I hope you are right @Vincey and I love WW but I just can’t see the logic of putting 10s of millions into a small club like ours, when there are clubs higher up the pyramid who already have the ground etc.
With the expansion of the film studio on part of the Airpark (where the ground was proposed) and the extension of the lease by the airpark operators for another 50 years, the Booker option is probably in the past.
I do understand that some of the land around RAF High Wycombe in Naphill may be taken out of Green belt, so perhaps that's an option.
Much as I love the ground if the plan is a 20,000 seat stadium with championship football then we need to be in Handy Cross with the M40 as the access road.
Errr ... hold on a minute, when I first joined this forum, I suggested that if the plans for a 20,000-seat stadium at Booker had been approved by the Council, WWFC would now be playing in a shiny new stadium with sufficient capacity for Championship football, and Wasps might still be in business.
I got roasted by most members on here for suggesting this, who said that this was somehow going to 'destroy' the football club.
Fast forward to today, and now many Gasroomers are talking up the idea of a 20,000 seat stadium at Booker, or other similar locations.
Adams Park was built when Wycombe were non-league, and although a nice little ground, the access issues mean that attendances are unlikely to average more than 5,000, which is a loss-making number, and unsustainable in the long term. So if Rob C is rolling the dice with this loan, and the aim is to climb the pyramid, then a new larger capacity stadium, with much better access, is a must.
Grovelling apologies from all who dissed the idea in the past will be accepted. 😉
This access road thing is a load of rubbish, yes I have been stuck in the club car park for over 45 mins at times but just building an access road won’t magic up another 5,000 fans.
We are where we are and we are located near to London with great transport links, meaning football loving people can easily get into London to watch one of the big Premier League sides and many do.
Wycombe is a small town (thank god), not a crowded city with 100s of thousands of people.
Let’s face it if we had a 20,000 seater stadium we wouldn’t fill it even if we did make the championship.
@bargepole it was probably the bit about Wasps remaining in business that lost the room for you.
Memories of being tied up with that lot are wholly negative for many WWFC supporters. The stadium would’ve been a black and gold Wasps nest, with us relegated to a sideshow, losing our identity.
I know RU fans are wholly unconcerned about that sort of thing, especially Wasps followers, but football doesn’t work that way.
I’m not saying that Adams Park is anything other than a difficult ground for access, but having visited 89 of the 92 pro clubs I agree that the same problem exists almost everywhere. It’s inevitable that traffic congestion occurs when thousands of people are trying to leave a venue at the same time.
Yes, you're probably right, but back in 2012 the proposed plans were not framed in the right way, in my opinion.
What should have happened is that both WWFC and Wasps should have been joint 50% owners of the new stadium, with equal visibility of branding.
In addition to football and rugby, it should have been a multi-sport complex, with squash and badminton courts, a gym, and top class corporate conference facilities, so that it would be operating 365 days a year and generating decent income on non matchdays.
Had that been the proposal before the Council, I think they may have approved it.
Other tycoons known to Forbes readers were mentioned in the speech too, including Kairat Satybaldy, the mysterious former intelligence chief who was once a major shareholder of London listed fintech Kaspi. (Kaspi made billionaires of its major shareholders Mikhail Lomtadze and Vyacheslav Kim in October 2020.) Hodge describes Satybaldy as “enjoying significant wealth through offshore structures” as a “key playe[r] in Nazarbayev’s inner circle, involved in the current power struggle that is undermining peace and security.” A spokesperson for the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan, where Satybaldy is first deputy chairman, did not immediately respond to the allegation by email.
Nurali Aliyev, Nazarbayev’s grandson, was subject to a failed attempt by the U.K. authorities to use a so-called McMafia order to explain his ownership of a number of London properties, including one on London’s prestigious Billionaire’s Row.
Hodge cited Forbes’ estimated net worths for these Kazakh billionaires. In all, Forbes estimates the collective net worths of the tycoons called out by Hodge to be around $14 billion. Hodge concluded her speech by demanding the government commit more than just lip service to a new economic crime bill that would help enforcement agencies tackle corruption. “I ask the Minister whether he will consider the individuals I have named and impose sanctions on those who have stolen from their country, laundered their money here, used U.K. structures to hide their ill-gotten gains, used the golden visa route to gain entry to the U.K. or committed human rights abuses. Will he act now?”
Russian President Vladimir PutinSPUTNIK/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Hodge’s statement comes as part of a larger shift in the U.K. to take on kleptocrats. Last week the London Times reported that U.S. officials were frustrated with the U.K. over its tolerance of dirty money arriving from former soviet states, claiming that it may hinder the ability to fully impose sanctions on Russian president Vladimir Putin over aggression on the Ukraine border.
A source in Washington told the Times: “Putin doesn’t hold his money abroad, it is all in the kleptocrats’ names and a hell of a lot of it is sitting in houses in Knightsbridge and Belgravia right under your government’s noses.”
Paul Massaro, an anti-corruption adviser to Congress, told Forbes: “It is high time that the U.K. begin purging the blood money infesting its system and it is heartening to see MP Hodge address this threat head on by calling for powerful sanctions against known kleptocrats. Naming and shaming works.”
Indeed, as an example getting out of the car park at Oxford United takes just as long as getting away from Adams Park and their attendance figures are higher than ours - despite having only 3 sides.
Please no! Adams Park is a beautiful, pretty much unique ground and very much part of our identity as a football club.
A bland, corporate, multi-functional stadium (like MKs) is the last thing we should want.
We could build one, have a few years in the Championship, but we will never have the numbers to sustain ourselves at that level and inevitably end up with 5000 people rattling around in a depressing, soulless, arena (like MK)
The best thing to ever come out of not getting the go ahead at Booker was getting rid of Wasps ! Franchise parasites.
Any new ground would be ours and ours alone, I do agree it wouldn't need to be 20k, about 15k if we are to go up the leagues would be enough I think, as we'll still lose out to London. We need to push for ground off the Abbey , in the center of town, anywhere on the outskirts won't work
Interesting comparisons, A new stadium would be very expensive and right now probably unnecessary. Simple maths says if a small road and a roof is proving complicated and or expensive then a whole new stadium, design, access, land, planning etc is going to be hugely expensive.
As part of a billionaires plaything though it would be a very different prospect than as an unfunded wet dream of a guy who bought two clubs on the cheap, effectively merged and bankrupted both of them and hung us out to dry for months while he sold the pest club that the media all favoured.
A takeover from a different loan shark and any mention of new stadiums should raise alarm and intrigue in equal measure. Football sucks in cash and there does seem to be a vacuum.
Should the trust ever be asked to sell the ground, or if it needs to get rid on being advised the club don't want it anymore (after a required trust vote I believe ) you can only really hope that they keep a fund going should we inevitably need to pick up the pieces again at some point. Have heard of so many of these schemes, but outside of the crazy oil clubs I'm not sure if many have worked long term.
If people are concerned about access to Adams Park I’m not sure that moving to the town centre would greatly improve matters. For a start, parking would be a major issue and Saturday afternoon shoppers would only add to the problem.
To be honest, I think we have gone down a rabbit hole with this talk of a new stadium. Even tho I got several thumbs down for first suggesting it, the idea has developed quite an interest range of views and responses.
Yes, an access road would be much cheaper for Adams Park but the same surveys, planning & red tape would still be applied when comparing to a new stadium. Then you also have the issue of Dashwood and what price he would put on the land that we'd like to use for this road. Throw in a few environmental groups, the road could turn into a headache.
However, with regards to a new stadium the lack of available space in & around the town centre has disappeared which makes a new site very difficult to locate and then you would have the same problems again.
Comments
I hope you are right @Vincey and I love WW but I just can’t see the logic of putting 10s of millions into a small club like ours, when there are clubs higher up the pyramid who already have the ground etc.
Because an established championship club might cost you north of £50m and come with all sorts of baggage. You can buy us for what, £5m, debt free?
Our close proximity to London/Heathrow is clearly very attractive for foreign owners.
The Wrexham story has obviously caught people’s attention along with the success seen at other small clubs, Luton/Bournemouth etc.
You don’t need a 20,000 seat stadium or a 20,000 large fan base to get to the top.
Debt free?
With the expansion of the film studio on part of the Airpark (where the ground was proposed) and the extension of the lease by the airpark operators for another 50 years, the Booker option is probably in the past.
I do understand that some of the land around RAF High Wycombe in Naphill may be taken out of Green belt, so perhaps that's an option.
Well even if not completely debt free I guess in the world of billionaires (which I don’t frequent ) it would be what is called sofa change.
and without acting as Robs sales agent we don’t have the scariest group of fans.
The average Wycombe supporter looks like either an unemployed geography teacher or a cast member from last of the summer wine.
I know which category I’m in and it isn’t one of those!
Much as I love the ground if the plan is a 20,000 seat stadium with championship football then we need to be in Handy Cross with the M40 as the access road.
I did say average.
Which category are you in?
Handy Cross or one of the fields between Wycombe and Marlow would be prefect for a new stadium
Errr ... hold on a minute, when I first joined this forum, I suggested that if the plans for a 20,000-seat stadium at Booker had been approved by the Council, WWFC would now be playing in a shiny new stadium with sufficient capacity for Championship football, and Wasps might still be in business.
I got roasted by most members on here for suggesting this, who said that this was somehow going to 'destroy' the football club.
Fast forward to today, and now many Gasroomers are talking up the idea of a 20,000 seat stadium at Booker, or other similar locations.
Adams Park was built when Wycombe were non-league, and although a nice little ground, the access issues mean that attendances are unlikely to average more than 5,000, which is a loss-making number, and unsustainable in the long term. So if Rob C is rolling the dice with this loan, and the aim is to climb the pyramid, then a new larger capacity stadium, with much better access, is a must.
Grovelling apologies from all who dissed the idea in the past will be accepted. 😉
Amen
This access road thing is a load of rubbish, yes I have been stuck in the club car park for over 45 mins at times but just building an access road won’t magic up another 5,000 fans.
We are where we are and we are located near to London with great transport links, meaning football loving people can easily get into London to watch one of the big Premier League sides and many do.
Wycombe is a small town (thank god), not a crowded city with 100s of thousands of people.
Let’s face it if we had a 20,000 seater stadium we wouldn’t fill it even if we did make the championship.
I love the club for what it is.
The Tories really know how to out themselves on here
@bargepole it was probably the bit about Wasps remaining in business that lost the room for you.
Memories of being tied up with that lot are wholly negative for many WWFC supporters. The stadium would’ve been a black and gold Wasps nest, with us relegated to a sideshow, losing our identity.
I know RU fans are wholly unconcerned about that sort of thing, especially Wasps followers, but football doesn’t work that way.
Plus we own Adams Park and wouldn’t have owned the Booker Stadium.
I’m not saying that Adams Park is anything other than a difficult ground for access, but having visited 89 of the 92 pro clubs I agree that the same problem exists almost everywhere. It’s inevitable that traffic congestion occurs when thousands of people are trying to leave a venue at the same time.
Yes, you're probably right, but back in 2012 the proposed plans were not framed in the right way, in my opinion.
What should have happened is that both WWFC and Wasps should have been joint 50% owners of the new stadium, with equal visibility of branding.
In addition to football and rugby, it should have been a multi-sport complex, with squash and badminton courts, a gym, and top class corporate conference facilities, so that it would be operating 365 days a year and generating decent income on non matchdays.
Had that been the proposal before the Council, I think they may have approved it.
Other tycoons known to Forbes readers were mentioned in the speech too, including Kairat Satybaldy, the mysterious former intelligence chief who was once a major shareholder of London listed fintech Kaspi. (Kaspi made billionaires of its major shareholders Mikhail Lomtadze and Vyacheslav Kim in October 2020.) Hodge describes Satybaldy as “enjoying significant wealth through offshore structures” as a “key playe[r] in Nazarbayev’s inner circle, involved in the current power struggle that is undermining peace and security.” A spokesperson for the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan, where Satybaldy is first deputy chairman, did not immediately respond to the allegation by email.
Nurali Aliyev, Nazarbayev’s grandson, was subject to a failed attempt by the U.K. authorities to use a so-called McMafia order to explain his ownership of a number of London properties, including one on London’s prestigious Billionaire’s Row.
Hodge cited Forbes’ estimated net worths for these Kazakh billionaires. In all, Forbes estimates the collective net worths of the tycoons called out by Hodge to be around $14 billion. Hodge concluded her speech by demanding the government commit more than just lip service to a new economic crime bill that would help enforcement agencies tackle corruption. “I ask the Minister whether he will consider the individuals I have named and impose sanctions on those who have stolen from their country, laundered their money here, used U.K. structures to hide their ill-gotten gains, used the golden visa route to gain entry to the U.K. or committed human rights abuses. Will he act now?”
Russian President Vladimir PutinSPUTNIK/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Hodge’s statement comes as part of a larger shift in the U.K. to take on kleptocrats. Last week the London Times reported that U.S. officials were frustrated with the U.K. over its tolerance of dirty money arriving from former soviet states, claiming that it may hinder the ability to fully impose sanctions on Russian president Vladimir Putin over aggression on the Ukraine border.
A source in Washington told the Times: “Putin doesn’t hold his money abroad, it is all in the kleptocrats’ names and a hell of a lot of it is sitting in houses in Knightsbridge and Belgravia right under your government’s noses.”
Paul Massaro, an anti-corruption adviser to Congress, told Forbes: “It is high time that the U.K. begin purging the blood money infesting its system and it is heartening to see MP Hodge address this threat head on by calling for powerful sanctions against known kleptocrats. Naming and shaming works.”
Yes, but it's our dream to play in the Championship (on stolen money)...
Indeed, as an example getting out of the car park at Oxford United takes just as long as getting away from Adams Park and their attendance figures are higher than ours - despite having only 3 sides.
Please no! Adams Park is a beautiful, pretty much unique ground and very much part of our identity as a football club.
A bland, corporate, multi-functional stadium (like MKs) is the last thing we should want.
We could build one, have a few years in the Championship, but we will never have the numbers to sustain ourselves at that level and inevitably end up with 5000 people rattling around in a depressing, soulless, arena (like MK)
The best thing to ever come out of not getting the go ahead at Booker was getting rid of Wasps ! Franchise parasites.
Any new ground would be ours and ours alone, I do agree it wouldn't need to be 20k, about 15k if we are to go up the leagues would be enough I think, as we'll still lose out to London. We need to push for ground off the Abbey , in the center of town, anywhere on the outskirts won't work
The last thing I want to see on the Gasroom is a photo of Putin 😧
Lets just take over the Rye? It'll really upset all the local drug dealers!
Interesting comparisons, A new stadium would be very expensive and right now probably unnecessary. Simple maths says if a small road and a roof is proving complicated and or expensive then a whole new stadium, design, access, land, planning etc is going to be hugely expensive.
As part of a billionaires plaything though it would be a very different prospect than as an unfunded wet dream of a guy who bought two clubs on the cheap, effectively merged and bankrupted both of them and hung us out to dry for months while he sold the pest club that the media all favoured.
A takeover from a different loan shark and any mention of new stadiums should raise alarm and intrigue in equal measure. Football sucks in cash and there does seem to be a vacuum.
Should the trust ever be asked to sell the ground, or if it needs to get rid on being advised the club don't want it anymore (after a required trust vote I believe ) you can only really hope that they keep a fund going should we inevitably need to pick up the pieces again at some point. Have heard of so many of these schemes, but outside of the crazy oil clubs I'm not sure if many have worked long term.
Pretty sure getting the council to fund a rugby stadium we could rent was one of the reasons no-one wanted the Shark Bowl.
If people are concerned about access to Adams Park I’m not sure that moving to the town centre would greatly improve matters. For a start, parking would be a major issue and Saturday afternoon shoppers would only add to the problem.
A lot more people could walk though, as well as make use of the existing public transport links that serve the town centre
To be honest, I think we have gone down a rabbit hole with this talk of a new stadium. Even tho I got several thumbs down for first suggesting it, the idea has developed quite an interest range of views and responses.
Yes, an access road would be much cheaper for Adams Park but the same surveys, planning & red tape would still be applied when comparing to a new stadium. Then you also have the issue of Dashwood and what price he would put on the land that we'd like to use for this road. Throw in a few environmental groups, the road could turn into a headache.
However, with regards to a new stadium the lack of available space in & around the town centre has disappeared which makes a new site very difficult to locate and then you would have the same problems again.