O'Hara explains all

Supporters Club Meeting

Tonight's meeting has certainly proved a talking point amongst Town fans. Hopefully we can enlighten those who did not attend the meeting at the Weavers.

The clock is now pointing at eleven minutes past twelve, so I will mention the main piece of news that made me leave the Weavers feeling positive.

As expected, the East stand farce was brought up. I will try and explain what is going on with that.

The main problem with the East stand is the funding that is required to finish it off. And as most people know, the football club do not have any cash to put forward towards finishing off the stand.

This is where our friends the Blue Sox come in.

The Thrum Hall sale has come through in which the Thrum Hall trust has the cash. There are 4 trustees who are expecting a share of this money.

• The cricket club

• The bowling club

• A private party

• Halifax Blue Sox

As yet not one of the above have received any money, this has all got to be decided. But something that is important is the fact that the money is only to be used to fund sporting development in the Halifax area.

Last week the rugby club told the press that they would be using their share of the money to pay running costs. But under the contract of the sale of Thrum Hall, it has to be used to fund development of sporting facilities.

So, after hearing this, most people think that it is straight forward. The Blue Sox use the money to pay for completion of the East stand. But...(and it is a big but).

When the East stand was started, the football club took full control of it, which meant that the development was under the name of Halifax Town Football Club. The Thrum Hall money can only go to a private concern, such as a private developer or construction company. If the East stand was under the control of the Shay Stadium company then there would be no problem.

The administrator is confident that he can persuade the Trustees solicitor Mr. Gledhill to allow the money to go towards the East stand to help get it completed.

It sounds as though this could and will happen sooner rather than later, and once the building work starts it wont finish until the stand is complete.

While on the subject of the Blue Sox, O'Hara said that both clubs need each other and things would be much better if they could work together.

One final point which might cheer up the Blue Sox fans.

They don't owe Halifax Town anything as yet. The Blue Sox wanted their offices to be accommodated in the East stand and so they offered to pay extra for the steel work that would have to be put in place. As yet the work has not been done and so they don't owe Halifax Town anything for the building work.

But, (another one???) the Blue Sox do owe Halifax Town money, for which he would not explain what it was for.

Rupe and myself will put the rest of what happened at the meeting on the site on Thursday afternoon.