As a point of clarification as I understand it the lease on the Stadium for both Clubs is a 50 year one (2052). It is however, up for an interim review after 25 years (2027), I believe the management of the Stadium and setting of user agreements was signed over to the SMC in total as part of the original deal. In exchange for every aspect of its running, maintenance and charges to the clubs being in the gift of the SMC the council handed over full control and therefore rid themselves of any liabilities that would come about in future years when having to maintain an aging stadium.

The Stadium maintenance is therefore solely down to the SMC, as stated its fallen behind and it really does needs millions spending on it.

As for buying it, The Council indicated in the heady days of the Allam's that they would sell the Stadium to them (or anyone else) at market value, but not give it away with the adjoining land as the A's wanted. To give it away would anyway be against local Government law, as it was built using the authorities capital assets and therefore public money.

I firmly believe as well that there were concrete plans (all be in in the very early stages) at one time to build our own stadium (Birds Eye was a silly rumour but this was on another West Hull site) but the capital costs just didn't stack up and so that has long since been abandoned.

Good stuff!! As you say an interesting thread and you sum things up perfectly for it is all a bit of a mess.

On the history to the SMC tenure The situation the Council found themselves in when the Stadium was completed was a strange one really. The place was built using some of the money that was received from the sale of the Councils shares in KCom and was just one of a host of quality of life capital projects across the City including putting double glazing in thousands of Council houses etc.

In year two of the build the Council went out to tender to try and get a national Stadium Management Company to run the venue but for whatever reason (including the size of the place, the allied facilities around it and the stipulations that the authority put on about the two local teams having user rights for an extended period; 50 years ) none were forthcoming. The Authority couldn't take on the responsibility for running the Stadium themselves because that would have had to be funded through revenue allocations and not from the Capital funds. Local Government revenue estimates were stretched as it was back then, the political complexion of the authority had changed for the first time for years as well and the authority didn't believe it would be ethical to run the stadium with its escalating maintenance costs year on year, if it had to do it at the expense of social services, housing, education etc. which were much higher priorities for the new administration at the Guildhall.

The Officers of the authority then approached the two clubs. Adam Pearson was running Hull City and Shane Richardson was our Chief Executive. Richo had no interest in taking it on and so Adam reluctantly agreed to take it on and was seen as a bit of a saviour at the time. We were in danger of having a brand new stadium with no one to run it. Adam agreed with certain stipulations he believed would protect his interests. He was a football man and didn't want to be left running the Stadium if he had moved on and sold Hull City to say buy another club so he agreed to take it on providing it was linked to the owners of Hull City rather than him as an individual. The authority expected the SMC to take on every aspect of maintenance health and safety, capital and revenue improvements and upkeep of the stadium and in exchange for that its understandable that the management company was given sovereignty over how they raised their income to do this from the two tenants. In any case as everyone who was involved were decent and honourable folks at the time all seemed well.


The Council were short sighted and probably gave up more than they should have done at the time but they were pretty much in a bad situation. This wasn't ideal but with no other options forthcoming at the time and the stadium almost completed, the authority reluctantly agreed They should have been more vigilant on the terms and conditions of the arrangement and the control they retained but they were in a hole and saw this arrangement as the only way out of it.

that was back in 2001/2 and things will have changed a bit since then but I think it went pretty much like that not ideal but at the time but they were difficult times.

Good write up Wilf
Wasn’t it also the case that a high ranking Council official, who helped draw up the user agreement with the SMC, went to work for the SMC not long afterwards ?

SMC have had debts stacked up on it too? Over £12m in debt last I saw,and with a number of employees of City being paid through SMC it makes things more complicated? All started under Bartlett when he took out several loans/mortgages to finance Hull City.The question has to be asked is Allams asking price for City just for the club or to cover SMC debts?

Rovers North Stand cost nearly £8 million about 7 years ago and has a capacity of say 2,000. So to build a ground of circa 8,000 capacity it would cost £32 million. And it would be even more now. Factor in the cost of buying the land and it would seem to me to be almost impossible without several generous benefactors and a large mortgage as well. I notice at the KCOM there is now no Hull FC crest on the wall in the West Reception and even the welcome mat at the door has the Hull City crest on it. What does that tell you?

Yeah, that's not how it works at all. You can't just multiply the number of seats proportionally to a stand price. That stand will include corporate facilities and other areas that are not required in every stand.

Look at Salford's ground. Other than the one stand, the rest are just seats or terracing. They won't have cost much at all.