At Thursday night Football Club AGM Chairman Barrie Hubbard read out the following statement regarding the latest situation about the new stadium.
"The new stadium project has been at the forefront of our minds for the last four years. On many occasions I have thought like some of you here that moving from Saltergate would never happen. But last July we at last received full planning permission for the site.
The four month judicial review elapsed and an agreement was reached with the land owners Wilson & Bowden for the Football Club to pay a proportion of the cost for the diversion of a main sewer and diverting electricity cables plus other remediation.
All the remediation work would cost the Football Club over half a million pounds. However we have been very fortunate that the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) agreed to help the Football Club pay for these works. Without the EMDA assistance the Football Club would have struggled to finance this work.
The land owners initially told us that the work on the diversions and service road etc would be completed by the end of November 2008. In fact work was finally completed just after the New Year. We now hope to receive the transfer documents and the sale agreement within the next few weeks. After they are signed at long last the Football Club will own the ten acre site on which the new stadium will be built.
In July when planning permission was passed we thought we had all the finances in place we then hit a brick wall. The company purchasing Saltergate informed us that due to the housing market being non-existent they would have to reduce the agreed sale price. Whilst we had what we thought was a legal agreement for the sale of Saltergate the advice we received was that the contract was virtually impossible to enforce.
Therefore overnight the funding the Club Board had worked so hard to find now had a short fall of 1.8 million pounds.
The quantity surveyor working for the football club on the stadium project had already started to send out tender documents. At the time he estimated the Stadium build without the East Stand extension would cost 13.8 million pounds. After the fall in value of Saltergate we then had 12 million pounds funding and hence the 1.8 million shortfall.
We eagerly awaited the tender documents to be returned and then opened. We then found that for just under the Surveyors original estimate of 13.8 million pounds we could actually also fully build the East Stand and extension.
The decision then was to either take out the East Stand / Community Stand or continue with it and face a short fall. We decided the latter.
At Mondays CFSS meeting a proposal from the Football Club was made. The proposal is that the Football Club is asking CFSS members to sell its holding of 230,000 shares in the Football Club. This money would then be put towards the building of the Community Stand. I believe that the proposal will be sent to CFSS members for approval shortly. A positive response to this ballet would give a strong indication that the Football Club made the right decision in insisting that the Community Stand be left in the build budget.
On Wednesday this week the Building Development team met and using the latest price data for the stadium came to a new figure of 13 million pounds for the full build. A further fall of £800,000 on the original cost.
We still have to make sure that costs don't exceed funding so there is still away to go there. A further meeting and value engineering exercise is arranged for early February when suggestions regarding cost savings will be discussed.
We are still trying to obtain further funding from grants.
We still have someone prepared to purchase 4 million shares at £1 each.
Speaking to him this week I can say that I have a full commitment from him but he currently still wishes to remain anonymous. Both he and I are of the opinion that Chesterfield Football Club with its new stadium has the potential to be a Championship Club and the ability to sustain such a position when its achieved.
Obviously he will join the board but has no ambition to become chairman. Initially I will carry on as Chairman and the present board of directors will remain. At this time I must thank the Directors for the time and effort they have put into this project which as been more demanding than any of us ever imagined.
Obviously the Directors of the Football Club wish to relocate to the new stadium and with the new investors are looking for positive vibes from its shareholders. I know this will happen as the vast majority realise that moving is our only way forward.
If it means that the CFSS sell their 4.6% stake of the new issued capital to help achieve this then the eight years the CFSS have been involved with the club will go down as a major contribution to the long term future of Chesterfield Football Club
We are hoping to sign the transfer and sale documents shortly, then the building contracts can be agreed and signed. Ordering of materials would then commence. The Stadium build will still take fifty weeks and we are hoping that the stadium will be completed by June 2010"
