Latics bursting with potential

Stories by MATTHEW CHAMBERS
RICHARD Taylor is determined to fulfil what had threatened to become a lost vision of a fully-functioning home for Athletic.

Nine years ago, as a 21-year-old fresh from graduating at Oxford with a history degree, the club’s newest board member was heavily involved in an ambitious £80million plan to regenerate the old Boundary Park.

A host of tie-ups had already been agreed as Taylor hit the phone lines in the commercial department, aiming to underpin the grand plans with hard cash from businesses.

But after 18 months of graft, the dream faded into nothing as the economy collapsed and Athletic gradually slumped into the doldrums.

From then until now, Taylor — who grew up on Moorside, a season ticket holder at Athletic from the age of three — reckons that more than half of professional clubs have undertaken some form of stadium redevelopment.

Athletic’s main contribution, until recently, was to level the old Lookers Stand.

With the bare bones of the new North Stand now up, though, Taylor is back and ready to finally help give Athletic a leg-up to the next level.

In a morning meet in the lounge of SportsDirect.com Park, Taylor (30) emphasised his desire to bring on board local firms.

With the North Stand on the way to completion he is keen that the town as a whole attaches itself with conviction to a club he believes can soon, finally, set off on a forward march.

“In quite a few ways the place hasn’t changed a lot since I was last here,” said Taylor, whose business background includes time served working for Deloitte’s sports business group and as director of a burgeoning London law firm.

“Simon (Corney) has been here for the last decade and quite a few of the staff are the same.

“The major change is the new stand, which started to go up at the end of last season, coinciding with a run of really good results on the pitch as well.

“I think you can see the football management staff now taking great strides off the pitch, too. There is a very scientific approach to the analysis and work that goes in before games.”

Clearly a fan of Johnson’s methodology, Taylor believes that with the salary cap controls in place across the division the only way more funds can be assigned to the manager is through off-field innovation.

“At the moment, the club as a revenue source is active for around 50 hours a year,” said Taylor. “That is, 23 league games and a couple in the cups.

“We can’t realistically expect promotion with the way it is. It houses the staff but that apart, it is a complete dead weight.

“The only way we can take that step forward as a club is to make it a business.

“The sponsorship deal with Sports Direct is another huge step forward.

“As well as associating ourselves with such a huge brand and giving ourselves financial security over the next five years, with the financial fair play regulations in place it is vital that there is a flow of revenue off the pitch to get a competitive team on it.

“A combination of the deal, and the stand which will generate revenue, certainly puts us in a much stronger place than we were 18 months ago.”

The North Stand will, upon completion, house around 2,500 fans and feature executive boxes, large-scale conferencing facilities and a gym as well as a new 2,000 sq ft Sports Direct store on the ground floor.