Bristol Rovers Football Club and supermarket chain Sainsbury’s will clash in court in May over a proposed £30m purchase of the club’s Memorial Stadium.
Sainsbury’s claims it has terminated the deal, but the club is hoping to force the sale through in order to finance a move to a new stadium almost double the size.
Justice Roth today granted an order expediting the trial, after hearing from the Conference Premier club’s lawyers that it is vital it gets a judgment in June in order to keep its stadium plans financially viable.
He said there were “good grounds” for expedition and ruled that the seven day trial must begin between 11 and 14 May.
In the proceedings, the club is seeking to hold Sainsbury’s to the deal to buy its current Memorial Stadium for just under £30m. Its counsel David Matthias QC said the club had a proud history, but was currently “in the doldrums”, having been relegated from the Football League last year.
It also seeks damages for alleged breaches of the deal on the part of Sainsbury’s, but quantum will be dealt with at a later date if the club is initially successful at the first trial.
The new stadium, which would see the club go from a capacity of just under 12,000 to a 21,700 all-seat ground, would be located alongside the University of the West of England in Stoke Gifford, with the development to be financed partly by the sale of the Memorial Stadium.
Another key tranche of funding will come from a £2.5m contribution from UWE to shared car parking facilities key to the scheme.
Matthias said it was important for the club to have an outcome by June, as UWE has a development deal with Bovis Homes that will see one of its car parks developed for housing. A section 106 agreement attached to that development requires UWE to provide parking elsewhere, with its intention being to rely on the shared stadium car park.
He said that the long stop date for the club’s development agreement with UWE passed in December, and that it awaited an extension, but that if an outcome could be expected by June it was “likely that they will bear with us”.
However, he said that if UWE has to pursue alternative parking for its Bovis Homes deal, the expectation is that it would “drive a hard bargain” in respect of the six acres of land the club will need for parking, potentially placing the whole project in jeopardy.
He added that the club was making “serious allegations” against Sainsbury’s, which included bad faith.
Sainsbury’s is seeking a declaration that the agreement is at an end, claiming that it has been lawfully terminated after planning conditions were not satisfied by a cut-off date last year.
Backing the application for expedition, Sainsbury’s counsel Mark Wonnacott QC said: “”If we are stuck with this contract it’s as much in our interest to know that quickly as it the club’s.”
