Having recovered from his exploits of writing up his away day excursion to the Leeds United away game earlier this season, Damien Hill is back and has another guest writer's piece on Cherry Chimes. This time he is looking to get away from Dean Court again, and it may be a permanent move away from home for all of us if the Cherries can one day reach the Premier League. With the closing of the Legend's Cafe this week and the need for more space at Dean Court, perhaps Damien has a point.
Over to you Damien!
With the recent England ladies 6-0 world cup qualifier against Belarus and the up coming event of England school boys U16 victory shield game against Northern Ireland at Dean Court, on Friday 8th November, it is exciting times to be a football fan here in Bournemouth. Not only do we have championship football here at our stadium, but we can watch the future stars perform the skills and entertain us.
I remember going to Wembley stadium to watch these games back in the early 1980's and although the stadium was not full there was always a fairly good turn out and hopefully there will be a big crowd for the game and another chance for Dean Court to be show cased on Sky TV again.
With Jeff Mostyn now as chairman hopefully we will get more of these sort of high profile international games at Dean Court. Also it's not just football that has graced the stadium, the one and only Sir Elton John has performed on the hallowed turf and as football now has a massive global market the opportunities are endless.
I work for a leading super market and we often use the Exeter Chief's rugby corporate facilities and conference rooms to hold various meetings, so it's not just about football anymore at football grounds which leads me to the question of is Dean Court too small? We all have to look at the bigger picture and hopefully this year or in the next couple of years the mighty Cherries will be promoted to the Premier League and then, Yes, it will be too small.
So where do we go and how big does the ground have to be? It's not just about the football bringing in the money anymore, we have to offer a variety of options, not forgetting the possibilities of a hotel at the ground. So what size of ground would we need? Looking at some of our nearest clubs, 30,000 is a minimum I believe that we need as a premiership club. It might not always be full but you need bums on seats for revenue and turnover because if you limit it to 20,000 I believe you are then restricting the income you can receive and you would then limiting your options.
Most of us do not want to move away from Dean Court but we need to if we are to move forward and wake this sleeping giant inside the club, as I believe we now have the best chance to do this with the best management, chairman and with the financial backing from Maxim Demin, the club needs to move to a new stadium.
If you are a Cherry fan that wants to write an article on Cherry Chimes you are welcome to get in contact with me at cherrychimesblog@gmail.com
It is great to hear from other fans and what's more I get a day off then! Many thanks to Damien for his contribution.
Please look out for Cherry Chimes answers to being interviewed by Leicester City FC World. A safe journey to Leicester if like us you are travelling up north today. I'm going for a 1:3 away win despite Leicester's impressive home win. We want to beat one of these big sides well away from home so I'm backing Eddie's lads to do it today. UTCIAD!
Over to you Damien!
With the recent England ladies 6-0 world cup qualifier against Belarus and the up coming event of England school boys U16 victory shield game against Northern Ireland at Dean Court, on Friday 8th November, it is exciting times to be a football fan here in Bournemouth. Not only do we have championship football here at our stadium, but we can watch the future stars perform the skills and entertain us.
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| Legends cafe |
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| Running out of space? |
With Jeff Mostyn now as chairman hopefully we will get more of these sort of high profile international games at Dean Court. Also it's not just football that has graced the stadium, the one and only Sir Elton John has performed on the hallowed turf and as football now has a massive global market the opportunities are endless.
I work for a leading super market and we often use the Exeter Chief's rugby corporate facilities and conference rooms to hold various meetings, so it's not just about football anymore at football grounds which leads me to the question of is Dean Court too small? We all have to look at the bigger picture and hopefully this year or in the next couple of years the mighty Cherries will be promoted to the Premier League and then, Yes, it will be too small.
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| View from the corner of the Ted MacDougall and West stand. |
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| View from the car park before the Ted MacDougall stand went up.. |
Most of us do not want to move away from Dean Court but we need to if we are to move forward and wake this sleeping giant inside the club, as I believe we now have the best chance to do this with the best management, chairman and with the financial backing from Maxim Demin, the club needs to move to a new stadium.
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| This could be the scene more often outside the 1910 club. |
It is great to hear from other fans and what's more I get a day off then! Many thanks to Damien for his contribution.
Please look out for Cherry Chimes answers to being interviewed by Leicester City FC World. A safe journey to Leicester if like us you are travelling up north today. I'm going for a 1:3 away win despite Leicester's impressive home win. We want to beat one of these big sides well away from home so I'm backing Eddie's lads to do it today. UTCIAD!
It seems crackers to even consider us going to The Premier League, but like you, I too do think with Maxim's desire and financial clout, this is where we could actually find ourselves in a few seasons. I've been thinking the same as you for months now. One of the biggest mistakes, was to sell off the land behind the East Stand, that scuppers any plans to further develop in my view. It may well of been necessary at the time, but as I understand it, when the ground was built, the footings were dug to allow us to go up a tier if required. So with the housing in place, I'd say that would prevent that on health and safety grounds, due to the limited access with double the volume of people behind the East Stand. We could fill in the corners, build a bigger South Stand, never mind a hotel, expand the Main Stand. We could of attained a capacity of around 25,000. Perhaps they could buyout/re-house those in those houses. OK, that's a no, I'd not be best pleased if it was me either. So NOW, where to re-locate?? and THAT'S something I've thought about for a long time, it's often been muted in the past, and even more difficult this day and age to find somewhere. But IMHO, the club DOES need to look ahead and start thinking of solutions, they probably are!! Which brings me on to something else that I'll mention whilst I'm in full flow, sorry... You take Crystal Palace as a prime example, achieving a fantastic promotion then buying in LOADS of players to ensure the gap between divisions is made. As we know, this hasn't worked, Harry is probably one of the few managers who can do this. So back to ourselves, Eddie, knowing Maxim's plan for the future, which seems to be the promised land, surely has to buy in players with Premiership football in mind, and not The Championship. So when he loaned Henderson and Collison, I was delighted, because we WERE upping the quality of our squad, and that's not meant as disrespectful to the players we have, but I think we all are realistic enough to know there would have to be changes, that said, I do believe some, could even make that big step up!! So Damien, I totally agree, IF the Premier League is our goal, we need to be preparing NOW, although with all those changes, we would have to secure our place in that division, because we'd surely sink if we were a one season wonder... THERE, I'll shut up now, OK, who said good :)
ReplyDeletehang on a mo , its only 12 months when we were bottom of league one, talk of premier league football is premature, just look at what happened at portsmouth!
ReplyDelete