Welcome
to today's issue of
BOUNDARY
BULLET-zine
The
Daily On-line e-zine for 245
Oldham Athletic Supporters
Worldwide
Today's
Edition for
21st June 2000
Today's
Headlines
Oldham
Evening Chronicle
Latics
in line for £2m windfall
CASH-STRAPPED
Athletic are hoping the media revolution will provide them with a financial
bonus of almost £2 million. Demand
for coverage on television and the Internet has seen prices rocket whenever
football rights are up for grabs. Most
of it goes to Premiership clubs who will each receive a staggering £30
million a year from 2001 but money is also filtering down to the lower
divisions. Under the newly-signed deal
with ITV and ONDigital, second division clubs will see a massive rise in
income, regardless of whether they feature in live games. Athletic
currently receive £360,000 a season the division's share of the
Nationwide League pool, split between 24 teams. But, provided the money
is shared between divisions in the same way, the new contract will see
that figure leap to £547,000, or more than £1.6 million over
three years.
On
top of that, Athletic are reaping the benefits from a world-wide boom in
Internet use. The League has clinched
a ground-breaking deal with cable company NTL, which is planning to rake
in massive profits through a unified home page for all 72 clubs. For
Athletic, that means an immediate windfall of £150,000, some of which
must be spent on upgrading the club's website. The figure will be cut afterwards,
but will still provide vital income for a club constantly waging a financial
war.
On
the playing front, Athletic have invited Blackburn defender Richard Dunning
to join them for pre-season training. Dunning (19) was signed on loan in
March a move which effectively gave him an extended trial period only
to suffer a knee injury after four games for the reserves. He
has since had surgery and should be ready to join up again with Athletic
when the summer break ends on July 5. Dunning, a specialist right-back,
doesn't fit into Blackburn's plans after the appointment of Graeme Souness
as manager.
Teamtalk Oldham
Smith
coming?
Leeds'
teenage sensation Alan Smith could be heading to Boundary Park on loan
as the first major move of Oldham's link up with Leeds. The highly rated
striker, who is tipped to become an England star of the future, is a potential
loan target with Leeds having a surplus of strikers at their disposal.
Leeds are all set to complete the signing of Mark Viduka from Celtic for
£7m and already have Michael Bridges, Darren Huckerby and Harry Kewell.
Smith struggled last season after picking up and injury very early on and
faces a long battle to work his way up the pecking order at Elland Road.
The fact that Oldham can offer him first team football whilst he regains
his sharpness again would perhaps appeal to David O'Leary whilst solving
Andy Ritchie's striker problem at least in the short term.
Despite being
only 5'8" Smith has the kind of battling qualities that Andy Ritchie is
looking for in his players. However the length of time that Smith would
spend at Boundary Park if a deal could be struck remains to be seen, with
his wages being a potential problem.
Seeds
taking root
Groundsman
Jack Walker believes that the work done on the Boundary Park pitch is progressing
well. Seeds were sown last Sunday and are now germinating. 200,000 gallons
of water have been put on the surface and there is now a tint of green
starting to show through. It is going to be a further three weeks before
the grass has taken to an extent whereby it can then have its first cut.
Fixtures
tomorrow
The fixtures
for the 2000/2001 season will be released tomorrow (Thursday, June 22)
around mid-morning. As soon as we have full details of the Latics fixtures
for next season TEAMtalk will bring you details of the major games.
New
TV deal
ONDigital have secured
the nationwide TV rights for 2001/2002 season and will have them for the
next three years. The announcement was made at a Football League conference
in Chester last week but Latics officials are still awaiting confirmation
of how much the club will receive. Currently all Division Two clubs pick
up £360,000 each season from the Sky TV deal but club officials are
hoping that this amount will at least double when the contract comes into
force. Also announced last week is the Internet deal with NTL which will
start this season with Second Division clubs set to pick up £150,000
a season for the next three years.
Contributions
and letters should be sent to Gary
Davies by e-mail at [email protected].Boundary
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