Relegation-threatened Scottish first division club Clyde are in serious financial trouble. They face eviction from the Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld new town on April 26th. The amount of rent that is owed is disputed with the stadium company putting it at £270,000 and other sources at £150,000. Clyde previously spent an eight-year spell without a permanent home after they were forced to quit Shawfield Stadium in Rutherglen near Glasgow in 1986. They then shared Firhill Stadium with Partick Thistle and moved on to Hamilton Academicals’ Douglas Park.
Relegation-threatened Scottish first division club Clyde are in serious financial trouble. They face eviction from the Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld new town on April 26th. The amount of rent that is owed is disputed with the stadium company putting it at £270,000 and other sources at £150,000. Clyde previously spent an eight-year spell without a permanent home after they were forced to quit Shawfield Stadium in Rutherglen near Glasgow in 1986. They then shared Firhill Stadium with Partick Thistle and moved on to Hamilton Academicals’ Douglas Park. The Cumbernauld stadium is 13 miles from their original home, but it was hoped that the new town would welcome its own club. However, the town was largely settled from Glasgow and many of those living there have a primary allegiance to Celtic or Rangers. Lanarkshire MSP Caithan Cragie admitted that the Bully Wee had not been embraced by as many among the local community as had been hoped when it moved to the town 15 years ago. Hopes of the club avoiding liquidation may rest on an intervention by North Lanarkshire District Council which set up the Broadwood Stadium Company to run the facility.
UPDATE: Clyde Seal Rent Deal
The future of Scottish first division club Clyde has been secured after a deal was done to enable them to continue to play at Cumbernauld’s Broadwood Stadium. The club’s rent arrears will be reduced by £40,000 immediately and the remainder paid over the next 19 months. Broadwood Stadium Ltd. insist that they did not want to see Clyde evicted, but had a legal responsibility to ensure that Clyde’s outstanding arrears were not allowed to spiral. It would not been have been in the stadium company’s long-term interests to see the Bully Wee leave. It would have cast in doubt the staging of minor international matches at the modern stadium such as next month’s Scotland B international against Northern Ireland (admittedly hardly a crowd puller). Although there are other sports activities undertaken at the stadium such as gymnastics, regular football must be a key element in its business plan.