The K's In Point

Re: Stadium Fund

By jon tolley19/6/2022 12:04Sun Jun 19 12:04:53 2022In response to Re: Stadium Fund

Views: 11898

your experience is valid and real.
i too am experienced albeit it at different things.

the often not mentioned part for me is that (that part of) Chessington is not preferable to the town centre. being Kingston's football club is our biggest asset. But i accept I'm in a minority on this.

the reason Chalky Lane would be hard for some of the same reasons why Lovelace is. flooding and green belt. less housing NIMBY there for sure., but costs to make that place useable for something that could go to Step 2 would be a lot more than somewhere with existing infrastrucutre.

and yes, i don't doubt those grants would be harder to get, but there's other funding streams for building community assets. bear in mind the GLA granted hundreds of thousands of pounds to make Tolworth look nicer (Casuals benefit off this still) through its Good Growth fund, there's no doubt in my mind that if, at the time of the biggest regeneration program in the borough for a generation, in the 17th most deprived area of London, with a new school being built just metres from the Athletics staidum, with the current tennant of Kingsmeadow reviewing their tenancy and talk of moving away, a council owned facility would be able to receive money and permissions. to make the nearly-ready to go facility into something that can work. Nearly all the infrastrucure is in place already. we could end the nomad nature if we chose to.

It is at least worth sending an email. From everything i know (admittedly i am not a councillor for a month but was the previous 7 years) this is entirely achievable and senior cllrs have been interested, but the club doesn't seem to want to persue this route.

and some of that is because the pain of being in the inferior Kingsmeadow from the one we used to own. and some is because of the obsession with needing to own the land rather than being a tennant. some will believe that passionately. I don't and i'm quite confident there's other local football clubs where having the council as the landowner actually provides the security many think can only come from ownership (owned of course by directors who can sell on if they choose). Revenue streams may well be lower. But costs (not least cos we'd need to borrow huge amounts for a new build) would be lower too

The council has bought the lie that you can't fit a football ground inside the athletics track, fans have somehow all okay'd that it's in Kingstonian's best interests to leave the town, that Tooting is an okay for now, and Lovelace being "the envy of non-league" was bullshit.

seeya in Mitcham

Edited by jon tolley at 12:37:21 on 19th June 2022