If that is the case and it was my call, I would come out and say so in the hope that public opinion would be on the side of the County and may sway things. I would also be trying to raise the cash necessary to upgrade Spytty to EFL standard.

Amberexile wrote:If that is the case and it was my call, I would come out and say so in the hope that public opinion would be on the side of the County and may sway things. I would also be trying to raise the cash necessary to upgrade Spytty to EFL standard.

First of all like you I stress the 'if'.

Agree entirely with your first point. Although I can understand how it would be difficult for the board to come out and say it.

As for Spytty the problem would remain the athletics track. And the athletic club have a 99 year license and I don't see how they could be persuaded to give that up.

Outside RP, I see Spytty as is the only feasible option for season 2023/24. We have to develop it to prevent the running track from being an issue. Not beyond the ability of a club with the vision and ambition to do so.

It's being presented here as a given that the WRU holds all the cards, but but I don't think they do. If a tenant to help share costs is a good thing, we are the only game in town. And that's before factoring in the council's attitude. I interpret the WRU's reported pressure on NRFC as a good thing for our long-term tenure.

I think any plan to bring Spytty up to EFL standard would be futile. Compared with Gloucester it was a great location, but compared with RP it's atrocious and I struggle to see it ever attracting sufficient numbers to sustain L2 football. Or us funding a team which could.retain that status while we cover a proportion of the costs of rasing it to the ground,which is what's needed.

George Street-Bridge wrote:It's being presented here as a given that the WRU holds all the cards, but but I don't think they do. If a tenant to help share costs is a good thing, we are the only game in town. And that's before factoring in the council's attitude. I interpret the WRU's reported pressure on NRFC as a good thing for our long-term tenure.

I think any plan to bring Spytty up to EFL standard would be futile. Compared with Gloucester it was a great location, but compared with RP it's atrocious and I struggle to see it ever attracting sufficient numbers to sustain L2 football. Or us funding a team which could.retain that status while we cover a proportion of the costs of rasing it to the ground,which is what's needed.

If I knew how I'd post the link to BBC Sport. They report that in 2018 the WRU posted a turnover of £97,000,000. Further the debt on the National Stadium was down from £75,000,000 in 1999 to £6,500,000 in that year. The other figure quoted was that the WRU had invested £42,000,000 into Welsh rugby.

I'm afraid our rent for Rodney Parade really is a drop in the ocean. The gate receipts and television money for last Saturday's minor and forgone result fixture with Italy was greater in one afternoon than is County's over a full season.

The pressure on Newport RFC to pay £4,000 per fixture is a worrying not helpful sign. Playing poker with a poor hand is difficult. Playing poker when your opponent can see you have nothing is impossible.

Edit.

I agree about Spytty but not with your analysis on location. After all there was once a 4,000+ crowd for an evening fixture in Conference South. By way of comparison, shops in Newport City centre close but shops at Newport Retail Park, not so much.

If you are on a PC, posting a link is easy. Select and copy the address in the URL field - the single line at the top with the ".co.uk" address in it - and paste it into the posting. I don't know about phones or tablets.

My problem with Spytty's location is not proximity of shops but access via public transport.

Amberexile wrote:Outside RP, I see Spytty as is the only feasible option for season 2023/24. We have to develop it to prevent the running track from being an issue. Not beyond the ability of a club with the vision and ambition to do so.

This to me is problem with Spytty.

First of all do we share with Newport City?They might have primacy of fixture for all we know.

Secondly unless the athletics are accommodating enough to give up their home we are stuck with athletics track.

Thirdly other than the main stand, which holds less than 2,000 the terraces are either too far away from the pitch, or have been condemned as unsafe.

However if all of this could be overcome the cost of developing the stadium, even to the minimum standard in three years would be very difficult. If it's to be done we need to get started PDQ.

Sorry to say this but this problem has been 30 years in the making. I've bored everyone on here, myself included, by talking of very little else. Indeed one of the criticisms of me is that I have a beef with every single board of directors at Newport County.

Too damn right. In 30 each has failed to come to grips with our major problem. Vision, you say, and ambition. Now wouldn't that be something.

George Street-Bridge wrote:If you are on a PC, posting a link is easy. Select and copy the address in the URL field - the single line at the top with the ".co.uk" address in it - and paste it into the posting. I don't know about phones or tablets.

My problem with Spytty's location is not proximity of shops but access via public transport.

That's a good point. But in my view it should not be beyond the wit and wisdom of either Newport County or Newport Busses to lay on match day services.

Stan - I asked this recently and you may have replied, but the thread descended into chaos and got deleted.

What was your take on the proposal for a ground of our own which the club mooted in the late 90s?

George Street-Bridge wrote:Stan - I asked this recently and you may have replied, but the thread descended into chaos and got deleted.

What was your take on the proposal for a ground of our own which the club mooted in the late 90s?

I think with modern day grass technology that it is perfectly possible for a football club and a rugby club to share a stadium. Wigan, Huddersfield, Reading etc. And I think that it makes perfect sense economically to split the costs.

Rodney Parade would be the ideal solution. It still can be. But only if we are equal partners. Either as joint owners or joint tenants of Newport City Council.

As for our own stadium. This is the choice. We would need to develop it. I think that realistically were we to do this the result in the short term would be relegation, probably to tier 6. And we might well spend many years in non league. However if we remain at Rodney Parade as tenants, assuming the WRU want us, I believe that we are only a couple of bad seasons from Conference South any way.

And of course if we do nothing and we get kicked out of Rodney Parade, we face oblivion.

I think we should lay our cards on the table. A successful Newport County are an asset to the city of Newport. We should lobby the Council, local business, the people of Newport to invest in a stadium fit for the 21st century. I think there is a destructive Newport mentality. That somehow we are not good enough. As they say in the north east of England shy bairns get nowt. Rather than be fearful of the response we should make it clear that those in Newport who enjoy professional sport are no longer prepared to pay their rates without getting something in return.

So in short I would like a ground of our own but I think making common cause with the rugby, and being upfront about what we want is the way forward. This 'we are in sensitive talks' bullshit has gone on far too long.