Rovers Have Been Invited

[bcfcbs20]

Who will be paying for their training facilities to be up to scratch? Us, rovers? The council?

Rovers training facilitates are now the sole use of one pitch down at the imperial ground in hengrove/knowle. How would that be adaquate for world cup players to train there.

they would probably train at bath university they have some of the best training facilities in the country

[Flaxbourton Red]

Thanks for the support cynic.

I know there's a danger my comments will be read as "official" Trust views despite the comments in my signature, and that's part of the reason why I rarely post on otib anymore. My comments in this thread are my personal views but I'd be really surprised if the majority of City fans were against the idea of the World Cup in Bristol. I know I've gone on a bit in this thread and as a result not all of my words or links will have been read, but I've tried hard to explain why I think there's a misconception about how the World Cup influences our ground design.

To pick up on Flaxy's comments I think it's possibly a good idea to canvass people's opinions about the World Cup. I think that it makes sense to have the debate before asking for a vote. I'd also caution that a big part of what will influence the outcome of the host cities is the views of the people and that an underwhelming vote such as "57% of Bristol City fans think the World Cup in Bristol is a good idea" could be damaging to the city's prospects of landing it even though it shows a majorty back it. The survey the FA carried out in 2006 showed 80% of English people supported the bid

If I hear arguments against the idea I'll listen and if the maths don't stack up for Bristol City I'll scream that from the roof tops. But actually I'm not sure I've so far heard too many convincing arguments against the idea and I fear that the caution from some quarters is born from the the belief it's responsible for the "bus shelter". All I can do is say it as I see it from my reasonably informed position and as mentioned above, I simply don't believe that's the case.

There's a Trust meeting this Thursday at Bar BS3 from 7.30 and it would be good to have people come along to chat about this.

Interesting argument against the use of democracy within the supporters trust. I take on your point that any % voting against the idea could be used by rival cities as an argument against Bristol becoming a world cup venue. I would say however if it were put to the test I can't imagine many would not be in favour, despite the fact that very few bristol city supporters will be able to watch a world cup game at the new ground.

What does concern many is that the plans involve the next 50 years of BCFC not just three weeks of a one off summer football spectacular/miserable rainy June. Such an event may be a catalyst that propels Bristol City into the premier league, it may not. I don't have a crystal ball.

What concerns me though is that I am left with the perception that the supporters trust is acting as an extension of the club's marketing department. In which forum is the ST raising the valid concerns from fans about the new ground, the cost of the world cup to the club, the lack of financial support from the council? I would urge the ST to retain a degree of independence from the club in order to effectively scrutinise these plans

[Puckle_red]

I think its very naive to think this stadium is being built for anything other than the World Cup bid, if they really listened to a large portion of fans they would give us a real home end. There is no chance of that now, they are far to ignorant.

[Milo]

Milo as you know I attended a ST meeting recently with a few others and it was clear the ST where disappointed with the clubs redesign of the so called Bus Stop [south stand]or didn't understand what the club were missing. It also seemed that the club [CS?] were confusing a partition in a fans images with a brick wall!!

One fan who has seen the clubs new images states - "the main issue though is the fact that they are proposing both ends will be the same. it's just amazing that after all the comments the architect received they still don't get it. a home end has to be unique and individual"

Eastenders who provided ideas for images http://www.bcfc3lions.co.uk/stand.html are baffled by the what the club are doing and why the club are missing the whole point. Changes being done to the design are said to be pointless. Posts on ziderheads here - http://www.ziderheads.co.uk/ch/index.php?showtopic=194

As the majority and often a amazingly very large majority of fans right across every stand etc thought the South Stand should be changed will the ST be putting out a review of the changes or doing another survey? Will the ST be openly asking the club to reconsider the South Stand if it is generally felt the club have not listened or is this now no longer acceptable to the club due to the World Cup bid?

Hi cider head,

the areas where we were disappointed were based on verbal conversations and we fed back our thoughts. We all need to wait and see what the final designs are before reaching any conclusions and what's next. If there's a big problem then we'll keep representing the fans views. The World Cup bid is irrelevant in that regard. Representing City fans is first and foremost for me personally and for the Trust absolutely.

Interesting argument against the use of democracy within the supporters trust. I take on your point that any % voting against the idea could be used by rival cities as an argument against Bristol becoming a world cup venue. I would say however if it were put to the test I can't imagine many would not be in favour, despite the fact that very few bristol city supporters will be able to watch a world cup game at the new ground.

What does concern many is that the plans involve the next 50 years of BCFC not just three weeks of a one off summer football spectacular/miserable rainy June. Such an event may be a catalyst that propels Bristol City into the premier league, it may not. I don't have a crystal ball.

What concerns me though is that I am left with the perception that the supporters trust is acting as an extension of the club's marketing department. In which forum is the ST raising the valid concerns from fans about the new ground, the cost of the world cup to the club, the lack of financial support from the council? I would urge the ST to retain a degree of independence from the club in order to effectively scrutinise these plans

I think you're right that the majority would be in favour but at the moment there are clearly many with reservations. I think those reservations are based on the belief that it has compromised the design of the home end which I don't agree it has. i think it's important to try and tackle the objections fans have because the more Bristolians we can get supporting the bid the better chance it has of success. As mentioned above I've got a couple of dates in my diary to find out more. I'll ask questions about costs and if I hear issues that worry me, I'll research them, discuss them with the Trust board and seek out relevant experts, and if there's a problem we'll challenge it. That's all really hypothetical. Based on my research, knowledge and conversations to date, I believe this is a massive opportunity for us (City and Bristol) that we should grasp. Bristol's in a competition to win a huge prize and a short space of time to fight for it. Let's have no regrets. It's me in a personal capacity that's enthusiastic and as a Trust board member I'll act with the best interests of Bristol City fans if I see a problem.

I think its very naive to think this stadium is being built for anything other than the World Cup bid, if they really listened to a large portion of fans they would give us a real home end. There is no chance of that now, they are far to ignorant.

Hi puckle-red,

I hear what you're saying but I just can't agree with you. I firmly believe that if there was no World Cup bid there would still be the design issues. Accusing me of being naive is saying that i fell for the Club's lies when they said that the reason for building a 30K stadium to increase to 40K is based on the desire to increase capacity if we get Premier League football.

To believe they were not telling the truth is to ignore the following string of circumstances;

• Reading built a brand new 28K stadium - just like we hope to build a 30K one
  
• Reading is a Club with attendances historically lower than Bristol City but the state of the art stadium boosted attendances - just like we hope
  
• Through having greater revenue due to the new stadium and a wealthy owner they got premier league football - just like we hope
  
• As soon as Premier league football was achieved, their Chairman immediately sought to increase capacity by an extra 10,000 seats - just like SL says he hopes to do
  
• Reading discovered the costs were so phenomenal it would take 3 seasons to achieve and may not happen at all now due to costs - just like we hope to avoid.
  

It just seems downright illogical to ignore that chain of events and the outcome when it clearly sets out a blueprint for why SL is looking to build a new stadium in the first place. It's illogical to think that in the light of Reading's experiences Steve Lansdown should say to his architect "Build me a 30K stadium that's just like Reading's please, just in case we need to increase capacity". You just wouldn't, would you? You'd want one you could increase the size cost effectively, right?

So for me to agree with you that I might be naive in the conclusions I've reached, I would have to conclude that actually the man who is investing £50 million into his business, is doing so with no care for maximising revenue and the business's value if we get to the premier league, is thinking that it doesn't matter to his business whether it's practical to increase the capacity so that he can cement his team in the Premier league, and that he only mentioned Reading's experience as a smoke screen because what he really wants is a fortnight of watching some other teams play World Cup football there. And I'm sorry, but I really can't get my head around why they would deliver such an elaborate, self-damaging, short-sighted, expensive hoax.

I'm sorry for banging-on, I just don't buy the alternative theory. You call it naive but I'd have to ignore too much logic to agree with you. I agree I'm not in Steve Lansdown's head so i can't be 100%. I hope that you get a chance to put your point of view to him so you can make your own mind up on his answers.

On the issue of the Club ignoring fans' views, I think the Club have so far consulted really well, possibly to an extent that surpasses any other stadium consultation from any other Club. I know that they have taken on board much of the feedback from the second survey, whether it will be enough to win over fans we have to wait and see. If not, we'll keep on.

[cider head]

[Milo]

Milo

I did ask will the ST be openly asking the club to reconsider the South Stand if it is generally felt the club have not listened or is this now no longer acceptable to the club due to the World Cup bid? So how are the ST going to gather fans views? How will you identify a big problem? Fans were telling the ST there was a very big problem with that South Stand for months on end and offering to do surveys etc. Will there be a questionnaire or report?

It would be ridiculous if fans felt they had to do this again - http://www.bcfc3lions.co.uk/stand.html. The images done for Forza Eastend only appeared because fans didn't work together and we didn't know what the Supporters trust were doing at all. We couldn't really get involved in what was happening despite constantly offering help for over a year. People can't always get to your meetings, many don't use OTIB so why not very openly use ziderheads 2000+ members as well?

Hi Cider head, I've just responded on ziderheads. From the comments on that thread I can see that many ziderhead users feel we're not working well enough together. We have involved a few forza people with surveys and North Street came along to one of the planning meetings but we clearly need to make improvements. Let's improve that together. When people have had a chance to hear how the Club have responded to the second survey we can agree a response together. If we're going to improve communication, let's not start that by the Trust saying we're going to do X, Y and Z or we'll risk being accused of still not working together. Can we agree to chat, meet up, email, etc to agree what the next steps are when the Club's response is known?

[Guest Pepsi]

Read the post again sag, i wasn't saying it didn't have anything to do with Rovers, i was saying why do your negative fans have to be involved....

Says it all really.

I did read your post and the reason people are having there say and getting involved (wether it be negative or positive) is because they come from Bristol same same as you lot.......

Therefore it is there right.............