Why Latics must make the move

It’s the only way forward, insists Cardiff supremo

ATHLETIC’S plans to move to a new stadium have been backed by a leading figure in football.

Peter Ridsdale, chairman of Cardiff City, believes his club’s move to a new £50million ground has provided a lifeline and says Athletic will also benefit should they follow suit.

Of the 27,000-capacity Cardiff City Stadium, Mr Ridsdale said: “Without the new stadium we would have been a yo-yo club between the Championship and League One, but now we can hopefully push on and try to achieve Premier League status.

“Apart from being a lifeline for our club, the new stadium has revitalised the whole community and I can see the same thing happening to Oldham.

“I know Boundary Park well from my time at Leeds United and it is not dissimilar to Ninian Park in being an antiquated ground.

“We could not have generated the income streams we needed by staying at Ninian Park where there were no corporate hospitality facilities.

“And even if the the ground had become all-seater, the capacity would have been only 14,000.

“There is no way we could have commanded crowds of over 20,000 had we stayed at Ninian Park.”

Mr Ridsdale admitted it had been a long, hard battle to get the new stadium, but the effort had been worthwhile.

He said: “When I arrived in Cardiff in the summer of 2005, I was overwhelmed by the problems we faced.

“The debts were strangling the club and the stadium scheme was at best dormant. Radical action was required.

“We sold every player of value and then started the rebuilding programme. We had to buy smart in the transfer market, working on a tight budget.

“We managed to raise the money for the new ground which was placed in a sealed account to ensure it wasn’t used for other purposes.”

Mr Ridsdale believes it is vital to have stability and Cardiff’s Dave Jones is the longest-serving manager in the Championship, having been appointed in May, 2005.

The season before last he guided the Bluebirds to the final of the FA Cup and last season they just missed out on the play-offs.