Bolton to sell Euxton to Preston North End?

Latest from BWFC and Neil Lennon confirms Preston have looked around the training ground with view to buying. No other movement on takeover

(Tweet from David Pye of the Bolton News)


Iles tweet -

To confirm: #pnefc officials have looked at #bwfc training ground at Euxton with a view to a sale. Follow @davidpyeBN for more news.


Also -

RE: training ground, Peter Risdale was at Euxton in November - his appearance explained by club at time as player loan related.

and


RE training ground. I think this is still worst case scenario, though.

how much would we get for it though and were would they train then? Also where have PNE got money from?

The asset stripping starts here 

Can't see this one happening. PNE don't need it so why waste the dosh? They've got a pretty decent training facility of their own if memory serves.

Not good is it.

karlypants wrote:Not good is it.

karly I really don't think this is true mate. Maybe they did have a peek a while ago but PNE aren't rich enough to buy a place they don't really need and Euxton isn't much better than where they train now. Seriously, while I do think it maybe sold off at some point I can't see it being bought by another Championship club with little or no money. If anyone were to buy it I would suspect it would more likely be Blackburn Rovers as their training ground was worse than a council park pitch last time I saw it. And the Venky's aren't going to splurge on a place they might get for pittance later because the owner's in admin. 

I know I'm usually first to the dark side of all these rumours but in this case I think it's nothing to worry about......


Now just watch Trevor Birch announce it's been sold to PNE for two cups of tea and half a hobnob.

Norpig and LPP - this is from a post on Wanderersways - I've no reason to doubt what it says -

Hemmings [Preston Chairman] owns Chorley / Euxton and everything else in and around that area (and Blackpool tower). He must also own PNE training ground by a golf club up Blackpool Rd. Suspect he would shunt the PNE lot from current one to Euxton and build luxury homes on the former site.

Lostock [where the Bolton kids train] (from what ive seen) is fecking huge with development land around. I would suspect players changing in a portacabin rather than a brick building will have little effect. It may even be better long term for first team and young ens to have more interaction of train nearby.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:

karlypants wrote:Not good is it.

karly I really don't think this is true mate. Maybe they did have a peek a while ago but PNE aren't rich enough to buy a place they don't really need and Euxton isn't much better than where they train now. Seriously, while I do think it maybe sold off at some point I can't see it being bought by another Championship club with little or no money. If anyone were to buy it I would suspect it would more likely be Blackburn Rovers as their training ground was worse than a council park pitch last time I saw it. And the Venky's aren't going to splurge on a place they might get for pittance later because the owner's in admin. 

I know I'm usually first to the dark side of all these rumours but in this case I think it's nothing to worry about......


Now just watch Trevor Birch announce it's been sold to PNE for two cups of tea and half a hobnob.

Sorry mate, I think we posted at the same time as I didn't see your message.

The only thing is, where will our players train if this is was to be the case?

Sluffy wrote:Lostock [where the Bolton kids train] (from what ive seen) is fecking huge with development land around. I would suspect players changing in a portacabin rather than a brick building will have little effect. It may even be better long term for first team and young ens to have more interaction of train nearby.

Well that's answered my question.

i've never seen the academy to be honest but i know its fairly new. If there's room for everyone there it would make sense

I'd forgotten Trevor Hemmings was their chairman. He used to be (might still be) on the board at Chorley and he knows this area very well. He should given he owns most of it. Damn, that adds a very unwelcome credibility to this idea. Sluffy, do you know who owns the land at Euxton? Is it us or do we rent/lease it from someone else?

Hang on a minute! I mentioned this rumour a few days ago on another thread and everyone said there was no chance of it being true and listed their reasons the main one being that PNE have a sound training ground already.

Now the rumour re-emerges and it has grown some credibility?

Doesn't make sense.


(Breaking News - staff to be paid/post 5)

wanderlust wrote:Hang on a minute! I mentioned this rumour a few days ago on another thread and everyone said there was no chance of it being true and listed their reasons the main one being that PNE have a sound training ground already.

Now the rumour re-emerges and it has grown some credibility?

Doesn't make sense.

lusty, it's because of Trevor Hemmings mate. I admit to being a plank who forgot he was involved with PNE. He owns a ton of land around here (I live in Chorley) and used to be the chairman of Chorley Football Club. Basically he is deeply involved in the area and could see the acquisition of Euxton as a good way to link up to property he owns already. He might not even use it as a training ground because I suspect CBC would say yes if he asked for permission to build some low cost housing on it. Without his involvement I would be the first to say no chance but now I think it may not be PNE who want it at all just their chairman. And he can easily afford it if the club is willing to sell it to an individual rather than another club.

The rumour has been reiterated in the breaking article about the High Court Order:



WANDERERS have been given the go ahead to carry on trading until mid January by a High Court registrar.

The club’s financial advisor Trevor Birch said an order issued in London by the High Court yesterday will allow them to stay in business providing they can ‘realise’ cash by selling either the club or some of its assets.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] are due to answer a winding up petition in court on January 18, but this latest order gives them some breathing space.

It has been revealed that league rivals Preston North End have expressed an interest in buying the club’s [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] complex at Euxton.

Trevor Birch said: “The court has given us consent to carry on trading up to the winding up petition date of January 18, providing we can realise some cash by either the sale of the club or assets.”



[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Here's a radical proposal - howzabout Bolton Wanderers invest in a training ground in BOLTON and PNE do the same in PRESTON - who the fuck runs these multi-national conglomerates? or thats what they seem to think they are these day, no wonder the fans seem so alienated and disenfranchised - the clubs themselves seem to want to abandon their history and roots at the drop of a hat and call it 'progress', well I think its short sighted and once again puttting more and more distance between themselves and their (soon to be) main source of income - because we sure as hell aint going to be on telly too often in the near future.

Alf Hooker wrote:Here's a radical proposal - howzabout Bolton Wanderers invest in a training ground in BOLTON and PNE do the same in PRESTON - who the fuck runs these multi-national conglomerates? or thats what they seem to think they are these day, no wonder the fans seem so alienated and disenfranchised - the clubs themselves seem to want to abandon their history and roots at the drop of a hat and call it 'progress', well I think its short sighted and once again puttting more and more distance between themselves and their (soon to be) main source of income - because we sure as hell aint going to be on telly too often in the near future.

Alf, I can see the attraction of the Euxton site for Hemmings in particular as he already owns quite a lot of property around there. It's on brownfield land and although I can't claim to know anything I wouldn't be at all surprised if he's thinking about buying it for his own companies rather than PNE with a view to redeveloping it as low cost housing or something similar. Chorley Borough Council would imo view such a proposal favourably, especially given the government's stated policy of building something around 2 million new homes in the next ten years. The euxton site as you probably know is sandwiched between other housing so it wouldn't be like it was necessary to build much in the way of infrastructure such as roads and so on to make it a viable area for more.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:

Alf Hooker wrote:Here's a radical proposal - howzabout Bolton Wanderers invest in a training ground in BOLTON and PNE do the same in PRESTON - who the fuck runs these multi-national conglomerates? or thats what they seem to think they are these day, no wonder the fans seem so alienated and disenfranchised - the clubs themselves seem to want to abandon their history and roots at the drop of a hat and call it 'progress', well I think its short sighted and once again puttting more and more distance between themselves and their (soon to be) main source of income - because we sure as hell aint going to be on telly too often in the near future.

Alf, I can see the attraction of the Euxton site for Hemmings in particular as he already owns quite a lot of property around there. It's on brownfield land and although I can't claim to know anything I wouldn't be at all surprised if he's thinking about buying it for his own companies rather than PNE with a view to redeveloping it as low cost housing or something similar. Chorley Borough Council would imo view such a proposal favourably, especially given the government's stated policy of building something around 2 million new homes in the next ten years. The euxton site as you probably know is sandwiched between other housing so it wouldn't be like it was necessary to build much in the way of infrastructure such as roads and so on to make it a viable area for more.

LPP - I get all that about redevelopment etc. and most probably for his personal empire rather than PNEs, my main gripe is that Bolton Wanderers couldn't find a piece of ground worth developing in Bolton initially. We are/were a 'town' team, not a 'big four brand' but the idiots that run the club seem intent on dislocating the connection between the club and the fans - yes we do have a few supporters scattered nationally and internationally but by far the majorityof the fans are Bolton based, the club would do well to remember that and should nurture the links not try to sever them

Alf Hooker wrote:

luckyPeterpiper wrote:

Alf Hooker wrote:Here's a radical proposal - howzabout Bolton Wanderers invest in a training ground in BOLTON and PNE do the same in PRESTON - who the fuck runs these multi-national conglomerates? or thats what they seem to think they are these day, no wonder the fans seem so alienated and disenfranchised - the clubs themselves seem to want to abandon their history and roots at the drop of a hat and call it 'progress', well I think its short sighted and once again puttting more and more distance between themselves and their (soon to be) main source of income - because we sure as hell aint going to be on telly too often in the near future.

Alf, I can see the attraction of the Euxton site for Hemmings in particular as he already owns quite a lot of property around there. It's on brownfield land and although I can't claim to know anything I wouldn't be at all surprised if he's thinking about buying it for his own companies rather than PNE with a view to redeveloping it as low cost housing or something similar. Chorley Borough Council would imo view such a proposal favourably, especially given the government's stated policy of building something around 2 million new homes in the next ten years. The euxton site as you probably know is sandwiched between other housing so it wouldn't be like it was necessary to build much in the way of infrastructure such as roads and so on to make it a viable area for more.

LPP - I get all that about redevelopment etc. and most probably for his personal empire rather than PNEs, my main gripe is that Bolton Wanderers couldn't find a piece of ground worth developing in Bolton initially. We are/were a 'town' team, not a 'big four brand' but the idiots that run the club seem intent on dislocating the connection between the club and the fans - yes we do have a few supporters scattered nationally and internationally but by far the majorityof the fans are Bolton based, the club would do well to remember that and should nurture the links not try to sever them

I think that relationships between the club and the Council were soured after the move from Burnden. It may only be rumour but I heard that the Council thwarted plans for Burnden's redevelopment which slowed the sale causing the club having to pay huge interest on the bridging loans they'd taken to build the Reebok. Perhaps that has something to do with it if true?

The story at the time was that the construction of the Reebok would be self-funding through the development and sale of the retail units at Middlebrook.

Does anybody know if that was actually the case?

If I remember correctly the big problem was that the plan was to sell the land at Burnden to finance a new development at the Middlebrook - which they had commenced with - was stopped in its tracks when the government introduced new planning regulations on large out of town shopping developments -  which basically put on hold the whole plan and led to all sorts of funding problems.

The land at Burnden was eventually sold but for a fraction of the cost it was valued at before the introduction of the new planning regs. This together with the cost of unexpected and unplanned for borrowing to build the stadium (the plan was to finance it from the land sale at Burnden - but with the new planning constraints they could not sell it for what they had reasonably budgeted for) led to the unplanned for debt which shot up to something like £30 odd million.

This I think led to things like the sale of Fransen, Todd walking out, the appointment of Allardyce and the introduction of Davies to the club which within a few years he bought.

That's how I remember the events unfolding anyway.

Cheers Sluff.

So it seems that bastard Blair had a hand in our financial demise too, did he?

Never liked him, the sneaky little, rat-faced, pseudo-Tory bastard.