WE’RE DRIVING ON WITH J12 SAYS MITCHELL
Luton Town Chief Executive John Mitchell met with Board Members of Trust in Luton (the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust) on the evening of Wednesday 28 February.
Firstly, it is pleasing to report that this meeting went ahead and that Mitchell has given a commitment to meet all of the fans groups on a regular basis.
He confirmed that the club was losing some £2m annually whilst they continue to be resident at Kenilworth Road, hence the urgent requirement for a new ground. To some degree losses have recently been mitigated by player sales, but Mitchell acknowledged that this is not a preferred position and if it continued indefinitely could jeopardise the club’s current league status.
Mitchell said that the club are looking at all areas of the business, in particular where they can increase revenue streams. Proposals being currently pursued include bringing in additional monies from corporate sponsors and increasing the amount of facilities available for general supporters. Likewise, the club is also looking to improve revenue from other areas such as the club shop which has been crying out for attention since the period of receivership.
Mitchell explained to TiL that the club was pressing ahead with plans for a new stadium for Luton Town FC at the Cliff Bassett-owned Old Park Farm, adjacent to the southbound Toddington Service Station on the M1 motorway (this site is commonly referred to as Junction 12). He re-iterated that in the club’s view it was the only current viable solution to the relocation issue and that too much time has been spent in the past talking about relocation with little or no real action, hence the years of uncertainty. Bolton and Reading are prime examples of clubs which were similar to Luton in the past but made positive decisions and look where they are now.
The planning application could be submitted to South Beds District Council as early as July this year. Mitchell said that the stadium itself will be for a 22000 all-seat capacity, with the ability to increase it to 30000. There will also be an extensive piece in the forthcoming match day magazine on Saturday 3 March, detailing the clubs position on all 3 M1 sites - Junctions 10, 11a and 12.
When pressed on ownership of the proposed stadium, Mitchell stated that the club (Luton Town Football Club Ltd, of which TiL has a 10% shareholding) will own the freehold of the site, but it was conceivable that a separate company could own the actual stadium charging the club a peppercorn rent and that if that was the case then the club would still benefit from all the commercial income generated. On the point of what would happen if Jayten Ltd (who own the other 90% of LTFC Ltd) sold their shareholding in the club, he of course could not give any guarantees about future stadium ownership, but felt that some form of protection would be part of any share purchase agreement
TiL stated that one of the main reasons the club have given for going for J12 as opposed to J10 was the money raised from activities at the stadium. They pointed out the scenario of the club being given planning permission for J12 and the current board then selling the club for a very handsome profit, leading to the danger of the new owners not investing all stadium profits back into the club, as could happen without some form of binding agreement in place. Mitchell pointed out that existing agreements had some protection in them to minimise such an event occurring.
The Trust also stressed their concern at the apparent lack of a Plan B, should planning permission not be given for the greenbelt site at J12, as it would almost certainly be referred to central government. Mitchell said the club could consider looking at the proposed new motorway junction 11a if planning permission was rejected at J12, but hadn’t actually had any formal discussions with the various landowners about building a stadium at this location, and does not believe that this is practical until at least the development at J11a is being progressed, which will not be until at least 2015/16 which Luton Council seem to have confirmed.
Mitchell suggested that all the different supporters’ groups should get together to form a collective of representatives to meet with him regularly, thereby allowing each group to communicate their point of view, at the same time allowing each group to maintain there own independence and for him to feedback to them all at once.
We agree that the different supporters’ groups should increase the level of interaction, and hopefully we can make some moves towards this in the very near future. A lot of supporters are actually members of more than one group and we all ultimately share the same goals. However, the main supporters’ groups, TiL, Loyal Luton Supporters Club (LLSC) and Luton Town Supporters Club (LTSC) exist for differing reasons and each group has its own distinct personality. We certainly do not want to destroy that or create just a single supporters’ body.
TiL acknowledge that the club desperately needs a new stadium, and ideally that would be within, or very close to, Luton’s borders. The Club will list all the pros and cons of the three M1 junction sites, as they see them, in this Saturday’s match day magazine. It would appear they believe that there is little option regarding alternative sites, in particular as this has been looked at for many years. Of course, the club’s case for J12 is very strong, but why no firm Plan B? Mitchell said the club believed it had a good chance of getting the go ahead for J12. Also, TiL believes that the land and stadium should both be held by the club. Mitchell said that the Club was conscious regarding a fall back position and that Junction 11a could well be that, however, in the meantime the Club has to survive and can not just wait around, which he stated had happened for the past 25 years. “We have put a line in the sand and made a decision, it may not be the choice of everyone but at least we are looking to ensure we secure the clubs long term future as soon as possible” he added.
With regards to David Franks’s letter in this week’s Luton News, we find it shameful that Luton Borough Council has done so little, both now and historically, to assist the club in its relocation. You only have to look at the assistance with relocation that other councils, such as Hull, have given to their local clubs to see what can be achieved if councils are willing to work with their football club to create a sporting facility that the whole town/city can be proud of. With the local elections coming up in May, hopefully Hatters fans will bear this in mind when casting their vote. The council does have a key role to play and are not as pro active as all fans would like them to be. For Franks to state that the Council can only have a minor role, seems to ignore the influence other councils have in assisting their clubs to relocate.
Whilst a football club is a private company and the legal owners are the shareholders, because of its unique role the moral owners are the fans, and the club and council need to address the supporter’s concerns at this critical time, as without a new stadium we believe the very future of the club it is in jeopardy.