Council deal with Latics kickstarts Boundary Park upgrade

OLDHAM Metropolitan Borough Council has signed an agreement with Oldham Athletic Football Club which it said secures the club’s future in the town as well as providing a range of new amenities.

Council officials have been working with the club in a bid to find a solution to its long term future after plans to move it to a new 15,000-seat community stadium in Failsworth were abandoned due to covenant problems governing part of the site.

However, a deal was agreed at an Oldham Council cabinet meeting yesterday evening (August 1) which involves the council buying the Lancaster club site in Failsworth on which the new ground was due to be built and providing a one-off grant to Oldham Athletic allowing it to redevelop Boundary Park to provide some of the community facilities.

Neither side would reveal any financial details of the deal, stating that negotiations were ongoing. However, Oldham Council Leader Cllr Jim McMahon said that it was a deal that needed to be done.

“The professional footbal club is of vital importance to the borough and we identified ending its decade of uncertainty as a key priority within our first 100 days in office. The choice is prettty simple – keep it or lose it. We are in no doubt that if we were ever to lose it, we would never get it back.”

He added: “The vast majority of the money we are handing over is a commercial arrangement,” he argued. “We are confident that it has a minimal effect on the bottom line of the council.

McMahon said that once the deal was completed, the council planned to appoint developers to bring forward a commercial scheme on the Failsworth site which would include a pub/restaurant, five-a-side pitches and other potential leisure uses.

“The council has seen better days in terms of its revenue and budget – there’s no doubt about that – but we still have money to invest in the things that are important for Oldham. And we believe that having a strong football club that is performing well is important for Oldham, and important for the town’s confidence.”

He added tghat the deal would also provide certainty to Failsworth residents who were worried about the potential impact that a new stadium would have in the area.

Simon Corney, managing director of Oldham Athletic Football Club, described the deal as “very welcome news after what has been a difficult and frustrating process for everyone”. He said that he hoped that redevelopment work within Boundary Park could begin within a year, but urged caution among the club’s supporters.

“This has involved complex arrangements with regard to the club and land ownerships and we do want to emphasise that we still have a long way to go,” he said.

“We now have a chance to genuinely redevelop the current ground, and, as part of the agreement, we have taken steps to implement this and secure the club’s future, which has always been our intention. For the first time I’m confident of paying more money into the football club aside from whatever we get from the council.”