Northampton Town: Land deal 'protects club's future'

Land around Sixfields Stadium will be used for warehousing

A land deal to secure the completion of a long-awaited football stand will protect Northampton Town's future, according to the club chairman.

An agreement between the club and West Northamptonshire Council will allow development around Sixfields Stadium and see the East Stand finished.

The stand was originally supposed to be refurbished with a £10.25m loan, but work stalled in 2014.

Northampton Town chairman Kelvin Thomas said: "It's a good deal all round."

The deal is the result of long-running negotiations between the club and the council.

Cobblers' chairman Kelvin Thomas said acquiring land around Sixfields Stadium gave Northampton Town a strong asset

The local authority, and predecessor Northampton Borough Council, has always insisted work on the stand had to be finished before land next to the stadium could be sold to the club.

The borough council had loaned money to the club for the stadium development, but the money went missing and contractors were left unpaid.

The new deal will see the council sell the land, which will be developed for warehousing, to the football club for £890,000.

It stipulates this will not happen until the East Stand development is finished.

Mr Thomas said: "The key for us was to get a deal to protect the football club in the future.

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"The reality is the football club never had that land. We now look at it and it is a significant asset for the club.

"If we have to use those assets to fund part of the development of the club, that's what we will do."

Mr Thomas said the stand was likely to cost around £3m and build time will be between four and six months.

Northampton Town Football Club borrowed money from Northampton Borough Council to improve its stadium, but the East Stand has never been finished

He said although it's not "going to have diamond studded walls or anything like that, it's definitely going to be of a standard fans will be excited about".

Speaking to BBC Radio Northampton, Mr Thomas said he could not put a date on when work on either the stand or the land around the stadium would start.

He said conversations with contractors still have to take place.

The deal is also dependent on the council's cabinet given it a final sign-off on 7 December.