The Reebok - How was it funded?

[Laurie]

Hello Bolton fans,

I've visited this board as I would like some clarification on how the Reebok Stadium was funded.

I'm doing some research into 'community funded' stadia, and the name of the Reebok has come up. As far as I was aware the stadium was funded by the club and Reebok, hence the naming rights, but a report conducted into the feasibility of a joint venture between Edinburgh Council and Hearts apparently cited Bolton's Reekon stadium and Hull's KC Stadium as good examples of recent successes.

Now Hull's ground is very easy to check out, the KC stadium was almost entirely funded by the council - £42m of the overall £44/45m cost. The Reebok seems a little more mysterious, and I've yet to come across anything that shows how the costs were spread. It seems that overall it cost £35m, but does anyone know where this money came from, in terms of how much the club paid, how much Reebok paid and how much, if any, the council paid?

If anyone knows, and has a link to any further info, that would be much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,

Laurie

[Hoboh]

Hello Bolton fans,

I've visited this board as I would like some clarification on how the Reebok Stadium was funded.

I'm doing some research into 'community funded' stadia, and the name of the Reebok has come up. As far as I was aware the stadium was funded by the club and Reebok, hence the naming rights, but a report conducted into the feasibility of a joint venture between Edinburgh Council and Hearts apparently cited Bolton's Reekon stadium and Hull's KC Stadium as good examples of recent successes.

Now Hull's ground is very easy to check out, the KC stadium was almost entirely funded by the council - £42m of the overall £44/45m cost. The Reebok seems a little more mysterious, and I've yet to come across anything that shows how the costs were spread. It seems that overall it cost £35m, but does anyone know where this money came from, in terms of how much the club paid, how much Reebok paid and how much, if any, the council paid?

If anyone knows, and has a link to any further info, that would be much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,

Laurie

Don't know about £35 mill mate it seems to cost more than that reportedly and I'm not sure if its paid for yet tbh

[bobo the clown]

It was robbed.

[TANGODANCER]

Hello Bolton fans,

I've visited this board as I would like some clarification on how the Reebok Stadium was funded.

Laurie

Why don't you just approach the club? I'm sure they'll give you any information that's in the public domain.

[bobo the clown]

Hello Bolton fans,

I've visited this board as I would like some clarification on how the Reebok Stadium was funded.

Laurie

Why don't you just approach the club? I'm sure they'll give you any information that's in the public domain.

But they won't admit they robbed it, Tango.

[Laurie]

Hello Bolton fans,

I've visited this board as I would like some clarification on how the Reebok Stadium was funded.

Laurie

Why don't you just approach the club? I'm sure they'll give you any information that's in the public domain.

I emailed the club, haven't had a reply yet. I've trawled a lot of sites on the net and it just seems that very little was released about the specifics behind the funding, whereas other similar projects have the figures available very clearly.

[boltonboris]

Hello Bolton fans,

I've visited this board as I would like some clarification on how the Reebok Stadium was funded.

Laurie

Why don't you just approach the club? I'm sure they'll give you any information that's in the public domain.

I emailed the club, haven't had a reply yet. I've trawled a lot of sites on the net and it just seems that very little was released about the specifics behind the funding, whereas other similar projects have the figures available very clearly.

My understanding of it was that it was a joint venture between Bolton council and Burnden Leisure, with the club paying leesing costs for the Councils portion.

But I then thought that Eddie Davies bought it outright?

[jaffka]

does the club own all of the middlebrook site?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

First I've heard of the council putting owt toward it

[bobo the clown]

First I've heard of the council putting owt toward it

... that'll be because it's bollox. They singularly refused to do so ... & tbh, correctly so.

... & ref. the other question, I believe that Burnden Leisure owns the land that Middlebrook (maybe Tesco) is on and is landlord to all the businesses on it.

[scotty]

First I've heard of the council putting owt toward it

... & ref. the other question, I believe that Burnden Leisure owns the land that Middlebrook (maybe Tesco) is on and is landlord to all the businesses on it.

Not sure that bit is true TBH. Orbit Developments owns a lot of the property/offices around Middlebrook. IIRC, Burden Leisure did own a bit of land surrounding the Reebok, but sold it off when we were faced with going into administration around 1999.

Back to the original question, I dont think the council had any financial input into the building of the stadium. I believe there were some EU grants available though, which were not available if we would have stayed at Burnden and redeveloped the ground there, and that the amount of money was significant enough to be a factor in the move out of town. Similarly, I don't believe that Reebok had any financial input into the building of the stadium but have obviously stumped up a sizeable amount of money by sponsoring it for the past 14 years.

[Hoboh]

I believe the council along with the highways mob stumped up for the road structure along with improvements to the motorway junction

[CrazyHorse]

So basically nobody has a clue then.

[Prufrock]

I paid for it. With jam jars. And milk bottle tops. PM for details.

[Hoboh]

It wasn't the EU who funded the stadium put £5 mill into the middlebrook developement according to this;

http://www.eurofundingnw.org.uk/downloa ... change.PDF" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

These people were involved;

http://www.stadiarena.com/our-team.stadium_construction" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A bit from wikki;

"It is a modern, all-seater stadium with a capacity of 28,723 which was completed in 1997, replacing the club's old ground, Burnden Park. Despite the improved facilities and larger capacity (and resultant larger ticket revenues), this move was unpopular with many of the club's fans. This was partly due to the new stadium being built out-of-town, and partly due to sentimental attachment to the old stadium and its history. In recognition of this, the street on which the stadium is situated is called Burnden Way.

The lead consultant/architect of the project was Lobb Sports, but the local firm of Bradshaw Gass & Hope acted as planning supervisors and quantity surveyors. The value of the contract was £25 million.[5] The stadium is noted for its distinct gabled architecture.

The stadium was opened on 1 September 1997 by the recently appointed Labour Party deputy prime minister John Prescott".

Bit from the clubsite, talk about inflation gone up £10 mill!!!!

http://www.bwfc.co.uk/page/StudentInfor ... 76,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another bit seems to back up the £25 mill price tag;

http://www.bghbolton.co.uk/Leisure_ReebokStadium.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Possible future owners?

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/Hanwha ... 0.html?x=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not strictly on topic but interesting;

http://www.panstadia.com/pages/vol9/92-026.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Found this in another piece about Fletcher;

Reebok Stadium, Bolton

Opened 1 September 1997, Bolton v Everton.

Capacity 28,000.

Cost £45m.

Site size 200 acres.

Naming rights Reebok paid £2m over 10 years for them.

Construction length 15 months

Reebok seem to have got a good deal out of it mind we were cash strapped at the time also found out Bolton council visited Huddersfield project before the reebok was built so it seems there was some council involvement although it may have been on the planing side as opposed to cash injections

[CAPSLOCK]

Was supposed to be funded by the sale of Burnden

Didn't happen as policy on 'out of town' development was changed

An unmitigated fcuk up

[officer_dibble]

Good old pps6!

[bw@bw]

Was it not done in phases?

IIRC the original stadium cost was about £25m but that did not include the hotel, and was only for about 23,000.
I would not be surprised if the land was extra

Subsequently the hotel was added, as well as more seats and I would not be surprised if that bumped the cost up by £10m or so.

I suspect the rest is rolled up interest.

[bobo the clown]

I suspect the rest is rolled up interest.

... on Wonga.com with an initail loan of £1m is now £90m

[Andy Waller]

Should have rung bells when we got that fat turd to open it.