City council closer to buying St Mary's Stadium (From Daily Echo)

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Local authority a serious contender to buy Southampton FC's ground

10:51am Saturday 11th April 2009 in News Review Photograph of the Author By Peter Law, Feature Writer

St Mary's Stadium

SOUTHAMPTON City Council IS in negotiations to buy St Mary’s Stadium, the Daily Echo can exclusively reveal.

Council chiefs have met with the administrator trying to sell Saints to see if the stadium could be sold at a knock down price and then leased back to the club.

It is understood the council is one of four serious bidders for the 32,600-seat stadium, which could be sold for about £10m.

But council bosses have stressed they will not invest any public money in the club itself – it is just seeking to buy the stadium as an asset for the city.

The Daily Echo first revealed the prospect of the council buying St Mary’s ten days ago after the club’s parent c o m p a n y , S o u t h a m p t o n Leisure Holdings Plc, went into administration with debts of around £30m.

There have since been at least 34 separate approaches to buy the club.

Councillor Royston Smith, deputy leader of the council, confirmed he had met with the administrator Mar Fry on an informal basis and discussed the idea.

Finance chiefs from the council will now get involved in talks to see what figures are involved.

Cllr Smith said: “We have not ruled it out and have been looking to see whether or not it’s financially viable. We are asking for the figures and will then look to see what the ground does, or could potentially generate, and will make a decision based on that.

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“We want to do all we can to support the club and take it forward, but we have categorically said we will not put taxpayers’ money at risk by putting any money into the club.”

If the council did go ahead with a purchase, the stadium would be leased back for use by the club but would also be used for other events and purposes like conferences.

Cllr Smith added: “We would want it to have as many uses as possible. We would look at protecting and extending our CCTV capability, making more use of the conference facilities and looking at whether maybe the car park could be utilised in other ways.”

It’s thought that one radical scheme to recoup the cost could be to build a multistorey development above the stadium’s car park.

While the ground level car park would remain available on match days, the site could be converted into shops and flats.

The dramatic development could lead to further regeneration of surrounding areas, with the council also looking to sell off the nearby town depot site to private developers.

The council could also boost its coffers by hiring out the stadium for concerts, with the four events it currently has permission for every year capable of generating up to £1m profit annually.

As reported, some of the biggest names in music – including Take That, Rod Stewart and The Eagles – were in talks to stage concerts at St Mary’s this summer, but had to be abandoned because Saints could not guarantee the stadium being open for business.

Norwich Union, who are owed £24m for the mortgage on the stadium, are widely thought to want to cut their losses on the project.

A council source said: “At the moment there is a book price for the stadium, a Norwich Union price and then a realistic market value and that is what we are trying to establish.”

The purchase would be funded either by taking out a loan or by selling council assets.

The development comes after fans last week called on the city council to sell off some of its £150m of artworks to raise cash to buy the stadium.

Comments(72)

Boris Remmington says...
10:54am Sat 11 Apr 09

A referendum with the rate payers should be held....
Provide more Social Services or buy a White Elephant