Yes I had a gander at this this morning, that illustration of the hotel etc has changed a bit from the one we saw last year.
Very much a huge (absolutely massive actually) hotel stuck onto a cricket ground whereas in the original it looked like a redeveloped stand with a hotel inside.
....or maybe a cricket ground stuck onto a hotel!
It's definitely increased in size!
I don’t hate it…wouldn’t it be worth increasing the stadium capacity a bit at the same time though?
At least it looks a lot better than the monstrosities they built at Old Trafford…
Lengthy feature about this on ITV Central yesterday. After the adverts forward to 10 mins in case anyone missed it;
Regarding the windfall that has come Warwickshire's way as a result of The Hundred sell-off, George Dobell says on-line in The Cricketer:
"Warwickshire's situation is actually quite simple: they have planning permission for further ground development and this money will alleviate the need for costly loans at commercial rates. The latest development plans will see a hotel built in the area currently occupied by The Priory stand.
This will include extra seating, raising the ground capacity a little, as well as more hospitality options. With Birmingham City Council - who are effectively bankrupt - pulling out of a loan agreement for it, there has been some lending agreed with the West Midlands Combined Authority.
The combination of that and this windfall will allow Warwickshire to build without needing to be overly reliant upon commercial borrowing rates. The club have paid off around £5m of debt on their previous development (at the pavilion end of the ground) over the last couple of years. Their long-term borrowing arrangement with Birmingham City Council, which has featured low interest rates and payment holidays, is not affected."
Thanks Gerry. Maybe I'm a moaner but I find this a bit depressing. A county cricket club gets a windfall and the first thing it thinks of doing with the money is build a hotel. I mean if that's all they're going to do with money, then they have £15m coming as a share of the ECB's sale of a 49% stake in the Hundred franchises, plus a gift of a 51% stake in the Warwickshire franchise, valued at £40m. If Warwickshire sold the 51% stake they would get 80%, so £32m, giving £47m in total. There's about 4,000 members so if they split that across us, £11,750 a member. I'd rather they do that than build a hotel which isn't worth building if they have to finance it at commercial rates.
The hotel, should, provide a long term and sustainable income stream to help fund the club. As well as the higher yeild per ticket from improved hospitality sales, and of course, boosting the conference business which functions all year.
In The Cricketer review of how counties intend to spend the money, 15 out of the other 17 counties mention ground development in one form or other, six mention debt clearance or reduction and two mention increasing (non-playing) staff. The only ones not to mention ground development are Essex, who are not sure what they want to do with the money, and Worcestershire who are currently reviewing their possible options to move away from Worcester.
I was looking at a picture of the ground today. I bet there’s some in those new flats which were built and has a view of the ground who must be gutted a hotel will now block their view.
BosworthBear wrote:
I was looking at a picture of the ground today. I bet there’s some in those new flats which were built and has a view of the ground who must be gutted a hotel will now block their view.
Surely none of the people who bought them expected to keep that view for long? The club has been planning to redevelop that side of the ground for a while.
Are there plans to improve/upgrade any other areas of the ground while the hotel is being built?
Exiled Bear wrote:
BosworthBear wrote:
I was looking at a picture of the ground today. I bet there’s some in those new flats which were built and has a view of the ground who must be gutted a hotel will now block their view.
Surely none of the people who bought them expected to keep that view for long? The club has been planning to redevelop that side of the ground for a while.
I think those flats are rental only. Would like to know what the agreement between Warwickshire and the development company is, and how much annual revenue is derived by Edgbaston annually from them.
I'm fairly confident Warwickshire get £0.00 from the flats. My recollection is the land was originally sold as part of the financing the redevelopment of the pavilion. Subsequent financial crash meant the construction work was delayed.
I think Reabank is right.
In his latest newsletter, the Chief Executive mentions that the demolition of the Raglan and Priory stands will begin after T20 Finals Day in September. He also says that no-one in the Club knows when they were built, which surprised me.
Looking at old Wisdens, I can see that the 1963 edition (describing the 1962 season) shows a map of the ground with the old Hill Bank and double deck stand. The 1964 version instead shows the Raglan and Priory stands. Of course, the 1963 version may have been out of date; but if not, it would suggest that the stands were built between the 1962 and 1963 seasons.
Does anyone know differently?
I think that is about right – but perhaps a year or two earlier, with Wisden a little behind with its plans. I have always believed the stands’ construction (like so much else at the time) was financed by the Supporters’ Association football pool. Leslie Duckworth’s monumental history of the club published in 1974 suggests that the Association initiated a four-year plan of reconstruction in 1957, in readiness for the Ashes Test in 1961. This was to include “the reconstruction of the whole of the West Bank of the ground… at a cost of £60,000”.
I do recall that the seating in both stands originally extended to the rear with “infilling” with boxes occurring in the 80s as corporate hospitality (virtually unknown in 1961) began to assume its current prominence. Quaintly, Duckworth notes that the Press Box stand, completed in time for the WI Test in 1965, included “two private boxes which industrial concerns could book and reserve for their guests”.
Thanks. I, too, looked at the Leslie Duckworth book and got the same impression but he didn't specifically mention an opening/completion date. The 1961 Ashes Test as a deadline makes sense because it was the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston after Test status was restored in 1957.
I don't believe that the Club couldn't pin the date down if they really tried - there must be minutes of committee meetings and copies of annual reports that could be checked. I suspect that Phil Britt would have a good idea; and if not, a call to Keith Cook might help. If the CEO said he had more important/urgent matters to attend to, I suppose that might be true!