Playing savvy, on and off the pitch

Ken Bates when he was Leeds chairman

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NEARLY half a century after his resignation as Athletic’s chairman, Ken Bates believes the club is right to be following a commercially-minded path.

Speaking exclusively to the the Chronicle from his Monaco home, Mr Bates (83), who took over the club in December 1965, argued it has never been sufficient to rely on match days for income.

Athletic’s new North Stand is due to open in time for next season, current chairman Simon Corney again asserted this week. Within it will be offices, a gym, shops and conference and banqueting facilities, creating a year-round operation to provide income for the club.

Bates was a pioneer of the executive matchday experience while at Athletic - “I was told they would never sell, yet we had a waiting list after a month” — and believes clubs offering no opportunities for local people to hand over money on non-matchdays are missing out.

“Could a local newspaper print 25 copies a year and make a profit? Of course not,” Bates said.

“The expectation is that football can do so and it is ridiculous. We wanted to exploit the facilities for the other 340 days a year. Apart from wages, almost everything else is all paid for anyway, so why not use it?”

Bates resigned from Athletic’s board four years after taking over and having spent £85,000 in a bid to get Athletic into the first division.

His association with the town - which started through a local business interest - faded as he spent more time in the British Virgin Isles.

Looking back, he says the town’s niche made the club an attractive investment proposition for a man as football-mad as he was: “I was in business in Lancashire and I had my first ready-mix concrete plant on Chadderton Road,” Bates added.

“What struck me was that Oldham always had the chance of being an individual club. Oldham had its own newspaper, it was a biggish ground and there was plenty of land around it. I always thought there was a chance of doing something and wanted to give it a go.

“I was potty about the game. Oldham was trying to raise £10,000 and that’s where I came in. I applied ordinary business principles to football clubs.”

As well as being more commercially savvy, the former Chelsea and Leeds chairman believes clubs lower down the food chain would be better served by today’s young players ignoring advances from some of the country’s big clubs. The danger of being lost in the system is great, Bates argues.

He points to the examples of ex-Leeds duo Michael Woods and Tom Taiwo, who left for Chelsea eight years ago amid a legal wrangle which ended in a settlement worth £4.5 million.

“So many young players go to Chelsea, United, City or other clubs when they would have a better chance elsewhere,” Bates added. “Chelsea stole Leeds lads. Right now one is at Falkirk (Taiwo) and the other at Hartlepool (Woods).

“There are five academy products in the Leeds team right now which shows the benefit of staying. Chelsea spent £4.5million on players who were never given a chance.

“At Oldham, Leeds, Chelsea and Wigan, my policy, as soon as we knew we weren’t going to be promoted or relegated, was to give the kids experience, to find out how good they are.”

In typically forthright style, he railed at the failure of foreign owners to improve the fortunes of the England national team.

“More money should be going on developing young players,” Bates added, “but so many of the foreign owners don’t give a damn about producing players for the England team.”

Part two of the Ken Bates interview in next week’s Chronicle.