Boundary Park sale completed
More letters

It means that the club will lease back the ground, including all the surrounding land, car parks and practice pitch, and manage it on the same basis as usual. Hiretarget is the joint-venture company between Oldham Council and Brookhouse Properties involved in building the proposed Sports Park 2000. Athletic chairman Mr David Brierley, council leader Councillor John Battye and the Director of Economic Development, Mr Keith Coates, have all welcomed the sale. Mr Brierley, who this week headed a boardroom move to become majority shareholders in Oldham Athletic, said the sale and lease arrangement allowed the club to clear its crippling £2 million debt. He added: "The club will now be able to turn its attentions to planning for its future, both on and off the field. 

"Central to these plans will be the move to a new stadium, and I look forward to continuing to work with everyone involved to achieve this aim. "The sale agreement includes safeguards, so that if a new stadium is not built, the club has the option to buy back Boundary Park at the sale price, or extend the lease agreement at the end of five years." Councillor Battye described the sale as a positive step. He said: "It helps to strengthen the financial position and allows the club's management to continue to work with us towards building a new sports stadium fit for the 21st century." And Mr Coates said the formation of a new company would see the plans move on. 

He added that agreement in principle has been given to the framework for a new stadium company, which could be formed soon, with three directors of the council and three from Oldham Athletic, despite uncertainty over the future of the plans. Mr Coates said: "Although a decision from the Charity Commission about the use of Clayton playing fields for the new stadium, in exchange for the Boundary Park site, is not expected until the new year, this will not hold up on-going planning, which will apply wherever the stadium is built." 

I read your comments in the Zine with interest and felt compelled to reply. I think you'd be surprised how much common ground there is between your position and mine.  However, one of the major problems we have had is getting our points across and accurately reported in the local press. Unfortunately - a lot of the time - they are mainly interested in soundbytes, sensationalist quotes and hyping someone's position into something that it ain't.  You can spend twenty or thirty minutes talking to these people putting a particular line across to them, only to see one throwaway line printed and quoted totally out of context.  I am sure David
Brierley comes across similar problems himself.

I agree with you that Brierley, Chadwick and Taylor's purchase of the shares is a far better scenario than the one that had J W Lees at Helm.  As I said on GMR last night, I am not Anti-Brierley - more Pro-Club and Pro-Investment.  I fully understand the argument that the latest move brings stability to the Club and wouldn't particularly argue with it at all.  However, I do have still have some pressing concerns...

- The investment climate at the club remains undeniably poor and is no better than it has been since 1974.

- The boardroom remains a closed shop consisting of an octogenarian and others in their late 50's and 60's.  Without wanting to sound ageist I have to wonder where the fresh ideas and internal dynamism to move the club into the new Millennium is coming from.   A multitude of mistakes have been made
by these people - and I certainly don't want to dwell on them - but isn't it time we looked forward and brought at least one or two people in with
fresh ideas, business acumen and experience of running a forward-looking business in the wholly different climate of the 90's?  New faces are
needed. What harm would it do to shake things up a bit?  It would certainly send the right signals out to the fans that this IS a new regime and not
just a continuation of what came before.

- The lack of consultation and dialogue with supporters.  There seems to be an all-consuming paranoia when anyone asks questions of the Club to clarify points.  Our recent open letter has provoked an angry response from Alan Hardy, yet John Battye and Keith Coates - the leading Council figures in the plans - have warmed to our approach and suggested (quite correctly) that we have an open meeting that all fans can attend to discuss the matters raised and allay fears. We have asked for re-assurance on a few points and given a guarantee that - if these can be satisfied (shouldn't be too hard given their existing business plans etc. we will fully and publicly support the plans and back them.

- It is hard to see fans flooding back to Boundary Park in droves with statements like 'not a penny more' being wheeled out.  We want to hear something a bit different.  We would like to see plans to take the Club forward, plans for a Youth Academy, plans to raise the Club's profile again in the local community etc.  Let's accentuate the positive - what the Board are actually GOING to do - as opposed to the bad news about what they are NOT going to do.

I agree with you wholeheartedly that in Ritchie we have an absolute potential gem and should back him 100%.  That has been the whole point behind so much of what we have done; to attain a situation where the club is advancing, free of J W Lees with a tangible forward-facing strategy in place and (most importantly of all) with the fans being taken along with the board's plans, rather than dragged as accessories and kept constantly in the dark about developments.

As a final point you mentioned that you didn't see my name amongst the list of potential buyers.  Well, I have checked my bank account this morning and found that I have just £30 to last me until the end of the week.  Guess where I'll be spending it all on Sunday?  On my paltry income I could never hope to afford to invest funds in Athletic without a windfall lottery win. You are, however, wrong in your assertion that "Carl has more sense than waste money on investment into a football club!" - the truth is that if I had that sort of cash me and the wife would be falling out very quickly over my plans for it!

Cheers

Carl From The Chairman of The Latics Supporters Club of Canada Much has been said about the noise from the visiting supporters in the Rochdale Road End at Boundary Park, and many have suggested that it would be better for Latics fans to abandon the Chaddy End and therefore create a better atmosphere for the players and club.

Now you have the chance to air your views on the subject. The LSC, Canada is holding a survey to collect opinions about the possibility of moving ends. It sounds a drastic move, but in reality the atmosphere of the old standing Chaddy is not the same as the new all seater Chaddy. Your views will be collated, put on view on the website and finally the findings will be submitted to the club.

Visit http://www.oocities.org/Colosseum/Stadium/4377/chaddy.html register your vote now.

The Chairman