Stadium to get more cash from taxpayer

Doncaster Council is to pump a further £170,000 into an arms-length company running the Keepmoat Stadium only six months after an emergency £300,000 bail-out was agreed.

It is also understood that ongoing negotiations to pass control of the stadium, which opened in 2006, to the town’s football club are likely to result in a long-term lease agreement with Doncaster Rovers.

The Stadium Management Company (SMC), which is owned by the council, currently receives an annual rental payment of £281,000 from Rovers but the local authority may have to accept less under a lease agreement to persuade the club to take on a loss-making operation.

The stadium complex also includes leisure facilities but the SMC has been unable to reap commercial benefits, instead accumulating losses of £2m.

The council, which financed the stadium’s construction, agreed to fund a £300,000 loan last June to stop the company defaulting. But a report to the council’s cabinet, which meets tomorrow, says a further £170,000 will now be needed to keep the SMC running until May.

It is understood that providing funding until the end of the football season would provide an appropriate opportunity for Doncaster Rovers to take control.

A long-term lease of at least 50 years is under consideration with the council looking to build-in safeguards to protect community usage plus the continued use of the stadium for rugby league and women’s football.

Rovers’ chairman John Ryan said he was hopeful negotiations would succeed. He added: “It is a loss-making operation and we would have to turn it back into profit. We already have a loss-making operation in Doncaster Rovers and we don’t want to make it worse.”

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