Kennedy Park Feasibility Study - Here's a Laugh!!

[Burnham Lad]

As you know I have been banging on about Kennedy Park going to take too long for the Club - well, here is proof - the Feasibility Study has NOT EVEN STARTED YET!! THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO IS GOING TO DO IT!

 

There has been silence as far as I can see since last November, so today I emailed the Project Manager at the Borough Council with the following questions:

 

Please can you let me know:

 

a) Has the Feasibility Study commenced yet?

 

How long is it expected to take?

 

c) Who is carrying it out?

 

d) When are they expected to report?

 

e) How will the results be made known to the public?

 

f) Is the Slough Town Football Stadium still part of the project?

 

Here is the reply:

 

Thank you for your enquiry. 

The feasibility study has not yet commenced, but will be up and running soon now.  A stadium for Slough Town Football Club is still part of the project.

 

I am sorry that until the contract for the study is signed I cannot answer the rest of your questions with any certainty. 

 

Perhaps I can ask you now whether you are a local resident/football supporter with views to express - in which case I should be glad to hear them either now or when further details become available - or whether you have a business interest.

 

Mr Deaner - We're waiting......... and waiting ......and waiting! Is there anybody theeeere? Knock Three times for Yes and don't bother for No...... ABsence and Silence we can take as a No then!

 

STST Committee - Please Note!

[Barry Scott]

that's [****!!****] typical

[Nathan]

To right it is, but there's Slough Borough Council for you then, isn't it?

[BFR]

Quote:

Andrew S said:
Here is the reply:

Thank you for your enquiry. 
The feasibility study has not yet commenced, but will be up and running soon now. 

So the study is up and running soon now? I'm glad to hear that your council taxes are being used to pay the salaries of such talented and educated individuals.

[Guest]

Andrew S....

 

please note what ?

 

What can we do ?

 

Can you join the STST ?

 

Can you put what obviously is your plan in the

 

event of ?

 

 

 

FACT !

 

MD has meeting with council on 15th Jan 2004

 

STST does not hold a golden key - but does it's best in the very hard circumsatnces. To make head and tails out of a very complexed situation.

 

-We are keeping our options open with Wexham Park and are keen to help in what ever circumstances we might find ourselves in the future.

 

rgds chris <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

 

[Guest]

Before you say you are a member ...I mean't for you to put yourself forward in the forthcoming elections of a new board for the Trust !!

 

cheers Chris

[Burnham Lad]

You asked what should the STST Committee note - I just meant to point out that the Feasibility study promised months ago, had not yet started and the consultants to carry it out had not yet been appointed, although I suspect you already knew that!

 

You also asked what would be my plan, so here is a summary of some things I think STST Committee could consider as part of a plan of action, although I am sure that you have many of these things in hand.

 

These are not in any order of importance, I have just grouped them by activities and they may be contemporaneous.

 

1. Resourcing.

 

The Trust will need some advice from those with particular skills. Whilst the Trust may already have an accountant and a solicitor, these may well cost money if anything else needs to be done, so I would suggest it was worthwhile to make an appeal to fans and members to put together a list of people with particular skills they would be prepared to "donate", such as solicitors or legal executives, accountants, PR specialists, and anybody with experience of running a business or charitable activity.

 

Whilst they may be foes on the field of play, all clubs have an interest in a strong non-league scene and all our local rivals from Maidenhead, Marlow, Chesham, Windsor, and Burnham all have an interest in ensuring they have top quality local opposition - derbies are always well supported. It may be useful to see if they have any resources they would be prepared to offer to help STFC in this difficult time for the club - this is about winning a war, not an individual battle.

 

Money is also going to be an issue and the Trust will need to establish some ways of raising cash to fund its activities, as well as finding sponsors.

 

I would suggest that fans be asked to suggest ways that money could be generated. These may not always be big cash generators, small reliable amounts are also useful if there are enough of them. For example, one idea might be car-booting. Whilst many fans are not in a position to give cash, they may be prepared to donate unwanted items around their homes, which could be used to fuel a voluntary stall at local car-boots, with the resulting cash given to STST. I am sure many other people will have other suggestions.

 

2. Strategy going forward.

 

I am sure you have already thought of these, but as you asked here are a few comments.

 

a) Wexham Park.

 

It would be useful to know if the Thornes would countenance any return of the club to Wexham and what would be the minimum terms under which they would consider it. So perhaps a request to them for a meeting with a few representatives of the Trust to explore this would be a useful first step. It would obviously be useful to know what conditions the league would apply to any return. Perhaps again, the Council could facilitate this?

 

Kennedy Park.

 

It is already clear that this is likely to be a protracted process. I would suggest that the Trust meet with the Project Manager and Mr Anderson if he is willing and to ask the question that, given the time likely to complete the study, go through the design and planning process, obtain the necessary permissions and finances, complete the work and get the ground to a usable state, from their knowledge of major local authority projects, what would be their best estimate of when the ground would be available?

 

I would estimate that given the usual speed of progress this is unlikely to be before the commencement of the season in 2010. They may say 2008, but I would doubt that.

 

Once this answer has been obtained, it would seem sensible for the Trust to try and obtain a meeting with Mr Deaner to ask some related questions. It may be necessary to ask the council to facilitate this, but as the joint venture is partly one of Public interest, it would seem that the support the council is giving gives the Trust some credibility to ask these questions:

 

1. Given the time it is likely to take to get the new stadium up and running is he willing and able to keep the team running until then?

 

2. Is he prepared to keep the ground arrangements with Windsor going and would they be prepared to let it run for a further 2 to 4 years after the current spell is ended?

 

3. Would he be prepared to support a return to Wexham if this was possible?

 

4. It may be necessary, realistically, to consider a worst case scenario. If the club failed to get a top six finish this season, it would be effectively relegated by a league. Would he be willing and able to financially support a major team re-build to get it up to the new Premier league in time for the new stadium (see question below)?

 

5. Continuing with that scenario, if the club continued its present rate of descent, would the financial model for a Conference-standard stadium still work for a team playing at what would currently be equivalent to Ryman 2 or lower? If not, what then?

 

6. What plans would need to be in place to meet the future league financial and ground criteria?

 

c) Slough Borough Council

 

Having collected all this information, it would also be useful to know what the council's view is of the answers, in terms of their support for a quality local football team.

 

 

3.Organisation

 

It might be useful to set up a number of groups, perhaps of co-opted members from the experts list as described above, to as to look at one or two aspects of the club.

 

The groups I would suggest in addition to the usual ones on finance etc, would be a group to liaise with the players to build up a relationship with them and the manager to consider what the Trust can do to help, a group to monitor the performance of FRUS Ltd, and a group to work with the local press to develop a positive image of the club, and make sure that any good work in the fields of youth football get the prominence they would deserve, and to ensure that they get accurate information.

 

As I said, just a few thoughts which could be improved by debate and other people's ideas, and hopefully, as I said, you already have in hand!

[Ian]

Thanks Andrew for taking the time to detail so many decent points. Many of these are in hand although not all so additional comments are always welcome. I also refer back to previous comments that it would inappropriate for the Steering Committee to kick-start too many projects when election of Trust Officers needs to take place.

 

However, you've hit the nail on the head in one respect in that input, in terms of suggestions, ideas, resources and, most of all, cash needs to come from Trust members. I won't pre-empt too much what we may say at the Launch evening (I assume you're attending?) but the Committee are not some all conquering power that possess a magic wand. To succeed, we need to recognise that we're all in this together. And that includes more than just a small handful of people devoting time and no small effort to making the Trust a success. That's why suggestions such as these are always welcome and I hope you will be putting your name forward for election as one of the Trust Officers.

[Burnham Lad]

Ian,

 

I have sent you a private message about the meeting.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew