Lib Dems cautiously back bid to buy stadium (From Daily Echo)

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Southampton City Council's plan to buy Southampton FC's stadium gets Lib Dem backing

12:00pm Tuesday 14th April 2009 in News Review Photograph of the Author By Matt Smith, Politics and business reporter

St Mary's Stadium

OPPOSITION politicians in Southampton have given tentative backing to the idea of the city council buying the Saints stadium.

As revealed by the Daily Echo, ruling Tory council chiefs have met with the administrator trying sell Saints to see if the 32,600 seat stadium could be bought at a knock down price and leased back to the club.

The council could then make a return through making more use of the stadium for conferencing facilities and as a venue for lucrative concerts such as the Bon Jovi concert hosted at St Mary’s last year.

Possible ventures could also see the car park developed and an expansion of the city’s CCTV operation.

The council, which is understood to be one of four serious bidders among at least 34 approaches , could fund its purchase through a loan or by selling council assets.

We are not in a bidding war but we understand the pain of the fans and the importance of the club
Deputy council leader Royston Smith

Lib Dem group leader Councillor Jill Baston said: “In principle, I don’t think we would be against it, but I think first of all we would need to know that council tax payers’ money was not going to involved in any way.

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“We don’t have any details thus far as to what the financial negotiations might be, so it might be a case of seeing in detail what is actually being proposed and how the finances would work and how council taxpayers might be protected.

“We obviously feel that the football club is very important to the city and we clearly wish it well and wish it to prosper.”

Labour councillors said, although they won’t rule the idea out, they will not commit to it until it had been discussed at a group meeting next Monday.

They are calling for cross-party talks to decide what help can be offered to Saints and how the council could work as a facilitator to bring together partners to deliver a “combined stadium rescue plan”.

Saints’ parent company Southampton Leisure Holdings PlC, which owns Southampton FC, was put into administration with debts of more than £30m.

The organisation owes £24m to Norwich Union for the stadium, while and £4.4m overdraft with Barclays Bank was exceeded.

Deputy council leader Royston Smith, confirmed he had held informal talks about buying the stadium but insisted that he would not gamble taxpayers’ money with the football club itself.

He said: “We remain only in the position that we wouldn’t rule out buying the ground if it was in the public interest. That would be if what it makes is more than it would cost in payments.”

He added: “We are not looking to compete with the private sector and we are not in a bidding war but we understand the pain of fans and the importance of the club.”

He said it was “breath-taking”

Labour were calling for cross-party talks when its group leader had previously spoke out against the club’s bid to axe free bus travel for fans in a bid to save cash.

Comments(27)

greystonesben says...
12:44pm Tue 14 Apr 09

Cue endless comments from people who dont understand the situation and havent propperly read the article saying 'I dont want my council tax paying for some white elephant loss making entity blah blah blah'.

I think its great that the council can see the benefit in this.

The one comment which slightly disturbs me is

'The council, which is understood to be one of four serious bidders among at least 34 approaches'.

I was under the impression that the 34 approaches were for the club?? This implies that they include approaches for just the stadium which if correct then begs questions, of the 4 serious bids, how many are just for the stadium ala the council bid and how many are actually for the club?!