Our Friends In The North

When you lose your biggest asset life can be particularly difficult. A pair of National North sides are facing harsh futures due to their stadium problems.

At Worcester City, once non-league giants, their long standing stadium woes have reached crisis point. A circular was sent around clubs that was, in effect, offering their entire squad up for loan or transfer. First out the door was their prize asset - 40 year old goalscorer Lee Hughes. Whatever your thoughts on the player's personal behaviour he got the job done. 14 goals from 27 games in a side threatened with relegation saw him plucked by their relegation rivals Telford within a couple of hours of the notice being circulated.

Worcester's woes lie in an abysmal deal to sell their old St Georges Lane home signed nine years ago. The veteran stadium was tired, needed an overhaul, but was more viable as a building site for housing than a new stadium. A deal was struck, plans were drawn up, and a new edge-of-town stadium was scheduled to be built.

Only it never got built.

The contract selling St Georges Lane had a series of clauses about the build of a new stadium but missed a major one. It didn't obligate the building firm to complete the new stadium before it demolished the old one.

Worcester were given notice, St Georges Lane demolished, and the club have now spent the last four years as tenants at other grounds. Kidderminster first, and now Bromsgrove where the going is, at least, cheaper. The cash pile that they were left with has been eroded due to the costs of operating a National North side without large chunks of the commercial income usually associated with a club at that level, with attendances well down over the seasons.  An average of 665 have come through the gates this term, roughly the same as the last season at Kidderminster, but some 20% down on their St Georges Lane numbers.

Relegation seems likely this summer with the squad set for further exits. Caretaker boss John Snape admitted to the press: “The players are up for sale. This will be a horrible feeling for the players. But the survival of the club is important and maybe a new start is good for Worcester City.”

Snape hoped the players would still be paid by the club, a hint perhaps at the depth of the problems that they now face.

Meanwhile, at Gloucester City they have a stadium they can't use.

Meadow Park flooded 10 years ago, and was initially written off as a stadium site due to the cost of the rebuild, and the problems faced with potential future floods. New sites were sought but none were suitable so, eventually, the club focused their attention back to getting the rotting stadium rebuilt and safe from further flooding.

The Tigers have bounced around various grounds. Cirencester, Forest Green, and Cheltenham have all hosted them. Their next stop is outside Gloucestershire, much to the annoyance of supporters, with Evesham set to host for at least the next season as Cheltenham grow tired of their pitch being over used.

The problem now is similar to Worcester. Having had limited commercial income and a limited income, the club - or more accurately owner Eamon McGurk - is running out of money to get the stadium right having kept the club competitive in National North. In a lengthy local newspaper interview, McGurk blames bad past decisions on the club's current plight. Every crossroads in the club recent past seems to have seen the wrong choice made, from the decision to abandon Meadow Park to the moves around the County and even the selection of one potential Director over another.

McGurk admits he doesn't attend home games. He says he doesn't want to attend the matches while they're played at the grounds of other sides meaning he barely attends matches at all. Bizarrely, and unlike Worcester, their attendances have increased over their nomadic period by 45%, from 300 to this seasons 437, partly due to the increased away followings from sides like Stockport.

Both Worcester and Gloucester need help from people who have the reach to build new grounds but are currently not willing or able to assist.