Friday's meeting

[Cookie]

Originally Posted By: rayw

Originally Posted By: Chris1

Actually I thought it was Mr Levy. Can somebody confirm? Best to get his name right as he is giving us all that money!

But how much and on what basis? Is he just a fan with money who wants to help or does he want something out of it?

A bit of both Rayw.He does seem to have a liking for this club(as he admitted) but at the same time he IS a businessman therefore he is entitled to see return on his investment.He has done us proud so far(I think he has actually done more than that I believe,financially)up till now.If you HAD been there I think you would have noticed the sincerity in his voice.He even said that if he didnt believe it would go through & the stadium built he wouldn't have hung around.But he has & i.m.o.we have a good un' there.No two ways about it he ain't pulling any plugs.He's here for the duration.

[MargateFan]

I am pretty sure it is Mr Lever.

 

Whatever the income stream from the five a side pitches, it will be more than we get now.

 

Mr Lever is with us for the duration, if I read him right tonight. He was certainly right in saying that to be successful, a football club needs to have more than just football club income to grow. His interest seems to be in entering this kind of development, i.e. football clubs leasing grounds from councils, that wish to develop and grow. We are his first, so I reckon he has a vested interest in our particular venture being successfully completed. This is good news for us, but I also got the impression, when I spoke to him, that he has a liitle place for Margate in his heart.

[Boney Crisp]

Originally Posted By: rayw

Originally Posted By: Cookie

The highlight of the evening for me was the positive attitude voiced by our developer Gary Lever.He is on board for the duration thats for sure.Nice of him to turn up & give us a few words.Nice to hear from his own mouth that he realises & understands that he will have to wait to see a return on his investment.He will continue with his support for this club until (& who knows maybe even after),such times as we are all seeing a new stadium standing there in front of us.His loyalty cannot be questioned & his desire to see this through to the end was the most encouraging thing that came out of the meeting for me tonight.
He also said that he,as a businessman,is looking to help out other clubs in similar positions in a similar way,in the future.

Cookie given the record of some previous developers ( who were keen to help OUT local football clubs.
I remain a bit suspicious but as i wasnt at the meeting and you was. I hope your faith proves to be correct.
I still cant quite understand why the club cant at least do something about the Coffin end for next season.

The reason why the club can't do anything down the coffin end is because as far as i am aware the club were given a sum of money to spend on temporary facilities and this has been used up, so the club has not got the money to build more temporary facilities. This is what the fans were told at a meeting last year.

[michael]

That sounds logical Alex.

 

Just a pity that club can't be persuaded to erect two temporary standing shelters (as made by same company who provide the temporary seating-Arena ?) at the Coffin End (Tivoli end to me).

 

I think that would go down so well with everyone,and cost would not be excessive.As the ground eventuallly gets developed, they could be utilised elsewhere-either temporarily,or even permanently-or even moved to the 5-a-side pitches,so it would never be wasted money.

 

 

You do see this type of fabricated steel 'temporary cover' at quite a few lower league grounds .

 

Would need planning permission, but sure for something like that, council would pass it immediately under delegated powers ,even if it only granted it for two years,until ground got completed.

 

It may just result in 50 more people attending home games which all helps;and better still, it may help the team win two more games per season.

 

You can normally rent or buy.

Now i do not know cost of renting for 9 months,(a season)but i would hazard a wild guess at £15K plus £3k for erection/crane costs,with a digger to shape the ground to take the facility.It would not be full length.Just two units behind the goals taking up in total about third of width of pitch but giving cover to about 200 people in inclement weather.

I'm sure Arena would have second hand 'units' hanging around they would be happy to get some income for,and fact that we are using/paying for a stand facility would be in our favour.

 

MISA is there for the club/supporters.Essentially this is a supporters facility.I do not know how much MISA provides to MFC each year, but guessing its circa £8k-i may be wildly wrong.

 

Just a thought, that for one season, MISA could say it proposes to utilise its funds raised to rent a temporary standing facility at Coffin End,and if my wild guesses are correct at cost of circa £18K,then maybe MISA could contribute Half and Hartsdown development company the other 50%.

 

The club would maybe get a bit more revenue.

The fans may support MISA even more, knowing that funds were for one season going to be of DIRECT BENEFIT to the fans themselves.

 

Just a thought.!

Everything is possible.There is always a way !!

[margateshot]

Just a thought. It was an open meeting last night, so were there any local residents in attendance, and any objections to the project?

[Porka]

Pretty sure there were a small handful of local residents. One resident asked a couple of questions of Mr Lever and these were mainly due to concerns over phase 2 from what I heard. Mr Lever seemed optimistic that the income sources could help us up the leagues again and the resident was concerned about future developments should we be as successful as we hope we are. Mr Lever pointed out that all that would really change is that is that terracing areas would be changed to seating areas as we move up the ladder.

[blueblood]

Just to say i took Mr Lever home to London a few months back. He is a very nice guy and a football supporter. I believe he has his own season ticket/box at Stamford Bridge( we all have crosses to carry). But, lets not forget that first and foremost he is a Business man. He doesn't come across to me as the type of man who would waste the amount of time/money this project as taken ,if he did not believe he could see a result. Have faith.

[Frankie100]

Have every confidence in everyone that sat at the top table ......apart from one.

 

You wait he will try and make political gain from something HE caused 3 1/2 years ago.

His own party dont trust him and there is a move to remove him from within.

[Cookie]

I have had my doubts about him in the past Frankie & have voiced my opinions to him personally but in truth he cant be blamed for ALL of the delays.Its not all down to him.You may indeed be correct but for now we have been given a green light(admittedly at a favourable time for the council & very late in the day also)but we have to be thankful for that no matter what his reasons.Would like to have seen more by the council so that we could press on with what we all want to see,phases 2 & 3.

However he is, after all, mainly just the spokesman for the council.All decisions aren't made solely on his say so.

Believe me if you are councils number one critic then I am close behind you.

But for now we have to say thank you,at LEAST,for them allowing something going ahead at long last.. Lets hope we can continue to say thank you with the other phases.

[seasidesteve]

we have absolutely nothing to thank the council for they have done nothing to help the process along.i agree it has not all been their fault but they have put as many obsticles in the way that they possibly can.has this been the case with the ill fated turner center no it hasnt everything possible has been done to help this along.a viable business plan is all we keep hearing does anyone believe the turner thing will be anything other than a burden around council tax payers necks.duel standars at their best i think