Crunch! Stadium plans put on hold

OLDHAM Athletic’s £80 million stadium redevelopment has ground to a halt — the latest victim of the credit crunch.

Latics bosses have blamed the delay in gaining planning permission and the collapse of the housing market for being unable to find a developer to push forward the ambitious plans.

Following the demolition of the New Start Mortgages Stand in the close season, it leaves Boundary Park with three stands and a reduced capacity of 10,800.

The club needs to sell land on its 23-acre site to developers for flats and housing to finance building a new main stand, but has had to put the scheme on hold until the housing market recovers from the current doldrums.

The club initially submitted a planning application in March, 2007, and had hoped for a decision from Oldham Council within three months.

But neighbouring homeowners, fearful of the impact hundreds of new properties could bring, formed a protest group to oppose the plans.

Oldham Council initially rejected the proposals last November, sparking protest marches from Latics fans furious that the future of the club was in jeopardy.

Permission for a revised application — for a 16,000 capacity, all-seater stadium complete with hospitality boxes, conferencing, catering and restaurant facilities and 693 flats — was then granted last December.

Latics chief executive Alan Hardy said: “The six-month delay in planning permission has really cost us. If we had got the decision in June, when we had developers queuing up to buy the land, we would have been able to sell to finance the new stand.

“Now we will have to sit tight until the market picks up. We have cleared the site, but until things pick up and we can sell the land we can’t make a start.

“It’s down to the delay of planning permission and the property market collapse. Builders have been laying people off and not selling houses. They are trying to sell their own land to keep the cash flow going.”

With the team currently flying high at the top of League One, Mr Hardy admitted it was frustrating after three years of planning that the redevelopment had been delayed.

The lower capacity hasn’t affected attendances so far, which have been disappointingly low despite the entertaining football being played. However, the visit of near-neighbours Huddersfield Town on Saturday is expected to attract a bumper crowd.

But Mr Hardy added: “The idea was to get the new main stand up first with all the conferencing and banqueting facilities, which would have helped finance the rest of the stadium.”

The number of dwellings planned remains at 693 but the focus could switch from apartments to more traditional family houses.




Latics will feature on BBC1’s “Football Focus” on Saturday as the pundits reflect on the Boundary Park club’s excellent start to the season. Tune in at 12.10pm.