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Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:52 pm

Can anyone explain to me how the stadium costs have overun by many millions, given that at the time, Ridsdale and the board were put supposedly under the closest scrutiny by the council following all the shenanigans with Sam Hammam's stadium proposal. It was widely documneted on how professioanlly planned the whole package was, from the fixed stadium costs that we all believed were in place from the developers and the contingency money already ring fenced. I appreciate that costs acan sometimes escalate, but there were no delays, everything went extremelly smoothly, so how come these costs spirralled? If it was down to a more expensive fit out than originally priced for, then Im sorry but what idiot makes those decisisons without having the maens to pay for them. Many people were castigating SH and his team for their unprofessionalism, yet the current lot have over spent and put the club into an even more precarious position than Hammam ever did.

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:03 pm

Leytonstoneblue wrote:Can anyone explain to me how the stadium costs have overun by many millions, given that at the time, Ridsdale and the board were put supposedly under the closest scrutiny by the council following all the shenanigans with Sam Hammam's stadium proposal. It was widely documneted on how professioanlly planned the whole package was, from the fixed stadium costs that we all believed were in place from the developers and the contingency money already ring fenced. I appreciate that costs acan sometimes escalate, but there were no delays, everything went extremelly smoothly, so how come these costs spirralled? If it was down to a more expensive fit out than originally priced for, then Im sorry but what idiot makes those decisisons without having the maens to pay for them. Many people were castigating SH and his team for their unprofessionalism, yet the current lot have over spent and put the club into an even more precarious position than Hammam ever did.



said this before leytonstoneblue in june of last year he said the stadium was on time and on budget.
and in budget enough to warrant a stadium completion bonus

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:04 pm

Well, as they say here at the Council lads... if you don't use it you lose it! So Ridsdale probably included that bonus to make sure all the budget money was used. Cheeky b*stard.

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:06 pm

but steve how can a completion bonus be paid before any of the sub contractors have received a penny in payment, its a f*cking farce, i know of at least 6 subbies owed a lot of money, but ridders swans around with a wad for completion :evil:

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:08 pm

Why didn't they charge PMG more than £35m for the retail land? I remember it being valued at £100m years ago when the council gifted it to us.

If we had got only £50m we wouldn't have had any of this shit.

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:13 pm

Ah, hindsight dear Tony. Remember, we were entering a recession when the land was sold so it was probably a hard deal to negotiate. You are right though, we really could have done with more money!

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:21 pm

Zabier wrote:Ah, hindsight dear Tony. Remember, we were entering a recession when the land was sold so it was probably a hard deal to negotiate. You are right though, we really could have done with more money!


Hindsight I'm a f**king expert :lol:

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:29 pm

The stadium which was always described as vital to secure our future could be the final nail in our coffin.

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 5:53 pm

Tony Blue Williams wrote:Why didn't they charge PMG more than £35m for the retail land? I remember it being valued at £100m years ago when the council gifted it to us.

If we had got only £50m we wouldn't have had any of this shit.



Tony, the council couldnt give us any more toward the stadium than they already did - it was capped at 70% due to legal conditions.

SInce 62 has quoted that the TOTAL spend on fitting out was £7m and the budget was £4m - so its more bollox from PR basically.

Even out of that money they received a large lump sum from Compass and the Brewery toward it.

Spin. The way he talks if he told me it was Friday today I'd go and check the television.

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:28 pm

Lawnmower wrote:
Tony Blue Williams wrote:Why didn't they charge PMG more than £35m for the retail land? I remember it being valued at £100m years ago when the council gifted it to us.

If we had got only £50m we wouldn't have had any of this shit.



Tony, the council couldnt give us any more toward the stadium than they already did - it was capped at 70% due to legal conditions.

SInce 62 has quoted that the TOTAL spend on fitting out was £7m and the budget was £4m - so its more bollox from PR basically.

Even out of that money they received a large lump sum from Compass and the Brewery toward it.

Spin. The way he talks if he told me it was Friday today I'd go and check the television.


You're on the right lines Lawnmower although I personaly I wouldn't agree with the percentage cap. The old Council, I believe bent over backwards (pun intended) to assist as much as they could hence the f**k ups with signal phasing, road layouts, etc. and many others on the Infrastructure side which I won't go into. The Council has a statutory obligation, doesn't matter if they're lefty fuckwits, right on cool dudes, liberal bible bashers, swansea supporters or egg chasers, they are legally required to obtain the best deal for the community as a whole when disposing of Council Land. Perhaps more importantly when considering a planning application associated with said disposal and subsequent development they can, indeed obliged, to impose certain benefits for the community at large as a condition under Section 104 Agreements. I imagine this is where the "house of sport" came in to play. As much as I'd like to take the piss out of a lefty council, I really don't believe they could have done anything more and have actually been very sympathetic in our case, I'd even go as far as saying that have left themselves open to critisim for going as far as they have.

The overspend is purely down to Ridsdale, he claimed credit for getting the stadium built let him take he flack for delivering a 3/4 finished stadium that is probably 80% paid for. I've worked on a few stadia over the years and would expect better project management from one of my junior engineers with two or three years experience than has been shown on this project.

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:46 pm

Willy the Wombat wrote:
Lawnmower wrote:
Tony Blue Williams wrote:Why didn't they charge PMG more than £35m for the retail land? I remember it being valued at £100m years ago when the council gifted it to us.

If we had got only £50m we wouldn't have had any of this shit.



Tony, the council couldnt give us any more toward the stadium than they already did - it was capped at 70% due to legal conditions.

SInce 62 has quoted that the TOTAL spend on fitting out was £7m and the budget was £4m - so its more bollox from PR basically.

Even out of that money they received a large lump sum from Compass and the Brewery toward it.

Spin. The way he talks if he told me it was Friday today I'd go and check the television.


You're on the right lines Lawnmower although I personaly I wouldn't agree with the percentage cap. The old Council, I believe bent over backwards (pun intended) to assist as much as they could hence the f**k ups with signal phasing, road layouts, etc. and many others on the Infrastructure side which I won't go into. The Council has a statutory obligation, doesn't matter if they're lefty fuckwits, right on cool dudes, liberal bible bashers, swansea supporters or egg chasers, they are legally required to obtain the best deal for the community as a whole when disposing of Council Land. Perhaps more importantly when considering a planning application associated with said disposal and subsequent development they can, indeed obliged, to impose certain benefits for the community at large as a condition under Section 104 Agreements. I imagine this is where the "house of sport" came in to play. As much as I'd like to take the piss out of a lefty council, I really don't believe they could have done anything more and have actually been very sympathetic in our case, I'd even go as far as saying that have left themselves open to critisim for going as far as they have.

The overspend is purely down to Ridsdale, he claimed credit for getting the stadium built let him take he flack for delivering a 3/4 finished stadium that is probably 80% paid for. I've worked on a few stadia over the years and would expect better project management from one of my junior engineers with two or three years experience than has been shown on this project.



Defo read the cap thing somewhere, but going to have a bath now, so I'll have to leave it open :lol:

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:47 pm

Did he assume that we would sell more premier seats ?

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:29 pm

Defo read the cap thing somewhere, but going to have a bath now, so I'll have to leave it open

A bath :shock:

You lucky b*stard, I used to bath every sunday whether I was dirty or not but here there are no baths! It's probably a historical thing with Bulgaria being part of the otterman empire for so long so its all walk-in shower rooms, great when its hot but when it's minus f*cking 23 outside and not much warmer inside its like showering in a f*cking igloo :shock:

The 70% figure is proably some journo trying some pre school maths!!

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:30 pm

Bartlett_bluebird wrote:Did he assume that we would sell more premier seats ?



Definately.

Thats left a big hole.

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:41 pm

Willy the Wombat wrote:Defo read the cap thing somewhere, but going to have a bath now, so I'll have to leave it open

A bath :shock:

You lucky b*stard, I used to bath every sunday whether I was dirty or not but here there are no baths! It's probably a historical thing with Bulgaria being part of the otterman empire for so long so its all walk-in shower rooms, great when its hot but when it's minus f*cking 23 outside and not much warmer inside its like showering in a f*cking igloo :shock:

The 70% figure is proably some journo trying some pre school maths!!


Just read some docs in the bath and the advance was defo 70% of the cost. It was really interesting reading some of the bullshit beig spouted by pR even then - one e-mail I printed off which he'd sent to a poster said the £3.5m for the House of Sport had been paid into the Stadium ACcount. Wonder what happened to that ?

Cant find anything saying it was a limit for the council though. In time :lol: :lol:

Re: Overun on stadium costs

Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:42 pm

Willy the Wombat wrote:
Lawnmower wrote:
Tony Blue Williams wrote:Why didn't they charge PMG more than £35m for the retail land? I remember it being valued at £100m years ago when the council gifted it to us.

If we had got only £50m we wouldn't have had any of this shit.



Tony, the council couldnt give us any more toward the stadium than they already did - it was capped at 70% due to legal conditions.

SInce 62 has quoted that the TOTAL spend on fitting out was £7m and the budget was £4m - so its more bollox from PR basically.

Even out of that money they received a large lump sum from Compass and the Brewery toward it.

Spin. The way he talks if he told me it was Friday today I'd go and check the television.


You're on the right lines Lawnmower although I personaly I wouldn't agree with the percentage cap. The old Council, I believe bent over backwards (pun intended) to assist as much as they could hence the f**k ups with signal phasing, road layouts, etc. and many others on the Infrastructure side which I won't go into. The Council has a statutory obligation, doesn't matter if they're lefty fuckwits, right on cool dudes, liberal bible bashers, swansea supporters or egg chasers, they are legally required to obtain the best deal for the community as a whole when disposing of Council Land. Perhaps more importantly when considering a planning application associated with said disposal and subsequent development they can, indeed obliged, to impose certain benefits for the community at large as a condition under Section 104 Agreements. I imagine this is where the "house of sport" came in to play. As much as I'd like to take the piss out of a lefty council, I really don't believe they could have done anything more and have actually been very sympathetic in our case, I'd even go as far as saying that have left themselves open to critisim for going as far as they have.

The overspend is purely down to Ridsdale, he claimed credit for getting the stadium built let him take he flack for delivering a 3/4 finished stadium that is probably 80% paid for. I've worked on a few stadia over the years and would expect better project management from one of my junior engineers with two or three years experience than has been shown on this project.



Here you go, from the council's own docs..

www.caerdydd.gov.uk/objview.asp?object_id=4171