Blues managing director John Nixon (JN) and chairman Andrew Jenkins (AJ) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) on Friday morning about Carlisle United's plans to move to a new stadium at Kingmoor Park :
JN
Well, it works in exactly the way that we have explained, it is an enabling project, I mean we could do the £18-20 million, but if you do that, you get into the Championship, you have got three years to get to an all-seater, it means that the additional funding that you get for being in the Championship, and that pre-supposes of course that you stay in the Championship and teams like Peterborough and Scunthorpe have failed to do that, they have gone up and come down again.
So, it is supposing that you are going to be spending that additional cash on simply building up the facilities at your stadium, and therefore you can't spend the cash on improving your team. So, you need to look at the alternative and the alternative is to go for an enablement, and clubs that have moved and have got new stadiums have usually done it on the back of a supermarket coming and have bought this and have been able to pay for that etc. So, enablement comes from that sort of an area, but it is not our area of expertise, we have to find a partner to go with, and of course we have a partner at present who is looking at all the various ways we can do it.
JP
How soon would you be able to do it then if the fans and the shareholders and everyone agreed?
JN
Well, let's say that we are at the beginning of a journey, it is the first step. The first thing was to get the shareholders support, which Andrew (Jenkins) indicated last night there was 100% support last night, so they all said that they were happy with us a board taking this direction. We now next week on the 24th of November next Thursday, we will open a small exhibition for a day for the fans and we are going to ask them if they support us.
If they support us and we get the same sort of level of support from the fans, who a lot of them are the citizens of Carlisle, then we will pursue this line that we are taking and move forward. But, obviously even to get to this point we have had to do varying feasibilities to ensure that the model that we are looking at is feasible and it can work.
But, in terms of timescale the clock ticks and when we talked to the city council in July and August this year we told them that we would like to get promotion this year, we say that at the beginning of every season of course, and therefore from the end of this season the clock is ticking, it could be a three year clock, so therefore we had a four year window. From any particular time you can always have that four year window, if we get promotion this year then we have three years to do it.
But, I don't think it is the right way to get promotion first, and do the job afterwards, I think what we are saying to the shareholders and we are saying to the fans is as a board of directors, is that this is the right route to take, let's get our house in order and let's make sure that when we do get to the Championship, if that be next year, the year after or whenever, that we have the facilities that we can meet all the standards required in the Championship.
So, it is not a question of getting there and doing it, it is a question of let's prepare the way for that now and let's do it, and let's when we get there be able to concentrate on keeping a team that would keep us in the Championship.
JP
On the other side of it then do you have a value in mind, have you an awareness of what Brunton Park if you were to sell it then and move away would be worth at this stage?
JN
No, I think we have always said that land values fluctuate and we are no experts in land values, and we have always said that Brunton Park wouldn't be used to put in this project, Brunton Park would be used to pay off any debt that we have now, so we can clear all debt to make the club even more financially secure than it is, and obviously go towards team building etc. So, we didn't really ever indicate that we wanted to put Brunton Park into that pot to go into the new one, it may be that we have to do something in the longer term, things change, it is dynamic. But, we haven't planned on that being the case.
JP
In terms of the potential enabling development, do you already have indications then from companies who might want to be involved with that, or is it something that you would have to chase depending on the reaction of your supporters?
JN
Let's say that there are two questions there, the first thing is that we have got to get the reaction of the supporters, it is no good taking a path if the supporters don't want to go down that path. So, the first block is in position, the shareholders 100% said please go down the path, next week we will find out what the supporters say. If the answer to that is positive, and I keep going back to that, then we carry on with the journey, and yes, to get to this point to be able to go to them we obviously are fully aware of developers and financiers who are interested and have gone through the project and have indicated their support for it.
JP
Is it any way set in stone at this stage what you would be able to have in partnership with you though? Would you be able to have a hotel, a gym, the sporting facilites, or is that all pie in the sky at the moment?
AJ
Well, we have got a partner and it is a question of developing it, as for the development you would have to question others about that, we are interested in the football club and we are coming from there.
JP
This is probably a good one for you as well Andrew, those with an emotional attachment to Brunton Park, obviously there is a great deal of history has happened here, can you understand those who perhaps looked at it and didn't want to move away for those reasons?
AJ
Yeah, well no more than myself, but looking at the hard facts there isn't a future at Brunton Park, the place would eventually fall to bits apart from the new stand probably, which isn't finished, it is going to cost a million and a half to bring that up to standard. So, really I understand people because I feel that way, but it is going forward and we want to go forward and show our ambition.
JP
You would hope that the developer then looking at this would be able to come back and say we have got enough partners in, we have got enough businesses involved to cover the cost of the stadium, what if they came back and said that they were an amount of money short, a few million, five million, six million, what would happen then?
JN
It probably wouldn't go ahead.
JP
If it were a smaller figure like a million or two, would you try to.............
JN
You would probably need to look at it, but we probably wouldn't go ahead. We have said all the way through and on our press reports, and in agreement with the developer that we are sitting with at present, that we have advised them all that it should not place any financial duress on the club, and it must be self-funded. So, we have made that clear all the way along while we have been talking to the developer and while we have been talking to the council, we are looking at a self-funding scheme.
You have got to remember that we are the only league club in Cumbria, so we have got to leave a legacy behind us that is going to be better, and no more than anybody who is going to have a wrench is Andrew having been here for 52 years as a director of this club. It is a real wrench for him to leave but he fully understands and has helped us lead this project so far, because he knows that the future is something that we have got to leave and it has got to be better.
It has got to be iconic and it has got to be good for the future of Carlisle and the citizens of Carlisle as well, they need a good new football stadium to be proud of. It obviously would be nice wouldn't it at this point in time to have the jobs that that would bring, particularly when there is such a high level of unemployment in young people. It would be good because Carlisle is a growth city, Carlisle needs the jobs and Carlisle needs this new stadium. So, I think all-round it suits everyone to do this, for sure it is a wrench after 102 years but we sometimes have to change to move forward.