Need for the city’s infrastucture to be improved, holding Argyle back.

[keepthefaith70]

Yes - the club need to improve their own infrastructure and yes , we desperately need new investment for new players and ultimately get the ground capacity to 25,000.
BUT
I really think the chairman and board need to really start exerting some influence regards the city itself towards the council and local politicians.

We are forever held back with such poor transport links,terrible shopping centre and not cashing in on the waterfront potential. We need to become a major destination city to attract and retain good players and management, keep attracting large number of away supporters to the matches and generally kick start the huge potential to attract more events and make the city and club more high profile.

This city still needs an airport!!!
The current transport links are terrible and we remain so isolated and difficult to reach other parts of the country. This definitely impacts on players and staff staying here, as we have seen this season.As an example, Plymouth to the North West is a nightmare by road and current public transport offered.

The council need to redouble efforts to focus on making the city centre attractive to decent stores - ie John Lewis etc. By attracting someone like that, will bring in other decent shops. The current increasing spread of cheap discount shop and vape stores, is dragging the city down.

Then we have our great waterfront, not invested in. We should have cruise ships coming in and decent hotels to stay in, currently we have no decent hotels. Which can’t look good to not only potential players, but also puts off Plymouth hosting big events.

I don’t intend this to be political, but truly think it impacts on the club and its prosperity going forward.

 

[Said old Green]

Fantastic post and I completely agree.

It is truly astonishing that Plymouth no longer / doesn't have an airport when Exeter and even bloody Newquay have one.

The City Centre used to be beautiful now it's is plain ugly.

The City Council ( who.i used to work for ) have a lot to answer for.

 

[Monster Green]

How much pressure can we put on them tho? It seems they are investing in infrastructure, but it just isn't happening quickly enough. Perhaps our second season in the Champ will get them realising the need to speed things along

 

[Quintrell Green]

I do not see blood on the walls of Newquay? I am however aware that Cornwall Council subsidise the public company that owns the airport and the adjacent aero-hub to the tune of £4 million per annum as the operation loses money. Owning an airport is not a certain licence to print money and remember Cornwall has a population of over twice that of Plymouth. At the same time it is more of an inward holiday destination than Plymouth. Be careful what you wish for when your Council Tax increases by a third to subsidise it.

 

[ContinentalCol]

I was talking to a few people about this recently.
For stadium expansion we would need more car parking and coach parking for both home and away fans.
Think the local residents would have alot to say about this.
The local road network around the ground has an overall capacity limit on the amount of traffic it can accomodate.
It barely copes on a normal work day at peak times, not sure Outland Road could cope with even more traffic on match days.
I am an ex Citybus bus driver, we run a couple of routes thru Outland Rd, they are not making any money except at rush hours.
So Citybus would not put on exta services, which leaves us back to more Football Specials.
Great you say, but you have to consider do Citybus have enough extra vehicles to run these Specials, believe me buses are at a premium these day.
Also extra driving staff would be needed who are regular drivers operating them on Overtime or Coach Drivers who may not have jobs that day.
I would say the same problem would arise with extra trains put on for matchdays.
As you can see it does have a knock on effect.

 

[PL2 3DQ]

Similarly, at away games I've seen traffic stopped and traffic light junctions taken over by the police to allow the thousands exiting the match to have a quick getaway and move quickly to the main A road or motorway.
Stoke City away was a good example of this.

It takes an age to move along Outland Road after a game where the traffic lights operate on their usual timings meaning hundreds of cars leaving the game have to stop to allow a few cars have priority at the Peverell corner, Cherry Tree and Morrisons junctions.
I always felt the police should take over Outland Road and the traffic light junctions and allow the free flow of traffic away from what is now a sold out Home Park each game. Although it would probably need some rubber stamping at Council level.

 

[greenlight]

I agree the city needs the uplift. We're lucky to have an amazing waterfront, however the city centre is awful. The way people shop has changed and the town needs to be adapted into a modern, urban centre with parks, housing and entertainment. The only way to do that is to knock it down and start again. It's an argument that Argyle have no influence on.

I get bored with 'we need an airport'. We don't. The demand wasn't there before and you'll only be getting flights to Gatwick or somewhere similar. Its easier go get a train and Bristol and Exeter Airport are up the road.

We need a decent train station with a connection to Central Park. Central Park has so much to offer. This is where the council are missing a trick with hotels and entertainment complex and with decent leisure activities set up around the park. However everytime they propose something 10 garden lovers complain about a field or too it may take up 😕

 

[Greenarmy1234]

Yes - the club need to improve their own infrastructure and yes , we desperately need new investment for new players and ultimately get the ground capacity to 25,000.
BUT
I really think the chairman and board need to really start exerting some influence regards the city itself towards the council and local politicians.

We are forever held back with such poor transport links,terrible shopping centre and not cashing in on the waterfront potential. We need to become a major destination city to attract and retain good players and management, keep attracting large number of away supporters to the matches and generally kick start the huge potential to attract more events and make the city and club more high profile.

This city still needs an airport!!!
The current transport links are terrible and we remain so isolated and difficult to reach other parts of the country. This definitely impacts on players and staff staying here, as we have seen this season.As an example, Plymouth to the North West is a nightmare by road and current public transport offered.

The council need to redouble efforts to focus on making the city centre attractive to decent stores - ie John Lewis etc. By attracting someone like that, will bring in other decent shops. The current increasing spread of cheap discount shop and vape stores, is dragging the city down.

Then we have our great waterfront, not invested in. We should have cruise ships coming in and decent hotels to stay in, currently we have no decent hotels. Which can’t look good to not only potential players, but also puts off Plymouth hosting big events.

I don’t intend this to be political, but truly think it impacts on the club and its prosperity going forward.

As much sway as we think Argyle may have. What your asking for here is Billions of pounds worth of investment, that is sanctioned at National government level of which argyle have zero sway.

 

[jimbogreen]

We absolutely do need an airport, or a good railway or a motorway. Currently, the rail link to the rest of the country is slow and can be unreliable, the A38 is not good enough for companies to look to invest in the area. To faciliate the growth of the city, we desperately need at least one strong transportation link to the rest of the country, and by extension, the world. We are fortunate enough to have one of the best natural surroundings of any city I can think of (no reason why Plymouth shouldn't be a mini Vancouver, San Francisco or Sydney, all of whom have similar geographical benefits), but we have not taken advantage of what we have.

 

[oldage]

Fantastic post and I completely agree.

It is truly astonishing that Plymouth no longer / doesn't have an airport when Exeter and even bloody Newquay have one.

The City Centre used to be beautiful now it's is plain ugly.

The City Council ( who.i used to work for ) have a lot to answer for.

Why “ bloody “ Newquay. Devon has an airport why shouldn’t we have one in Cornwall.

 

[HC Green]

Similarly, at away games I've seen traffic stopped and traffic light junctions taken over by the police to allow the thousands exiting the match to have a quick getaway and move quickly to the main A road or motorway.
Stoke City away was a good example of this.

It takes an age to move along Outland Road after a game where the traffic lights operate on their usual timings meaning hundreds of cars leaving the game have to stop to allow a few cars have priority at the Peverell corner, Cherry Tree and Morrisons junctions.
I always felt the police should take over Outland Road and the traffic light junctions and allow the free flow of traffic away from what is now a sold out Home Park each game. Although it would probably need some rubber stamping at Council level.

In the 70s and 80s exiting from the car park used to be controlled by the Police and the traffic lights switched off and traffic from town stopped on Outland Road to give priority to football traffic.
The issue now is that for that to happen the Police and Council would want Argyle to pay the cost of doing it.
On a separate issue the logical way of dealing with coaches home and away is for one lane of Outland Road to be closed down and coaches stop there to unload. Once empty the coaches then go to the Citybus depot and stay there until the match starts. They are then brought back and parked up on Jack Leslie Way.
After the game once loaded up and the safety steward deems Jack Leslie Way sufficiently clear of pedestrians the coaches are allowed to leave.
Once again I expect the stumbling block is that it would cost Argyle to implement it.

 

[IJN]

Why “ bloody “ Newquay. Devon has an airport why shouldn’t we have one in Cornwall.

Very good it is too. Use it at least twice a year to fly to Portugal for golf.

 

[daront]

I live away from Plymouth and have done for 25 years due to work.

I love going back to Plymouth visiting family and friends however i am always extremely disappointed with

Still no motoway south of exeter
Still no airport
Constant digging up the ciry centre, such a waste of money. Nothing seems to last long.
Lack of investment in the barbican and Hoe.
Everyy place i have lived would love to have the barbican and hoe.
Just driving round Plymouth seeing the weeds in the roads and potholes. Such a disappointment.

Yet the council seems to do nothing but waste money to revamp stuff that dosnt need doing.

 

[Wexford Green]

I flew over for the QPR game a few weeks back and had a few hours to kill before the match. I must admit I was horrified by the poor state of the city centre. It clearly needs a complete rebuild. The waterfront could certainly also benefit from investment. Its all rather depressing but where will investment money come from?

 

[Old Gunner]

The City is slowly improving. The landscaping in the centre is underway and so far it looks decent. The Civic Centre will, I understand, be renovated by the University…so hopefully a major eyesore will be improved. Unfortunately central government will not invest significantly in our City…not exactly a great concentration of MPs in the SW so we have a small voice and no voting power. Argyle can talk to the Council and I’m sure they do, but they will not be able to magically produce funding. Is the City holding back Argyle. Perhaps but not in any significant way. The improvements I see are a mixture of initiatives from a cash strapped council and local businesses and I don’t think that will change anytime soon. I think I’m in a minority here, perhaps because of where I was brought up, but the City really isn’t that bad. Bus services are reasonable, trains can be problematic granted, but we have 3 airports in a 2 hour radius.