Q&A; - Director John Howard
Stadium Director John Howard goes 'on the spot' to answer your questions in the latest Cambridge United club website Q&A.;
Next week it's the turn of manager John Taylor as we preview the LDV Vans Trophy Final on Sunday 24th March, so send your questions now!
Q. What will be the capacity of the new south end stand?
From James Capitain, Milton, north of Cambridge.
A. It will be all-seater with 1,600 seats.
Q. Has it been decided on what is going to be written across the seats i.e. CUFC?
From James Capitain, Milton, north of Cambridge.
A. No, it hasn't been decided but it's likely to be CUFC unless someone comes up with a better idea.
Q. When is work going to start on the Newmarket Road End and how close are we now to being able to afford it?
From James Capitain, Milton, north of Cambridge.
The existing stand at the Newmarket Road End
A. Everybody knows there is a financial shortfall because of the size of the stand. Reg (Smart) was looking after the redevelopment and now I've been brought in to look at the different ways in which it can be built.
What I'm trying to do is reduce the seating capacity initially to bring the cost of it down, but not changing the design or the footprint of the stand and obviously taking into account the Supporters Club. So there would be less seats to start with than the 3,900 we were going to put in, which would make it cheaper to do, but we can put the rest of the seats in when we can afford them and as we get more successful. That's just one idea I'm looking at to bring the costs down and it would probably halve the number of seats in there initially, while the other facilities in that stand are the fund-raising activities and they are the long-term future of the Club so it's important that we build those.
I've visited a number of new football grounds and obviously I'm going to Bournemouth on Tuesday as well, and there are some real horror stories i.e. Halifax is one where they have had to stop work and we don't want that situation happening. We won't start anything at Cambridge United unless we've got the money to do it and I think it's important that the supporters know that.
If you look back at Chelsea in the late 70s/early 80s when they built their new stand it brought them down, they had to sell players, and even Ipswich Town in the 80s with the Pioneer Stand, they sold players to fund it and they struggled. Football history is littered with stands being left half-finished and clubs being relegated because of their new stands and we don't want to be in the position where we're selling players to fund the development, because that's the wrong way round. We want to reverse that and develop the ground to enhance the future of the Club.
Q. Why have Cambridge not set their sights on much bigger things? i.e. Darlington Town have just confirmed plans for a new 24,000 seater stadium, why aren't Cambridge as ambitious?
From James Capitain, Milton, north of Cambridge.
A. A 10,000 capacity stadium at the moment would be more than ample for us and if we need to have any more capacity than that then we can look at it in the future. Even when we were in the first division last time around we averaged I think about six or seven thousand, so anything more would be more than ample at the moment. Obviously we do hope that our attendances will go up over the years and if that is the case then we can look to add more seating at that time.
Q. How do you rate the chances of the NRE being started during the 2002/3 season?
Terry Wilby
A. I'm optimistic that the stand can be started within that timescale, but there are a number of hurdles we have to get over.
Q. Is there any sign of the funding shortfall being sorted out?
Terry Wilby
A. I think my earlier answer really answers this, in that we're looking to reduce the capacity in the short term and reduce the cost. Also, obviously the naming of the stand would go a long way to helping and if anybody knows of a company out there who might be interested in naming the stand, in return for a substantial amount of money, then we would be delighted if they would come forward to talk to us.
Q. There have been a lot of false dawns with the redevelopment, so can you assure the fans that the south stand will be ready by August?
Exiled U
Work under way at the south end
A. The funding is in place and the work on the new stand has started, and we are very hopeful that it will be ready for the start of the season.
Q. Mr Howard, I'm a Habbin regular and it always seems like we get put upon for big games, and have done in the past. Would the Club let home fans use the new stand, and let the visitors stand in the Habbin?
Geoff from Haverhill
A. That's an interesting suggestion and one that we've already had some discussion about. It's something we've been looking at but no decision has been made yet.
Q. Are there any blue-print plans of the new stands that we can see? it would be great if some could be put on the web site so fans can actually know what is going on!
From James Capitain, Milton, north of Cambridge.
A. (From Andrea) It is very difficult to get the plans onto the site because of their size and detail is lost when they are reduced in size. Unfortunately further artists impressions are very expensive to produce so we only have the one reproduced below. We are close to re-launching the Redevelopment section of this site and will publish all available images in there at that time.
With the LDV Vans Trophy Final looming on Sunday 24th March and the transfer deadline on Thursday 28th March, here's another chance to send your questions for John Taylor and Dale Brooks. Please hurry to send your questions before noon on Thursday 21st March and please include your name, town and include 'Q&A;' in the subject field.
Is there someone you'd like to put on the spot in a future Q&A;? Nominate them by writing to web@cambridge-united.co.uk
Previous Q&As;:
10Mar02 - Andrew Pincher
03Mar02 - Tom Youngs
24Feb02 - John Taylor
17Feb02 - Gary Harwood - Chairman
10Feb02 - Richard Summerfield - Finance Director
03Feb02 - Lionel Perez
27Jan02 - Stuart Ayles - First Team Physio
20Jan02 - Paul Wanless
13Jan02 - Dale Brooks - New Assistant Manager
06Jan02 - Mark Johnson - Match Programme
27Nov01 - John Taylor and Dale Brooks - The New Management Team
17Nov01 - Gary Harwood and Colin Davies - Redevelopment
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