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Bicester

T

The Hawk

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Could OxVox confirm or deny that one of the ‘5 sites’ is Bicester?

I have it from a reliable source (and hugely respected by our fan base by and large, btw) that the money and will is there from Bicester Village to build a new stadium.

This could be Tiger’s plan. And possibly explains the arrival of the new board members.

It is, however, not without significant issues.

If the club were to move outside the city boundary - which Bicester is I believe - then the team named Oxford United would require ratification from the Football League to play there.

A team with a different name could play there.

If you think this scenario sounds familiar to the Wimbledon-MK Dons situation you would be not far wrong.

There are many miles on the road ahead and plenty of potholes.

But everyone should be aware that there is a danger, no matter how small, that Tiger et al want our FL place and a shiny stadium in Bicester to house (insert chronic franchise name here).

I would hope OxVox add this question to their lengthening list. Indeed, any site outside the boundary has issues.
 
As long as we can keep our name it has my support if there isn't an option within the city bounderies.

Headington would not have been part of Oxford at one point. I see us as Oxfordshire United.

Oxford will envolope Bicester one day. It's different from a club moving from London to Milton Keynes.

I'd rather a home at Bicester than a tenancy at the Kassam.

Devil is in the detail though.
 
I can't see there being any issue with keeping the name as Bicester is only a few miles outside the ring road. Also, it's extremely unlikely that the stadium would be in the centre of Bicester. Although Bicester Village has purchased the old Bicester Town sports ground, the roads can barely sustain a busy shopping day let alone thousands of football fans. If a stadium was being looked at, I would imagine it would involve the land between Bicester Village and the M40 junction with links to the Bicester-Oxford trainline. This could be a decent site and would be no harder to access than the Kassam for many fans.

But still speculation I'd suggest and wouldn't give it any more weight than Dave Kitsons Twitter account!!
 
Gary Baldi said:
An interesting titbit from Twitter, take with the usual pinch of salt
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Think that is the most likely outcome regardless of any twitter rumours.

Maybe met Kassam to see if they can get out of lease, Kassam agrees and cashes in by building housing.

With no lease to pay, OUFC ground share and that costs less than paying Kassam. Do this for 2 or 3 years whilst new out of town complex and stadium built.

Ground share with MK Dons, build a new stadium somewhere like Bicester. Bolt it on to Bicester village, couple of hotels more retail outlets.

Didn’t some local Bicester sports club have their land purchased by people involved with Bicester Village recently? Could they flip that land to Tiger consortium for a profit and also benefit from increased footfall.

I can’t see the new board members wanting to buy the Kassam, it is already boxed in by Kassams outlets so surely has limited development potential for them. They will be looking to build a retail / hotel complex and can’t see that happening in Oxford.

The longer we don’t get a meaningful update from the Tiger, the more likely it becomes he either hasn’t got a plan or has a plan that is unpalatable for the fans. Surely he’d have shared good news if there was any.
 
The first thing that jumps to mind is what would Bicester Village gain from this? I just can't see why they would be interested, it just wouldn't be of benefit to them. And this is before you even begin to look at the infrastructure. Any new stadium would have to be on the road between Bicester and the M40, and that is bad enough at times, without having the traffic for a 20k seater stadium involved. December and January games would be gridlock.

Can't see this being workable.
 
There is no way the Bicester sports club land could be viable for us, for 2 reasons. Firstly it would cause gridlock with traffic, even more so when Bicester Village is operating at its maximum eg January Sales, and secondly the footprint wouldn't be large enough.
 
SteMerritt said:
The first thing that jumps to mind is what would Bicester Village gain from this? I just can't see why they would be interested, it just wouldn't be of benefit to them. And this is before you even begin to look at the infrastructure. Any new stadium would have to be on the road between Bicester and the M40, and that is bad enough at times, without having the traffic for a 20k seater stadium involved. December and January games would be gridlock.

Can't see this being workable.
Click to expand...

Bicester Village hate anything next to it that ruins their brand. I just can't see a football stadium being on the agenda.
 
The Hawk said:
Could OxVox confirm or deny that one of the ‘5 sites’ is Bicester?

I have it from a reliable source (and hugely respected by our fan base by and large, btw) that the money and will is there from Bicester Village to build a new stadium.

This could be Tiger’s plan. And possibly explains the arrival of the new board members.

It is, however, not without significant issues.

If the club were to move outside the city boundary - which Bicester is I believe - then the team named Oxford United would require ratification from the Football League to play there.

A team with a different name could play there.

If you think this scenario sounds familiar to the Wimbledon-MK Dons situation you would be not far wrong.

There are many miles on the road ahead and plenty of potholes.

But everyone should be aware that there is a danger, no matter how small, that Tiger et al want our FL place and a shiny stadium in Bicester to house (insert chronic franchise name here).

I would hope OxVox add this question to their lengthening list. Indeed, any site outside the boundary has issues.
Click to expand...

Without seeing your post I just posted on HMRC thread re Bicester. No inside knowledge but have thought for a while there are a few things pointing in the direction of additional investment in / around Bicester village.
 
I can see a move south of Oxford a little more likely than a move to Bicester. It'll be interesting to see what the club can cook up
 
I put almost this on here weeks ago with regard to the people involved, especially with the castle quay 2 development in Banbury ( same council as Bicester) apparently being payed for by the council. I also doubt the football authorities would be to stressed about us being 7 or so miles outside the city but comfortably still in the county. I think in my original post I put between Oxford and the M40and don’t forget this would be close to any new Oxford to Cambridge expressway/ railway.
 
Despite the impression sometimes given in the past (correct or otherwise) I would imagine that Oxford City Council really wouldn’t want the City’s ‘premier’ football club to move to another part of Oxfordshire. It would reflect badly on OCC to lose Oxford United.

This could just be a ‘lever/threat’ to get some cooperation from OCC, or I may be talking absolute B*****s.
 
Tiger doesn’t have the money for a new ground anywhere, it would be a disaster and the end of the club to relocate “temporarily” to somewhere, we would never come back and die.

At least at the moment we play in Oxford, better to be in a bad deal but in a ground in a tolerable location than be moved away to a ridiculous place like Milton Keynes while our Walter Mitty owner doesn’t pay the bills.

The stadium situation needs sorting, but it will wait for another (hopefully) more stable owner of the club.
 
Moving to BICESTER will completely ruin Tiger's idea of making Oxford United a global brand. Mainly because the name has to be changed. Oxford is a much more global name then Bicester. HE NEEDS TO GET OUT OF OUR CLUB IF HE REALLY THINKS THIS IS A GOOD IDEA. I don't know what it is but foreign owners in a football league club usually ends badly I.E Charlton,Blackburn, Oldham and Coventry.
 
RCYellowRC said:
Moving to BICESTER will completely ruin Tiger's idea of making Oxford United a global brand. Mainly because the name has to be changed. Oxford is a much more global name then Bicester. HE NEEDS TO GET OUT OF OUR CLUB IF HE REALLY THINKS THIS IS A GOOD IDEA. I don't know what it is but foreign owners in a football league club usually ends badly I.E Charlton,Blackburn, Oldham and Coventry.
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All there has been so far is absolute speculation.
We have to wait until we really know what is happening which will come out.
 
holdsteady said:
Well we always seem to end up with a new owner every time the current one wants to sell, so more than zero? Unless you believe we have exhausted the well with tiger?

A better question might be who will want to buy us once we are ground sharing in Milton Keynes in front of 800 home fans with a barely started ground somewhere near Bicester and less tax paid than a site full of tinkers?
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Who said we will ground share with MK?
All total speculation.
 
Scotchegg said:
I can't see there being any issue with keeping the name as Bicester is only a few miles outside the ring road. Also, it's extremely unlikely that the stadium would be in the centre of Bicester. Although Bicester Village has purchased the old Bicester Town sports ground, the roads can barely sustain a busy shopping day let alone thousands of football fans. If a stadium was being looked at, I would imagine it would involve the land between Bicester Village and the M40 junction with links to the Bicester-Oxford trainline. This could be a decent site and would be no harder to access than the Kassam for many fans.

But still speculation I'd suggest and wouldn't give it any more weight than Dave Kitsons Twitter account!!
Click to expand...

FL rules, as far as I understand, would not allow Oxford United to play outside the city boundary. They could well make an exception but...
 
Any move outside of Oxford city boundaries will require special dispensation from the EFL to keep the Oxford name. Moving the club to Bicester (for example) would be deemed the same as moving it to Penzance by some. They could theoretically deem any move to such an area as worthy of exclusion from the league, worst case scenario. If the play here is for stadium and land / property development, it won’t mean anything to the people who own it whether we’re playing in League One or the Southern League.

This is all absolute doomsday, worst case scenario stuff, obviously, but it’s a possibility. It’s like the Brexit warnings that people jump all over as scare mongering - no one is saying this will happen but there’s a chance it could, however small.

Any new stadium talk that comes up in the months ahead, people need to pay very close attention to where they’re suggesting it could be located.
 
I get that Bicester is not in Oxford. Mind you, Grenoble Road isn't in Headington ;)

I suppose though, if we are to get out of Kassam's clutches then it might be that beggars can't be choosers. I am hugely sceptical that there are suitable areas within the city boundaries for a new stadium. If we accept that is correct (and nobody has yet pinpointed anything suitable), would it be wise to turn down the offer of a brand new stadium where we can retain more of our income, attract better players and live without the leech in favour of a continued tenancy at the current place with all the drawbacks that entails? Or should we in fact be encouraging any (so far theoretical) investors that buying and improve Grenoble Road is actually the best thing to do?
 
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