All the threes

John Tanner has announced that he expects the full legal agreement with Firoz Kassam will be signed in about three weeks. This deal will ratify the land transfer from the City Council to Kassam's companies, including the new Stadium Company which will own the stadium and conference centre, the hotel company and the leisure company. Kassam has stated that the leisure complex will include the multiplex cinema, ten-pin bowling, bingo and restaurants, however the agreement also contains the clause that work cannot commence on the leisure development until the new stadium is occupied. The hotel can be built in conjunction with the stadium. It is envisaged that a token presence of workers, from whichever of three contractors wins the tender, should be on site almost as soon as the final agreement is signed to begin reparative work on the structure, which should take about a month before new work actually begins. Kassam is confident that the stadium will be ready before next season.
The stadium will initially comprise of the three sides already begun, with a capacity of 13,000. The fourth stand is scheduled to be built, with a health and fitness centre underneath, when finances and demand dictate. Check out FOUL Latest News for more detail and FOUL's spin.
Richard Giles, the Council's Head of Estates, has also announced that a provisional agreement has been reached with Thames Water for a compensatory payment for the breaking of the covenant which only allowed for leisure use on the Minchery Farm stadium site (and also the site where the Greater Leys housing estate has been built, but that's another story!). This is yet another obstacle close to being overcome in this long, involved saga of Oxford United and its hunt for a new ground, which has so far lasted at least thirty five years! Rage Online now believes that the two remaining obstacles, Pentith's judicial review and Les Wells' caution, are now either irrelevant or close to being resolved, leaving the way totally clear for some totally unforeseen problem to arise!