Propco And The Spl

[Jaggernaut]

If Thistle manage to retain their place in the SPL after next season then the club's finances should start to look very healthy. I would like to see the club buy back the part of the stadium that was sold to propco. This would allow them to develop the city end first and foremost as part of a football stadium, including new changing facilities etc and a stand (or terracing), which would then leave the question of the main stand for the future. I seem to remember that the plan for a residential/commercial development combined with a stand got rejected because of the mixed-use aspect. So, leave it as part of the stadium, or integrate it with offices etc. that can then be rented out.

 

The propco people are said to be Thistle men. In that case, and in view of the fact that their investment has given zilch return in terms of selling the land for development, they should be happy to get their money back and return the stadium to the club.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

direct quote from DB courtesy Glaswegian

 

There will also be money spent on the stadium. We are going to open up the old stand and give it a bit of a makeover.

 

“There will be a refurbishment of the main stand and there will be work getting done on the outside of the stadium. A new access door will be created and it’s about getting a polish and shine to the stadium and bringing things up to shape.

 

 

edited to add.... no mention of gnomes.

Edited May 8, 2013 by lady-isobel-barnett

[Garscube Road End]

direct quote from DB courtesy Glaswegian

 

 

 

 

edited to add.... no mention of gnomes.

 

Gnomes arent cheap.. Budget might not stretch that far!!

[Mr Bunny]

Gnomes arent cheap.. Budget might not stretch that far!!

 

Could we get volunteers from the fans to dress up as gnomes on match days and stand on the bing in various gnomic poses? Or failing that monks who would moan their way through the game whilst flagellating themselves with Thistle scarves? Nah no one would do that, it's too daft.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Mr Bunny

[Garscube Road End]

Could we get volunteers from the fans to dress up as gnomes on match days and stand on the bing in various gnomic poses? Or failing that monks who would moan their way thtrough the game whilst flagellating themselves with Thistle scarves? Nah no one would do that, it's too daft.

 

Rangers fans have been doing that ALL season!!!!!! lol.

 

Nah!! I think Thistle painted gnomes of strips through the years would be fantastic.

[Jaggernaut]

Rangers fans have been doing that ALL season!!!!!! lol.

 

Nah!! I think Thistle painted gnomes of strips through the years would be fantastic.

 

Brilliant idea. If not gnomes, why not dummies? I mean those ones that you see with clothes on in department stores. A couple of dozen, planted on the bing, showing Jags strips through the years.

[madcapmilkdrinker]

Having all the land that surrounds the ground back in the hands of the club would be the ideal scenario.

 

 

[ScottyDFA]

Back on topic - the Propco issue should be addressed at the earliest opportunity. It's the one aspect of being a Thistle fan that depresses me. When the property is back in the club's hands I'd like to see it developed properly as part of a football ground - no accomodation or anything like that. Just a covered safe-standing area (smaller version of Dortmund's) with the space beneath comprised (from the Firhill Road end) of a tea room for the old-timers in the neighbourhood ("Molly's" after Molly Stallan), a bar ("Bar '71" - no explanation required), and new changing/treatment facilities. Put a creche where the offices are in the JHS and all generations are catered for...

 

A new Jags Shop and ticket office built between this new John Lambie South Stand and the Jackie Husband Stand would complete the plans for this part of the ground.

 

Everyone's a Jags fan!

 

You should see my detailed drawings for the redevelopment of the Main Stand...

 

P.S. No part of the ground should be sold off ever again - it's a football club's only real asset. If tea-rooms and bars have to start life as rented-out office space for financial reasons, that's fine - but must be the club's property to develop for it's own purposes when conditions allow.

[Willjag]

direct quote from DB courtesy Glaswegian

 

There will also be money spent on the stadium. We are going to open up the old stand and give it a bit of a makeover.

 

“There will be a refurbishment of the main stand and there will be work getting done on the outside of the stadium. A new access door will be created and it’s about getting a polish and shine to the stadium and bringing things up to shape

 

 

This raises an interesting question, who is going to be paying for this refurb? If Propco and the Club are equal partners, will the Propco partners be putting their hands in their pockets to pay a share?

[Garscube Road End]

Back on topic - the Propco issue should be addressed at the earliest opportunity. It's the one aspect of being a Thistle fan that depresses me. When the property is back in the club's hands I'd like to see it developed properly as part of a football ground - no accomodation or anything like that. Just a covered safe-standing area (smaller version of Dortmund's) with the space beneath comprised (from the Firhill Road end) of a tea room for the old-timers in the neighbourhood ("Molly's" after Molly Stallan), a bar ("Bar '71" - no explanation required), and new changing/treatment facilities. Put a creche where the offices are in the JHS and all generations are catered for...

 

A new Jags Shop and ticket office built between this new John Lambie South Stand and the Jackie Husband Stand would complete the plans for this part of the ground.

 

Everyone's a Jags fan!

 

You should see my detailed drawings for the redevelopment of the Main Stand...

 

P.S. No part of the ground should be sold off ever again - it's a football club's only real asset. If tea-rooms and bars have to start life as rented-out office space for financial reasons, that's fine - but must be the club's property to develop for it's own purposes when conditions allow.

 

 

Totally agree with the sentiments.

[The Jukebox Rebel]

What with all the good times lately I'd put this horrible issue away to the back of my mind.

 

Tonight I'm going to have that recurring nightmare about Firhill the 2 sided stadium.

[yoda-jag]

If Thistle manage to retain their place in the SPL after next season then the club's finances should start to look very healthy. I would like to see the club buy back the part of the stadium that was sold to propco. This would allow them to develop the city end first and foremost as part of a football stadium, including new changing facilities etc and a stand (or terracing), which would then leave the question of the main stand for the future. I seem to remember that the plan for a residential/commercial development combined with a stand got rejected because of the mixed-use aspect. So, leave it as part of the stadium, or integrate it with offices etc. that can then be rented out.

 

The propco people are said to be Thistle men. In that case, and in view of the fact that their investment has given zilch return in terms of selling the land for development, they should be happy to get their money back and return the stadium to the club.

 

Been thinking similar lately, i have.

Since we started looking like stickon for being championees, the Propco situation has been on my mind.

Learn from the mistakes of the past, we must, and while costs across the club will rise now we are in the SPL (more playing and nonplaying staff, higher average wage, more matchday cost), if our bean counters and management team can utilise the increased income prudently, continuing putting a exciting and succesful team on the park while showing healthy profit for the next couple of seasons (and boosted further by a couple of substantial 6 figure player sales (or maybe even a *spit* goodwillie *spit* size transfer) developed through our youth system), there is no reason why Firhill cannot be wholly back in the sole ownership of the club.

Any more residential or non-footballing usage development must be avoided imo.

We have the chance to right the wrongs of the last couple of decades where the ground and the club has been taken to the brink of armageddon if we can do a St Johnstone type scenario, where we become established longterm in the SPL and give the club and its fanbase back a stadium that is all ours and one to be proud of in every way.

 

As madcapmilkdrinker has just posted, having the undeveloped and unused land around the stadium would be ideal - that would give us more scope for income and development both short and longterm, but that scenario is undoubtably a good few years away. Who owns the ground by the basin behind the JHS etc?

 

Also ScottyDFAs' post and ideas therein are excellent too.

 

If propco really is comprised mostly of "thistleminded" individuals, as they told us 5(?) years ago when Propco came about, then they must be seen to embrace and welcome this goal publically - they will, as investors get their money back and their 15% bonus or whatever they wrote into the deal when it was drawn up, and will forever have the gratitude of the Thistle support for stepping in in one of our darkest and most financially challenging periods, but there must be no more pi-in-the-sky property developments which further dismantle the stadium, and the goal for 2-3 years time must now be shifted to balancing a successful team on the park that plays its football in the top tier of Scottish football, in a stadium that is wholly owned by the club, and which is redeveloped to make it a truly magnificent foursided arena, as it once was.

[Jaggernaut]

Back on topic - the Propco issue should be addressed at the earliest opportunity. It's the one aspect of being a Thistle fan that depresses me. When the property is back in the club's hands I'd like to see it developed properly as part of a football ground - no accomodation or anything like that. Just a covered safe-standing area (smaller version of Dortmund's) with the space beneath comprised (from the Firhill Road end) of a tea room for the old-timers in the neighbourhood ("Molly's" after Molly Stallan), a bar ("Bar '71" - no explanation required), and new changing/treatment facilities. Put a creche where the offices are in the JHS and all generations are catered for...

 

A new Jags Shop and ticket office built between this new John Lambie South Stand and the Jackie Husband Stand would complete the plans for this part of the ground.

 

Everyone's a Jags fan!

 

You should see my detailed drawings for the redevelopment of the Main Stand...

 

P.S. No part of the ground should be sold off ever again - it's a football club's only real asset. If tea-rooms and bars have to start life as rented-out office space for financial reasons, that's fine - but must be the club's property to develop for it's own purposes when conditions allow.

 

Excellent post. The bit I've highlighted reminds me of a chat with a Dunfermline fan yesterday. He said that the fans have money to buy the club, but they don't have a clue what they're buying, as the stadium is owned by another company, players and backroom staff aren't getting paid (much, if anything), most of the players are youngsters with no real value, etc. etc. Total nightmare.

[P-T-118]

Back on topic - the Propco issue should be addressed at the earliest opportunity. It's the one aspect of being a Thistle fan that depresses me. When the property is back in the club's hands I'd like to see it developed properly as part of a football ground - no accomodation or anything like that. Just a covered safe-standing area (smaller version of Dortmund's) with the space beneath comprised (from the Firhill Road end) of a tea room for the old-timers in the neighbourhood ("Molly's" after Molly Stallan), a bar ("Bar '71" - no explanation required), and new changing/treatment facilities. Put a creche where the offices are in the JHS and all generations are catered for...

 

A new Jags Shop and ticket office built between this new John Lambie South Stand and the Jackie Husband Stand would complete the plans for this part of the ground.

 

Everyone's a Jags fan!

 

You should see my detailed drawings for the redevelopment of the Main Stand...

 

P.S. No part of the ground should be sold off ever again - it's a football club's only real asset. If tea-rooms and bars have to start life as rented-out office space for financial reasons, that's fine - but must be the club's property to develop for it's own purposes when conditions allow.

 

lets see them then - a link would be good...

[Jaggernaut]

 

If propco really is comprised mostly of "thistleminded" individuals, as they told us 5(?) years ago when Propco came about, then they must be seen to embrace and welcome this goal publically - they will, as investors get their money back and their 15% bonus or whatever they wrote into the deal when it was drawn up, and will forever have the gratitude of the Thistle support for stepping in in one of our darkest and most financially challenging periods, but there must be no more pi-in-the-sky property developments which further dismantle the stadium, and the goal for 2-3 years time must now be shifted to balancing a successful team on the park that plays its football in the top tier of Scottish football, in a stadium that is wholly owned by the club, and which is redeveloped to make it a truly magnificent foursided arena, as it once was.

 

All correct, y-j, and worth emphasising the last bit.

[Jaggernaut]

 

 

You should see my detailed drawings for the redevelopment of the Main Stand...

 

 

 

Could this be a new line in the art of seduction?

[Guest fredthecheesecloth]

 

 

This raises an interesting question, who is going to be paying for this refurb? If Propco and the Club are equal partners, will the Propco partners be putting their hands in their pockets to pay a share?

 

I would imagine a loan account would be opened up to Propco and it would be settled on the subsequent sale?

[kni]

There is the possibility that club is/will be paying rent to PropCo to use the main stand.

[Mediocre Pundit]

There is the possibility that club is/will be paying rent to PropCo to use the main stand.

Why speculate? I severely doubt it...

[kni]

Why speculate? I severely doubt it...

 

I would not doubt it. Businessmen seek returns on large investments. The Propco investors paid a large 6 figure stand for the main stand and the bing.

[Willjag]

I would not doubt it. Businessmen seek returns on large investments. The Propco investors paid a large 6 figure stand for the main stand and the bing.

The Club are co-owners of the Main Stand though.

[Norgethistle]

I would not doubt it. Businessmen seek returns on large investments. The Propco investors paid a large 6 figure stand for 50% stake in the main stand and the bing.

 

Fixed it for you

[Guest fredthecheesecloth]

Presume you have seen the accounts kni? A quick look at the reserves movement will give you an idea, presuming Propco have no other expenses (I would imagine?).

[Willjag]

I would imagine a loan account would be opened up to Propco and it would be settled on the subsequent sale?

Dunderheid trying to understand what you mean by this Fred... do you mean that Propco would fund it all and loan the Club the Club's share of the refurb payments, payable on sale of the Main Stand etc?

[topcat]

By opening up the Main Stand would this likely mean the removal of the view limiting support post I wonder or is it just a cosmetic tart up