Source: Bournemouth_Echo
Cherries: Dean Court facelift taking shape
Cherries supporters will be treated to their first glimpse of a spruced-up Dean Court for tomorrow's visit of Spurs with chairman Eddie Mitchell promising further improvements to come. The stadium and its surroundings have undergone a major revamp during the close season with Mitchell keen for the venue to start yielding more non-matchday revenue. Mitchell, a successful Dorset-based developer, believes Dean Court was terribly under-utilised by previous regimes and has overseen the improvements in a bid to generate extra income. They include extensive redecoration to many areas of the stadium, refitting the supporters' bar on the middle floor, putting in balcony seating for around 40 in one of the restaurants and work to the car park. A temporary stand at the south end, sponsored by Seward, has been erected, while a new club shop, with its own clothing brand, is due to open next week. Mitchell also has plans to open a Starbucks coffee shop franchise in the Cherry Tree bar. Mitchell told the Daily Echo: We are re-investing, which is what the club needs. It needs to generate more people coming through and we are starting to see this. We are also hoping to put our plans in for the south stand land in the next two weeks. We are working hard on the building. We are probably going to need extra revenue to keep the challenge going in this division next season. If we don't invest in the stadium over the next five years then parts of it are going to be beyond investment and would probably need renewing. Mitchell added: We are going to start opening the Champions' Restaurant on the top floor on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday lunchtimes. I would like to think we could be competitive with the other restaurants in town. We are launching our own clothing range called Enzi and all profits will go to the football club. It is another source of income and we are using the valuable space we have got. Our next port of call will be the Cherry Tree bar which we want to turn into a Starbucks. They have offered us a franchise, which we would hope to get up and running in the next six months. It would open every day and should be popular. Mitchell, meanwhile, confirmed the club had sold around 2,600 season tickets and said he hoped the figure would increase to more than 3,000 by the start of August. He also said tickets for Cherries' pre-season friendlies were selling reasonably well, with more than 6,200 for Spurs, 1,600 for Portsmouth, 1,900 for Fulham and 1,300 for Derby snapped up. Mitchell said: People have seen a lot of football this summer with the World Cup so the figures are pleasing. On average, they are similar to last season.