Sports City plans revealed

Ambitious plans for a multi-million pound Sports City have been unveiled by Athletic. The plan includes indoor and outdoor football pitches, tennis courts and an athletics track. The idea is to replace Boundary Park with a £20 million, 20,000 seater stadium which will be jointly shared by the Latics and Oldham Roughyeds. Government money is essential to make the complex a reality but support is already there. Sports City funding would be separate from Athletic’s stadium plan, which the “Three Amigos” are to fund from their own pockets.

Simon Corney (pictured) explained, “A Sports City might sound ambitious, but the benefits for Oldham would be tremendous. Mr. Caborn (Government minister) agreed that the borough as a whole lacked facilities, and he said the Government would help us to implement them. Everyone is talking about the regeneration of Oldham and, as other towns have shown, sport should be at the heart of that. Giving people this sort of facility is integral to building a better environment and making Oldham a good place to live. Our ideas, especially for the sports complex, are at a fairly early stage, but we are trying to advance them quickly with the council and other bodies. We have consulted lots of people and heard lots of suggestions for what the town needs. It’s these we are trying to act on, and the Government’s willingness to help means we can press ahead.”