Staying put!

UNHAPPY RETURNS: Latics will continue to play at Boundary Park next season

Latics to play at Boundary Park next season
ATHLETIC are STAYING at Boundary Park for next season, the club have confirmed.

Bury’s Gigg Lane ground stood out as the main ground-share candidate in the event of Athletic departing their deteriorating home of 115 years, but with time running out — the 2011-12 campaign starts on Saturday, August 6 — the decision has been made to stay put.

“We looked at other options but at this stage, it would have been difficult to be accommodated at other sites,” chief executive Alan Hardy told the Chronicle today.

However, the club have stopped short of saying that Boundary Park will provide a home beyond next season as talks with the Council continue in a bid to find a site for a new stadium to be built.

A planned move to a new complex in Failsworth fell by the wayside two months ago and angry Athletic chairman Simon Corney declared he was considering moving the club out of the borough altogether.

Hardy also said he wasn’t aware of any plan, mentioned as a possibility by chairman Simon Corney in an interview last week, to build a brand new stand on the Broadway side of the ground in line with the stalled plans of 2007.

Meanwhile, Athletic have announced new match categories for next season in a bid to bring in extra revenue from well-supported visiting clubs.

The lowest price for an adult ticket for an ‘A’ class fixture is £22, for ‘B’ games £17 and ‘C’ matches £14.

Corresponding prices for under-16s and senior citizens are £11, £9 and £7 respectively. Around a third of the fixtures will fall into each category.

The hope is that the across-the-board increases for the higher-profile games will help boost revenue through the turnstiles from away fans, with the decreased cost of other matches encouraging more home supporters to come along.

Season tickets for 2011-12 are on sale from today.

The base price of season tickets is the same as the current campaign — unchanged since 2007-08 — with fans able to take advantage at discounted prices up to May 19.

“We hope fans will purchase season tickets early which will help tremendously with cash flow,” said Hardy.