Cod Almighty | Article
by Paul Thundercliffe
7 February 2020
The hardened drinkers Paul used to pull pints for would have been sceptical about a new ground at Freeman Street. After 20 years of dilly-dallying, perhaps we should be too
When I was a student I worked in a pub off Freeman Street. Serving mainly the inhabitants of the six tower blocks, The Mariners Rest was the place I came of age.
The Mariners was a pub's pub. No airs, no graces, no bog roll. For a sensitive lad coming to terms with adulthood, being barked at, sworn at, and intimidated would have been a decent grounding for any lower league linesman. It was a place where they called a spade a fucking bastard spade, got pissed off and pissed up in equal measure, and had a real penchant for the area's leading Rod Stewart act, Rodge Sings Rod.
Equidistant between my house and Blundell Park, we would often congregate on the way to a match in the late 1990s, often stopping off after the latest second flight game. One such meet-up saw us bedecked in Conoco red caps as the new millennium heralded the New Ground.
To be situated in Great Coates, the 20,000 seater stadium was going to revolutionise the area, bringing football and shopping to a little village conveniently close to the A180. Initially earmarked for a 2003-04 opening, Town were frustrated in their attempts to bring the project to fruition, mainly because the residents of the village were up in arms about it.
Undeterred, Fenty came again, promising 20,100 capacity, "with integral hotel, 1,300 space car and coach park and a 700 space Park-and-Ride facility, all subsidised by an enabling retail development." The ground, would be a "Gateway to Grimsby", as well as being able to:
- Guarantee the long-term viability of the football club, to the benefit of its employees and the town's image
- Create an estimated 350 full time and 250 part time jobs
- Have a synergy with Europarc by providing complementary uses such as hotel, restaurants and conference facilities
- Deliver a Park & Ride facility to enhance the vitality of the town centre by reducing congestion.
Now, as we know, Woolies or B&Q or someone looked into their crystal balls, saw the impending doom of the internet and the enabling facility was gone. So was the Conoco dream.
Those hardened drinkers of yesteryear would have poured scorn over the dilly-dallying, cock-waving and shit-shovelling that has adorned the past 20 years. They would have been nonplussed about the chances of anything occurring in their own back yard because, as they would say. "Until that fucking spade’s in the ground, I won't believe nowt."
Unperturbed, the feasibility study completed at around the same time as Town plummeted into non-league (thus rendering the idea of a new ground frankly ludicrous), named six potential sites. They were shortlisted by North East Lincolnshire Council following a survey carried out on the suitability of 16 sites by environmental consultants SLR: Peaks Parkway, Europarc, land next to Morrison’s supermarket in Laceby, Great Coates, Dockside and Freeman Street.
As we know, Peaks Parkway was chosen against all good common sense. The traffic alone would have been unequivocally horrendous. £350,000 spaffed up the wall and not even a Youngs' beanie hat to show for it.
A decade later, through seven managers, 236 players and the same hard core 3,500 fans, and the new potential home for the Mariners is, well, a stone's throw from The Mariners.
Those hardened drinkers of yesteryear would have poured scorn over the dilly-dallying, cock-waving and shit-shovelling that has adorned the past 20 years. Those men and women, battered by broken dreams since the erosion of the fishing industry that put food on their tables would have been nonplussed about the chances of anything occurring in their own back yard because, as they would say. "Until that fucking spade’s in the ground, I won't believe nowt."
I have to say I'm with them. Even with the neatest row of ducks, and all tyres kick-free, I still don't see it happening. There's too many egos and to my mind, and not really enough land. It may be an unpopular view but I don't really see what's wrong with Blundell Park. Call me an old romantic, a rose-tinted fool, but I still get that special feeling walking down the Grimsby Road. Whatever happens, that will never be replaced.