Pitch/Groundsman etc

[tomphil]

[tomphil]

Sounds like there's nothing in it....other than coincidence of course.

Edited May 3, 2021 by tomphil

[perthblue02]

1 hour ago, tomphil said:

And guess what ?   This guy operates around Staffordshire & Midlands etc normally.

More contracting out to save 10p by the fat man ?

If you read the tweet thread he is just visiting the training ground (standing outside), then doing some stuff /workshops in Clitheroe Tomorrow.

[tomphil]

2 minutes ago, perthblue02 said:

If you read the tweet thread he is just visiting the training ground (standing outside), then doing some stuff /workshops in Clitheroe Tomorrow.

So 'I'm setting off for Ewood Park' seems nothing more than a clickbait exercise.

I hope Waggot doesn't see him outside he'll be asking him in for an estimate !

[roversfan99]

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-ewood-brockhall-pitch-20564696

Unsure where to put this, but Venkys again making further mockery of their supposed "we only have to ask and they will sign the cheque" mentality. Done on the cheap again. 

[Ewood Ace]

Just now, roversfan99 said:

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-ewood-brockhall-pitch-20564696

Unsure where to put this, but Venkys again making further mockery of their supposed "we only have to ask and they will sign the cheque" mentality. Done on the cheap again. 

Or it could quite possibly be Waggott doing something on the cheap again.

[roversfan99]

3 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

Or it could quite possibly be Waggott doing something on the cheap again.

Seems illogical to me that the owners would have said that we can have the money to fully relay the pitches and Waggott would decline. Why would he?

[Ewood Ace]

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Seems illogical to me that the owners would have said that we can have the money to fully relay the pitches and Waggott would decline. Why would he?

Perhaps but despite talking a good game the only action I ever see from Waggott is downgrades and doing things on the cheap. Also I seem to remember reading a few months back that it was in the final stages of the tendering process for a complete renovation, which suggests that the money was there.

[roversfan99]

11 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

Perhaps but despite talking a good game the only action I ever see from Waggott is downgrades and doing things on the cheap. Also I seem to remember reading a few months back that it was in the final stages of the tendering process for a complete renovation, which suggests that the money was there.

I dont doubt that wed be better off without Waggott based on the things he is responsible for but it seems a massive stretch and doesnt make any sense for the owners to be willing to stump up yet he doesnt want them to.

It says in that article:

"The club were in the process of seeking external investment to afford the implementation service, with Waggott keen to place extra financial pressure on the owners, estimating that a complete overhaul would cost in the region of £2m. Ultimately that finance wasn't attained and the club have sanctioned just a standard refurbishment of all pitches at both stadium and training ground."

[Mattyblue]

February 2021 -

‘Waggott said, if we put in a complete new installation, that's from top to bottom, from the gravel pit to undersoil heating to new laying of the pitch etc with a new boiler, water storage is important and it's all got to be an eco-friendly basis. It's about £2m for a new pitch at Ewood.

I've been pushing behind the scenes with it and we've gone through a tendering process, we've got the quotes in and I'm going to see two, stroke three of the quotes with the companies that we think will be able to give us a great service.’

“We're pushing ahead so I'm going to try and get that in place for next season, if I can finance the project.’

So just as flagged by a few of us on here weeks ago, the new pitch, that would’ve been ‘state of the art’, perhaps? Has been replaced with the; ‘it’s reight, a bit of new seed will sort it’ approach - got some nice headlines and social media comments though, so job done.

If it isn’t radio silence for months on end from Waggott et al, any statements that are made are generally a load of total BS. And a telling example to why we cannot, EVER, let these charlatans loose on any other projects dubbed as ‘state of the art’.

Getting royally fecked off with the nonsense down there.

Edited May 10, 2021 by Mattyblue

[JHRover]

Bull5shit Waggott in full view for everyone to see.

Things kicking off in January because of our disgrace of a pitch, caused through neglect and limited investment since Venkys turned up, including bringing national attention after games having to be postponed because of it.

Waggott shuts people up promising grand things in the summer. All sounds wonderful. What are they moaning about?

Then it doesnt materialise. I'd have put my life savings on us not spending £1 million+ on Ewood this summer. All a con.

Substitute 'pitch' for 'training ground', 'players', 'sponsors' or just about anything else that he's failed to deliver in his time here.

I do think there's possibly something in the suggestion that this won't even have reached the owners door.

I think the attraction of the current regime to Venkys is they can just leave them to it for the year and they are confident, via Suhail, that there's no dodgy business or waste of their money taking place.

Waggott has got his hefty good number here on the basis that he has the skill set to achieve cost reductions and income increases. All sounds good to India. I also expect Waggott is on some sort of bonus scheme where he gets paid more the more he saves the owners/club.

On that basis it serves him absolutely no purpose to go off to India with a begging bowl and request £1-2 million for a new pitch. Venkys might refuse it but even if they didn't it would probably take too long to get approval or would reflect negatively on his figures and 'performance'.

Cheep and cheerful is the way of things here, except when it comes to his salary of course.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I saw a bit of Portsmouth’s pitch today on the news . Unbelievably good. It looked like it was the opening game of the season.

[tomphil]

Stuart Downings wages for the last few seasons would probably have paid for a new pitch.  That's where we are at with this lot though, expect more wages to find their way to some ex Boro/Coventry in the near future.

Clampits the lot of them.

[den]

So where was the untold amount of money coming from for the state of the art Academy? 
 

I doubt it was even discussed.

[Sparks Rover]

Sounds like he's looking to flog the naming rights....Leavers Pie Park, The Sara Lee Stadium,  etc....

The Mogadon Trainjng Centre you can see it now....

[OldEwoodBlue]

They have started digging it up today surely 🤣

[RevidgeBlue]

57 minutes ago, den said:

So where was the untold amount of money coming from for the state of the art Academy? 
 

I doubt it was even discussed.

According to the Fans Forum minutes Cheston told the Forum it could be financed.

As we apparently can't even finance a £2m pitch that just shows how ludicrous and unlikely that suggestion was.

Just as, as soon as some basic questions about the scheme were asked, there was no answer to them and it had to be shelved.

I can't believe Waggott and Cheston ate still in a job on the back of that tbh.

I wonder how much of the Club's money was wasted on the doomed project?

[Tom]

Coincidence that the £2m pitch was announced by a Sky commentator on a live game.

You’d almost think that was strategically dropped in there 

[Ghost7]

False promises to mask over an issue that WILL reoccur. I did not believe it at the time, although it was a good experiment to prove right - that anything said by the club, like any badly run business, has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Do journalists really believe that the owner's can't afford £2 million on a new pitch??? This isn't a financial issue it's a lack of interest and ownership issue. Ask the awkward questions. It's chump change to them!

Our pitch doesn't need to hold up for a full season, just like the manager doesn't need to perform for a full season.

In my opinion it epitomises everything wrong with the club. The problems are glaring, the fixes are obvious but instead corners are cut and we fail to achieve.

We are no longer a club of progressive and continuous excellence. As it stands we do not have the right executives or owners to move the club forward. The only way to get their attention is to show how it can be monetised. They're everything that's wrong with club ownership today.

When are we going to hear from them?

[Sparks Rover]

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

According to the Fans Forum minutes Cheston told the Forum it could be financed.

As we apparently can't even finance a £2m pitch that just shows how ludicrous and unlikely that suggestion was.

A pitch is a difficult thing to fund actually. Risk is very high and maybe the interest was too much for Venkys to guarantee.

A building on the other hand on prime Real Estate is very low risk.  Maybe he was getting the funding together for both projects and now the profit bit has fallen through he can no longer afford the other bit (Ewood pitch). Just a theory

Edited May 10, 2021 by Sparks Rover

[perthblue02]

6 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

A pitch is a difficult thing to fund actually. Risk is very high and maybe the interest was too much for Venkys to guarantee.

A building on the other hand on prime Real Estate is very low risk.  Maybe he was getting the funding together for both projects and now the profit bit has fallen through he can no longer afford the other bit (Ewood pitch). Just a theory

Sounds plausible but remember we have been told that Venky's the Indian Billionaires never refuse to sign a cheque

Considering a decent pitch is somewhat crucial to the business at their Ewood Park franchise, should really be a no-brainer.

 

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by perthblue02

[OldEwoodBlue]

It wasn't £2m for the pitch alone.

It included all new drainage system and modern eco undersoil heating (which you imagine would see annual cost savings on the current dated system?). The pitch itself was probably only £1m

Anyhow if it was happening the work would already be started.

It isn't. Why not ?

Oh yes it's because it was bullshit fed to the fans to shut them up.

Lapped up by many I might add.

[AllRoverAsia]

1 hour ago, perthblue02 said:

Sounds plausible but remember we have been told that Venky's the Indian Billionaires never refuse to sign a cheque

Considering a decent pitch is somewhat crucial to the business at their Ewood Park franchise, should really be a no-brainer.

 

 

Is money spent on pitch repair outside of FFP?

[perthblue02]

22 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Is money spent on pitch repair outside of FFP?

As it is part of the stadium I presume it is exempt from inclusion in the FFP calculations 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/29361839

3. What is covered by FFP?

Clubs need to balance football-related expenditure - transfers and wages - with television and ticket income, plus revenues raised by their commercial departments. Money spent on stadiums, training facilities, youth development or community projects is exempt.

[OldEwoodBlue]

Just won't sign the check then.