Will Scally stick with the Gills? | Page 2 | Vital Football

Will Scally stick with the Gills?

chris who said:
Medway is already in a bit of a mess economy wise.Scally is still with us because of the income he earns .I can't see any chance that that will have stopped in the last few months. The end result of this for all clubs at our level will be smaller crowds regardless of how long the Covid 19 pandemic lasts .Scally needs us to stay as a league club to earn a income at all .That will cost wages wise .Perhaps I am wrong and we will get 5 or 6 thousand every other week ad soon as crowds are allowed back.Personally I can't see it.
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Medway isn't merely 'in a bit of a mess' economically; it is probably one of the most deprived areas of the country. Just walk around the Pentagon Shopping centre and take a cursory glance at the sheer number of vacant units/shops.

Like many towns, it suffered during deindustrialisation under Thatcher, which saw the closure of Chatham Dockyard. The conurbation's fortunes recovered considerably in the late 90s/early noughties- coinciding with the most successful period in our history, but that recovery was reversed after the 2009 recession, with fewer Gills fans and locals able to afford to go. That recession- and the looming economic turbulence ahead- put paud to the idea of a Coventry-style new superarena with a built-in casino, surrounded by Michelin-star restaurants, because fewer folk could afford to shell out for such luxuries when worried about losing their jobs, homes, and being declared bankrupt.

Some silver lining though; Scally won't sell up until he makes a return on the stadium and can build a new stadium as his legacy. As land values outside London should hold up- because many, many more Londoners will want to sell up and relocate away from a dirty, overpopulated city that perfectly facilitated the spread of Covid 19, or want to move for demographic reasons, moving to a nearby city, like Gillingham, with cheap(er), detached housing with space and gardens, this will keep land values stable, ensuring that we can still sell the footprint within Priestfield for a sufficient sum to justify the spend on a new facility.

Personally, I'd rather stay at Priestfield because of my emotional attachment to the area, save for Balmoral Road and dog sh*t alley.
 
shotshy said:
I'm not quite sure what you mean by stick with the Gills chris.

Do you mean winding the company up and putting houses on the site ?

I suppose that is a possibility is the company is no longer viable as a business.
The only asset is the property.

I can't imagine there are any buyers out there looking to purchase a mediocre, provincial league one football club.
Given the current circumstances, he'd be hard pushed to give it away.
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Perhaps, but I think we can all agree that the current circumstances to which you refer are the exception- not the norm.
 
chris who said:
The problem is a struggling side will bring in even less cash so it could well be a situation with no chance of getting the sort of income he has previously enjoyed.
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Says who? The current pandemic may mean exiled Gooner/Chelsea/Spuds/ Hamster/Wall/Palarse fans coming throuhh the turnstiles as neutrals, because they may not fancy a journey on public transport into London, given the current climate.

Also, some suggestions are fairly obvious- charging an adult £20-£25 to watch a league one game in the current climate is harsh, and was still fairly expensive before. Reduce that by half, or at least to £15, and people will come and spend more in the factory/club shop etc.
 
Wayne.Kerr said:
You haven't been to places like Fleetwood. A huge chunk of Medway's population works in London and is wealthy. The pentagon is as it is because of places like Bluewater.
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I've been to Fleetwood. Didn't strike me as being particularly bad the last time I went, but I'll take your word for it.

But when work colleagues and friends from places like Catford, Croydon, Glasgow and Middlesbrough, and even ILFORD, tell you that Medway is a bit of an unemployment and 'underachievement' blackspot, then you do look over your life experiences and wonder whether they have a point.

Moreover, whilst parts of Medway have large groups of wealthy commuters (Rochester, Rainham, Wigmore and Hempstead spring to mind here), large parts of Chatham, Walderslade, Luton, Strood, Twydall and Gillingham are dirt poor. There might only be 22,000 claiming benefits, but those are just the ones that are elligable. Even then, that's probably about 10% of the local population. Like much of North Kent, many council tenants have been 'farmed out' to Medway from London when large council estates in Elephant And Castle, Kidbrooke and Erith were demolished.
 
I don't know that I would say Medway is one of the most deprived areas Harrow. To be honest I haven't visited any of the northern towns where the loss of industry/mining left them with little prospects, but I imagine Medway scrubs up well against them.

I would think job prospects here are better than many northern towns. There are issues in Medway but also lots of regeneration going on and the proximity to London will also give job opportunities.

We have fantastic transport links (compared to those northern towns) and with three universities we have addressed that issue.

There are some high value jobs to be had if people have the skills. There are also some really nice places.

I like it.

Football team can be a bit of drag sometimes but even that was looking up .
 
HarrowGill said:
I've been to Fleetwood. Didn't strike me as being particularly bad the last time I went, but I'll take your word for it.
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Medway is ranked 93rd nationally (out of 317) wards on the deprivation index - basically bottom 30%.

Fleetwood is technically part of Wyre so its broader numbers include rural areas which border on the Ribble Valley (which is rather affluent) and skew the reality. But when you drill down to the LSOAs of Fleetwood itself, it's one of the most deprived areas in England according to 2019 stats - nearly on a par with the UA of Blackpool where 8 of the top10 most deprived areas in the country are.

Good fish and chips next to the ground, though! ;)
 
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