THE cost of Oxford United’s proposed new stadium at The Triangle now stands at up to £150 million.

Previous forecasts for the ground have been north of £100m, however at yesterday’s fans’ forum, U’s chairman Grant Ferguson revealed a figure of between £130m and £150m was the latest budget.

The forum, organised by OxVox and the Oxford United Supporters’ Panel, saw questions sent in, and from the floor, primarily about The Triangle, but also communication, the atmosphere at the Kassam Stadium, and ticketing.

RECAP: Oxford United fans’ forum at the Kassam Stadium

Ferguson said: “It’s not a fixed budget. The costs that we’re looking at range anywhere between £130m and £150m.

“We’re now at a point where we’re putting together an investment paper. The shareholders are committed to funding a very significant portion of that.

“It’s the same as any large-scale investment project. We’ll end up with an appropriate mix of debt, short-term debt, long-term debt, shareholder equity, some grants that will undoubtedly be available, we’ll sell the naming rights to the stadium, and we have a bunch of advisors around the world looking at different markets.

“Then we create what we call a funding stack, and it will all eventually add up to whatever the budget turns out to be.

“In terms of the legal structure that it sits in, again it’s a process. We need to come up with what that funding stack looks like, and depending on that, there may be requirements of shareholders and lenders, as to what that legal structure looks like.

“Whether the stadium is in one company and the club operations are in another company, it may be a subsidiary company, it may be a sister company. That will depend on a bunch of bankers and lawyers figuring out what is the most optimum structure.

“In any of the conversations, it is 100 per cent clear that the right to use the stadium will be 100 per cent with the football club 365 days a year.

“All the economic benefits of that stadium will accrue to the football club. The legal niceties will take care of themselves, but the value of the stadium belongs to the club.”

United chief executive Tim Williams said earlier at the forum, that the owners are currently investing £5m a year into the club.

On the funding of the proposed stadium, he said: “Funders do not lend unsustainable debt. We would not get debt to cover the entire cost of the stadium because that would be deemed absolutely unsustainable.

“What that percentage is, I can’t tell you, but what I can say is that under no circumstances is there a situation where the club would be borrowing unsustainably because lenders simply do not allow that. It’s just a fact of the markets.”