• 13 May 2024, 11:47 a.m.

    Both sides are spinning like a very spinning thing at the moment - but surely those numbers are plucked out of his arse?

    The current lease has 33 years to run & the Council are (allegedly) asking for £1m p.a. on a 250-year extension... but suddenly they're willing to sell the freehold for 10 years' worth (or 40 years' worth, at current rent)? If it's true, we should be snapping their hands off - but if it's true, it also explains why the Council's finances are in such shit order; from their perspective, that's an absolutely terrible deal.

    From the club's, we'd be talking finally acquiring the land for less than an Omobamidele. [I like Andy O, but no-brainer].

    There's a strong smell of BS around here...

  • 13 May 2024, 11:49 a.m.

    No doubt. If I was the council I would also be putting some quite restrictive covenants on it, to protect the asset as a sporting one. Not a development one.

  • 13 May 2024, 11:55 a.m.

    Yeah, did occur to me that for the leasehold to be valued at £1m a year, while the freehold is valued at £8m-£10m doesn't really stack up. Either the former is too high or the latter too low.

  • 13 May 2024, 12:20 p.m.

    Are there really?

    Yes there's a waiting list the club has but they won't all actually buy and how many would going to Toron knock off that list too I wonder.

    Am also curious how many Notts folks would pay big for the hospitality that really drives matchday revenue. I know a couple of guys with seats in the H Club at Spurs.

    £30k one off joining fee and £15k a year (all ex VAT prices). That's what drives your revenue.

  • 13 May 2024, 12:37 p.m.

    I think Saturday was probably an example of a game where they could have filled another 10,000-15,000 seats quite easily and maybe 20k. And I doubt the people making decisions can see that Toton would reduce that demand. Let alone recognise that sooner or later, history says, we will be relegated and then, unless it was a one season charge to the title, being in Toton would kill the club.

  • 13 May 2024, 12:42 p.m.

    On my property-nerd forum the folks who talk like they understand stuff seem to say that Eastcroft is a no-go. The incinerator is an important bit of infrastructure (supplying district heating) and isn’t going anywhere. Which is a shame.. as for a second choice option it’s great… avoids the space constraints of the CG site and, if you really want to think ambitiously, opens up a terrific opportunity for something of a sports and entertainment precinct with a bit more freedom to operate than any site that’s surrounded by roads and houses.

    Were I a billionaire, mind, I’d be flattening pretty much everything not directly facing Radcliffe Road and building a whole new ground slightly rotated and further from the river. You could possibly build half of it without even interfering with the current ground (Spurs style). Piece of piss really.. just need about 80million people to lend me 12quid and we can get this thing going.

  • 13 May 2024, 12:46 p.m.

    The man from the council explains that in some detail in the Athletic article.

  • 13 May 2024, 12:59 p.m.

    The article suggests this figure would rise if forest wanted to build on the site (like maybe a new stand?!).

    For £10m I wouldn’t think there would be need for much negotiation. I’m calling BS.