9:30am Sunday 19th April 2009
By Peter Law
IT FIRST emerged back in February as an ambitious vision dreamed up by the largest Saints supporters group. However, the Saints Trust plan for the local authority to buy St Mary’s Stadium and then lease it back to the club was barely given any serious consideration.
At the time it seemed so far-fetched that neither Saints nor Southampton City Council would comment on the proposal, while even Saints Trust member Alan Whitehead MP said taxpayers’ money could be spent on “better things”.
Well it seems two months is a long time in football, as the council’s top finance officers this week began poring over Saints’ accounts to see if the idea could become reality.
Even Mr Whitehead put his name to a Labour statement calling for cross-party talks to see what could be done to help save the ailing club.
If the numbers show it to be a potential revenue earner, and no other buyer for the club and ground emerges in the next few weeks, there is a distinct possibility that St Mary’s will become a community stadium.
Councillor Royston Smith, Cabinet member for economic development, yesterday said he would first talk to other local authorities about their experience of stadium ownership before making any decision.
“If it looks like there is some mileage in proceeding then I think we will need to speak very quickly to those who have done it before and see what experiences they’ve had,” Cllr Smith said.
Fans have cited Hull City’s Kingston Communication Stadium, which was bought, built and continues to be owned by the local council, as a model for parties to look at.
When the stadium opened in 2002 the city council, acting essentially as a landlord, granted a 50-year lease to a stadium management company to deal with the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the ground.
The football club controls the management company, while the city’s rugby league side are tenants in the ground, which is also home to a learning zone, library and multi-use sports facility.
Although the council is entitled to a share of profits from the stadium, this amounted to just £15,000 in the 2005/6 financial year – a poor return considering the council’s £45m investment.
The arrangement might seem straightforward, but the events that led to its creation are vastly different from Southampton’s situation.
Construction was funded thanks to a huge windfall the council got from selling shares in the city’s own telephone company, after which the stadium is named.
Meanwhile, Southampton City Council would most likely have to take out a loan to fund the purchase of St Mary’s, believed to be about £10m.
“What happened at Kingston Communications Stadium is a different thing entirely and the ones that I am familiar with all have different sets of circumstances,” Cllr Smith said.
In fact there are very few modern precedents for the city council to follow.
Perhaps the best example is that of Exeter City, who went into administration in the mid- 90s and was forced to sell St James’ Park to a private developer for £650,000. With the team’s future in doubt, the local council stepped in two years later to buy the ground back off the developers and lease it to the club.
Another example to be looked at is that of Wolverhampton Wanderers. The club was only saved from folding at the start of the 1986 season, when Wolverhamp-ton City Council bought Molineux Stadium for £1.12m, along with the surrounding land.
Private developers also teamed up with Asda to pay off the club’s outstanding debt – on the agreement that it would get planning to build a superstore next door.
Four years later Sir Jack Hayward took over the club and stadium and developed it into what was at the time one of the biggest football stadiums in England.
While it is unknown how long the city council would remain landlords at St Mary’s, it’s likely a stadium management company would be created to look after operation and maintenance.
“The city council principally don’t think we should be running things like leisure unless we have to and this is absolutely no different to that, so we would not want to run this in-house ourselves,” Cllr Smith said.
Given the Saints woeful financial situation, rent would probably be linked to match day attendance rather than a flat annual landlord/tenant fee.
The council is also investigating how it could make greater use of the stadium for conferencing facilities and as a venue for lucrative concerts.
Possible ventures could also see the car park turned into a multi-storey development and an expansion of the city’s CCTV operation.
The decision will come down to whether it stacks up financially for the taxpayer, but ultimately the council still sees itself as a last resort. Cllr Smith added: “We are not entering into a bidding war and we are not looking to outbid anyone, the ideal solution for the club is that someone buys the club and the stadium together and secures the financial and playing future of the club with their own investment.”
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