Quote ="Bulliac"Quote ="rugbyreddog"Don't want to be a CC apologist but I'm sure if he had realised the ground wouldn't be developed (thanks Morrisons) he would have left things as they were and settled for the income from the 15k crowds.'"
I'm no Caisley 'hater'. I think he did what he thought best, though I confess I didn't agree with all of it. Indeed, I sang "I'll support you evermore" and lived the 'glory years' to the utmost, with the rest of them.
One thing I would say though, is that the £500K losses went on for five or six years (there my have been the odd year in the middle which wasn't a big loss) starting from the settlement in 2000, so until 2006 (ish) but the Superdome fiasco lasted only for about 2 of those before the writing was on the wall. In fact I gave up on it as soon as they started telling us it might take over from Wembley as the national stadium - As if! I'd guess CC was more than cute enough to know what claptrap they were talking.'"
I'm pretty sure the Superdome was conceived in the early/ mid 90's when there was bidding contest to build a new national stadium. I think Odsal and Birmingham were the bids outside London and the scheme was abandonned when, unsurprisingly, Wembley was chosen.
The failed scheme that led to the council settlement was the smaller, 25k, one that was part of the Tesco development that was refused planning permission.
That was why the club moved to VP for 2 years (01/02 seasons) whilst it was built but when it got knocked back the settlement was agreed but i can't remember how much for. Some of this was used to build the Southbank and the new floodlights etc and the rest was supposed to cover maintainence. We did ,however, make at least one expensive signing around this time.
As for the crowds; i seem to remember they dipped whilst at VP and then rose when we first returned to Odsal before the slow decline set in.
