Tom Piatak says his family’s vision is for a modernised Brunton Park that is packed with 15,000 fans on a regular basis.
Carlisle United’s owners are investing millions in the stadium this summer with major improvements to stands and other facilities.
Piatak is hopeful that the huge work will be completed in time for the start of the 2024/25 campaign.
And he says the significant financial outlay on United’s traditional home is designed to set the stage for major growth on and off the field.
“We want this to be a facility that's handling 15,000 every matchday,” Piatak says.
“We want this to be a facility where the opposing team does not want to come up here and play – but when they do come up here, they're looking around saying, ‘Wow, how'd they do this? How did they get this kind of support?’
“The support's here with the fan base, no doubt about it. It was well worth the investment, but the investment is a little bit ‘build it and they will come’.
“We believe in that, and so far the early signs are that it's occurring.”
This has been reflected in the immediate and strong interest in some of the new facilities being created in the East Stand, such as new executive boxes – all of which were quick to sell out.
New lounges, classrooms and boardroom facilities are also part of the East Stand revamp, while the Warwick Road End is receiving a new disabled area and fan zones.
The main stand sees new changing rooms as part of the summer’s renovations while the Neil Sports Centre has also been refurbished.
Brunton Park has been a hive of work practically every day since the 2023/24 season finished. Piatak and his wife and fellow United owner Patty returned to Carlisle from Jacksonville, Florida, last week and were able to assess the progress of things.
“The work has been in line with what our expectations were and I did not expect anything less,” he says.
“Story Contracting and McKnight & Sons have been doing a phenomenal job, a professional job and it's been refreshing to have them there because I know we can count on them.
“The magnitude of it is what is difficult to comprehend [when we are observing it from] back in the States. Walking through the East Stand, it's just amazing.
“We started on the skybox level and it's just absolutely beautiful and bigger than we originally thought. But then as you move down to floor two, it’s unbelievable what's going on there. It's going to be absolutely beautiful.
“I was over at the administrative offices today and just hearing all the banging and the holes going through the walls…it's exciting. But what they're doing is what we envisioned, what we asked them to do. It's very professional and they're doing a fantastic job.”
The Piataks are planners but Tom snr says certain aspects of the ground’s transformation have surprised him. “It may be a small piece but probably one that I think we're almost most proud of is the Neil Centre,” he says.
“It's a beautiful facility where we could have said, ‘Okay, let's leave it, let's not do anything’. But we said, ‘No, let's remodel it because it gets used so much’.
“Being able to move the academy staff up there in those offices, I guess that's been that little surprise where you come in and go, ‘Okay – that exceeded our expectations’. We're very, very happy with that.
“And to hear the academy staff and personnel say, ‘Thank you – you don't know how much this changed our day-to-day work and what we're doing’…that right there is rewarding itself to us.”
United have until August 13 – the date of their first home game of 2024/25 against Stoke City in the Carabao Cup first round – if they want all the ongoing work to be wrapped up in time for Brunton Park’s first ball of the new campaign to be kicked.
Is this a realistic aim, with a month to go?
“There are still some variables that are out there. When you're doing a project of this magnitude, there are always certain things that you didn't expect that you see surface,” Piatak says.
“We have to deal with [those] and move on. Much like logistics [the Piataks’ main business in Florida], you never know what's coming at any single day, but you just have to react to it, understand the situation, gather the facts, make the best decision.
“I'm optimistic that we can get this done. We still have four weeks. So it's going to be a very, very tight timeline. There could be some surprises. It's still a working project.
“But if you ever built a home or something, it seems like as you're moving through it and thinking, ‘We're never going to get this done’. And then at the very end, so many things come together and you’re like, ‘How the heck did all that get done so quickly?’
“So we will see. We will react to wherever we're at. Hopefully it gets done, but if it's not, we will react accordingly and plan accordingly to make sure that we can get everybody in here and then continue to work.
“We're very close, though, I will tell you. So it's kind of a coin toss as to whether we're going to hit that date.”
Nigel Clibbens, the United chief executive, recently said the money being ploughed into the revamp of Brunton Park this summer was likely to be upwards of £5m – an estimate endorsed by Piatak.
“That is the level that we're talking about,” he says. “That's accurate right now, from my understanding. And that's pretty much what we plan for. That’s talking about everything at Brunton Park, not just the East Stand.”
It is a major and landmark level of investment in United’s ground. Asked about the returns they hope to see from this, Piatak says: “The ROI [return on investment] is going to be there in the satisfaction of seeing the supporters and everybody enjoying a phenomenal match day, day in and day out for the next ten seasons to come.
“Now I'll put my business hat on. Yes, it's important to get an ROI out there and I think that's doable. We're already seeing that. The boxes [in the East Stand] sold out in two days. That was just unbelievable support.
“In fact, I've been out with customers and there's demand for more. But I certainly think that if you look at the increased revenues and the increased incomes that will be coming from some of the things that we've done here, that will probably provide the ROI that's necessary.
“It won't be unbelievable return on investment, but again, the satisfaction of the supporters, the fans, just seeing the families come out here with their children and enjoying that…I think that's where, as a family, we probably get a great deal of satisfaction that's non-monetary.”
The Piataks, with their businesses back home, are used to operating on a significant scale, yet the Brunton Park overhaul tops everything they have executed in the USA.
“What we're doing here, in terms of the west side with the dressing rooms, the Warwick End, the East Stand, when you put all that together and the Neil Centre, it's by far and away the largest project we've done,” Tom snr says.
“To give you something comparable, when we moved into our current headquarters building [at Magellan Transport Logistics], it was a 47,000 square foot [site] that needed a complete remodel – from plumbing, wiring, everything up.
“So that was probably a $3-3.5m project. So this is slightly bigger. Patty and I are accustomed to how the process is going on. We have experience, but this, to be fair, is the largest one that we've done in any of our businesses.”
The clear need is for United, in all areas – most importantly on the pitch – to vindicate this work, and for the public’s response to remain as enthusiastic as it currently seems…and for that to grow, too.
“[The response so far] certainly validates what we are doing, what our plans are,” Piatak says.
“Collectively, as a family, we chose Carlisle because we saw the commercial upside. We saw it's the biggest brand in 60 miles. So we certainly saw that coming.
“It's important that everybody understands whether you're buying a match day ticket, whether you're buying a table at hospitality, a skybox, or any type of sponsorship, every little bit that you can do helps offset the bigger expense.
“So, yes, we've put a huge investment in this project. We hope – and it's been validated so far on the East Stand side with the hospitality – that that will continue. But I will say that, [above all], it's the community's club, and the community needs to continue to come out and support it.”
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