Stadium ‘good for the town’
Reporter: Tony Bugby
Date published: 08 October 2009
FOOTBALL League chairman Lord Mawhinney believes Athletic’s eventual move to a new stadium will be a shot-in-the-arm for both the football club and the town.
“New stadiums inject excitement and bring new possibilities for the football club and for the town,” he insisted.
While Lord Mawhinney has had no direct involvement in Athletic’s proposed relocation to Failsworth, he has witnessed at first hand moves by a number of other clubs.
He said: “I have been invited to open two or three new stadiums in the last couple of years.
“The Mayor and Leader of the Council is invariably there and I tell them that it is in their interests to work with the club, not only to strengthen the club but also the local community.
“I think it is important that the two of them are seen working side by side.”
Lord Mawhinney added that there will be people in Oldham who have never visited Boundary Park.
“I have found that curiosity brings in new people quite apart from anything else,” he went on.
Lord Mawhinney noted that the facilities today are far removed from the days of the tragedies at Bradford City and Hillsborough which proved the catalyst for great change.
He said: “The facilities for spectators in this country are almost unrecognisable to what they were 20 years ago, and rightly so.
“It has been a long-term project and some people get impatient because they are promised a new stadium and it takes time to deliver.
“But despite scepticism they usually find that one day they eventually get their new stadium which they are very proud of.”
And despite some resistance to moving, Lord Mawhinney believes that the majority of fans embrace the change and not many would prefer to return to their old homes.
Lord Mawhinney noted that these new state-of-the-art venues usually have conference and banqueting suites, opening up opportunities for both the club and for community use.
There is no reason, he says, they cannot be used 365 days a year which is a contrast to the old grounds which invariably had only one use.
