Groundsharers at the OSD?

[jackgg]

This is presumably a decision for the OSD Ground Trust to make on financial grounds (i.e. if it's a good source of revenue then we may not have a choice) but interested what fans think.

Guessing by the time we move in we'll have at least 2, maybe 3 11-a-side teams (M1T, W1T, W2T?) plus Young Tons, 5s... will we even have room for another team? And as we know the pitch historically hasn't been great (although I'm sure OSDGT Grounds Maintenance group will work wonders), should we be keeping it in as good nick as possible by not having someone else on it? Could mean it can be used for more one-off community events too?

There is a shortage of Step 5/6 grounds (assuming the OSD is going to be one of those grades, I don't know what's planned) with space for sharing in the area, as we know from APSA & Zombie Clapton having to play at Terry Mac which isn't Step 5 apparently. Just off the top of my head I assume London Bari (now renamed Hackney Wick), Sporting Hackney (if they want to progress), West Essex (I think Hashtag are sharing with Barking now), Woodford Town 2017 (although iirc they are trying to get a ground of their own in Woodford), Lopes Tavares, would probably all be interested.

Is there another Newham-based team with good community links? Iirc the aims of the ground are that it's used for the good of the local community etc.

Of course all this may change if/when we get a plastic pitch but 1 thing at a time...

[dowdinsk]

OSD Grounds Committee cap at a jaunty rake I'll just say this to start to convo off, it'd be disadvantageous to entertain a groundshare with a team in a higher league, so all mentioned so far furgeddabouddit, to put it at its simplest.
And yeah, take on a lower level groundshare and fork out for training spaces elsewhere, you'd need to present a sound economic case for that.

[Bradfordpaul]

Unless it's on a municpal ground (ie, owned by an independent third party), ground sharing
is a no-no in my book. With a few exceptions it leads to the dominant club (possibly the
one that flogged their ground to pay off debts) moving in on a struggling neighbour who
need the groundshare to pay off debts. The result is often merger, and (after a splurge
with the proceeds of a ground sale) bankruptcy. If you think I'm joking, see the brief history
of Hinckley United and certain other clubs closer to home.

[ClaptonE9]

I don't think we need to groundshare and I would be concerned at the damage to the pitch and additional 20 or so games would give. I have been checking on with other groundspeople and there is a spread of ideal numbers of games a season from 30 to about 50. 30 isn't enough for M1 and W1 basically but 50 gives us M1, W1 plus some of the development and friendlies and schools finals etc etc. No training. You add in another team you'd be playing Saturdays AND Sundays and when it's wet that kills the pitch. And we are privileged that we probably don't need the money. Re being a community asset, if we did not have womens, youth and development and did not want to have schools play finals then maybe that makes sense but we will have all of the above. Glyn