Harriers Chatter

Agree with all of the above abiut what Aggy brings to the party. Don’t get it unless there is a huge financial benefit.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the improvements made on Aggy over the last year or so following the cup run. Why use the money for that if moving? Unless it is not for a significant amount of years?
I am very pro the current ownership tho as I’ve said before, the communication from the club isn’t great. And something significant like this does need clarifying, so would be good for the club to issue a statement .

North Stand Ultra wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:57 am

At present wyre forest council charge ourselves around £12,000 a year in rent for Aggy - which is dirt cheap.

And there's your problem in a nutshell, any new lease would come with a nice new commercial rent. Historically football stadium rents were based on agricultural land rents but with landlords in the modern age being more savvy its all based on commercial rents now.

It would be good to think our council would take into account the various advantages the Harriers bestow on the town:

bringing people in to spend money locally (particularly on the hospitality trade)
adding to a sense of civic identity and pride
putting the town on the map and in the national consciousness (remember when we were famous for a day v West Ham)
inspiring youngsters to play/support sport
providing a focal point for local people to meet

You can probably think of more. But, as the Pirate points out above, such intangibles probably won't come into their calculations and local councils certainly have their own problems to deal with.

I think out-of-town grounds generally lack soul and character and a connection with the towns they once represented. It's great that Kiddy still has a town ground, a stadium so many of the population can walk to. Losing our beloved Aggy would be like having a large chunk of my life wrenched away but that's just sentiment and a respect for the past which, as we know, count for nothing any more.

While we're on about new grounds:


BTW I'm going to split this off into it's own thread.

TomLong78 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 26, 2024 5:27 pm

Mayo wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 26, 2024 8:00 am

It's likely the ground move was never removed from the agenda, but information / updates just not shared publicly (perhaps for commercially sensitive reasons)

That’s probably right.

What do we know for sure?

1. The lease is running out.
2. This country needs to build a lot more houses.
3. Aggborough and the surrounding land that WFDC
owns would be worth a lot of money if sold for housing.
4. All local authorities in the UK have been underfunded for years and are desperate for money to continue to provide the services they have a statutory obligation to undertake.

All of the above suggests that WFDC should at least be considering the possibility of cashing in on Aggborough, using some of the proceeds to build us a dull new stadium out of town, and using the rest of the proceeds to help keep providing much needed services to local residents.

It would break my heart to see the above happen. But I can see, in the current climate, how and why it might happen.

Nailed it. LA's have been royally shafted.

I 'only' have a 12 year attachment to Aggborough but I love it. It has a character of its own. Even with raised gates we're not hitting capacity (which is 6k isn't it?).

Who could possibly have seen this coming?