Hull City Association Football Club may have to face up to the stark reality that the local authority is not willing to consider moving Hull Fair to allow a significant regeneration project of the area surrounding West Park.

For those who aren't aware, here's a quick bit of background which should help explain where we are...

Not for the first time in history, a current custodian of the city's elite football club wants to invest in the scrubland off Walton Street and develop a sports facility on what has become an eyesore.

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Aside from the weekly car boot and matchday car park, Walton Street is used primarily for the travelling fair which runs for a week in October each year, and takes a week on either side for setting up and taking down. Essentially, the land off Walton Street lies largely derelict for 49 weeks a year, and frankly, looks a state.

City's owner Acun Ilicali, is keen to regenerate the area by creating a sports centre that would accommodate the club's academy which is currently operating out of Bishop Burton College, while there was an initial plan to also house the first team training ground outside the MKM Stadium, which is currently based in Cottingham.

Plans were revealed this time 12 months ago, and generated plenty of discussion but at the 1904 Club live podcast show on Friday night, vice-chairman Tan Kesler offered the latest progress on the situation, well, more to the point, a distinct lack of progress. The frustration - and annoyance - was evident in what he said, and the very downbeat tone.

Mike Ross, leader of the council obviously read the story and decided to respond on Twitter, suggesting the key protagonists get around a table once more, so, we'll see how that one plays out.

But the reality of the piece is quite straightforward, certainly from this particular vantage point. Hull Fair has for so long been a political hot potato that no administration wants to deal with it. The council (whoever happens to be in power at any given point) is beholden to the Showman's Guild. They - the Showman's Guild - have a covenant on the land which protects them and the Fair, and quite understandably, they have no intention of moving (if you were them, you wouldn't want to move from that site either).

The council might dance around, offer meetings and play a tune in public, but the reality is they're powerless. They do not have the means to move the Fair to another location, and they do not have any money to be able to help Hull City build a venue that would regenerate a piece of wasteland and help the community thrive, so we've reached a deadlock. Again.

So Hull City are likely to be left with one reasonable outcome unless the council can allocate some space within the MKM Stadium area and look at reconfiguring the space for Hull Fair. And that would appear to be to admit that this project, despite a significant amount of work, desire and willingness to make it happen, just cannot get off the ground in its present location, and look elsewhere, away from Walton Street where there is a little less drama and considerably less red tape.

That said, trying to build anything that improves this country is nigh on impossible and makes you want to repeatedly bang your head against a brick wall in frustration, but Hull is not alone in that.

The football club have big ambitions. They want to be a Premier League club once again, and not only do they want promotion back to the top flight, they want to sustain it and thrive at that level, and to do that, they need better facilities.

Ilicali and vice-chairman Tan Kesler inherited a club woefully underdeveloped in terms of its training facilities and infrastructure when they took the club over in January 2022, and they should be afforded the necessary support to help the club and in turn, the city thrive. Their ambitions should be heralded, applauded and embraced. Just because things have operated a particular way for donkeys years, doesn't mean that should be the case forever more.