The hidden costs of the football ground

In Monday's Bristol Evening Post there was an article with the title "Talking sport: Who is picking up the tab?" This was an unsual article because it actually described in some detail the state of seige that the area around the Memorial Stadium goes through due to the necessary police presence surrounding matches. It even likened the situation to Apocalypse Now with the police helicopter hovering over the residential rooftops all afternoon in the leadup to and aftermath of the match. Although big disturbances are often reported, all the minor problems occuring on most match days are totally ignored by the police and the press week after week.

But the article also raised the important question of the cost of such matches. Primarily the journalist was asking about the direct costs of the policing, but since the article also mentioned shops on Gloucester Road quickly shutting their doors and putting up closed signs as the crowds poured down the street, it at least alluded to the cost to local businesses and also to the impacts on the lives of people living near the Memorial Ground.

The article did not answer the question of cost but HorfieldROSE had already obtained details of policing costs for past seasons.

During the 05/06 season, the total policing cost was £41,204 of which Rover's paid £14,644 meaning the tax payer picked up the £26,560 remainder.

During the 06/07 season, the total policing cost was £97,988 of which Rover's paid £30,237 meaning the tax payer picked up the £67,751 remainder.

The police can only charge Bristol Rovers for policing activities within the Memorial Grounds and not for activities on the public streets. A third of police funding comes from council tax, nearly a quarter comes from business rates and the remainder comes from central government (income tax, VAT and corporation tax). So one way or another it is the people of Bristol who pick up this policing tab and it is not inconsequential.

But police costs are not Rover's only drain on the council money. Planning applications incur a fee which is calculated on the size of the project and goes towards the administrative costs of processing the application. In high profile applications like the stadium, the costs are likely to be higher than the actual fee due to the increased public interest and interaction. The application fee is entirely separate to the S106 conditions which are things the developer must pay for during or after the actual development to help alleviate impacts of the development on the local area.

The fee for the stadium application in 2006 (06/03850/F ) was just shy of £50,000. It was therefore quite surprising to discover that the council waived the application fee entirely for the application in 2008 (08/00061/F).

It makes sense to put these numbers in context with some of the other figures connected with the stadium development. The S106 agreement is a standard part of granting planning permission and requires the developers to make contributions to local facilities in recognition of the commercial benefit that a planning permission gives them. In Bristol Rover's case the S106 requires the following contributions:

• £100,000 for the set up and running of the residents parking zone, this money would be paid to Bristol City Council.
  
• Up to £50,000 for public artworks. The council may allocate some of this to improve the look of the scheme and the rest to projects elsewhere.
  
• £30,000 towards two bus shelters, raised kerbs and information boards at stops in Filton Avenue to encourage fans and residents to use buses.
  
• £10,000 towards traffic regulation changes to improve road safety.
  
• £10,000 for pedestrian facilities.
  
• £7,450 to the council to make sure the club meets its obligations.
  
• £5,000 to improve traffic flow and minimise congestion in and around Filton Avenue, Gloucester Road and Muller Road.
  

In total that is just over £200,000, so the waiver of a substantial application fee negates a fair proportion of that. And an annual average policing costs of around £50,000 (and probably higher for a larger stadium) also seems to reduce the overall benefits the stadium offers the city and its citizens.

To put the numbers further into context, remember that this is a £35 million project of which about half will go towards the stadium facilities and the other half to build the student accommodation, hotel, restaurant/conference facilities, office space and other commercial aspects of the development. The stadium land is the companies biggest asset and like all other businesses it is keen to maximise the returns it can get from it, no one blames them for that. But what is unfair is for a business to effectively get subsidies from the public purse via waiver of fees or additional support such as the value of the policing. Not to mention the fact that no developer, other than a football "club", would have been given permission for these sorts of developments in this area and on that site.

Bristol Rovers have already spent at least one and a half million on the project. Just to secure all of the land rights associated with the houses that were bought by Rover's directors to smooth the application process cost £700,000 as explained in an article last May.

HOW ROVERS PAID UP IN STADIUM BID BY TORBEN LEE T.LEE

07:00 - 02 May 2008

More than £700,000 was paid to former directors of Bristol Rovers to smooth the way for the new-look Memorial Stadium.

The figures have been revealed by the club to shareholders who wanted to know the reason for a 12-month delay over a planning agreement.

Add to this architects fees over several years, consultation fees, application fees, the application agents PRS, salary for Bill Smith during his time as CEO and so on. Football, even in the lower leagues, is still big business. As the article asks "Who is picking up the tab?"

Following are some excerpts from the article referred to above:

Around 5.30pm on Saturday you'd have thought a royal visitor was making their way through Horfield and Bishopston.
Above the shops on Gloucester Road people were leaning out of windows to get a better look at what was heading their way, hemmed in by a cordon of yellow-jacketed police and flashing blue lights.

At street level the riot squad were ushering pockets of Bristol Rovers fans towards the city centre, despite the reluctance of some of them to move. Overhead the helicopter that had spent most of the afternoon above BS7 was adding a bit of Apocalypse Now to proceedings.

Then they came, marching on together, as the song goes. Around 25 Leeds fans who had clearly been earmarked as wrong 'uns, and in need of a special escort. Down the road they went, ringed by the forces of the law, and followed by three police vans, with others racing ahead to make sure each potential flashpoint site was cleared.

Unless you live near a stadium most people may be largely unaware of the transformation the area goes through when there is a match. On top of the police presence described above, there is also a traffic jam on all of the roads that is as bad or worse than normal rush hour traffic, cars parked everywhere making roads narrower and floods of people moving to or from the stadium ground. The article then gives a bit of context:

Gloucester Road is, essentially, a thriving high street, where traditional Bristol meets the 21st Century. Hardware stores and greengrocers rub shoulders with wine bars and delicatessens, hardened cider drinkers wait at the bar alongside people wanting skinny lattes.

Most of the football season, it's untouched by the sort of police presence we saw on Saturday, but for certain fixtures - Swansea City, Swindon Town, etc - the place has a more sinister feel.

But even when the police presence is lower than on the matches where trouble is more likely, there is always a police presence, and the traffic and crowds are factors at every match. Spirits are usually high, due to excitement for the sport alone but often with the aid of a few beers. Because there often is trouble at matches, it makes all matches feel dangerous, and residents retreat into their houses and lock themselves away for the duration or make plans to be out all day.

But because fixtures occur on a somewhat irregular schedule, it is easy to be caught by surprise, forgetting there was a match this Saturday or this Tuesday and especially for people who may come into the area less regularly. Lib Dem councillor for Bishopston, Bev Knott said (in a separate article):

People going about their everyday business on a Saturday afternoon should not have to rub shoulders with football fans intent on causing trouble.

There was a heavy police presence, but shoppers with children shouldn't be put in a position where they run the risk of being caught up with fans. I believe the police got it wrong on Saturday.

Residents who have nothing to do with football should not be made to feel intimidated by groups of football supporters and I, on behalf of residents who live in the area, want to know what the police are going to do to prevent it happening in the future.

It is hard to know what the police could do differently because the Memorial Ground is in the middle of a residential area with the Gloucester Road being the most direct route to Bristol Temple Meads which is over three miles south of the stadium. The police have also been working to improve traffic flows and have been experimenting with different methods of crowd control (such as allowing fans out of the grounds in batches rather than a single flood). But whatever the police do it is going to be difficult to prevent stadium crowds having an adverse effect on the local community and businesses.

Then the article made some observations and asked some questions:

Two things struck me as the curious convoy of fans, police and police vans went past the busy shops and bars of the stretch of road between the Bristol Flyer pub and Zetland Road.

Firstly, several shopkeepers took one look at what was going past and flipped the signs in their doors from 'open' to 'closed'. Secondly, the ones that didn't retreat stood in the doorways to watch the passing spectacle and shake their heads.

One asked a passing officer how much overtime he was on. Good question, but I've got a better one - who is picking up the bill?