Poole Stadium, GI and Poole Town FC

[oldcommsboy]

As promised, I have collected some information on the history of Poole Stadium and Poole Town FC below:

The Borough of Poole own the site which was built for the football club in 1933. Poole Town FC built two stands to accommodate over a thousand people during their tenure there.

The BoP ‘forced’ Poole Town FC to leave the site in 1994 because of ‘low attendances’. But the wiki says that it was because of the widening of the dog track, which left too little space for grass in the centre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poole_Town_F.C.#Stadium

So the Council was being duplicitous in kicking out PTFC so that they could expand the stadium for dog racing and therein raise more money.
A lease was given to Poole Stadium Development Corporation (the Block family) from 1991 – 1995 to run Dogs and Speedway. But they were unsuccessful and were taken over by Poole Stadium Limited, part of GI, in 1995. They have a 40 year lease.

Meanwhile Poole Town FC found themselves in a bad place literally and football wise. They never really found a good home, moving between several sites over the next few years and sank low in the leagues. They halted the decline and with their new home – in the grounds of a local school – pulled back up. Currently they are 5th in the Southern League with one game to go and well managed. But the question of a ground haunts them. They have a hearing today (26th April) with the Football League which will decide whether they can participate in the play-offs because of the grading of their ground at the school.

http://www.pooletownfc.co.uk/playoff-appeal-update/

The BoP have for the last few years tried to help them find a suitable home. The last occasion was aborted by the council after a fractious public meeting in Branksome where some members of the public made clear in no uncertain terms that PTFC were unwelcome. I recall this meeting as I met a local councillor at a school governing body meeting two days afterwards, and she was still very stressed over it.

There is currently a site ‘on offer’ on the outskirts of Poole at Canford Magna, Bearwood. Information on this can be found on the PTFC website here:

http://www.pooletownfc.co.uk/bearwood-proposal/

This site is somewhat slow in progressing, possibly because Stadia UK – the GI successor to Poole Stadium Limited – have expressed interest to the Council in developing Poole Stadium and coaxing PTFC back. These plans have not been made public even though they went to the Council Pre-planning last year. The pre-planning stage is to find out the Council's reaction to the plans so that amendments can be made before they are submitted - which they have not so far. Although a meeting has been held between Stadia UK and PTFC, the latter have declared they will not take the offer up to return ‘home’ because of the lack of guarantees, which they didn’t specify. Who can blame them? Once bitten, etc?
My information is that the Council have ‘another site’ in mind for the Stadium. Maybe that is the cause of the delay on Bearwood?

So can we trust our Councils?

This sorry episode just serves to warn us, in my opinion, of the dangers we face. There are parallels between us and Poole. Notice also that Stadia UK were happy to take a 40 year lease and not freehold. Might that happen at Plainmoor, and would they introduce Dogs there? If this is so, will the Council arrange a public meeting for residents about the development, like the one at Branksome ?

Chris

[merse btpir]

Stadia UK are Gaming International just as Riviera Stadium is and a myriad of other companies all under the Toklon umbrella and all presided over by Clarke Osborne. They are the company that runs greyhound racing at GI's only two remaining operational tracks; Swindon and Poole. Every other track they have been involved with has ceased racing...Eastville (Bristol) Milton Keynes, Oxford and Reading.

You should be under no illusion about that and neither should anyone be under any illusion it is a very profitable business for them.

Osborne is no fool and knows that well before the end of the leasehold at Poole the Borough there will be under pressure to cash in the 'family silver' as all local authorities are under this Tory Government........Poole of course is a Tory council.

The Mayor is Ann Stribley, a Conservative councillor for Parkstone ward since 1977. The Council is made up of 32 Conservative, 6 Liberal Democrat 3 Poole People and 1 UKIP councillors. Following the last elections, a Conservative administration was formed with a cabinet of seven councillors who are responsible for deciding how the Council's strategies and policies are implemented and how the budget is spent. The Council Leader is Janet Walton (Conservative). The Sheriff, a position created by the town's charter of 1568 and just one of 15 Sheriffs in the country, is Conservative councillor Xena Dion...Poole is true blue and thus Poole stadium is vulnerable as is Plainmoor under their administration.

[SenorDingDong]

Dogs will never be introduced to Plainmoor, it doesn't have the footprint nor would it be approved by the local council in a month of Sundays, it's far too residential an area and there is next to no interest in the sport in South Devon, there's a reason why the Newton Abbot course closed.

Thanks for the rest of the info though, seems like GI have been slightly less complicit at Poole, as compared to the usual incompetence of local councils, however they clearly were not convincing to PooleTown.

[merse btpir]

GI will only run greyhounds at Poole until they get what they really want..........their hands on the freehold one day and they can then cash in their chips and develop it.

They've played a long ball game at Poole and in the meantime they have reaped the income from that new stand they built that pushed the tracks over and wiped out the football pitch with it's betting and dining facilities. One day that freehold will come up and well they know it and if they get it do you think it will carry on as a sporting venue? Will it my arse.

Their director Bill Glass said on Sky Sports recently that they 'run the sport at all their venues for as long as possible' and then what? In the cases of Eastville, Milton Keynes, and Reading they close up and develop.........it's what they do!

[oldcommsboy]

You should be under no illusion about that and neither should anyone be under any illusion it is a very profitable business for them.

Osborne is no fool and knows that well before the end of the leasehold at Poole the Borough there will be under pressure to cash in the 'family silver' as all local authorities are under this Tory Government........Poole of course is a Tory council.

Indeed, and they are already over halfway through the lease term. As you say the new development would be an ideal time to buy it out completely. The current site is slap bang in the town centre and adjacent to a big rejuvenation/development area. There is also a big demand for more town houses with a plot on the corner of Sterte Road/Holes Bay Road, 50 yards from the stadium, having a couple of houses squeezed in as we speak. Anyone with an interest in Poole Stadium is sitting on serious real estate.

Chris

[CP Gull]

Dogs will never be introduced to Plainmoor, it doesn't have the footprint nor would it be approved by the local council in a month of Sundays, it's far too residential an area and there is next to no interest in the sport in South Devon, there's a reason why the Newton Abbot course closed.

Thanks for the rest of the info though, seems like GI have been slightly less complicit at Poole, as compared to the usual incompetence of local councils, however they clearly were not convincing to PooleTown.

Plainmoor? No chance ....... Nightingale Park though..... ?????