Bicester

The Hawk said:
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...
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We are not talking about relocating from south London to Milton Keynes but "potentially" moving a few miles away. I really can't see the FA caring one little bit to be honest.

And whilst Bicester is not out of the equation for a new ground, trying to link this to some kind of franchise deal appears to be a cheap attempt to stir s**t.

Tiger has banged on from day one about the Oxford brand, Bicester Village FC hardly has the same appeal!!! And why would Bicester Village want to mess with a pretty successful business model by pumping millions into a football club? It's not as though fans will be nipping in to Ralph Lauren and necking a pret sandwich as part of their pre-match ritual?!

Sounds like someone has mentioned Bicester and you've jumped in with the Bicester Village link without thinking for one second how ridiculous this sounds!!
 
The Hawk said:
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...
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A few clubs play outside of the boundaries of the city/town that they are named after, Bolton as an example, it must be a rule change post MK Dons, I wonder whether it would stand up to a legal challenge?
 
Just catching up on this thread but as far as I can see ‘Dave Kitson’ makes some sketchy airy-fairy tweet about the club looking at moving - something that we’ve all been speculating about on here for weeks, and suddenly there’s melt down that the club is moving to Bicester..?! Take a deep breath everyone, nobody has a scooby-do what the plan is. Or even if there is one.

I would be gobsmacked if the owners thought moving away that far from the city was a good idea anyway. Especially after the emphasis seems to be on the ‘Oxford’ brand.
 
I think it’s a bit far stretched suggesting Charlie is well respected amongst the fan base.
Also for a investigative journalist you are quite slow picking up this topic. I think it was quite obvious that Bicester was going to be one of the 5 potential sites. There is also a very large possibility that at least a couple more potential sites are in Oxfordshire but not within the city themselves.

As for your comparison to MK Dons, all a bit pointless as it would be nothing like that situation.
As for the name change, do all 92 clubs play within the city or place they are named after? No
 
The only interest that Bicester holds for Tiger is in retail. He has an interest in having a shop for his primary business.
 
Manorlounger said:
The only interest that Bicester holds for Tiger is in retail. He has an interest in having a shop for his primary business.
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What actually IS Tigers primary business?
IIRC there was talk of him owning a clothes manufacturer, but he's not a retailer is he?
 
ZeroTheHero said:
What actually IS Tigers primary business?
IIRC there was talk of him owning a clothes manufacturer, but he's not a retailer is he?
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Well, we know he's very much into manufacturing of sports wear and related product (Puma is one of his customers). I don't believe he has any retailing outlets in the UK but, he has shown interest in the Bicester Village set up and has enquired about acquiring a unit. That was some time ago.
 
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.
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So from your “reliable” source what are the other 4 possible sites then?
 
Scotchegg said:
Can you provide a link to support this as it seems pretty vague to me.
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There were amendments made to what you can and can’t do in terms of name and club location after the Wimbledon / MK debacle, which led to some tightening of the rules. As I said, though, this is a very worst case scenario in terms of it being an issue were we to move to the north of the county, and it’s very unclear exactly where the boundaries are presently. It could be that it would be deemed a reasonable move, or they make take issue depending on how strict their charter now is. I’m going to request some clarity from the EFL on this - they should be able to provide direct and accurate information fairly easily.

My hope is that were it to become a reality, and let’s face it, it really does seem a massive pipe dream presently, all would be well. But given Bicester is some 20 miles from our present ‘home’, which means it’s only a few miles closer than Wycombe’s stadium, it’s probably worth a proper look at. Which I will endeavour to do shortly.

As a side note, there’s a little bit of mischief going on presently. There’s a ghost or two knocking about that I would suggest people are rather wary of.
 
More of a philosophical question.

IF the club was to relocate to Bicester (or Didcot or Abingdon or.. ), how is this different to what happened with Wimbledon/MK Dons?

Obviously the relocation would be nearer. But is there a mile radius limit within which it is OK? Outside of which we would become a franchise?
 
yellowbow said:
Shall we hold a sweepstake on how many pages this thread is going to run to?

My guess is 36 ?
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I think it will get to 10 before another thread is started on the same topic but the opening post will be reworded so that it looks like it is a new information.
 
DenisSmithsWig said:
I think it will get to 10 before another thread is started on the same topic but the opening post will be reworded so that it looks like it is a new information.
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Bicester....What do we know now?

.......nothing
 
Seriously though, the only way I could see any of this working is this scenario:

Bicester Village sell their current location plus any other land around it for housing and build a new ‘Chelsea Village-esque’ complex with stadium, retail outlets and restaurants closer to the M40. How feasible that would be remains to be seen but I wouldn’t be dutifully the investment was in place.
 
Assuming that this was the scenario, I would imagine key to what scrutiny it would get would be the "general" opinion of the fan base. So OXVOX would be key here.
If a plan was presented to OXVOX - I imagine safe guard along the lines of making sure any move was from Grenoble Road in May to starting at new stadium in August, seeing firm agreement in terms of rent, access and primacy of tenure given to OUFC, access to additional revenues from the stadium which seemed to fit the best interests of the club compared to being much better than the current situation at the Kassam then OXVOX may recommend it to the fan base, which would almost certainly make it fly better with the Football League (not using Shaun's wanky term for them). i.e. if fans were broadly happy it would make it very different from what happened with Wimbledon.
Of course, you'd never end up with everyone 100% happy.... I'm based in Didcot which would make it far from ideal for me, but what is the longer term interest of the club? It can't be staying at MF under current deal. What is the distance between Water Eaton - which people seemed to be fairly happy with - and Bicester in terms of miles?
Lastly, I guess other FL clubs could kick off about it if they felt a move cut in on their current catchment area. So if we proposed moving to Didcot you could imagine Scummers and Plastics lobbying against it.... ironically enough if we proposed moving to Bicester it would impact on Franchise FC themselves and not sure they'd have a moral leg to stand on if appealing against it and that would have Wimbledon almost certain to support us, so two votes down another 70 to go!! ;);)
 
yellowbow said:
Seriously though, the only way I could see any of this working is this scenario:

Bicester Village sell their current location plus any other land around it for housing and build a new ‘Chelsea Village-esque’ complex with stadium, retail outlets and restaurants closer to the M40. How feasible that would be remains to be seen but I wouldn’t be dutifully the investment was in place.
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If you pop down to Bicester Village now you will see that the last thing they want is Football Fans and Frankie and Benny's polluting their image. 70% of the shops now are brands none of us here would know.

The train station has changed it completely.

As for the housing there are several sites already they are building on in Bicester and a new site which will begin in the next few years. Places to build houses is not a problem.

There is no way whatsoever that Bicester Village will sell their location or any of the land they are on. The amount of money that places turns over is incredible.

I'm not shunning that Bicester may be one of the 5 sites but there is no way Bicester Village have anything to do with it.
 
Without getting too wordy, the regulations allow for moves within the town/city but also were population growth has led to a blurring of urban boundaries. It would be a bit of a stretch to say that Bicester and Oxford have merged into one, but could be argued through the lack of opportunities within the city boundaries.

So whilst not guaranteed, I'd be amazed if the FA wouldn't approve Bicester or any surrounding towns for development if and when we got that far.
 
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