Peterborough United bond will help club create sports bar to become 'focal point' for city

Club Chief Executive David Paton has set out vision for the new venue following the start of the pre-registration period for the club’s new bond scheme last week.

The club hopes to raise £1.5m from the scheme to fund improvements to the Weston Homes Stadium before the club moves to a new stadium, potentially on the Embankment, which it hopes to do in five years time.

One of the main uses of the money raised will be to completely strip out and reconfigure the current Forever Posh bar (The Venue) in to a sports bar that will be open seven days a week.

The club also plans to use the money pledged by investors to finance the implementation of rail seating into the London Road End terrace before the start of next season and any remaining funds will be put towards planning costs for the new arena.

The pre-registration period for the bond, which the club is partnering with Tifosy Capital and Advisory to create, ends on Sunday (May 15). The minimum pledge to the scheme is £500, with those signed up offered different perks depending on the amount of money they pledge. From May 15, those that have registered their interest will begin to make good on their commitments and the club hopes to have the new bar up and running in time for the World Cup in Qatar this November/December.

The club has also confirmed that a business model is in place to pay off all overheads for the bar in the first two years of operation, leaving three years of straight profit; which can be used to invest and improve other areas of the club.

Mr Paton said: “The new sports bar will be for use seven days a week and is going to be of a requisite quality that local businesses in the area may want to use it for staff drinks. It will also give people in Peterborough the chance to come and watch sports.

“We envisage it becoming a focal point for people to watch sports; there is nothing similar to it in the city currently. I think the chance for fans to come down, watch the 12:30 kick off, watch Posh and then come back down and watch the 5:30 kick-off is exciting, there will be good food and it will help us to serve beer quickly in the main stand at half time.

“We want to have it in place for the World Cup and have it as a focal point for watching the tournament in December. There are also possibilities for hosting NFL Sundays, there is just nowhere really in Peterborough to do stuff like that at the moment.

“There is also the best part of 3000 students descending on Peterborough for the first time in September so, if we get it right, we can attract a lot of custom very early on.”