Iron Bru › Forums › Blast Furnace › Fans forum › Reply To: Fans forum
It was about as candid as a fans forum you are likely to see.
Hilton did a complete character assassination on Swann; it felt abit uncomfortable after the first couple of jokes, however it was an easy clap in the room
The deal for the land has fallen through because of an unregistered piece of land in the car park- a piece of land that miraculously avoided detection when the land passed from Wharton to Swann. The strip of land can be used as a ransom strip against the club and hinders insuring the land. In addition the planning permission has expired on the apartments which will also require significant ground works due to being in a flood zone. There is an also a massive discrepancy in land valuations- Hilton had to agree on the original price to purchase the club and save us from going bust. It was that black and white: buy the club without carrying out due diligence or we were out of business.
Hilton has bought the land at Glebe road to build a new ground. The council are on board with this and I know this to be a fact, they proposed the land to him. The funding will come from multiple sources; the levelling up fund being one such source. No confirmation on design or capacity as it’s too early. The biggest obstacle will be land remediation work; Initial surveys have come back ok. However, no-one knows what was dumped there. Hilton is further ahead with progressing with the new ground than I Initially thought. He he hoping for planning in 3 months with completion set in 24 months.
In the short term, he hopes we remain at Glanford park. This is where it gets confusing and to be honest I can’t explain it well; he is sub letting the ground from himself, to the club for a minimum of 12 months but hoping for 24 months. He expects Swann to sue him personally for this. He is willing to pay Swann £20,000 a month to lease the ground but they are no longer in speaking terms. This will get incredibly messy as we all know Swann will fight this tooth and nail.
Hilton has paid off the tax bill in full and covering the wages since his purchase. Approx £200,000 a month in which less than 50% is spent on players- a truly shocking statistic.
The club is making little to no money on secondary spending, Ie food/drink/hospitality etc. we even lost money from the Oldham game due to policing costs. Whatever you think of the new ground, you surely must accept that GP is no longer fit for purpose in its current state.
Hilton also wants to invest £2million into a training facility, within scunthorpe, it will have 4g pitches/restaurant and possibly player accommodation. The site will be revealed soon and he is working with the council to develop this.
They are going out to win the league next year and are going to over spend “without being reckless” before moving to a sustainable model. This bit made me feel uneasy after our last endeavours but can we afford to spend years in the NLN?
Overall, I left the meeting feeling more optimistic than I have in years. However, we have all been here before haven’t we? I’ll continue to question decisions and remain cautious until we see action rather words. In the meantime he has my backing and I’ll encourage others to get behind the club as we really need to pull together now.
I take you for your word on all that as you are more ITK than I would ever be .
I work pretty closely with a planning department in a big business and I have never known for a project like this to be delivered in two years , you are at best looking at 5 years but normslly 7-10 years ; if it’s a couple of little stands amd basic maybe the time frame is viable .
But a proper modern stadium I do not see how that is deliverable .