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Statement - how does the proposed Sixfields land deal help the football club progress?

24th Aug 2022

It is there in black and white - the Leader of West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) admits there is nothing in the council's proposed land deal with Northampton Town FC owners David Bower and Kelvin Thomas which guarantees that the East Stand at Sixfields will be finished.

In his written reply to the Supporters Trust, published yesterday, Councillor Jonathan Nunn admits the 'no stand no land', 'stand first' red line condition has been dropped from the deal.

This was done quietly a week after the Trust supported the deal at an open council meeting on 21 February.

We supported the deal then on the clear premise that the stand would at least be finished and bring some ongoing investment benefit to the club. But then the goalposts were moved.

WNC have since insisted that 'handcuffs' around completing the stand, which has been in a skeletal state for eight years, will go into the final contract.

But more than four months after WNC alleged that the Trust’s comments on this subject were wrong, no wording has even been produced. The Trust stands by its previous comments.

In any event, the 'handcuffs' promise contradicts a clause in the Heads of Terms agreement that states if the stand is not completed within the terms of a new five-year lease, WNC would be able to buy the old athletics track land back for £1.

Not only that, but the obligation to finish the stand will rest with the football club - not with County Developments (Northampton) Ltd (CDNL), nor with the present owners who by 2027 are likely to be long gone. 

The Trust’s request that David Bower and Kelvin Thomas provide personal guarantees for the completion of the stand has been rejected by WNC.

So, if such a deal is finalised, consider this likely scenario:-


* The deal is given the green light if a judge decides not to proceed with a judicial review of the council's procedures 

* The club's owners, as CDNL, buy 21 acres of land at Sixfields for £2.05 million

* This land is then sold on immediately to a developer, yielding CDNL a considerable profit

* From this profit, outstanding debts are settled, not least the £7 million or so Northampton Town FC debt to the club's owners - and this after the owners and their associated company in 2017 received £6.68 million from 5USports for the sale of shares in the holding company Northampton Town Ventures Ltd

* The East Stand remains untouched

* No other investment benefit for the football club is realised

* A debt-free club is sold to a new investor/owner

* The new investor/owner, as NTFC, inherits an aspiration (no stronger than that) to finish the stand.

* If the stand is finished, the club will almsot certainly once again find itself saddled with significant debt.

* If the stand is unfinished, WNC buy back the East Stand land and it is back to square one in 2027?!


So, from a multi-million pound deal sought in the name of NTFC, how does the football club actually benefit and progress?

It will have no debt. True that could be construed as beneficial, to the owners in particular.

But that's not all it won't have -  it will also have no land asset, it will have no money in the bank and it will have no finished East Stand.

It will also have no £250K annual income from the Trust's proposed deal with Goodwill Solutions, the projected yield from a fraction of the land.

The stand could remain in its present state for another five years at least, bringing in no increased commercial revenues.

This land deal is supposedly supporting an enabling development for the football club. 

Enabling what exactly? Enabling who exactly?

How on earth is that proposition in any way acceptable?

Is this really what 97.57 per cent of Cobblers fans voted for in support of the original deal?

The deal as it stands is irrational and a clear abrogation of responsibility by WNC to the town's association football club which, like other sports clubs, does so much to increase the profile of the town.

 

 

 

Sixfields East Stand.jpg

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