Fir Park Office Development Boost

The club have had long term plans to build an office block on ground adjacent to the South Stand but when local residents objected, the venture looked set to fail. The local council had initially refused to give planning permission but on Wednesday afternoon we were given the thumbs up.

Fir Park

It should be stressed that the five-storey block will not be used by MFC but it is being developed for commercial gain. The club has needed to increase off-field revenue for quite some time and will have been looking enviously at the income raised by the developments at Livingston’s stadium, Almondvale. With Dunfermline and Kilmarnock getting involved in hotel ventures, it looks like non-football activities could be the key to clubs’ survival.

Auto Trader have already made noises that they could locate their main Scottish office in our new building and Alasdair Barron believes the development could create around 20-30% of the clubs income in the future. It will also make the club more attractive to prospective purchasers.

It could be interesting to find out where the funding for this project is coming from. At the AGM in February, John Boyle suggested he would ensure the necessary money was in place – we can only wait and see if this will still be the case.

Still, it is another bit of good news for the club in a week when the sacked players are making more noises about legal action.