This is an excerpt from this week's Claret and Amber Alert, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm. To sign up, click here.
Now, I do realise that not everyone has a platform such as this newsletter, a direct forum where they can make their feelings on Motherwell known to literally, erm, tens of people.
But what a shame to see Douglas Dickie follow on from Jim McMahon’s example in using the official website to air his grievances on the way out of the door this week after decades of service to the football club.
I’m not going to pull on that thread right now, but one line in Dickie’s statement that did prick the ears was when he wrote he was leading a team working on a major strategic stadium project.
What did that mean? A project to upgrade Fir Park? To leave the old ground and fulfil the long-mooted idea of upping sticks for a new stadium at Ravenscraig?
Those questions led me to conduct some rigorous journalistic research (have a quick squizz at the Motherwell thread on Pie & Bovril) and lo and behold, it seems I wasn’t the only one to have their curiosity piqued on this subject.
Indeed, one well-kent ‘Well fan, Stephen Cameron, who goes by the username of Vietnam91, had even shared a document he had produced recently for the ‘Well Society to peruse, listing the pros and cons of taking either path as well as roughly costing the various scenarios and potential future revenue streams.
None of this debate necessarily means of course that a move from Fir Park has never been closer. After all, technically the earth being swallowed by the sun has never been closer, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen tomorrow.
And when quizzed on the matter recently, club CEO Brian Caldwell dismissed any suggestion that there is a long-term or even medium-term plan in place to move the team into a new stadium.
Still, what seems clear is that the status quo can’t be sustained forever. It has been well documented in recent years just how much of a drain on the club’s finances it is year-on-year just to drag the old place up to code.
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The Phil O’Donnell Stand in particular is a huge issue in both the short and long term, and after doing some actual journalistic digging, it seems the problems run even deeper than it is widely thought.
The more eagle-eyed fans among you may have noticed a rather large black tarp over a section of at the Davie Cooper end of the Main Stand recently, for instance.
For once, I am literally going to be talking s***e here rather than just figuratively, because the problem with the old bucket seats is that bird keech (for want of a better term) has built up under them over their many years of service, and the seats have to be taken out completely to remove it. Apologies, incidentally, if you are reading this over your dinner.
I understand that the club has been quoted a cost of between £1.2m and £1.5m to replace the full decking of seats, and that there is a need for more capital expenditure elsewhere in the stand, such as to repair the corroded steelwork (incidentally, an issue not exclusive to the Main Stand). In an ideal world, then, there would be scope to knock it all down and start again.
There are various factors limiting the club in terms of how they could redevelop the Phil O’Donnell, though. Cost is obviously chief amongst them, but the limitations of the stadium footprint don’t help either. And during the time it is being redeveloped, there would be significant lost revenue from the reduced attendance and the absence of hospitality.
Still, I hope that the club can find a way to make the redevelopment of the Phil O’Donnell Stand a reality, and with a probable cost of around £5-6m (admittedly, to have something akin to what St Mirren have - an unpopular notion) it is at least a more realistic financial proposition than building an entirely new stadium or continuing as we are.
Admittedly, my own feelings on this matter have always been led by my heart rather than my head. Fir Park was the first place I went to watch football with my old papa and my dad, and now where I take my own sons. It was where I have hazy memories of watching Steve Kirk scoring to relegate Hamilton Accies in 1989, and then the Scotland under-16s in the World Cup just a couple of months later.
It was where I revelled in the recent win over Dundee United a couple of weeks ago, and where I experienced all manner of dreary, dazzling, drunken, delirious and downright depressing afternoons and nights in between. You’ll all have your own memories, and it would be a huge wrench to leave all that behind.
Let’s all hope it doesn’t come to that.
