AFC Rushden & Diamonds' Wellingborough move is OFF - club to stay at Hayden Road

Diamonds announced last month they were to leave Hayden Road to groundshare with Wellingborough Town from the start of next season.

But that move has been scuppered due to issues with the proposed length of lease at the Dog & Duck, and Diamonds will now be back playing at Hayden Road 'for the foreseeable future'.

Diamonds chairman Rob Usher says he and the rest of the club's the board are 'bitterly disappointed' by the news, but declared that to move to Wellingborough under the lease proposed would have been 'reckless'.

The original deal would have seen the Diamonds signing a 10-year groundsharing agreement, but officials at the Doughboys made it know earlier this week that they were no longer able to offer that.

Instead, all they could offer was a three-year agreement, and it was felt by the Diamonds board this would be 'dangerous for the future of the club', and also that the new deal 'was sufficiently different to the initial proposal that it rendered the Part Owners' vote void'.

The Part Owners voted overwhelmingly in favour of the 10-year lease option at a special general meeting last month, with 89 per cent in favour.

The club believed they had played their final game at the home of landlords Rushden & Higham United on April 20, a 1-0 win over Shepshed Dynamo

But they will now be back at their old home when the new season kicks off in August.

The Diamonds club statement read: "AFC Rushden & Diamonds are disappointed to advise Part Owners that after extensive discussions between all parties, the club will no longer be able to pursue a move to the Dog & Duck this summer and will remain at Hayden Road for the foreseeable future.

"On Tuesday, May 7, 2024, officials from Wellingborough Town Football Club informed us that, due to unforeseen circumstances, they were no longer in a position to offer the 10-year groundsharing agreement initially promised to us and that, at the time of writing, they were only able to offer us a groundsharing agreement for three years owing to unexpected complications surrounding their own security of tenure at the Dog & Duck.

"On Thursday, May 9, 2024, the board of directors of AFC Rushden & Diamonds voted unanimously that this development not only rendered the move to Wellingborough dangerous for the future of the club, but that it was sufficiently different to the initial proposal that it rendered the part-owners vote void."

Chairman Usher added: “I’m bitterly disappointed that having worked so hard as a board for a number of months to not only put this on the table initially, but also present the business case to part-owners and begin to carry out their wishes in accordance with the vote, that we will be unable to pursue this move.

“This move was purely about improving the club’s financial outlook over the short, medium and longer term and whilst I am committed to that, I am not willing to place the club in what I believe to be a position of danger in order to do so.

"I’m also very uncomfortable using club funds – which are in short supply - and the funds of those that were supporting us externally on something that at this stage can only be guaranteed very short-term.

“As presented at the SGM in April, the current restrictions on the ability of the club to generate the necessary revenue to remain competitive under the ground share agreement at Hayden Road is of significant concern.

"And to that end the decision to abandon the current plan of moving this summer is one that is taken with the utmost disappointment.

"However, given Wellingborough Town’s inability to provide the necessary assurances required, it is felt that to continue forward at this stage would be reckless.

"While our immediate focus must now switch to ensuring that we remain as sustainable off of the pitch and as competitive on the pitch as we possibly can, the longer term objective is to still put ourselves into a position whereby we are able to engineer a more sustainable business model for the club by the time the third year break clause in the existing ground share agreement comes into play, be that at Hayden Road or elsewhere.”

Any supporters are invited to send in any questions they have on this latest development.

They can do this by either emailing to [email protected] or by posting on the Part Owners forum.