The planning effort (a regular subject on here now) would be many times more complicated for a new location, all the designs would need consideration, impact studies on the existing site, traffic etc, and you'd probably need several access roads, and have new neighbours who might object. That and you'd still need to find and acquire a suitable site.
Whilst it's true that people could walk to a football club located in the town centre I'm not convinced they would. Anyone living in Downley could already walk to the ground, for anyone in Booker or Sands it would be further to walk. Anyone living in the town could walk to Adams Park, if they wanted to, already
Might benefit some people who would walk from the other side of town but currently drive.
There already exists a shuttle bus service from the town centre to AP, so anyone can already use existing services to get to town then to the ground.
In reality to get more people to come we have to make it the premiere attraction on a Saturday afternoon - versus shopping/cinema/day at the park/Odds Farm etc.. And we have to attract people from a much wider area as it's shown otherwise our home gate tops too low.
The chance to have a season of supporters attending in the Championship was very regrettable. It could have shown us just how far our support might grow.
I was lucky enough to be invited to watch England v Australia on Friday night and needed to get home via the train, tube and another train. We stayed for an hour after the game for a few more beers and then walked straight on to a train for Marylebone, after the Playoff Final it took 45mins in the queue just to get on the platform.
If you plan on leaving at the end of any mass event you should expect to get severely delayed unless you walk for some distance to avoid the queues. AP is particularly bad though with only the one exit.
Agree with everything you have written. We simply don’t have enough presence in outlying areas like Marlow, Bourne End etc and come to that even in the town itself. We need to spend more time and effort promoting the club in schools, Bucks Uni, Sunday League teams etc. I’m sure potential fans are out there.
Of course, I should add that the thing most likely to improve our attractive as a Saturday destination to many people would be playing Championship Football.
A town centre location might encourage supporters from the likes of Amersham, Chesham, Marlow, Great Missenen etc where they can get direct buses into the town. It might also increase sales in the bar if supporters didn't have to drive. I would personally have another couple of pints each game if I didn't have to drive.
The Championship is all very well, but even getting there for one more season would be an amazing achievement for a club of our size. Actually making it stick once there is a totally different proposition.
So you're suggesting that the Government should compulsorily purchase the land of the 2,600 public schools in the UK. And then reallocate the 600,000 pupils to state schools, which of course all have capacity to absorb them.
Apart from the fact that this would be defeated in any court challenge, this is bonkers lefty utopia of the highest order. You should be writing for The Guardian, not even Polly Toynbee comes up with nonsense like this.
I'm very much of this view too. I don't live in Wycombe but I do walk through the town whenever I come for a match and I see no evidence of the club until the first 'carpark full' sign at the Hourglass. I don't hear any mention on here or other outlets about any efforts to go into schools; get posters into shops (I certainly remember these used to be a feature on every other retailer I passed walking to the ground); billboards or other promotional devices at the train and bus station, shopping centres etc.
Instead of spending countless millions on scoping surveys for a new road that'll never be built or a new ground that will take a decade to develop, I'd far prefer these new Georgian laris (or Kazakhstani tenge... or Russian roubles....) to be spent 1) on ensuring there are easy public transport options to access the ground - specifically a decent bus service - and 2) employing some extra people in the marketing team and giving them the budget to promote the club locally.
One of the key messages that needs to be got across is that Wycombe don't play dull football any more. I appreciate many of you claim you enjoyed the style of play in the previous era. Fine, let's not renew that argument. But casual viewers probably did not. They preferred watching passing football on the TV. We need to make sure they're aware that there's an option to watch passing football in 3D with actual surround-sound atmosphere at Adams Park.
Give locals drinks promotions, discounts on kit, discounts if you bring a friend, loyalty cards, promote the silky skills of Premier League starlets like Potts, make it easy to get to the game if you don't want to drive. If that fails, then we can look for other excuses why people aren't coming. Building a new road / stadium should be very low on that list.
The Telegraph is very right wing. The Guardian is just centrist populism these days, as evidenced by their relentless campaign to oust Corbyn - no other newspaper printed more stories than the Graun with the words "Corbyn" and "antisemitism" in close proximity.
Edit: I mean, of course the Guardian is left of you, but then what isn't.
Maybe, fair point. But, although I'm only one person, I for a start would be able to leave the car at home and get the bus into town, as I'm sure a lot of other people on the outskirts would. This could in turn actually help out the town center, not sure of the last time you went into Wycombe town center, but it's dead, empty shops everywhere, so, and I actually don't know but perhaps having the ground in town could help ? Anyway, don't think it will happen as there isn't the space, unless someone can convince the Abbey to part with some of their millions of acres, or as someone said the rye (this would actually be perfect) but let's be honest, that won't happen. Please don't get me wrong, I love our stadium, its great. Just in the wrong place.
Maybe we should share Oxford's new ground in Kidlington? 5 minute walk from the station on the Chiltern line - you could be back in Wycombe town centre within 40 minutes of the game finishing.
More importantly, it would only be a 15 minute walk home for me.
Sod getting a stadium built anywhere near Handy Cross, it’s bad enough going to Asda, John Lewis or Next half the time. Plus I can handle my 30 minute walk to the stadium as it’s flat, but not going uphill.
Anyway Bournemouth only need 12,000 seats and they are in the Premier League so rather another road build built and a few thousand more fans allowed than talk of a soulless empty stadium.
Bournemouth are quite a good comparison aren't they? Not really a football area, easy (ish) access to London. I wonder if they haven't increased the size of their stadium for any other reason than they feel like they don't need to. Dean Court is pretty accessible from the town centre as well IIRC.
I think attendances would be better if we played walking distance from The Swan, or Handy Cross, but I don't think we'd be averaging much above 8000 home fans, even in the Championship.
Good points. Bournemouth spent most of their existence in the third tier, and are possibly marginally bigger than us overall, but not by a huge amount.
They have benefitted from excellent timing, getting in to the Premier League right when TV money had exploded to the point where a club can function well even with less matchday revenue.
They were led to the PL from the lower leagues by a former club player who had made a ton of appearances for them. Hmmm.....
Comments
I take your point but we now live in an age when people seem reluctant to walk even a few hundred yards to schools, shops etc.
The planning effort (a regular subject on here now) would be many times more complicated for a new location, all the designs would need consideration, impact studies on the existing site, traffic etc, and you'd probably need several access roads, and have new neighbours who might object. That and you'd still need to find and acquire a suitable site.
Whilst it's true that people could walk to a football club located in the town centre I'm not convinced they would. Anyone living in Downley could already walk to the ground, for anyone in Booker or Sands it would be further to walk. Anyone living in the town could walk to Adams Park, if they wanted to, already
Might benefit some people who would walk from the other side of town but currently drive.
There already exists a shuttle bus service from the town centre to AP, so anyone can already use existing services to get to town then to the ground.
In reality to get more people to come we have to make it the premiere attraction on a Saturday afternoon - versus shopping/cinema/day at the park/Odds Farm etc.. And we have to attract people from a much wider area as it's shown otherwise our home gate tops too low.
The chance to have a season of supporters attending in the Championship was very regrettable. It could have shown us just how far our support might grow.
Totally agree.
I was lucky enough to be invited to watch England v Australia on Friday night and needed to get home via the train, tube and another train. We stayed for an hour after the game for a few more beers and then walked straight on to a train for Marylebone, after the Playoff Final it took 45mins in the queue just to get on the platform.
If you plan on leaving at the end of any mass event you should expect to get severely delayed unless you walk for some distance to avoid the queues. AP is particularly bad though with only the one exit.
There's going to be a lot of red faces on here when it turns out the loan was £50 to buy some more fireworks
Agree with everything you have written. We simply don’t have enough presence in outlying areas like Marlow, Bourne End etc and come to that even in the town itself. We need to spend more time and effort promoting the club in schools, Bucks Uni, Sunday League teams etc. I’m sure potential fans are out there.
Of course, I should add that the thing most likely to improve our attractive as a Saturday destination to many people would be playing Championship Football.
A town centre location might encourage supporters from the likes of Amersham, Chesham, Marlow, Great Missenen etc where they can get direct buses into the town. It might also increase sales in the bar if supporters didn't have to drive. I would personally have another couple of pints each game if I didn't have to drive.
Just catching up with this thread, but this sounds exciting.
Hopefully it wasn't from the Stewart and Taf at Revs rumour source...
I love it when you quote your own posts 😂
(Apologies for the use of the smiley if the Doc is loitering around)
The Championship is all very well, but even getting there for one more season would be an amazing achievement for a club of our size. Actually making it stick once there is a totally different proposition.
So you're suggesting that the Government should compulsorily purchase the land of the 2,600 public schools in the UK. And then reallocate the 600,000 pupils to state schools, which of course all have capacity to absorb them.
Apart from the fact that this would be defeated in any court challenge, this is bonkers lefty utopia of the highest order. You should be writing for The Guardian, not even Polly Toynbee comes up with nonsense like this.
The Guardian isn't left wing.
What 'nonsense' did I 'come up with'? I was agreeing with another poster, I believe.
Really?
I'm very much of this view too. I don't live in Wycombe but I do walk through the town whenever I come for a match and I see no evidence of the club until the first 'carpark full' sign at the Hourglass. I don't hear any mention on here or other outlets about any efforts to go into schools; get posters into shops (I certainly remember these used to be a feature on every other retailer I passed walking to the ground); billboards or other promotional devices at the train and bus station, shopping centres etc.
Instead of spending countless millions on scoping surveys for a new road that'll never be built or a new ground that will take a decade to develop, I'd far prefer these new Georgian laris (or Kazakhstani tenge... or Russian roubles....) to be spent 1) on ensuring there are easy public transport options to access the ground - specifically a decent bus service - and 2) employing some extra people in the marketing team and giving them the budget to promote the club locally.
One of the key messages that needs to be got across is that Wycombe don't play dull football any more. I appreciate many of you claim you enjoyed the style of play in the previous era. Fine, let's not renew that argument. But casual viewers probably did not. They preferred watching passing football on the TV. We need to make sure they're aware that there's an option to watch passing football in 3D with actual surround-sound atmosphere at Adams Park.
Give locals drinks promotions, discounts on kit, discounts if you bring a friend, loyalty cards, promote the silky skills of Premier League starlets like Potts, make it easy to get to the game if you don't want to drive. If that fails, then we can look for other excuses why people aren't coming. Building a new road / stadium should be very low on that list.
And the Telegraph isn't right wing.
The Telegraph is very right wing. The Guardian is just centrist populism these days, as evidenced by their relentless campaign to oust Corbyn - no other newspaper printed more stories than the Graun with the words "Corbyn" and "antisemitism" in close proximity.
Edit: I mean, of course the Guardian is left of you, but then what isn't.
Keir Starmer?
Maybe, fair point. But, although I'm only one person, I for a start would be able to leave the car at home and get the bus into town, as I'm sure a lot of other people on the outskirts would. This could in turn actually help out the town center, not sure of the last time you went into Wycombe town center, but it's dead, empty shops everywhere, so, and I actually don't know but perhaps having the ground in town could help ? Anyway, don't think it will happen as there isn't the space, unless someone can convince the Abbey to part with some of their millions of acres, or as someone said the rye (this would actually be perfect) but let's be honest, that won't happen. Please don't get me wrong, I love our stadium, its great. Just in the wrong place.
This is the point surely as @eric_plant says - A city centre ground also attracts the casual supporter and is easier to get to.
Move all the shops into one area, bull doze the rest make way for the Lomtadze Arena. Chilterns Shopping Centre should be big enough.
Maybe we should share Oxford's new ground in Kidlington? 5 minute walk from the station on the Chiltern line - you could be back in Wycombe town centre within 40 minutes of the game finishing.
More importantly, it would only be a 15 minute walk home for me.
Sod getting a stadium built anywhere near Handy Cross, it’s bad enough going to Asda, John Lewis or Next half the time. Plus I can handle my 30 minute walk to the stadium as it’s flat, but not going uphill.
Anyway Bournemouth only need 12,000 seats and they are in the Premier League so rather another road build built and a few thousand more fans allowed than talk of a soulless empty stadium.
Yes, newer stadiums at our level usually seem a little sterile and boring.
Bournemouth are quite a good comparison aren't they? Not really a football area, easy (ish) access to London. I wonder if they haven't increased the size of their stadium for any other reason than they feel like they don't need to. Dean Court is pretty accessible from the town centre as well IIRC.
I think attendances would be better if we played walking distance from The Swan, or Handy Cross, but I don't think we'd be averaging much above 8000 home fans, even in the Championship.
Good points. Bournemouth spent most of their existence in the third tier, and are possibly marginally bigger than us overall, but not by a huge amount.
They have benefitted from excellent timing, getting in to the Premier League right when TV money had exploded to the point where a club can function well even with less matchday revenue.
They were led to the PL from the lower leagues by a former club player who had made a ton of appearances for them. Hmmm.....
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/23522252.afc-bournemouths-bill-foley-plans-new-stadium/
I take it you’ve not been to Wycombe Town centre on a Saturday recently. It’s not exactly vibrant these days!!
You'd be surprised at quite how hard it is to travel between London and Bournemouth.