Citizen Editor: Tigers' ambitious plans must be embraced
TODAY The Citizen renews the campaign to Bring The Tigers Home – helping our own football team Gloucester City back to the city after the floods which devastated their ground five years ago.
Yes, Gloucester is a rugby city but we have a great football club and, unashamedly, The Citizen today devotes a great deal of space in the paper to hopefully hammer home this message.
At stake is the very future of a club which, since the floods of 2007, has been playing in a nomadic existence around the county.
As the club's consultant Colin Peake writes eloquently on the opposite page: "Your city football club has been like a tribe of wandering nomads across the county since then.
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"Despite all they have had to endure, those running the club have stayed strong."
Matt Phillips, chairman of Gloucester City AFC Supporters' Trust perhaps sums up the feelings of The Citizen best when he talked to us about the city council's planning committee meeting next Tuesday evening to consider the club's application for a new stadium on its former Meadow Park ground.
"This is our opportunity to leave a legacy for the city of Gloucester, to have a club on our doorstep which educates and inspires our young sports people, unites our communities and attracts trade and visitors to our city.
"It isn't just about football. It's about being proud of our city, being ambitious about what we can achieve and about how the country perceives us.
"The City Council has been incredibly supportive of us so far and I have faith in them to make a decision which will allow us to come home sooner rather than later."
Spot on Matt. This is about pride in our city. It's about pride in our football club and creating an interest in soccer in a city that is known countrywide as one of the great bastions of rugby.
The Citizen is not an expert in flood defences. It is highly complex.
But over the last few years, the club, the city council and the Environment Agency have worked well together to get to the stage where they now feel comfortable that they can hear a planning application to take the vision of the new £5million stadium forward.
We have every confidence that the planning committee will make the right decision.
But they and the Environment Agency, who are the other partners in this dream, must realise that The Tigers are not Manchester United. They do not have unlimited cash to keep producing costly flood defence reports at the drop of a hat.
Comments
by Chrisgump2011
Wednesday, August 29 2012, 6:03PM
“Good luck to Nigel Hughes and his hard working volunteers at Gloucester City. The application is soundly based and is the best hope of re-establishing the club in Gloucester. It deserves to succeed”
by Bob_Carolgees
Wednesday, August 29 2012, 4:02PM
“The other major factors would be the financial element - if the rent is too high than it would be a non-starter anwyay. Plus the football fans of Gloucester would actually need to walk 100 yards down the road from the pub they usually sit in wearing Man Utd and Liverpool shirts of course.
Hopefully come Tuesday its a positive decison anyway and ground work can commence...”
by Bob_Carolgees
Wednesday, August 29 2012, 3:57PM
“If the ground application, God forbid, is rejected or it's going to cost another few hundreds of thousands of pounds in research engaging various professionals in flood defences etc than its really not worth it. I'd agree a ground share at Kingsholm could be prosperous, but what the rugby fans would need to know is that under Blue square rules the football club HAS to take priority for fixtures. So if there was a fixture clash with Gloucester playing at Kingsholm against Leicester and Gloucester City playing Altrincham, the rugby club would need to change their fixture to an alternative date (i.e the Friday or Sunday). I'm sure that wouldn't go down well...
That said, Newport County are doing well this season since moving to Rodney Parade sharing with the Dragons so they must have a mutal agreement and must work around it. They are top of the league and have seen their attendances almost triple since moving there!”
by Beekeeper
Wednesday, August 29 2012, 1:54PM
“Wigan Athletic and Wigan Warriors share a ground. Oxford United and London Welsh share a ground. Why would this not work in Gloucester?”
by Beekeeper
Wednesday, August 29 2012, 11:59AM
“Ground-share at Kingsholm seems an obvious answer”
by Bob_Carolgees
Wednesday, August 29 2012, 11:19AM
“Unless you've been there, it's difficult to understand the extra financial commitment, time and utter frustration of following a team that has no home. Every game is an away one. Imagine if you can Kingsholm being flooded, and then supporters having to spend a season at Bristol RFC, 2 seasons at Swindon Town and then 3 at your biggest rivals Bath. Thats in essence what Gloucester City supporters have had to do. It's no fun.
That area of Gloucester in particular needs improvement and renovation, not to mention a flood defense and the football club needs a home in the City. It's a win/win. Sport is important to any City or town and Gloucester is no different. Whilst there is the rugby club, Gloucester is very much lacking in another areas with the football club being away. The potential and catchment area is there to bring sporting success to Gloucester, appealing to a new generation within the City aspiring to want to play in a sporting arena such as the one outlined in the plans.”
by LordGagas
Wednesday, August 29 2012, 7:49AM
“i thought this was another big cat story.... :-)”