joe wrote:

G Guest wrote:I hope that Buttress will be a guest of the cub at the Spurs match.

That is exactly the right approach

Based on what he said at the Dragons supporters meeting last week I believe he will be open to proposals from partners to maximise the use of the asset and help make Rodney Parade the go to location for sport and leisure in Newport

We still have yet to see the words "Newport County" mentioned in terms of a having a long term future at the site. We still do not see them mentioned in the Masterplan.
I can't be the only one who thinks we MAY be sleep walking into a major problem further down the line as the lease / license nears its end.
We really need someone in authority at the rugby to start talking County, and to start talking County in long term. We need to get around the table and find out where we stand, and we need to do it soon.
Was any representative from County even at the Masterplan meeting?....... Until I see otherwise, I really think we have a major problem hiding just around the corner. We ignore it at our peril.

newgroundrodney wrote:
We still have yet to see the words "Newport County" mentioned in terms of a having a long term future at the site. We still do not see them mentioned in the Masterplan.
I can't be the only one who thinks we MAY be sleep walking into a major problem further down the line as the lease / license nears its end.
We really need someone in authority at the rugby to start talking County, and to start talking County in long term. We need to get around the table and find out where we stand, and we need to do it soon.
Was any representative from County even at the Masterplan meeting?....... Until I see otherwise, I really think we have a major problem hiding just around the corner. We ignore it at our peril.

My view only.

David Buttress is the chairman of Dragons. Regardless of his provenance his first duty is to Dragons. And rightly so.

However I am of the view that cooperation between ourselves and the rugby is the best way forward for both clubs. In those circumstances, remember Dragons don't own Rodney Parade, he may well take the view that if County, Dragons and the local authority work together, then the best interests of both clubs will be served.

As I said above for me this represents our last best chance to have a fit for purpose stadium. Just hope that we have the good sense to show some foresight.

He’s the chairman and ploughing money in and is the one who’s talking about the redevelopment of the RP land buildings and cabbage patch, so I’m guessing he’s a man who would definitely have an influence on what goes on even if he doesn’t have the final say.
He’s not there as a puppet you know

newgroundrodney wrote:

joe wrote:

G Guest wrote:I hope that Buttress will be a guest of the cub at the Spurs match.

That is exactly the right approach

Based on what he said at the Dragons supporters meeting last week I believe he will be open to proposals from partners to maximise the use of the asset and help make Rodney Parade the go to location for sport and leisure in Newport

We still have yet to see the words "Newport County" mentioned in terms of a having a long term future at the site. We still do not see them mentioned in the Masterplan.
I can't be the only one who thinks we MAY be sleep walking into a major problem further down the line as the lease / license nears its end.
We really need someone in authority at the rugby to start talking County, and to start talking County in long term. We need to get around the table and find out where we stand, and we need to do it soon.
Was any representative from County even at the Masterplan meeting?....... Until I see otherwise, I really think we have a major problem hiding just around the corner. We ignore it at our peril.

The Dragons play too few home games to make a town centre ground viable, as everyone knows from recent history. David Buttress's job is to make the Dragon's viable, not the Dragons and Rodney Parade.
The key is the rent from development of the cabbage patch, as that could pay the interest on the cost of the redevelopment of Rodney Parade.
The Dragon's alone cannot afford to redevelop Rodney Parade as this is required BEFORE the cabbage patch. So that takes us, the Dragons and Newport Rugby out of the equation, leaving just the WRU and the Council. The WRU can't own the ground of one region long term, as the other regions won't stand for it.
Therefore it is the Council (who invested 5million in the footbridge to open up the Rodney Parade area) who are the most likely future owners/developers who will then rent out the facilities. Where that leaves Robin Davies beloved Newport Rugby club is anyone's guess, and probably why he is tweeting David Buttress in the first place.

Robin Davey is a grade A bell-sniff.

I'm not up to speed on the rugby politics, but it reads to me like he's telling NRFC "We are the masters now" and they should get used to the idea they now stand behind County in the pecking order because they bring next to no revenue-earning capacity to the table..

The two rugby teams couldn't make a financial go of the place, or we wouldn't have had a sniff of the groundshare.

newgroundrodney wrote:

joe wrote:

G Guest wrote:I hope that Buttress will be a guest of the cub at the Spurs match.

That is exactly the right approach

Based on what he said at the Dragons supporters meeting last week I believe he will be open to proposals from partners to maximise the use of the asset and help make Rodney Parade the go to location for sport and leisure in Newport

We still have yet to see the words "Newport County" mentioned in terms of a having a long term future at the site. We still do not see them mentioned in the Masterplan.
I can't be the only one who thinks we MAY be sleep walking into a major problem further down the line as the lease / license nears its end.
We really need someone in authority at the rugby to start talking County, and to start talking County in long term. We need to get around the table and find out where we stand, and we need to do it soon.
Was any representative from County even at the Masterplan meeting?....... Until I see otherwise, I really think we have a major problem hiding just around the corner. We ignore it at our peril.

Good post .. This is my biggest concern ,I personally believe that once our contract/lease runs out it will not be renewed .
The Rugby will be based elsewhere and they will sell Rodney Parade ! Probably the plan all along .
I think the board needs to get assurances by the end of the season for say a 10 year extension to lease or seriously start planning to play elsewhere ... 2 or 3 years time which will fly by and it will be too late to do anything about it.

Good tweet by the Dragons CEO but I would not take any notice of any tweet by Robin Davey his aim is to provoke a reaction, ironically, if there was a team to leave RP I dare say it would not be Newport County at present.

Robin Davey is not interested in Newport RFC. As soon as the Dragons were formed he concentrated on them. I think that it is possible that he fears that County will become bigger than the rugby and one way to prevent that is to complain about overuse of the pitch in an effort to get us out. Anyway he is of no consequence whatsoever. So don't worry about him.

I am not convinced that the WRU want us out. I take statements of goodwill at face value and do not disbelieve them. In any case, without us RP would be very much underused. So long as we don't interfere with the Dragons and pay the rent I don't see a problem. Don't forget that the WRU have a history of hosting football including several FA Cup finals. So it is not strange for them to do it again.

I also do not believe that the WRU want to sell RP. They seem committed to a 4 stadium,4 region setup.

The 'underground' word is that regions will not be the future and there will be a time in the not-too-distant future where its Simply Newport RFC again.
As someone has already said, we need to be on the money, so to speak, as to investing in some form when the WRU ceases to want or need RP.

G Guest wrote:Robin Davey is not interested in Newport RFC. As soon as the Dragons were formed he concentrated on them. I think that it is possible that he fears that County will become bigger than the rugby and one way to prevent that is to complain about overuse of the pitch in an effort to get us out. Anyway he is of no consequence whatsoever. So don't worry about him.

I am not convinced that the WRU want us out. I take statements of goodwill at face value and do not disbelieve them. In any case, without us RP would be very much underused. So long as we don't interfere with the Dragons and pay the rent I don't see a problem. Don't forget that the WRU have a history of hosting football including several FA Cup finals. So it is not strange for them to do it again.

I also do not believe that the WRU want to sell RP. They seem committed to a 4 stadium,4 region setup.

OK ...Hope your right then !!!

If regional rugby is abandoned in Wales, every rugby club will have to be given the chance to represent Wales in Pro 14 and Europe.But with the possible exceptions of Pontypridd and Pontypool the valleys clubs do not have the facilities to support large crowds so I can't see that happening.

G Guest wrote:If regional rugby is abandoned in Wales, every rugby club will have to be given the chance to represent Wales in Pro 14 and Europe.But with the possible exceptions of Pontypridd and Pontypool the valleys clubs do not have the facilities to support large crowds so I can't see that happening.

Maybe that's why its being discussed now?
I'm not with you on your comments though, that's like saying every professional football club in England will have to be given the chance to represent at the top level, surely that's why we have Divisions within a pyramid system!

Every football club in England has a theoretical chance at least of playing in the Premier League. Bournemouth are evidence that it can happen even to a small club. At present in Wales only 4 rugby clubs play at the highest level and all the other rugby clubs are frozen out. The justification for this is that all clubs are part of a region and their players can aspire to represent the region and play top class rugby. If the regional system is abandoned, as you suggest it may be, the monopoly that Cardiff, Newport, Llanelli and Swansea have to be Wales representatives in international club rugby can no longer be justified by calling them regions. As in football everything would have to be earned on the field of play. But most rugby clubs in Wales have inadequate facilities so I believe that the WRU will continue to confine the top level to the 4 biggest stadiums and the cities which draw the biggest crowds. That is why regional rugby was created in the first place.

G Guest wrote:Every football club in England has a theoretical chance at least of playing in the Premier League. Bournemouth are evidence that it can happen even to a small club. At present in Wales only 4 rugby clubs play at the highest level and all the other rugby clubs are frozen out. The justification for this is that all clubs are part of a region and their players can aspire to represent the region and play top class rugby. If the regional system is abandoned, as you suggest it may be, the monopoly that Cardiff, Newport, Llanelli and Swansea have to be Wales representatives in international club rugby can no longer be justified by calling them regions. As in football everything would have to be earned on the field of play. But most rugby clubs in Wales have inadequate facilities so I believe that the WRU will continue to confine the top level to the 4 biggest stadiums and the cities which draw the biggest crowds. That is why regional rugby was created in the first place.

Maybe the plan is that every Welsh Rugby club will have a theoretical chance at least of playing in the top League.
We see in the pyramid every year that many clubs are prevented from progressing if they do not upgrade their facilities, without this rule many clubs would have kept their "Ned in the Shed" facilities and the whole system may well have stayed in the dark ages.
The WRU may possibly looking long term for their own pyramid which would gradually upgrade many facilities. But who knows, its just a discussion I hear at present.