22/05/2014
Evening Warriors,
As you all know The Stan has been part of Op-Tac for the last 5 years, however last year saw some changes when the landlord had problems with the mortgage company.
Whilst Martin and I ran the site we always paid our rent on time but unfortunately this didn't stop what happened from happening.
Once the landlord regained access to The Stan, Martin and I had a meeting with the landlord regarding new terms but the landlord wanted too much in every term.
We had lost access to the outside as a new company were/are using it - an MOT testing station, the venue had taken a beating whilst Martin and I were not in the building and Planning had confirmed that we could only use the venue under the 28 day rule as there are refugees who live close by and they had made complaints about noise on event days. Planning had also confirmed that they would block any change of use to the building, so it was 28 days max or nothing.
After the meeting I agreed to carry on with The Stan, however Martin didn't so we both moved on - Martin with Tac House and me with Op-Tac - and we remained friends.
When The Stan reopened I ran the first few events, we cleaned everywhere, made safe what others had damaged, put new covers up and above all I looked for a new site operator to run The Stan ..... LilJohn took on this role, he worked on looking after the site and running event days and even though I knew he was out of his depth, his willingness to work made up for it and as a friend, I thought I could help him out.
Op-Tac then teamed up with ZX, allowing them to use the site for their zombie events. After a short while, we had some problems regarding payments from ZX and at the same time problems with the landlord wanting more rent.
In the end ZX went to the landlord direct and John left Op-Tac in a very underhand way about a month ago, I found out that he'd set up a retail company and was working for ZX behind our backs.
The Stan itself has always taken a lot of work to look after and keep clean, however over the years with a lack of security, it's become even harder to keep dry with more and more windows being broken weekly and leaks on most roofs. There are walls that have started to show signs of water irrigation, bowing in places.
At the present time, H&S have put an order on the building stopping any more games at the site until the issues are dealt with and so I have decided to step away as personally Op-Tac feel the site is no longer safe to operate from, even with a large investment, the health risks are just not worth it. Sadly The Stan has had it's day and it will never play the same as it used to.
Op-Tac are moving on to bigger and better pastures with less risk to our customers!!!
Thank you to everyone for all the years of fun we have had in Sheffield, I will miss you all, but I'm sure you've not seen the last of us!!!!!
