Bristol Rovers,.Uwe stadium comes to an end

[gashead88]

Will it ever happen? Will rovers ever get a better stadium? When it was first announced I said I'll believe it when I'm sat in my seat. Dunford even replied to me saying that it will happen.
But rumours were on a high tonight on the rovers pages and the club were forced to just announce that the uwe stadium is off.
So back to square one for us, we'll never be able to push forward playing the the run down mem.
Same outcome different year. How many proposed stadiums is that now?

 

[Meadow]

Oh my, I'm so, so sorry. Especially as things finally seem to be moving on our new stadium.

 

[miagsygas]

It's been seemingly obvious for a while and I'm quite glad it's now announced and been put out of its misery. Don't particularly believe a stadium will happen and haven't for a while

 

[Super_horns]

Didn't Bristol City have trouble building a new ground too so just redeveloped Ashton Gate?

Seems to be not much luck when it comes to you guys trying to progress ground wise..

 

[Gassy]

City's has a lot more land + they had the cash to do so.

I'm personally relieved, it's been fairly obvious this wasn't going to happen for 2+ years. Fingers crossed we can actually do something ASAP though, our ground is one of the worst in the FL.

Tbh, the stadium had no character, had a running track around it and had nothing near it in terms of pubs, restaurants/civilization.

 

[Gassy]

And so the saga continues - statement from UWE University (where the stadium was going to be built)

 

[gashead88]

so rovers say the deal collapsed because we couldn't agree terms, but with uwe still wanting to negotiate they'll have to start agreeing to what we want but it's all probably too late for them now though.

 

[Gassy]

Just an opinion (probably way off the ball) - but I get the feeling UWE didn't want to sell the land/we couldn't agree on the price. Rovers are walking away seeing that it's going nowhere - leaving us some time to look at potential sites/ways to redevelop the Mem - if that's a dud then we still have UWE as back up.

Let's be honest, planning permission can be extended no problem.

 

[miagsygas]

Just an opinion (probably way off the ball) - but I get the feeling UWE didn't want to sell the land/we couldn't agree on the price. Rovers are walking away seeing that it's going nowhere - leaving us some time to look at potential sites/ways to redevelop the Mem - if that's a dud then we still have UWE as back up.

Let's be honest, planning permission can be extended no problem.

I've never been what anyone would consider "ITK" but i was always lead to believe UWE preferred the leasehold agreement, WAQ wanted the freehold, UWE were prepared but also willing to charge a kings ransom (1.5m per acre?) for the land. Thats an awful lot of money. Honestly though, i've been done with stadium chat for a long long time, I'll believe it when i'm sat in it.

 

[gashead88]

One of the stumbling blocks apparently is the lease, some say we wanted to buy the land or wanted a 500 year lease not 99 years

 

[Marked Ox]

Are you able to develop the Mem? I know there is space but how likely could you develop that after the locals campaign against Sainsbury's?

 

[Gassy]

Are you able to develop the Mem? I know there is space but how likely could you develop that after the locals campaign against Sainsbury's?

We had planning permission to redevelop the Mem - but the recession hit and we couldn't afford it - I think our biggest investor pulled out quite late on. Apparently anyway. Under the old regime, who knows!

If we tried now we'd be welcomed by an utter s**t storm of complaints, last time it took friggin ages for planning permission, seriously. There were so many oppositions it was unreal. I mean, I can understand on some fronts, considering people's back gardens where they enjoyed the sun was now blocked out by a stadium!

 

[Marked Ox]

Ah cheers. Didn't know that so possible but bloody difficult.

 

[tommy_b]

Didn't Bristol City have trouble building a new ground too so just redeveloped Ashton Gate?

Seems to be not much luck when it comes to you guys trying to progress ground wise..

Hi Hornsy; my favourite Watford fan! *waves*
Anyway. We had planning permission. And all lots of stuff going for us. Then locals decided to register it as a Village Green despite it being a former landfill site. Very acromonious battle over it all and we would've sold Ashton Gate to Sainsbury's, to move from their store down the road (about 200m - never understand that cost!) and then we'd buy their site and develop that for housing. Or something like that.

But yeah. Never happened. Back up of redeveloping Ashton Gate which has given us a lot of extra corporate scope but never as much as a brand new development would've.
There's still 1/2 the ground which could be further rebuilt if required. The Dolman stand has had some cosmetics done but effectively is now a 30/40 year old concrete stand. Which doesn't have a long life left. Prime options to extend backwards if Bristol City Council did a deal with us for replacing a tower block....