Cobblers land used to clear club's £20m debt
· Yahoo Sports
The former chairman of Northampton Town has revealed the land next to the stadium has been used to clear the club's £20m debt.
Consortium Sports Alpha Capital took a majority shareholding in the League Two club last month.
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Former co-owner and chairman Kelvin Thomas said the Brazilian investors were not interested in the 19-acre (7.7 hectare) warehouse development and did not buy it
He said the land was sold to a company controlled by the GRS Group - which constructed the East Stand - in "a deal which meant the football club was debt free".
The land behind the East Stand was part of a long-running saga, involving the partially constructed area of the Sixfields Stadium, which was finished in 2025.
Thomas said it had "probably been the most debated piece of land ever in the country".
Planning permission was granted for development earlier this year.
Sports Alpha Capital (SAC) completed its takeover of the League Two club, ending Thomas's decade-long spell as Cobblers chairman.
Former AC Milan, Chelsea and Brazil forward Alexandre Pato is among SAC's investors, with Joao Xavier and Tim Chamberlain serving as co-chairmen.
Kelvin Thomas took over Northampton Town in 2016 [Getty Images]Thomas said a deal for the club with the land "became a bit too complicated for" SAC, and instead he and then co-owner David Bower looked to offload the land and club's debt.
He told BBC Radio Northampton's Cobblers Show that the land was not sold for as much as £20m - or "anything like that" - and that some of the debt was also written off by the owners.
A company called Neneside, controlled by GRS Group, bought the land.
He said: "The football club benefited from it by writing off all the debt.
"So, in the end, it's worked out a very good deal for the club, and it's what we always said the football club would benefit from the land transaction.
"It's been said many times if we end up with an East Stand and debt free, then it's a good place, and that's where we got to."
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