Who else uses the Ricoh (1 Viewer)

TheSnoz said:

Ben, think the original guff written about the Ricoh while it was being built, was that it would be a real part of the community. A club and stadium for the fans. Far as I can see it is anything but that. There was talk of all kinds of things being based there to bring in the public, does the gym even exist now, what happened to the club museum? There is a bit of land coming from car park C, lain empty since day one. Land not doing anything, why not install all weather surfaces there and hire it out? They do just that at 'liitle' Shrewsbury and get some income from it. The place is bleak and poorly designed. Food outlets are hopeless, toilets totally inadequate and pretty disgusting. I'm sure they aren't the same on the prawn sandwich stand. The ground is already starting to look very tired. The council tout it as as great venue but it is far from that.

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Big_Ben said:

I live a 9 hour round trip away from Cov, and my work pattern means that for most of the season I'm one of those saddo's who is restricted to listening to the commentary on Sky Blue Player and following the comments on here. As a result, I'm not up to speed about what else goes on at the Ricoh to generate revenue there.

There's a lot been said about the rights and wrongs concerning the level of rent for CCFC with only the income from the games to pay the bills, not even the hot dog sales to top it up. Yet other clubs can rent their stadiums and also get additional revenue from non-footie sources.

I've seen figures that suggest that our rent, even at over a million a year is only a small proportion of the turnover from the stadium, so what else is it used for that generates such a wad of cash?

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ajsccfc said:

I like the club shop/ticket office where it is, particularly for matchdays as you'd be funneling people inside and it'd get a bit of a mess.

The gym that was there went out of business I believe.

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torchomatic said:

They have wedding fairs on, don't they? I wonder if the organisers get charged over a million pounds?

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ajsccfc said:

If you had everything there like a little retail hub it'd be a lot more welcoming,

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TheSnoz said:

Ben, think the original guff written about the Ricoh while it was being built, was that it would be a real part of the community. A club and stadium for the fans. Far as I can see it is anything but that. There was talk of all kinds of things being based there to bring in the public, does the gym even exist now, what happened to the club museum? There is a bit of land coming from car park C, lain empty since day one. Land not doing anything, why not install all weather surfaces there and hire it out? They do just that at 'liitle' Shrewsbury and get some income from it. The place is bleak and poorly designed. Food outlets are hopeless, toilets totally inadequate and pretty disgusting. I'm sure they aren't the same on the prawn sandwich stand. The ground is already starting to look very tired. The council tout it as as great venue but it is far from that.

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TheSnoz said:

Skybluespud, I sat in the Stevenage main stand and about five yards from the dug out, could hear pretty well everything from the City bench. I go to most away games. And have done for decades. And yes, used the toilets, twice. The point I'm making is - and following on from Ben - the council tout the Ricoh as brilliant, it isn't. Poorly maintained. Shoddy, under utilised. Land and space wasted. No hot water in toilets - and in mid winter too. Always crowds for toilets, with attendances on 10,000 too. It all shows a lack of respect for football fans.

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Big_Ben said:

I live a 9 hour round trip away from Cov, and my work pattern means that for most of the season I'm one of those saddo's who is restricted to listening to the commentary on Sky Blue Player and following the comments on here. As a result, I'm not up to speed about what else goes on at the Ricoh to generate revenue there.

There's a lot been said about the rights and wrongs concerning the level of rent for CCFC with only the income from the games to pay the bills, not even the hot dog sales to top it up. Yet other clubs can rent their stadiums and also get additional revenue from non-footie sources.

I've seen figures that suggest that our rent, even at over a million a year is only a small proportion of the turnover from the stadium, so what else is it used for that generates such a wad of cash?

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Sky Blue Spud said:

Snoz, the point I was making was that the vast majority of grounds in this league are totally substandard. Stevenage for example have the audacity to charge the same price as the Ricoh where the toilet facilities are so substandard that you have to wade ankle deep in urine at half time. Obviously you may not have experienced it if you were sitting with the prawn sandwich brigade behind the dugout.
I happen to be proud of our stadium and believe it to be the best in the league which can be evidenced by the general view of most visiting supporters.
Now if you were to be talking about accessibility such as car parking costs and lack of a railway station I would agree it is sadly lacking.

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torchomatic said:

So what DOES make up the other 80% of ACLs income then?

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Ricoh2012 said:

Exhibitions - public and trade
Weddings
Conferences
Dinners
Hotel
Casnio
Live events
Concerts
Sporting events

The Ricoh is one of the top 5 venues in the UK for the above. It's also part of the AEO, association of event venues.

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ajsccfc said:

The gym was external too from what I remember, just a door on the outside facing one of the car parks.

If it was all designed for the club shop to be indoors I'm sure it'd be fine, but as it is it all seems a bit out of bounds. If you had everything there like a little retail hub it'd be a lot more welcoming, I didn't even know there was a Costa there until recently.

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