The
Daily On-line e-zine for 243
Oldham Athletic Supporters
Worldwide
Today's
Edition for
16th June 2000
Welcome to new
subscribers in London, Edmonton, Bury St. Edmonds and Royton
Today's
Headlines
Graham
concern
Teamtalk
Oldham
New
stadium redevelopment details
More details
have emerged over the redevelopment plans for Boundary Park, including
the make-up of the board of the stadium company. The Latics, along with
the local council, are expected to have three representatives on the board
of the new stadium company. It will own and run the upgraded ground, which
will be known as the Oldham Stadium. The town's rugby league club, who
will share all the facilities, will have one voice in chairman Chris Hamilton.
The rugby club will also have a minority shareholding because of the greater
financial commitment of the other two parties. The constitution of the
board will be based on financial input measured by voting input. Boundary
Park was recently bought by property development firm Hiretarget and the
Latics now pay rent on a five-year lease. They also have options to buy
back at a later date or extend the lease agreement. It means that, as long
as the rent is paid on time, the Latics keep full control of the day-to-day
management and maintenance of `Boundary Park under the terms of the lease.
The club still pays rates and water bills and is responsible for meeting
the costs of essential repair work, like the recently-completed pitch resurfacing.
The rugby club's agreement is with the Latics - and not Hiretarget - and
that is why the decision to start the pitch upgrading meant the rugby had
to find a new "home" for the rest of their season. The stadium company
is to hold regular meetings and they will keep fans informed of future
developments. A planning brief on exactly how the new stadium will take
shape is being currently undertaken.
Attendance's
disappointment
There
was a disappointing trend at Boundary Park last season, with crowd attendance's
down on the previous campaign. Despite a reasonable campaign, which saw
Oldham finish in the 14th place in the table, the aggregate league attendance
was 129,986, giving an average of 5,391. That is a drop of four per cent
on the previous season, which is the equivalent of losing 237 fans per
match. The easy explanation is that there was no Manchester City last season
and, in the previous campaign, the Maine Road outfit attracted a near full-house
of 12,976. The attendance of 3,807 for the game against Wycombe Wanderers
back in November last year was the Latics' lowest in the league for 14
years.
Graham
concern
The future
of Oldham defender Richard Graham is showing no signs of an immediate improvement.
The big defender has rejected a new 12-month contract and the club say
they will not offer a penny more. In fact, they insist that if the 25-year-old
played regularly he would earn more than his current deal. Injury-jinxed
Graham has managed just 30 games in the last two seasons and the Latics
say they can't afford to gamble on a long-term contract.
Contributions and
letters should be sent to Gary
Davies by e-mail at [email protected].Boundary
Bullet-zine Archive can be found at http://www.geocities.com/laticsgary.geo.The
views expressed on this e-zine are not the views of Oldham Athletic
F.C. nor necessarily the views of the Editor.This
e-zine is a unofficial publication NOT sanctioned by Oldham Athletic Football
Club.The
editor will not publish any letters containing bad language.This
e-zine is written using Microsoft Outlook Express and is best viewed with
the HTML (rich) text option enabled.
16th June 2000