£7m price for Lane but City debt is rising

10:49pm Thursday 31st July 2008

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WORCESTER City will have just £5 million to build a new stadium at Nunnery Way.

The Blue Square South club revealed last night they had received £7 million from Careys New Homes for their St George’s Lane ground, a deal which was sealed in April.

However, they also confessed the club’s debt was £2 million — double what had previously been made public.

The revelations were met by cries of derision at a meeting held at the Whitehouse Hotel, Foregate Street, attended by around 100 supporters and shareholders.

Last October, City agreed a deal with St Modwen Properties to build a 6,000-capacity stadium with 2,000 seats on a 7.5-acre site in Nunnery Way, close to the M5, for £8 million.

Despite less money being available, City believe they can still deliver a stadium in a similar style to Burton Albion’s Pirelli Stadium, completed in July 2005 at a cost of £7.2 million.

They also still hope to move into the new ground “debt-free”.

The initial plan was to build the new ground, complete with conference and banqueting facilities, in one go but the club have not ruled out the possibility of it now being built in more than one stage.

A planning application is due to be submitted in the near future but City are stalling because they are unhappy with the proposed designs.

Alan Williams, chairman of the project team working on the new stadium, said: “The club has had £7 million, the bank debt is £2 million so there is £5 million net to pay for a stadium.

“The state of the market on the one side means we are not going to get the overage [profit share from the enabling development] we had hoped for out of the St Modwen deal.

“It’s the same with the housing land. We would have hoped to have got more than £7m. At one time, we had a contract for £8m for the residential site but the market turned.

“We are trying to get value for money because there’s only a finite amount of money. The ground has got four sides in the planning application but if we can’t afford it, it will have to be phased.

“We are still in the negotiating stage for a stadium which gives us what we want in terms of development space.

“That to me is more important than the football because, without that creating the income, you can’t afford to run the football team.”

The meeting also saw npower marketing director Kevin Peake unveiled as a third new board member, joining fellow new recruits Simon Williams and Celia Adams.

Existing board members came in for criticism from fans and, at one point, Dr Michael Sorensen, chairing the meeting, tried to bring a halt to proceedings as supporters vented their frustrations.

Talks are on-going between the current board and the rival Shareholders Action Group, who want to take over the club, in a bid to reach a compromise.

It is expected a deal will be put to shareholders at September’s annual meeting.