The WRU Decided on Monday Morning that they were moving The Dragons to North Wales from 2020/2021 Season and put Rodney Parade up for sale but offered Newport County and Newport Rugby the chance to buy the ground first.

How would Newport County raise the Money to buy Rodney Parade?

Cash for clothes i expect

We can’t afford to rent. How the **** could we operate if we actually owned a ground?!!!

Would be up the proverbial creek I suspect. Such is the hold that the WRU have over us it's possible we might have to start all over again in heaven only knows what league.
We all know Stan can be a bit of a pain but on issue of stadia he is absolutely correct. Some vague exit plan is no good to us. We need a well defined strategy which looks at the possibilities open to us, sadly including which league we might find ourselves in.

allontheamber wrote: We need a well defined strategy which looks at the possibilities open to us, sadly including which league we might find ourselves in.

The bit I've put in bold is crucial, I'd make it the starting point both for informal discussion here and by people in the know who are involved in decision-making. I wouldn't mind betting it's always at the forefront for the second group, but here it isn't.

IMHO Rodney Parade is the only game in town in the mid to long term and I'm optimistic the council will knock heads together. The alternative for them is no full-time professional sport in Newport carrying the name of the city. Having had the convenient location of RP, if we left I don't think enough people would travel to Spytty to sustain football any higher than National South.

That's a good point George but many clubs seem able to sustain a decent support base with grounds that are increasingly in an out of town location. Let's be honest Spytty is in real terms not a long way from the centre.
If the club needs to consider an alternative location then a crucial then part of that project would be investigating match day transport links.
It works for many other clubs why not for us.

Extract from Newport City Council 2016/17 accounts;

The Council continues to have a strong balance sheet position with usable reserves of £107.2m an increase of £5.9m.

We keep being told that the Council is skint, but they're managing to stash millions a year into reserves whilst pleading poverty. For fucks sake, why do we have to live in the only region of the UK which has a Council who doesn't give a shit about sport?

I too am optimistic that the Council will be able to knock heads together but the clock is ticking, very quickly, and so we must have a fully worked alternative in place within, I would say, 18 months.
I don't see how we can afford a new ground. What incentive is there for investors. Even if they could be found then any new ground would inevitably not be in the centre. Availability of land and it's costs would be prohibitive do we would have the same logistical problems as we would with Spytty.
The very basic infrastructure such as a pitch, a stand, car parking etc is already in place. I believe Spytty could be redeveloped to league standards at a fraction of the cost of building a ground from scratch.
I don't advocate a move away from RP but there are so many negative vibes from all quarters at present that I am sure the board are looking at alternatives in tandem with their ongoing discussions with the WRU.

allontheamber wrote:I too am optimistic that the Council will be able to knock heads together but the clock is ticking, very quickly, and so we must have a fully worked alternative in place within, I would say, 18 months.
I don't see how we can afford a new ground. What incentive is there for investors. Even if they could be found then any new ground would inevitably not be in the centre. Availability of land and it's costs would be prohibitive do we would have the same logistical problems as we would with Spytty.
The very basic infrastructure such as a pitch, a stand, car parking etc is already in place. I believe Spytty could be redeveloped to league standards at a fraction of the cost of building a ground from scratch.
I don't advocate a move away from RP but there are so many negative vibes from all quarters at present that I am sure the board are looking at alternatives in tandem with their ongoing discussions with the WRU.

The incentive for the council is to put some of their hundreds of millions of cash and near cash, generating a return below inflation, to work - both ethically and in monetary terms.

A £15m investment, with at least two long term tenants plus retail and commercial space is surely as close to a no-brainer as you could wish to find. Unfortunately, it seems priorities continue to sit elsewhere as they have done almost eternally where popular sport is concerned.

The Council has the means, contacts and ability to make it happen if it is needed (which it appears increasingly likely it will be).

I don't understand why Newport appears to be about the only FL club that doesn't get meaningful help from the Council? At the end of the day, it isn't their money it belongs to the people who live in the City they represent, without whom they wouldn't even exist. Time to ramp up the pressure on them in my opinion - losing all professional sport in this City wouldn't be good for anyone, not least for them.

Stop pussy-footing around and ask them what they are prepared to do. They're quick enough to the negotiating table with anyone external to this City who wants to build something here - time to start looking after their own - possibly in partnership with someone like Mercure who are looking to come into the City. I know it's not as simple as I'm suggesting here, but is someone asking these questions? Because they need asking, and they needed asking before the WRU got involved really, but they certainly need asking now.

allontheamber wrote:That's a good point George but many clubs seem able to sustain a decent support base with grounds that are increasingly in an out of town location. Let's be honest Spytty is in real terms not a long way from the centre.
If the club needs to consider an alternative location then a crucial then part of that project would be investigating match day transport links.
It works for many other clubs why not for us.

A full analogy would be clubs which have thrived after giving up EFL status and moving almost three miles further away from their town's transport hub. There aren't any.

There's also the question of how long the WRU wants to retain full ownership of Rodney Parade. I doubt it's in perpetuity. Therefore a football club in the EFL is a potential purchaser of a stake. As is a council which has a vested interest in seeing its city's name promoted via professional sport, when the Dragons have dropped Newport from their name.

And it's not like a residential or commercial landlord/tenant relationship where if we left, some other team can just turn up and pay more. It's County's rent or no-one's. Obviously this means it's essential that we never again fall into arrears, and shocking that we ever did.

It just looks to me like we'd be cutting off our nose to spite our face if we upped sticks, and the WRU would be doing the same if they shoved us out.

IF... my aunty had balls she would be my uncle

Or our new kit man

The Newport wrote:The WRU Decided on Monday Morning that they were moving The Dragons to North Wales from 2020/2021 Season and put Rodney Parade up for sale but offered Newport County and Newport Rugby the chance to buy the ground first.

How would Newport County raise the Money to buy Rodney Parade?

Obvious some people on here can't workout what I'm trying to say.
Newport County Directors have always been the same they always leave things to the last minute.
They did it in the Eighties and they have started to do it now. They are holding something back as they always do. I'm not going to name anyone. Ex-directors knew what the problem was when they were their. They tried to say but got shot down. If they tell us how much rent we have to pay then that is a start.

So come on Board Of Directors tell us how we can help the Club?

Please don't think that I'm being disrespectful towards the Board of Directors.