Apologies for the length of this post regarding the latest club mention of the redevelopment situation which came in their report from last night's fans consultancy evening.
Phil Garlick tweeted a summary of the meeting and this regarding the redevelopment. "East Stand lease issues are resolved. Agreement with council required for CDNL land (beyond athletics track) Athletics track will then be available for future ntfc development"
https://twitter.com/PGNTFC/status/1098865177448058880Now let's go back to the Thomas/Bower takeover where Thomas stated to the BBC the he and the new owners thought they were "going to spend £4million to complete the East Stand and on working capital". In the same interview Thomas talks about his partner David Bower who was "coming to the end of his development cycle and even then probably not on the large scale that was ever going to be required if we were to entertain the large scale retail and commercial development on the other side of the East Stand".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/34938496The Borough Council at the time made it clear that "to repay the debt, the council alone will move forward alone with the development of land around Sixfields". In the same story the Council mentioned a Memorandum Of Understanding it had signed with the club to that effect.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11739/10077594/northampton-town-takeover-moves-closerThe Council then responded to Thomas and Bower intent to sell the club in May of last year by stating
"Progress on the East Stand has been very much within the gift of the football club, and since taking control of the development company CDNL in 2017, the chairman has been in a position to control further adjacent land...
The chairman subsequently proposed inclusion of further land, which was not part of the original draft documentation...
However, the council has an obligation to ensure that any wider use of publicly owned land surrounding the stadium must be in the best interests of the taxpayers of Northampton, particularly proposed retail development outside of the town centre, and must go through proper due diligence to ensure the best value is obtained for the public purse."
https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/breaking-news-borough-council-hits-back-at-criticism-from-northampton-town-chairman-1-8509308The club have admitted that they have plans for land at sixfields outside the stadium footprint although no details have been as yet released. One would assume given the above that the Council alone would be responsible for the development of land outside the stadium and running track area or in absence of that to profit from it. One would assume that Thomas and Bower wouldn't entertain any development of wider CDNL land, especially large scale retail or commercial development.
Fwiw Thomas owns c10% of NTFC Ventures and c50% of CDNL.
Obviously the lack of detail is concerning given the club's history. Ive spoken to a couple of fans who are happy to trust Thomas and Bower to deliver something good for both the council and the club and fair play to them, it wouldn't surprise me if Thomas pulls something out of the bag but that is all it amounts to, trust.
Fair enough place your trust in someone but let's ask questions, let's be vigilant and bring our heads out of the stand. There's already a lot of talk about "finishing the stand". Cardoza wrecking the East Stand resulted in a capacity increase of c200 seats. Whether completing that structure is of benefit to the football club in the short-term let alone the medium is open to debate. That opens up a question of the future proofing of any work and the use of what will be once in a lifetime land. That again takes us back to whether Thomas and Bower ever really "saved" the club and who else was/would have been interested. As Thomas said, "If you told a lot of people the deal we ended up with there would have been 50 people in the room"
Apathy is dangerous. Believe there were fewer than 20 people in the club meeting on Thursday night.
