WRONG. Take every last penny out of Witton, take every player away, take Nigel and jim away, take Wincham Park away, take the reserve team away, take everything that we know about Witton away apart from their name and the club would still exist. I would still watch them, and there would still be the emotion.
That doesn’t mean that we’re not in our strongest financial position for years![br]Posted on: January 18, 2008, 09:54:28 AM[hr][quote]
As it does if the business aspect of the club is not viable - this is the dichotomy of the game!
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How commercially viable would a football club be without any fans? How many wouldn’t watch the club if they were playing home games at the Marstons Arena, I know some people who said that they’ve got no desire to go to the Marstons Arena to go and watch us when we’re the away team!!!
The VS is a potentially great stadium when you finish it off. i.e. behind the goals, but from an atmosphere point of view you would need a few thousand to make it anything like.
In our current situation averaging 400 ish the place would be like a barron wasteland, even if those crowds doubled, the same would still be true. Its nearly a football league stadium for a non league team.
On top of that I hate to think what the overheads (even shared!) would be.
The opportunity for a ground share (sensible) was lost when the previous Vcs board built the place, an investment of 2 million+ and the Danebank stand into WP, with a holding company providing shared ownership would have provided both clubs with financial security and a fantastic ground. This was muted but rejected flatly by the astute, businessmen in charge of Vcs at the time. 
I would prefer a plan to develop Wincham Park (it is looking a little tired - 20yrs old), or if we had to sell then build a realistically sized facility closer to the catchment area.
Either way it has to based on sound long term financial planning, WITHOUT trampling on the supporters, without whom the club wouldn’t exist.
As I posted a few weeks ago, if you want a say then buy some shares.
Who do i see to buy shares?
Well I do not want to go the Marstons Arena - I would rather watch the reserves down at Moss Farm ! It is in the blood Rabbit and thats that ? Bring the subject up on the 92.5 Phone in Show tomight ! :o
PS Dich and tom will not be going either.
Very interesting that once again this debate comes to the surface again. A few points from me against the latest idea to share. A)Northwich have NOTHING to bring to the table, Marstons Arena has nothing to do with the football club any deal would be done with owners/sponsors. B)Rabbit says that purely emotive resaons for not going to the Marstons Arena are not enough, I dissagree emotion is what supporting a club is all about and if you start being hard nosed then supporting a team in the Unibond suddenly starts not to make sense…I might as well support the higher position team because it makes more sound finacial sense. C) A long term deal has been struck with NVFC (2007ish) to rent the Arena, so has a deal with MUFC we don’t know the details of either and no chance of 3 clubs playing at one ground. D) How much would a move cost? my understanding was that Witton have been offered land that the developers already own in exchange for Wincham Park plus X? million pounds if we then look at moving the covers etc we already have then maybe a suitable ground and facilitys could be built with oportunitys to expand if we continue upwards, lets be honest as Andy said have you seen the 800 odd souls rattling about at Marstons? as Leeds fans sang to Crewe the other night… ‘Your grounds too big for you, your grounds too big for you’ E) Revenue off the field in terms of clubhouse etc we would be no better off, indeed worse because profits would have to be shared and seeing that Marstons now sponsor/own the place a deal will have been done long term with them to supply beer etc that again we have no idea the ins and outs of. Anyway it is hard to debate something like this on here especially at the speed I type but hopefully my points come across making sense
A very interesting debate! the way i see it if we were offered a site by the developers that was in a suitable location (i.e. closer to the town centre) and was of a decent enough size so that we could build a stadium decent enough for now and then with the possibility to expand and then with millions on top of it i would seriuosly consider the negotiation with the developers! Being only 20, Wincham Park is all i have known for witton and therefore dont take the decision to move away from there very well but if it were to mean we would be in a better position both as a football team and financially then i would be 100% behind it! Come on Witton!
I think it is extremely important that we get as near to the town centre as possible.
Just bulldoze Sainsbury’s when nobody is looking, knock up a few stands and a bit of grass, it will be OK.
Now that suggestion is just Sheer Brilliance - Can I drive the JCB please?
If you want.
I found a decent website that gives satellite images of 1970’s Northwich and how much land was available then compared to now.
The Big point from all this whatever happens is that I for one will watch Witton Albion wherever it is. I’m sure Mike is mindful of what we need to do and when something is a little more concrete he will put it to the shareholder vote in time honoured democratic style. Contrast this with over the canal where those putting the money in and those owning the stadium have the say. Thats not having a go at anybody its just a fact. I know who I’d rather support even if it means being in a lower league.
Just going off the subject slightly I see that some of the Vics followers are living in crowd cuckoo land yet again. Why? Because listening to the Radio phone in on Friday some were talking league football once they’ve survived in the conference this season. There’s nothing like having dreams and ambitions but it has to be tempered with common sense! You’d think after just surviving and still paying off the tax man in instalments that these people would just quietly keep supporting their team and consolidate their position possibly in the Conference. But no they are banging on about being in league football. Being third from bottom in the conference I’d worry about staying there!! The words Walk Before and Run come to mind. Just carry on living the dream Lads I’ll settle for seeing you play us in the Conference North next season with any luck and I mean Luck because thats sometimes what you need!!
There are very few options now for a move away from Wincham any nearer the town, in fact I can not see one that makes much sense. Perhaps there is land enough along Middlewich Road where Three Ways Garage is at the moment but apart from that I am unaware of anywhere else.
WHS.
I have to agree that the best place currently available is Middlewich Road. Someone suggested the land next to Aldi too and that would be a lot better than Middlewich Road. The key thing is though is that we are financially sound and there is no rush at all. If we stay in Wincham we would have houses around us in a few years so there is no urgency.
Ideally we would want somewhere big enough for it to financially viable in terms of astro turf facilities that can be hired out to the public almost 24 7. In turn trying to accomodate allor most of the junior teams on grass pitches at a discounted rate of what they are currently paying SJD or VRBC. Take a look at Egerton boys club on a weekend and how much extra revenue they get from burgers, chips, fizzy drinks and the occaisonal £2 per car to park there. The amount of farms that are going to the wall these days is immense.
At what cost 20 or 30 acres of flat grassland with decent access?
Trouble is where!