OLDHAM star Jordan Turner says being based at Boundary Park is a cornerstone of the club’s blueprint to build a bright future – and a big plus with the players.
The promoted Roughyeds will kick off their first Championship campaign since 2021 by hosting York, then Batley, on successive Sundays (February 16 and 23 respectively).
That’s after a Challenge Cup third-round clash with Barrow at Boundary Park for Sean Long’s side this Sunday.
Oldham are returning to the second tier in much better shape than they left it, with the club being taken over by new owners spearheaded by former player and coach Mike Ford in March 2023.
Last season the Roughyeds left the town’s much-smaller Vestacare (Whitebank) Stadium to move in with Oldham Athletic Football Club at their 13,000-capacity home, where a new stand was opened in 2015 and a new pitch laid in May.
The previously-nomadic Rugby League side have a ten-year agreement to play back at the venue, which was used at various times between 1997 and 2009, after the original Oldham club left their own ground Watersheddings before going bankrupt in the wake of relegation from Super League.
While playing at the Vestacare Stadium (which currently hosts Northern Premier League football club Avro) when in League One, Oldham used Stalybridge Celtic Football Club’s 6,500-capacity Bower Fold, six miles away, during their last Championship stint.
Oldham-born centre Turner, one of a number of former Super League players in a squad which now includes Australian halfback Josh Drinkwater, said: “Boundary Park is a great place to play.
“I know moving there was a big part of what the club wants to do in terms of growing the support base, sponsorship and commercial side.
“But I think it has also helped attract the kind of players we have here now because of the facilities and the quality of the surface. It has really elevated our professionalism.”