Pro Clubs Possibly Up for Sale

[BigD163]

During my years at Heriot Watt bull sh1tting my way to an engineering degree whether the SRU missed the boat with the council whenever the Riccarton P+R was built. A wee bit of pie in the sky stuff but If they could have joined up to buy a bigger part of the farmers fields that would have been a decent area for a small-medium sized stadium. Easy to get to (the 25 is one of the most regular buses in the city, the 34 and 45 go out there), the airport is close by and the Uni/P+R could have managed some parking. The uni could have charged a couple of quid for parking.

Was never going to happen but think it could have been a good option.

[royc]

The best option has to be a new stadium on the Murrayfield back pitches - central location, all the parking, training, stewarding, medical facilities on site, access roads - and the SRU owns the land, which is a large chunk of the cost of a new-build.

A mini-stadium there would be ideal for age-grade internationals, school and youth cups, women's internationals and so on and save some money on one-off stadium hire. The 4 pitches are underused at the moment, apart from Edinburgh training and occasional domestic rugby events, and a mini stadium would fit in nicely.

That is ten or more years away though and first we need to get the Pro teams and their attendance built up to justify a new 10,000-seater ground. The SRU under Dodson has done brilliantly to halve the inherited debt, the loan and overdraft are down to £5.6m in the accounts, but there is still some way to go. IIRC, the loan is secured on the coach park land, once it's paid off the SRU has more cash-raising options.

A new stadium though would need a lot of financial input from the Council, Sportscotland, shareholders, investors and so on, you're looking at a minimum of £15m build cost. But by the time Myreside is up to full expanded capacity and full houses - yes, of course it will be! - hope the SRU have some future plans on the table for the back pitches.

[djphilp]

The land at Murrayfield you are talking about is apparently earmarked for a hotel development

[biffer]

My only doubt about the back pitches is that it doesn't separate us from the Scotland setup enough (I think that's a substantial problem to do with underperformance). I'm also of that opinion about us still training at Murrayfield when playing at Myreside. I'd hope that we move to the new centre at Riccarton for training purposes before too long.

The hotel development isn't on the back pitches, it's where the ticket office is now.

[djphilp]

The hotel development isn't on the back pitches, it's where the ticket office is now.

Fair enough Do you know if there is anywhere that the proposed plans can be viewed online?

[hp18]

The hotel development isn't on the back pitches, it's where the ticket office is now.

Fair enough Do you know if there is anywhere that the proposed plans can be viewed online?

Fairly sure someone posted the link on here not long ago.

[hp18]

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthrea ... 97&page=11

The pics don't fit here so best to follow that link and scroll down.

[Frenchy]

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1657997&page=11

The pics don't fit here so best to follow that link and scroll down.

Is the giant rugby ball for real?

[hp18]

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1657997&page=11

The pics don't fit here so best to follow that link and scroll down.

Is the giant rugby ball for real?

Dunno. But the building underneath I'd hazard a guess is either the ticket office (with no matchday access), another/replacement SRU shop, a replacement for the brick built toilet block, or possibly whoever made these images just wanted to fill in some space.

[The Chiel]

Worcester, Sale and Falcons get amongst the lowest crowds in the league but that may be a slight reflection of league position. Although not as much in Sale's case.

Don't forget Exeter's move out of town. They're basically a lay bye on the M5 now, and doing very nicely out of it.

[Martin Bell]

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1657997&page=11

The pics don't fit here so best to follow that link and scroll down.

Is the giant rugby ball for real?

Dunno. But the building underneath I'd hazard a guess is either the ticket office (with no matchday access), another/replacement SRU shop, a replacement for the brick built toilet block, or possibly whoever made these images just wanted to fill in some space.

Love that ball. Very tasteful.

The squiggly stuff on the East stand also looks like using that currently vacant space for improved facilities/museum etc. Looks like the proposed hotel won't take up as much land as I'd thought.

Re the back pitches, the current flood prevention works look like they take away pretty much all of the back pitches that are not actual pitches. On the other hand, presumably it'll be possible to do more with the land once that's all in place. The car park beside the ice rink could be redeveloped, once the flood works are complete, but I doubt that the four remaining pitches will be. I just wonder where you'd put a mini-Murrayfield, even if it was a good idea.

[royc]

I just wonder where you'd put a mini-Murrayfield, even if it was a good idea.

I'd put it at the southern end by the railway embankment, running east to west. Reasons: (a) vehicular access from the Roseburn end, via the road past the Mf Wanderers' clubhouse, (b) less scope for planning objections from neighbours.

It would take up the two southernmost pitches and, if it had an access road round it and concourse, it would probably reduce the two northernmost pitches to one, the 3g one re-laid east to west.

I half knocked it out in photoshop in an idle moment but can't find it now. It did have lots of parking down the west side next to the flood defences and a nice big covered concourse between Murrayfield major and minor.

[gunneria]

Wanderers is going. In negotiations with the council to use adjacent park.

[royc]

[quote="djphilp"]:above: This all sounds feasible, and could clubs from the region be persuaded to get onboard by offering a seat on the board to a representative for them? Or would that just open another can of worms [quote]

Some of the NZ provincial unions have bought shares in the franchises and accordingly get a seat on the board. While the figures are murky, they must have to cough up somewhere around £50K minimum a year for the privilege. That is feasible for a provincial union, which are basically like the Irish provinces, but I would think is way beyond anything Scottish clubs or groups of clubs could contemplate.

The clubs should IMO be represented on any future franchised Edinburgh Rugby board, because it is important to work closely with them at community level and get their buy-in to the Pro team as the pinnacle of rugby in the East, rather than view it as a 'competitor'.

The best answer would be to have a club rep on the board as an independent, no shares or investment involved. The 4 Premier clubs in the East, or 7 if you include the Borders, could put forward nominations and the board would select the most suitable to be appointed a director. Or something like that.

It could open up cans of worms, Scottish rugby has a propensity to do that, but there are a lot of good club people with business pedigrees who could assist in moving things forward.