Do you imagine for a moment that Lomtadze, who is an intelligent, business savvy multi-billionaire, couldn't find a competent property lawyer to examine & negotiate the lease from UCL?
At the end of the day Harlington is owned by UCL & is their principle sports ground, so it makes sense that they would wish to retain some days for the student sports societies to use it, equally we are unlikely to need to use it at weekends for obvious reasons.
Dan was clear that we retain our rights to use Marlow Road, he was also clear that we will continue to explore opportunities to protect the club, which I took mean continuing to look for a plot of land the club can buy to build our own training & Academy facilities (hence the interest in Bearwood & London Irish).
I think we should at minimum respect their commitment to developing & protecting the future of the club.
Harlington is owned by Imperial College not University College. It's been their sport ground for a very long time, I doubt they are going to allow us to re-negotiate the lease to allow us exclusive use at any time.
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Not having first dibs, especially at weekends, I think has been mentioned before?
So we’ve spent a tonne of money, and we don’t have exclusivity! Someone didn’t read the small print in any contract agreement
Wasn't there talk on here recently of us trying to buy the old London Irish training ground?
Yes I believe so. I always assumed Harlington was a temporary solution but we have chucked a lot of cash at it.
Dan Rice was asked about this on the call and said we were no longer pursuing that option.
This is a non-issue.
Do you imagine for a moment that Lomtadze, who is an intelligent, business savvy multi-billionaire, couldn't find a competent property lawyer to examine & negotiate the lease from UCL?
At the end of the day Harlington is owned by UCL & is their principle sports ground, so it makes sense that they would wish to retain some days for the student sports societies to use it, equally we are unlikely to need to use it at weekends for obvious reasons.
Dan was clear that we retain our rights to use Marlow Road, he was also clear that we will continue to explore opportunities to protect the club, which I took mean continuing to look for a plot of land the club can buy to build our own training & Academy facilities (hence the interest in Bearwood & London Irish).
I think we should at minimum respect their commitment to developing & protecting the future of the club.
We are very likely TO need to use it at weekends for obvious reasons. I.e. that’s the time academy football is played.
I believe there are 18 grass pitches on the site so I'm sure ONE would be available for our Academy use at weekends!!!
Harlington is owned by Imperial College not University College. It's been their sport ground for a very long time, I doubt they are going to allow us to re-negotiate the lease to allow us exclusive use at any time.
@Twizz my bad - you are abolutely correct it is Imperial not UCL & as you say they are unlikely to offer exclusivity
UCL own Watford’s training ground, which was also previously leased by Arsenal, and have the same type of arrangement.
I also know for a fact that even Chelsea didn’t have exclusive use when Harlington was their training ground.