BY DOUG THOMSON
OLDHAM chairman Bill Quinn says the completion of a ten-year agreement to stay at Boundary Park is a major milestone for the ambitious League One club with a Super League spot in their long-term sights.
The Roughyeds, last year taken over by new owners spearheaded by former player and coach Mike Ford, have groundshared with the town’s National League (fifth tier) football club Oldham Athletic since the start of this season.
Being at Boundary Park, where there are plans to expand existing community use, also helps tick more boxes in terms of meeting IMG’s new grading criteria regarding facilities and infrastructure.
For their most recent spells in the Championship, the Roughyeds used Stalybridge Celtic Football Club’s 6,500-capacity Bower Fold, six miles away.
Rugby League was played at Boundary Park at various times between 1997, after the original Oldham club left their own ground Watersheddings before going bankrupt in the wake of relegation from Super League, and 2009.
The deal to play there this year followed a change in ownership of the football club to the local Rothwell family.
The stadium holds 13,500 and has a state-of-the-art pitch recently laid at a cost of £1 million.
Quinn said: “This agreement is probably one of the most important things for the future of this Rugby League club.
“To grow the club and to reach our goals, without the Rothwells and without Boundary Park, is almost impossible.”
Latics chief executive Darren Royle called the deal “a huge agreement” which was enabled by the stable ownerships of both clubs.
He believes it will help develop the clubs from both a business and sporting perspective.
Latics director Luke Rothwell said: “We want people to have a positive image of this site, and this is the start.
“The thing about this place, the opportunities are frightening, and there are more opportunities coming all the time.”
Quinn added: “We’re always willing to talk to each other and to understand each other’s situations.
“There will be challenges, and we’ve already had challenges, but the most important thing is, as Oldhamers, we have the same vision for Oldham, the same vision for the pitch, the same vision for business.
“Whether it’s getting the Roughyeds into the Super League, whether it’s the Latics moving back up the divisions in football, it really would be a legacy that we could look back on and say ‘look what we did together, look what we achieved’.”
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