Dean Court

[Poole Horn]

I do worry about Bournemouth getting sucked into building a new stadium. Don't get me wrong, I wish them all the best, but until the fan based is well-established they are in danger of doing a Darlington and building a massive white elephant. And to be clear, I want them to survive this year. We need more clubs of significant size in the south, not less. For too long, and for obvious historical reasons, the north has had more clubs of size than the south (I exclude London from this).

How are they supposed to establish a bigger fan base if the ground is already full every match. Darlington is a poor example to use, tiny town in comparison to the Bournemouth conurbation (approx 500k)

 

[Brok]

Although it's on the same ground I reckon you get a tick for the 'old' Dean Court and another for 'new' Dean Court on your lists.

On that basis, can I get 4 ticks for Brighton?

 

[Easy 10]

How are they supposed to establish a bigger fan base if the ground is already full every match. Darlington is a poor example to use, tiny town in comparison to the Bournemouth conurbation (approx 500k)

Darlington were also at the arse-end of the 4th divison and playing in front of gates of 3,000-4,000, as they had throughout their entire history, so quite why George Reynolds decided they needed a 25,000 seater stadium is anyones guess. They were always a tiny club, so plonking them in a 25k stadium was never going to change that. As proved to be the case.

As an aside, what size stadium are Bournemouth looking to apply for when they submit their application ?

 

[Brok]

I know that it can be an absolute bleeder if trying to do the 92.
At one time I was up to 59* league grounds, now I'm back down to about 40.




*I can't remember if I went to Tranmere or not...

 

[Poole Horn]

Darlington were also at the arse-end of the 4th divison and playing in front of gates of 3,000-4,000, as they had throughout their entire history, so quite why George Reynolds decided they needed a 25,000 seater stadium is anyones guess. They were always a tiny club, so plonking them in a 25k stadium was never going to change that. As proved to be the case.

As an aside, what size stadium are Bournemouth looking to apply for when they submit their application ?

I think its in the region 20k-25k, not entirely sure as I'm a Hornet. The point I was originally replying to was that Bournemouth need to get the ground built as soon as possible to tap into the younger fans that can't currently get tickets. Kids everywhere wearing Bournemouth shirts but they'll only get them hooked if they can see them live.

 

[Simster]

Darlington were also at the arse-end of the 4th divison and playing in front of gates of 3,000-4,000, as they had throughout their entire history, so quite why George Reynolds decided they needed a 25,000 seater stadium is anyones guess. They were always a tiny club, so plonking them in a 25k stadium was never going to change that. As proved to be the case.

As an aside, what size stadium are Bournemouth looking to apply for when they submit their application ?

25,000

And let's face it, they have the potential to be far bigger than Wigan who have a similar sized ground!

 

[Easy 10]

25,000

And let's face it, they have the potential to be far bigger than Wigan who have a similar sized ground!

Bigger than Wigan ?

Well, you've got to have dreams I guess...

 

[Simster]

Bigger than Wigan ?

Well, you've got to have dreams I guess...

Well , yes!

But in all seriousness, the football map changed decades ago. You could plonk a Premier league team and stadium in just about any major town or city in the country and 20,000 is the bare minimum you could expect to attract. Bournemouth isn't a small town by any stretch, and they'd understandably feel that their lack of success historically should have no bearing on their ambition. Reading and Wigan prove the point really.

 

[rippleman]

From memory you could build about 3 football grounds in the space around the old Dean Court car park.

Exactly! Baffling why they didn't. Increased capacity = increased revenue.

Personal view is that clubs shouldn't be allowed to play in the PL if their ground is not up to scratch. Hardly seems equitable that we have to give them 3K tickets when they come to the Amex but they only have to give us 1300 (ish) thereby depriving many of our supporters the chance to attend.

#tinpot

 

[Easy 10]

Well , yes!

But in all seriousness, the football map changed decades ago. You could plonk a Premier league team and stadium in just about any major town or city in the country and 20,000 is the bare minimum you could expect to attract. Bournemouth isn't a small town by any stretch, and they'd understandably feel that their lack of success historically should have no bearing on their ambition. Reading and Wigan prove the point really.

Agreed. Just a lovely way of putting it - "we could be as big as Wigan"

I'd have thought 25k would be about right for Plucky if they stay in the PL. They probably wouldn't always fill it against the lesser sides, and much the same as Palace, they could expect their attendances to melt away to around 13-14k if they did drop back down into the Championship. But at least they'd have the scope to accommodate the 10k's worth of floaters if they yo-yo'd between the Prem and the Championship for a while.

 

[Nixonator]

Well , yes!

But in all seriousness, the football map changed decades ago. You could plonk a Premier league team and stadium in just about any major town or city in the country and 20,000 is the bare minimum you could expect to attract. Bournemouth isn't a small town by any stretch, and they'd understandably feel that their lack of success historically should have no bearing on their ambition. Reading and Wigan prove the point really.

Not quite, even in the PL Wigan struggled to get 18k through the gates, which is 7k short of capacity.

Bournemouth has far bigger scope.

 

[Easy 10]

Not quite, even in the PL Wigan struggled to get 18k through the gates, which is 7k short of capacity.

Bournemouth has far bigger scope.

Wigan is a bit of an oddity though, as they're far more obsessed with seeing 26 meatheads chasing a miss-shapen egg around the place up there.

 

[Nixonator]

Wigan is a bit of an oddity though, as they're far more obsessed with seeing 30 meatheads chasing a miss-shapen egg around the place up there.

An oddity that won the FA cup, which as far as i'm concerned finished off the debate on whether it means anything anymore.

*Yes i'd still love to win it.

 

[Poole Horn]

Exactly! Baffling why they didn't. Increased capacity = increased revenue.

Personal view is that clubs shouldn't be allowed to play in the PL if their ground is not up to scratch. Hardly seems equitable that we have to give them 3K tickets when they come to the Amex but they only have to give us 1300 (ish) thereby depriving many of our supporters the chance to attend.

#tinpot

The land around Dean Court is Kings Park which is protected by the 5 Parks Act.

 

[afcb]

Exactly! Baffling why they didn't. Increased capacity = increased revenue.

Personal view is that clubs shouldn't be allowed to play in the PL if their ground is not up to scratch. Hardly seems equitable that we have to give them 3K tickets when they come to the Amex but they only have to give us 1300 (ish) thereby depriving many of our supporters the chance to attend.

#tinpot

Short memories on here. What did you give us at the Withdean, 800 I recall. Similar situation to us at the time in that you were in a rented ground looking to relocate and build elsewhere. The ground is totally up to scratch by the way (£7 million to get it to PL standards) its just small - sorry about that

There were plans to expand to 15000 2 years back but a dispute between the landlord and the club over a buy back meant the club decided to move elsewhere. The Council also piped up and said the current site wasn't suitable for redevelopment.

 

[Easy 10]

Short memories on here. What did you give us at the Withdean, 800 I recall. Similar situation to us at the time in that you were in a rented ground looking to relocate and build elsewhere. The ground is totally up to scratch by the way (£7 million to get it to PL standards) its just small - sorry about that

Yes, but we were both dossing about in the 3rd division then.

Having an 11k ground in the PL is totally inadequate. Its a highly unusual pretty much unprecedented situation to have such a tiny club and ground in the Premier League, but financial doping on the playing side enabled it to happen, so it is what it is I suppose.

 

[afcb]

Yes, but we were both dossing about in the 3rd division then.

but financial doping on the playing side enabled it to happen, so it is what it is I suppose.

Have you lot come up with a suitable chant for that old chestnut yet

Hopefully within a few years we'll have a 25k stadium with mahoosive depreciation and an academy capable of swallowing loads of debt.

 

[Easy 10]

Have you lot come up with a suitable chant for that old chestnut yet

Hopefully within a few years we'll have a 25k stadium with mahoosive depreciation and an academy capable of swallowing loads of debt.

Well, its not THAT old a chestnut chap - its only a couple of seasons ago that you cheated the division to get yourselves up. The gamble paid off and you've been reaping the rewards ever since, which is great for you of course.

Our owner invested in the clubs infrastructure first to get BHA ready for the PL off the pitch. Then he pushed the boat out a little further to get us ready on it. Your owner has done it the other way round, by completely ignoring the rules and splurging on the team first, and THEN began thinking about bringing Plucky up to scratch in terms of infrastructure. And maybe one day you'll get there, who knows when.

Till then its a case of making do I guess, but if you DO drop out of the PL, it'll be interesting to see whether a 25k stadium is still actively pursued and on the agenda, as you certainly won't have the urgency that we had at the time to move to a new home.

 

[afcb]

Can you stick some more euphemisms in that post...?

pretty please

Why does any topic on AFCB get hijacked and go down the same old route...is it some kind of defence mechanism?

 

[Nixonator]

Can you stick some more euphemisms in that post...?

pretty please

Why does any topic on AFCB get hijacked and go down the same old route...is it some kind of defence mechanism?

It's a forum, people have opinions.

I'm sure if I visited whatever your main forum is, I would find plenty of negativity directed towards us, factual or otherwise. In fact you even brought some over here.. "An Academy swallowing our debt".. what's that about?

Personally I have nothing against Bournemouth, in fact out of the (supposed) south-coasterly 'neighbours' I would much rather have your club knocking around the top with us than any of the alternatives that's for sure.