@Colin B one thing that has been niggling at me is the idea that as a fanbase we may have taken our eye off the ball in ensuring that the club are protected from the mistakes of the past. When the announcement was made that the club were looking to build a new stadium a year or so ago, one of the things I was very interested in was to hear about the protections we'd have in place to ensure we don't get bitten like we did with Firoz Kassam again.
I believe we were assured that the land lease would contain clauses that committed the club OUFC to a peppercorn rent of £1 per annum. As a member of OxVox I also sought, and was given, assurances that OxVox would be looking at how they can ensure that the club and the stadium can never be separated again (in the same way we have been at the Kass Stad) and that, for example, any future owners would not be able to start charging the club rental payments for use of the stadium.
Obviously with the vocal anti-stadium voices gaining traction, the fanbase has rightly moved to a highly supportive position and lobbied the council to be 100% in favour of the lease., without lobbying for any of these protections
Can we be sure that OCC will still be writing into the terms the peppercorn rent? And perhaps any other protections for the club? e.g. perhaps a requirement of the lease is that it can only ever be owned by OUFC, and not any holding company associated with OUFC?
@OxVox and
@Paul P for reference and possible response too.
I suppose we will see for ourselves when the heads of terms come back to OCC, but it would be good to get reassurance on these points.