Yorkshire Evening Post 12/10/08
We're the envy of football – Bates
By Phil Hay
Leeds United's reward for buying back their Thorp Arch training ground will be the continued production of young talent which is already the envy of most English clubs, according to chairman Ken Bates.
United are preparing to unveil a scheme which will give their supporters the opportunity to raise the money needed to repurchase their training complex near Wetherby, which was sold to private property developers in 2004 and is rented by Leeds at an annual cost of almost £500,000.
The Elland Road club have a 25-year lease on the facility, running until 2029, but a buy-back clause agreed when Thorp Arch was sold amid a backdrop of rising debts will expire next October, leaving Leeds with 12 months to secure the £6m required to regain ownership of the property.
The state-of-the-art complex has long been a crucial factor in United's attempts to secure major signings, but Thorp Arch also houses the club's academy and is witnessing another flood of players from the youth-team ranks to the first-team squad.
Aidan White and Fabian Delph have both completed that transition this season, following several others into United's senior pool, and the club's youth system remained largely unaffected while Leeds were fighting administration last summer.
Bates is hoping the supporter-investment scheme he has set in motion – the exact details of which will be revealed at a later date – will ensure that Leeds regain control of Thorp Arch and allow their academy to flourish in the future.
"Our academy is renowned throughout English football, and it's one of the most important parts of this club," said Bates.
"You've seen all the kids who are coming through and showing that they're good enough for the first team. That's because of the way we look after them. It's like a conveyor belt at the moment, and a lot of clubs look at that with a great deal of envy.
"If you work out the average age of guys like Fabian Delph, Aidan White and the others who've come through in the last couple of years, you get a figure around 18. We want the same to be happening in 10 years' time and 20 years' time, and that's why we need to make sure that the academy belongs to the club again.
"It's obviously a first-class training facility for the senior players as well, and the first thing we do with potential new signings is take them to Thorp Arch to let them see exactly what they'll be getting if they sign for us.
"That's where the squad work for most of the week, and it's a real magnet for players who are thinking about coming here."
United's training ground was built at great expense, and the club are still paying out heavily to fund the rent agreed when the complex was sold four years ago by the Leeds board fronted by ex-chairman Gerald Krasner.
The cost of the lease on Thorp Arch rises by three per cent every year, and the annual rent charged of United is currently around £485,000.
Krasner and his board agreed a buy-back option with Jacob Adler, the Manchester-based property developer who bought Thorp Arch in 2004, and the agreement is valued at 12 times the rate of the property's rent, leaving United facing a bill of around £6m to repurchase their training facility.
Unlike Elland Road, which was also sold in 2004 but has a lease and a buy-back agreement which run until 2029, Thorp Arch's repurchase clause expires in October 2009, and the investment scheme which Leeds are preparing to put to their fans is an ambitious attempt to raise the necessary seven-figure sum.
It is understood that supporters will be given the chance to buy units or shares in Thorp Arch with the promise that their investment will be refunded with interest at a future date.
Bates has asked two Leeds-based businessman to draw up a finance plan, and the scheme will be run independently of United's chairman in an attempt to guarantee its transparency and success.
Bates confirmed that a major financial institution would be asked to monitor the project and act as a trustee for the investment made by the club's fans.
The 76-year-old said: "This is something I'd been thinking about for a while and it moved on after I discussed it with a friend of mine who's also a Leeds fan and a major businessman.
"One of the first things he said was that any scheme needs to be run totally independently of me and the club, and I agree with him. Supporters who've got any reservations about me personally need to be able to see that this is for the benefit of the club and not Ken Bates. I won't have any control over it.
"These businessmen are putting the plans together and we'll have a major bank or financial institution behind it to make sure that everything it totally transparent, above board and successful."
