Sports Village

I doubt it, personally.

But if it is I think you also run the risk of having so much squeezed together that you lose some of the benefits. I’d be fascinated to see some plans.

 

The whole point is that they're all divorced from reality. We could all come up with plans based on "if I was Acun/Leader of the Council/had a bank balance the size of Elon Musk" and a browse of Google Maps.

Credit to Acun and Tan for having ambition and wanting to improved facilities, however, we know the figure of £25m for a smaller stadium is ridiculously low. We know there's no way that you can build anything on Walton Street and still have Hull Fair on there. We know that any other site in the boundaries of Hull is going to have massive problems for a relocated Fair. We know that the current Cottingham training site is not adequate and does not project the levels of professionalism that a Championship club needs to do, let alone one with Premier League ambitions. I'm also pretty sure I read somewhere that there are covenants in place for the Cott training site that would make it difficult to use the land for other purposes, eg housing, that may mean it is not as valuable as you may think in terms of selling to reinvest elsewhere.

I think the whole proposal is an opener to get a discussion going about the future of the entire West Park area, the club facilities, the future of FC, with the Council(s), FC, and the general public. I'd be interested to know for example that if the Academy facilities at Bishop Burton are good, what are the barriers to actually moving the mens team training up there? Is that a realistic option to explore?

 

The club needs eight training pitches. We also need a couple of those under cover, the club already have the balloon structure, but nowhere to put it. Bishop Burton might be fine but it does come at a cost. There are only two full size pitches and one half size at Mill House Woods Lane. Just heard them moaning on RH 'what about the market'? There were half a dozen stalls/car booters and a meat van there a couple of weeks back FFS.

 

maybe add Fair (& other outdoor events) as part of the plan for Western Docklands redevelopment...

https://www.hullccnews.co.uk/06/02/2023/consultations-open-for-western-docklands-masterplan/

 

The organisers managed to incoportate a Fair at the Sesh a couple of years ago, before Covid, and that's right in the middle of the city centre.

 

If this sports complex goes ahead I have a feeling it might be called The Murat Ülker Sports Complex

 

Where does this £25million figure actually come from? As others have said, it is likely a fraction of the cost of what is being talked about.
Was it more like the £25m that they were looking for from one funding stream sort of thing, rather than the project cost, but it's since then taken on it's own life as being the (incorrect) project cost?

 

This is my take.

 

very true
there is no way 25m is even close to being the project costs

 

Given they're describing it as a Sports Village, I reckon there'll be a long list of candidates for one of the significant Village roles.

 

Not really what I had in mind, but it does make me think that drinking a pint of Sam Smith's takes on a whole new meaning.

 

I’ve not seen his suggestion, but actually that’s a great idea.
Spread across into Humber St area if needed too as the area they used for Humber St West stages the other year is a decent size and unused.
Also they could just close the City Centre to traffic completely and have everything on closed roads.

That’s that sorted then

 

Realistically, if they want to fit in most of the suggested buildings, the car park would house the second stadium. Then there isn't a lot of space left unless they use a big chunk West Park itself.

 

In fairness to Angus Young if he hadn't put the story up for publication he wouldn't be doing his job. Once he found out about it the Mail were always going to print it.



The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.

 

It’s certainly divided opinion, I’m with the village, the fair isn’t permanent, it’s a travelling fair so can go anywhere within reason, as for the market, again not permanent, but a redevelopment can only be good for the City.

My first thought was, why didn’t the fair people ever offer to buy Walton Street when the Allams tried to get it for nowt? Probably because they know the council fall over themselves to set it up every year, if they bought it, the costs fall on them.

I can see why the traders like Walton Street because they can live next to it in West Park, only Costello would be able to accommodate that with ease, Hull City Centre makes sense but can’t see that happening.

if Acun makes a firm inquiry to the council to buy the land, could they really turn it down given the lack of money councils have?

 

Surely the current training could be extended much easier and cheaper than the sports village idea? Acres of empty land nearby.

 

I could be getting confused, but I seem to recall the land around it is already earmarked for some development or other.

 

Just watching the news about Lincoln Xmas market getting scrapped, talk about moving it because of severe overcrowding with 300k visitors, Hull fair attracted 800k last year, so that’s enough reason to move it.