Am I correct in thinking we need to negotiate soon with the WRU to enable us to play at Rodney for the next 10 years?

County Valleyboy wrote: April 19th, 2022, 4:53 pm Am I correct in thinking we need to negotiate soon with the WRU to enable us to play at Rodney for the next 10 years?

Was expecting this question to arise soon.
My belief is as Newportafc's current agreement runs out in June 2023, it is the EFLs requirement for them to have a further agreement in place prior to the start of the 22/23 season. Sure someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Agreement is signed. Will be announced before new season starts.

Exile 1976 wrote: April 20th, 2022, 7:36 am Agreement is signed. Will be announced before new season starts.

Surprised , yet pleased to hear that.

Exile 1976 wrote: April 20th, 2022, 7:36 am Agreement is signed. Will be announced before new season starts.

Got to push you on this one mate. Your sources are normally very good and this is brilliant to hear. Why is it I wonder why they don’t get the good news out there straight away. Any ideas? There will be lots of us who will be chomping at the bit for good news here. There is no long term future for the club if we don’t have a place to play. That could and will be our best signing pre season. Timing is crap but, hey ho.

pembsexile wrote: April 20th, 2022, 8:38 am

Exile 1976 wrote: April 20th, 2022, 7:36 am Agreement is signed. Will be announced before new season starts.

Got to push you on this one mate. Your sources are normally very good and this is brilliant to hear. Why is it I wonder why they don’t get the good news out there straight away. Any ideas? There will be lots of us who will be chomping at the bit for good news here. There is no long term future for the club if we don’t have a place to play. That could and will be our best signing pre season. Timing is crap but, hey ho.

WRU/Dragons NEED us as tenants - there is a bit of posturing and back and forth but we have the whip hand - we have 2 stadiums in the Newport/Greater Newport area nearby which could with a few tweaks be made to league 2 standard so we have some leverage and a back up (if Sutton can do it we can) of course we all want to stay at RP and work with it owners to improve it (cover the north bank?), etc but no real danger of us being kicked out

If the date is right then it would have been creating uncertainty around relegation from L2 for months and I've seen no hint of that. It makes perfect sense to save any formal news so we can end the season with a feelgood factor on at least one front.

Looking at the numbers at Dragons v Gloucester you can see why RP needs us just as much as we need RP.

For those of you who wish to believe that the WRU need Newport County as much as Newport County need the WRU you may want to ponder the following questions.

If Newport County were to have their own stadium, Jim's EuroMillions finally came up, would the WRU survive?

If the WRU ended their agreement to share Rodney Parade, would Newport County survive as a League club?

Stan A. Einstein wrote: April 20th, 2022, 10:05 am For those of you who wish to believe that the WRU need Newport County as much as Newport County need the WRU...

Which of course no-one is arguing now or ever has. Rodney Parade needing us is not the same thing even if the WRU owns it.

Stan A. Einstein wrote: April 20th, 2022, 10:05 am For those of you who wish to believe that the WRU need Newport County as much as Newport County need the WRU you may want to ponder the following questions.

If Newport County were to have their own stadium, Jim's EuroMillions finally came up, would the WRU survive?

If the WRU ended their agreement to share Rodney Parade, would Newport County survive as a League club?

I don't have either the figures or the way the groundshare agreement works nor how the WRU/Dragons/Rodney Parade Ltd [or whatever name it has] split the loot BUT we are a big contributor in both finance and exposure for WRU/Dragons/Rodney Parade Ltd and they do NOT want to lose us - would the WRU go bust without NCFC? - no - would the WRU lose the equivalent of funding for several community programmes or youth teams or whatever if we got our own stadium? - yes it would be a blow for them, it quite simply makes sense for both parties to groundshare and is a model widely used in the English rugby premiership/Rugby league, etc

CathedralCounty wrote: April 20th, 2022, 10:25 am

Stan A. Einstein wrote: April 20th, 2022, 10:05 am For those of you who wish to believe that the WRU need Newport County as much as Newport County need the WRU you may want to ponder the following questions.

If Newport County were to have their own stadium, Jim's EuroMillions finally came up, would the WRU survive?

If the WRU ended their agreement to share Rodney Parade, would Newport County survive as a League club?

I don't have either the figures or the way the groundshare agreement works nor how the WRU/Dragons/Rodney Parade Ltd [or whatever name it has] split the loot BUT we are a big contributor in both finance and exposure for WRU/Dragons/Rodney Parade Ltd and they do NOT want to lose us - would the WRU go bust without NCFC? - no - would the WRU lose the equivalent of funding for several community programmes or youth teams or whatever if we got our own stadium? - yes it would be a blow for them, it quite simply makes sense for both parties to groundshare and is a model widely used in the English rugby premiership/Rugby league, etc

I agree insomuch as it makes perfect sense for two football teams to share a stadium. My difficulty is that it is not a partnership. After 11 years at Rodney Parade I don't know how much Newport County have paid towards the upkeep and care of Rodney Parade but the truth is that we own not a single blade of grass.

Any future development of Rodney Parade be it hotels, university accommodation, concerts or firework displays will see every penny of profit go to the WRU. I fully accept that people will say well we are not responsible for repairs. But the same principle applies to home ownership. Is there one person who owns their own home who wishes that they had remained a tenant? I fully accept some people will say if we own our own stadium we might be the target of financial manoeuvres. Don't strive to own your own property as you might get robbed is a somewhat desperate argument.

And as for it being a fans club. Newport County have been at Rodney Parade for a decade. It's our club, we are told, it's our money, we are told. Before any of us can judge I believe we should be told how much County have forked out to the rugby since we moved to Rodney Parade. And with respect to the future, how much we will be expected to spend over the term of the next license agreement.

And to be clear, since 1988 this has been a problem that we have all neglected. We all share the blame.

George Street-Bridge wrote: April 20th, 2022, 10:16 am

Stan A. Einstein wrote: April 20th, 2022, 10:05 am For those of you who wish to believe that the WRU need Newport County as much as Newport County need the WRU...

Which of course no-one is arguing now or ever has. Rodney Parade needing us is not the same thing even if the WRU owns it.

George,

Cathedral County has argued that County have the 'whip hand'. He or she is a County fan, entitled to express his or her opinion. I disagree with that opinion and put my arguments as to why Cathedral County is wrong. That's how a message board works.

Not reading the views of others and/or dismissing others as nobodies is extremely rude on your part.

Stan A. Einstein wrote: April 20th, 2022, 11:16 am

George Street-Bridge wrote: April 20th, 2022, 10:16 am

Stan A. Einstein wrote: April 20th, 2022, 10:05 am For those of you who wish to believe that the WRU need Newport County as much as Newport County need the WRU...

Which of course no-one is arguing now or ever has. Rodney Parade needing us is not the same thing even if the WRU owns it.

George,

Cathedral County has argued that County have the 'whip hand'. He or she is a County fan, entitled to express his or her opinion. I disagree with that opinion and put my arguments as to why Cathedral County is wrong. That's how a message board works.

Not reading the views of others and/or dismissing others as nobodies is extremely rude on your part.

my point I guess is that nobody else in the Newport area wants to lease the whole of a semi dilapidated stadium (on 3 sides) for 20+ events a year and we provide via rental payment and beer takings a LOT of money to the WRU/other - 'whip hand' may have been an overstatement of it but they definitely WANT if not actively NEED us to remain tenants - its moot anyway because we are 99% nailed on for another 10 years lease anyway - my guess is they get in the region of £150 - 250,000 [profit after costs] out of us per year all told a LOT of money in rugby union circles and that's not counting the intangibles of exposure for RP when we have cup runs, etc.

Stan A. Einstein wrote: April 20th, 2022, 10:05 am For those of you who wish to believe that the WRU need Newport County as much as Newport County need the WRU you may want to ponder the following questions.

If Newport County were to have their own stadium, Jim's EuroMillions finally came up, would the WRU survive?

If the WRU ended their agreement to share Rodney Parade, would Newport County survive as a League club?

Stating the obvious - no football club can survive if they don’t have a pitch to play on. We currently play at RP, long may it remain so.

All the arguments have been done and dusted regarding stadium ownership. What is irrefutable is that we need a place to play. Over the past few years the club (I believe) has grown. Attendances have gone up thank goodness. Promotion has not followed, yet, but hopefully in the near future etc….

I worry that if we are not able to play at RP for whatever reason, then any growth we have attained will undoubtedly be snatched away from us and we will have to start all over again. I don’t believe that we will fold but we will have to start playing somewhere else. That, for me is a nightmare scenario. I am too old to start again, don’t think I have fully recovered from the last one. I wonder how many people of my age and older would feel the same.

What is also irrefutable is that, if the news is true, then the WRU are not doing it for altruistic reasons. They will be doing it for financial reasons. It will be good for them. The fact that it will also be good for the County and good for the City is a by product that they will be able to promote.

I am sure that behind the scenes that officials are working hard on a solution and as Exile has explained, the news may be put out in the coming months. Tfft. Wish it was sooner. Our season appears to be filtering out unfortunately. We appear to be well grounded, pun intended. We seem to have a good front and back room room team, no rumours of the club officials falling out etc so we await the good news with anticipation. The time for the announcement can’t come soon enough. Cmon the County.

Stan A. Einstein wrote: April 20th, 2022, 11:16 am Not reading the views of others and/or dismissing others as nobodies is extremely rude on your part.

Which, of course, I haven't done.