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Monday, October 02, 2023

Stadium improvements depend on club getting longer stay at Edgar Street

Ground improvements at Edgar Street could include a borehole to help cut a £15,000 water bill every year
Hereford FC are looking at making improvements at Edgar Street - but that's dependent on the ground's owner granting the club a longer lease.

The current situation is that the current lease is only until 2030. While that might seem a long time, it will hamper the club if they try to apply for grants for improvement to things such as the floodlights.

While the floodlights passed a test earlier this year meaning they are up to scratch for the National League North, the club have been looking at upgrading them.

Former chairman Jon Hale, during his second tenure at the helm, said it was being looked at and, over the summer, his successor Chris Ammonds said it wasn't a speedy process but discussions were being had with funders.

He said: "It's very much work in progress. We know we need to improve them. I can't give you a timescale.

"If you are looking for grant funding you have to go down the route of getting three quotes. It's never a speedy process. It's very much something we know we're aware of and we need to move forward with."

At last week's informal meeting with shareholders, there was also talk of a borehole to cut down the £15,000 yearly water bill at Edgar Street.

But again, with only a relatively short time left on the current lease, whether it's worth the club funding would be a tricky decision. Especially when the club have lost £628,000 over the last four years.

That has meant shareholders dropped to just £5,000 at the end of May, but that's no higher given season ticket sales and other income.

While there is nothing to suggest the landlord, Herefordshire Council, wouldn't agree to a longer lease, nothing has yet been signed. It has recently agreed to the club installing better broadband facilities and temporarily using the Blackfriars End to improve the experience for away supporters.

The last public mention of talks between the club and council was in February when it was said Ross Cook, corporate director at Herefordshire Council, showed "a genuine mutual appetite to get things done".

The football club was also invited to "submit a proposal for a club and community facility at the Blackfriars End, which would provide additional revenue streams in years to come for Hereford FC to be invested back into the club".

The club also said the council is "open to conversations about other areas of the ground that could, one day, be in need of upgrade or refurbishment".

Ammonds is now set to sit down with the council this month to talk about the lease.

He's under no illusion as to what his job is, telling Bulls News: "It'll be my job to say to them listen, if we can get this lease extended then we have some real opportunities out there to improve the facilities here at Edgar Street and help the financial aspect of the club as well."