Club agree stadium buy-out deal

It has been described as a "win" for the club and Stoke town

Stoke City Football Club have reached an outline agreement to take full control of their ground, the Britannia Stadium, in a £6m deal.

It would buy out the city council, which wants to invest in Stoke town centre, where traders "suffered" when the old Victoria Ground disappeared.

The council would receive £5m and Stoke on Trent Regeneration Ltd £1m.

The deal has been agreed by the council's executive and will go before full council on Thursday next week.

The authority contributed £3.1m a decade ago.

Community facilities

The football club's chairman Peter Coates told their website: "This will give us the opportunity to further develop the club and the stadium as one.

"With ownership secure it can be a catalyst for carrying out improvements in the stadium that will benefit supporters."

The council would receive £4.5m in cash and at least £500,000 in new community facilities at the stadium.

Labour's elected mayor, Mark Meredith, described the news as a "win" for the football club, the council and the regeneration of Stoke town.

He said: "We want to make sure that we bring jobs back to Stoke... maybe housing as a mixture and we want to encourage private sector investment into the centre of Stoke."

The city council spokesman said: "Our investment kick-started the regeneration of an area, Trentham Lakes, which was the site of a former coal mine.

"Now there are more jobs at Trentham Lakes than there were when the coal mine was open."

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