General Will this be enough to get a new deal with Singha?

[Marked Ox]

What's going to be different with a new stadium then or if we buy the kassam. If the board sell us on, we will be back to square one renting a stadium.

Zaki has already said on the Radio Oxford 5 minute forum that the new stadium will be Oxford United's, not renting. I highly doubt any surrounding development will though. Iirc (so could be wrong) that Tiger and his partners sold Reading with the stadium but kept the surrounding development land.

 

[OX14]

Zaki has already said on the Radio Oxford 5 minute forum that the new stadium will be Oxford United's, not renting. I highly doubt any surrounding development will though. Iirc (so could be wrong) that Tiger and his partners sold Reading with the stadium but kept the surrounding development land.

So what happens if they can't find any land that will accommodate all this or planning takes years and we come up to the end of the kassam lease? Do they walk away from the club if the only option is to either ground share with someone else or take on a new lease at the kassam?

 

[yellowbow]

Going back to my previous post, Ill clarify it by saying that I just dont trust FK. Over the years, to me at least, its been proved over and over again that when it comes to the welfare of the club, his actions do not warrant any trust.

As for a new stadium, of course the new owners are going to expect a return. Theyre not a charity, nor have they arrived due to some long standing passion for OUFC. But Im sure that they could still treat the club with more respect and fairness than FK has. A new complex where they take the income from leisure and retail units, while the club reaps any income from the stadium itself, including conference facilities and concessions etc for example. Even if there is a rent to pay by the club, it would still be a more beneficial situation. It might be whats required to get the local authorities on board as well. Especially if theres unrestricted access to the stadium facilities for local community projects, charities and clubs. The owners have already proved that they are receptive to supporting the local community with the training ground complex. Did FK ever really show the same willingness to build links like that?

 

[Marked Ox]

So what happens if they can't find any land that will accommodate all this or planning takes years and we come up to the end of the kassam lease? Do they walk away from the club if the only option is to either ground share with someone else or take on a new lease at the kassam?

Don't know.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

What's going to be different with a new stadium then or if we buy the kassam. If the board sell us on, we will be back to square one renting a stadium.

The answer is that we do not know what would be different. Even the current club owners and potential developers could create some sort of Kassam-like 'deal'. But if we (well the investors) buy the current stadium, where is the profit for them? They'd have to buy the whole development (car parks, cinema, shop etc) for that even to be vaguely possible, and even then Kassam knows (probably down to the last penny) what the land/businesses/potential housing would be worth. He isn't going to sell for less.
But you have to imagine that the investors on the board would be much more club-friendly than Kassam is. So *presumably* moving to a new stadium would be good for the club - whether that be less/no rent, a share of the advertising, food sales etc. And you'd also hope that there would be local authority involvement (as part of a 'community' stadium) and there would be agreements put in place to say that the club had security of tenure - like we have for the last 20 years but on better terms.

He may be forced too at the end of the current lease, we can move and groundshare while he has an empty stadium which he won't get planning permission on until we find a new home.

I don't think that's how it would work. If we don't sign up to the new 25 year lease then the covenant will lapse and the stadium will be knocked down with much needed (by the Council) housing being given priority. Kassam won't tart up the stadium to temp us to stay - he doesn't want us to!

 

[ZeroTheHero]

So what happens if they can't find any land that will accommodate all this or planning takes years and we come up to the end of the kassam lease? Do they walk away from the club if the only option is to either ground share with someone else or take on a new lease at the kassam?

Nobody knows, except them. And they aren't going to tell us. I would suggest though that the crunch point is going to come much earlier than the end of the lease. If they can't even find any land (never mind the planning process, funding and building the stadium etc) they'll be rethinking well before then.

 

[Lincoln.yellow1]

18 years at The Manor, 18 years at The Kassam................
My first game watching Oxford United was 5th March 1983, (2-0 home win - Whatmore and Vinter with the goals v Wrexham, a game I will never forget)....!
The “Manor Ground“ was home for me for the next 18 years with the best times in the clubs history and re-writing the “rags to riches“ rule book however in May 2001 the curtain came down on the tight, small but very intimidating ground for the ambition we once had and we left under a massive black cloud knowing that we would be going into the next chapter in our history with “a state of the art stadium“ but in the bottom tier of English football, a division in which we hadn’t been in for 35 years, we were in a sorry state. Yes we have had some cracking days and evenings at the Kassam over the last 18 years but nothing compared to the previous 18 years.

 

[Robie]

Radio Oxford reporting that Oxford will be staying at one of FK's hotels tonight for a reduced rate and training on the Kas Stad pitch tomorrow.

Another sign that relations are improving which can only be good news.