Steve Waggott/Tony Mowbray/Mark Venus (1 Viewer)

RevidgeBlue · Apr 4, 2021

Hi everyone

Blackburn Rovers fan in peace here.

You may or may not be aware that the above mentioned (commonly now known as "the Coventry 3" or "Coventrio" in our neck of the woods) have submitted plans to sell of part of the training complex created for us by the late Jack Walker for housing redevelopment.

The local paper are seemingly too scared of falling out with the Club to ask any of the right questions so we felt obliged to send Waggott an open letter which can be found here:

Protect Jack Walkers Legacy. Small Town - Big History.

An Open Letter to Steve Waggott - CEO of Blackburn Rovers

www.protectjackwalkerslegacy.com

As this has obvious echoes of what happened with your Ryton Training ground I was hoping for any information or observations that might be of use. I'd also like to flesh out the current situation with your training ground.

Was it ever actually sold to Developers or is is it still owned by Otium Entertainment Group Ltd?
Is a move still in the offing or did that die with the departures of Waggott and Venus?
Did Sport England ever go into detail about their reasons for blocking the move other than an alternative site having to be found?
Was an alternative site ever secured?

Many thanks in anticipation of any assistance. Please add your name in support of the letter at the end if you like it.

Best of luck for ther remainder of the season.

Simon.

chiefdave · Apr 4, 2021

Blackburn selling off training ground

Hi all, Just popped across to get your opinion on activities up in Blackburn. As you are no doubt aware we are currently managed by Tony Mowbray with Mark Venus as assistant head coach and Steve Waggot as CEO On Friday night someone's had found that a screening request had been lodged to...

www.skybluestalk.co.uk

fernandopartridge · Apr 4, 2021

It was never sold. It is still owned by Otium. The first step of getting it sold for housing was to have it included in the council's local plan, can't remember if that happened or not. It isn't clear if it is still planned, it hasn't been mentioned really since Waggott moved on.

HuckerbyDublinWhelan · Apr 4, 2021

fernandopartridge said:
It was never sold. It is still owned by Otium. The first step of getting it sold for housing was to have it included in the council's local plan, can't remember if that happened or not. It isn't clear if it is still planned, it hasn't been mentioned really since Waggott moved on.

I think Ryton council put a caveat in that the training ground had to be replaced before the planning permission was granted

chiefdave · Apr 4, 2021

RevidgeBlue said:
Was it ever actually sold to Developers or is is it still owned by Otium Entertainment Group Ltd?

Still owned by Otium. The only thing that ever happened was it got put in the councils local plan so if we ever move out to a new facility it can be used for housing.

RevidgeBlue said:
Is a move still in the offing or did that die with the departures of Waggott and Venus?

Is still on the table if you believe anything our owners say. There’s an issue that the current training ground needs expanding, for example our academy is at a different location as there’s not room for the facilities required, but there is no room to expand at the current location.

RevidgeBlue said:
Did Sport England ever go into detail about their reasons for blocking the move other than an alternative site having to be found?

Its a standard thing. If you remove pitches they have to be replaced. Doesn’t seem to matter that there’s no public access. Of course the new pitches don’t necessarily have to be part of a trading ground for the football club.

RevidgeBlue said:
Was an alternative site ever secured?

Nothing has been confirmed but I think most people think the obvious location would be University of Warwick as they already have a lot of facilities in place.

RevidgeBlue · Apr 4, 2021

fernandopartridge said:
it hasn't been mentioned really since Waggott moved on.

There's a surprise!

RevidgeBlue · Apr 4, 2021

Sounds like you guys have genuine issues with your facilities should the owneers ever decide to upgraade them, the problem with us is that we already have a Cat 1 Academy and any plans would seem to involve an inevitable downscaling/downsizing.

no_loyalty · Apr 4, 2021

Questions over Coventry City training ground go unanswered

The Telegraph posed questions raised by fans over the potential sale of the Ryton training base

www.coventrytelegraph.net

Mark Venus was heavily involved.

skybluetony176 · Apr 4, 2021

HuckerbyDublinWhelan said:
I think Ryton council put a caveat in that the training ground had to be replaced before the planning permission was granted

It was Sports England (or something similar) IIRC. It was the playing surfaces that had to be replaced within the borough of Rugby not the training ground for a professional football team.

Earlsdon_Skyblue1 · Apr 4, 2021

I wouldn't trust any of them to be honest.

chiefdave · Apr 5, 2021

skybluetony176 said:
It was Sports England (or something similar) IIRC. It was the playing surfaces that had to be replaced within the borough of Rugby not the training ground for a professional football team.

Sport England only require pitches to be replaced but the council also put requirements for a replacement training facility in the local plan. Its up for debate of course how strictly that would have been adhered to or what would constitute 'satisfaction'.

Implementation of site allocation DS3.7 can only occur when adequate replacement of the pitch provision and training facility has been made to the satisfaction of Rugby Borough Council and Sport England and in accordance with national planning policy.

RevidgeBlue · Apr 6, 2021

Thanks for your replies everyone.

Based on what you have said it might be fruitful to make enquiries with Sport England.

As if it wasn't bad enough off the pitch, on it we've one win in 14 BTW. Based on results Mowbray should have been sacked 2 years ago for me.

hill83 · Apr 6, 2021

So Blackburn are us 5 years ago. I’m sorry.

RevidgeBlue · Apr 6, 2021

Looks like it.

Earlsdon_Skyblue1 · Apr 9, 2021

RevidgeBlue said:
Thanks for your replies everyone.

Based on what you have said it might be fruitful to make enquiries with Sport England.

As if it wasn't bad enough off the pitch, on it we've one win in 14 BTW. Based on results Mowbray should have been sacked 2 years ago for me.

My understanding was that the consensus was on 'Mowbray out', is that true?

Some of the football we had with him was amazing, but his man management and team selections combined with odd transfers was a consistent set of weak spots.

RevidgeBlue · Apr 10, 2021

Mowbray has traditionally had a lot of support within large sections of the fan base since taking over from Owen Coyle and narrowly failing to keep us up getting us promoted back at the first attempt (with by far the biggest budget)

Since returning to the Championship three years ago I'd say it's been generally very disappointing and now it's one win in 14 and we're rock bottom of the Championship form table over the last 25 games. So yes, the consensus now is very much for him to go.

Trouble is Mowbray seemingly recommended his pal Waggott for CEO to the owners when we needed one and he won't move to sack him. We need the 3 of them out ASAP.

One bit of respite off the field was they shelved the training ground plans without warning yesterday claiming they'd listened to consultation with fans and local residents etc.

Been rumbled and couldn't answer any of the questions more like. Our suspicion is the owners were only told half a story then when we brought the issues with the scheme out into the open, the owners stepped in and stopped it.

no_loyalty · Apr 10, 2021

RevidgeBlue said:
Mowbray has traditionally had a lot of support within large sections of the fan base since taking over from Owen Coyle and narrowly failing to keep us up getting us promoted back at the first attempt (with by far the biggest budget)

Since returning to the Championship three years ago I'd say it's been generally very disappointing and now it's one win in 14 and we're rock bottom of the Championship form table over the last 25 games. So yes, the consensus now is very much for him to go.

Trouble is Mowbray seemingly recommended his pal Waggott for CEO to the owners when we needed one and he won't move to sack him. We need the 3 of them out ASAP.

One bit of respite off the field was they shelved the training ground plans without warning yesterday claiming they'd listened to consultation with fans and local residents etc.

Been rumbled and couldn't answer any of the questions more like. Our suspicion is the owners were only told half a story then when we brought the issues with the scheme out into the open, the owners stepped in and stopped it.

You need to get rid of all three ASAP, as you will only see a downward trajectory.

Houchens Head · Apr 10, 2021

I wouldn't trust ~~Maggot~~ , sorry, Waggot, as far as I could throw him! Squirmy git!

Steve Waggott/Tony Mowbray/Mark Venus (1 Viewer)

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