Feature

Bury chairman eyes new stadium to aid club’s development

The chairman of English League One football club Bury has set his sights on building a new stadium with a capacity of between 15,000 and 20,000.

Stewart Day sees a new ground as key to Bury’s development, and also hopes the club will be competing in the second-tier Championship by the 2018-19 season.

Bury has played at Gigg Lane, which has a current capacity of 11,800, since the club was founded in 1885. Its highest home attendance in the league so far this season is 5,355.

Day said talks over a new stadium are at a preliminary stage, but is confident an agreement can be reached.

“We’ll be looking to develop it within two, two-and-a-half years,” Day told the Sky Sports News HQ channel. “The aim would be round about the 2018-19 season we could be moving into a new stadium but we’ve got a lot of work to do between now and then, hopefully we’ll be a Championship club by that point anyway.

“We want somewhere that has an atmosphere, that’s a great place to go. We’ve talked about the 15-20,000-seater mark.”

Day stressed the importance of having a facility that can generate income all year round, and not just when the club plays at home.

He added: “At the moment we don’t get enough third-party income and non-football related income and you can’t really have a business that is only operation 23 times a season. We need it to be 365 days a year.

“That’s something that’s key for me, it’s part of my vision. That helps with the football club off the pitch as well because if we can starting bringing in those greater income levels it can help bring players into the club.”

Bury has enjoyed an impressive start to the season and currently sits third in League One, the third tier of English football.

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