch should be the sags plan now, but this is Bristol after all - You just know that the local nimby's would find a way to stop that happening as well.