Remembering Leeds Road: An Interview with George Binns

Secretary there, interestingly enough, was a Chapan, he was the director of the Everon football club, so I met him immediately. Bright. It is a small world. It is not like this? They were interested in b

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casting. a what you might call a high profile archive project because of the design of this with their banan Stu or whatever they were interested in and I got a letter from Morris Lindry to tell me that if we did it he would support it by hosting semi-finals here And and In The back of that, on the back of a football club that looked like it was going into Administration, I got another million pounds, so if you add up all those parts that I mention, I think I'm within about a million and a half of pounds. million, yes, and the problem was that all these grants had time constraints, a decision had to be made and we were about a million and a half short, so I presented the situation to the KSD Orlando board of directors. of the football club uh, if you don't want the whole deck of cards to collapse, we needTo do it, we need to give the green light and give the green light to the project.

What year would it be? So would you say we opened in '94? It will be around 92 93, something like that, right? And they decided to put it. some money in the project to fill the last little one, yeah, now, it wasn't key to do that because they didn't need the 15,000, yeah, you know, they were very happy with it, so they decided, but anyway, um, They decided to play their role at that stage, the participation in the stadium company was 40% of the council, 40% of the football club, 20% of ftown and they decided to compensate the balance of this million and a half pounds divided 40 4020 on that basis, so we were there without any debt for the first two phases, that's it, yeah, heads here and then the one behind the start, and as you very well know, we built it and it was something that the rural population had not yet had.

I thought it was going to happen, it wasn't a white elephant, the business people never happened, the third division football club was going to happen, so they didn't really support it, so when suddenly we put, we stuck the first shovel in the floor. I got Dennis LA to join me and Alex Murphy in rugby and John Harmon, he with the council, the council played a pretty big part in it, after he said John Haron played his part extremely well, he supported him. "I thought it was the right thing to do for the people of Huddersfield, many of whom thought the £2m the council was due to give was a real waste of paymasters' money, yes, but if you ask anyone now who was in against, then." I won't find anyone who will admit it because it was very valuable to develop this particular area exactly.

I know, so that was the first phase and I'll just go back. I don't know if you remember, but in 1990 I started as an apprentice and we were called until we were 15 years old. I remember, I remember you gave me the first paycheck £2950 and you beg me, beg me to make me angry about it. The first thing I remember, don't spend it all at once, was those 50, it was those 50 years. old boy exactly and and and you got caught and obviously it was Paul Fletcher and G Li they called us to the Green Hall Suite uh as trainees and they were the professionals, they were obviously Peter Jackson was the captain then and all the other players and and the coaching staff, uh, and you had this stadium in a glass box, we made it with a ski slope and a hotel with a cinema, and you gave us a presentation and it was absolutely perfect in what it is now, 30 years later, the only Chang. it's a little bit on that end that's slightly different than and and and and the only thing you said and looked at as trainees and you said Guys, you may not be footballers, but with this company with this stadium we will create it.

There are a lot of jobs for the Rudders camp so you might be able to get some jobs as a worker behind a kiosk or in the commercial sector and all that will regenerate so many jobs and at one point I thought how fantastic this event will be. this new stadium and then another one I'm thinking about the lady secretary she's telling me that I'm not going to be a professional footballer and and that day she has it in mind and and we get out of that and all the professionals all the professionals and the apprentices that we all have that will never happen that it will never happen, nobody thought it would happen, nobody thought it would happen and to build a stadium of the size that we finally decided to do, it was hard work because these grants gave bodies, we remember the third division club, it seems that you are taking 25,000 seats off the stadium, what? what are you playing?

You know, cut your cloth according to your cut your goat according to your cloth and initially they said that the grant that we were going to receive from the football trust was based on us having a stadium with a capacity of 10,000 people. I didn't want the public to think it must be 40,000, never mind 10,000, minus 25,000, yeah, so we went to meet the trust, uh, they called the meeting at uh, I think it was the Hilton at Manchester airport and we did a presentation of what we were going to do and finally, after two or three hours of talking to them, we convinced them that the capacity of 10,000 people was not very good and a crystal ball.

Looking into the future you can never tell what will happen, right? No, but anyway they decided to give us a grant based on a stadium not exceeding 25,000, right, and we did it, so that was a problem and we solved it there, to be honest, the problem could be solved. Now we get to the first and second phase as when we opened the part we opened this between the two sides in August well yeah so obviously the game against wi w w w Martin O'Neal was like you. Let's say you mention Dennis La, everyone was there and how much time did you have from that first dig because obviously you knew you had to be ready for the start, so with that two years or eight, about 18 months, to be honest, we'll be.

I wasn't. really ready that first day, no to be honest it was still like a construction site and the council building control were a big help there and they decided it had to be a sell out match which it would have been at any time. case because the There was demand, yes, but we had 10% less capacity than the number of seats just to make sure we were okay and people were climbing through the building materials on the site and we advertised it in advance to the point that People KNEW what they were going for and they knew it wasn't perfect.

We had had the first. We should have been home for the first game of the season. At the beginning of August we managed to delay it, I think two or three. weeks, so on the 20th of August, when yes, it was the first game we played away from home during the first few games to allow ourselves the best opportunity to finish and we did, we builders finished the job around 6:00 in the morning on the Saturday of the game, ex, yes, I remember, it came on Friday night, honestly, really, if there was ever a last leg of the fair, that was it and the other problem is that the stewards, the caterers, the doormen and whatever, they don't have a chance to familiarize themselves with the view, we had a meeting on Wednesday before the first game, but it didn't happen, it was still like a construction site and it wasn't They were able to do the job properly, but we got away with it, luckily the weather was good, the site wasn't muddy or anything like that and people knew they were walking through piles of bricks or whatever, but it happened and that was it. the first time we had a capacity of 15,000 there. 6 months later, in December, we opened the second phase, so When we spent our first 17 A5 million pounds, with a capacity of 20,000, we had no money left, we took a good look at B, but we didn't want to end up being the only Club in the country with a three-sided stadium. that and what do you do no money, we don't have money, but it took me a long time to put together the specifications of what we could include in that and similarly, I also got the cost that we needed to include in that as much as Rec Could they be called community sports facilities for get a grant, not from the football trust, but from the national lottery?

The sports foundation, the sports foundation, yeah, so we, we, we end up with the dance studio in the pool, uh, come with a business center which is the area behind the checkouts and there, the hotel, obviously, the hotel, yes, the look of the hotel too and, behind this and this, it was very difficult to get a subsidy from that, but we worked. I worked very hard with the Council on that to prepare a grant application for that and because they were also continuing to remove a lot of the C contamination at the site, we ended up with, I think it was 5,55.7 million.

Grant we got billions on the back of what we cost it took us a long time to put together the specs and calculate the cost and the cost was about 11 12 million including the golf driving range oh yeah I forgot about that, I forgot. that was also another commercial thing, yeah, so getting 5.6 billion towards 11 and a half, that's 11.5 million, they were halfway there before we started, yeah, but again, you're still 6 million short, well, we have finished at this time the business fraternity of Huddersfield and the district. generally we were open, you see, the stadium was open and it was and it was seen from countries all over the world because we hosted the rugby league semi-final here the first year it was open. the semi-final of the Regent trophy reg Regent trophy the Regal trophy something yes, it was an important semi-final on the back of rugby and Saturday was the most terrible weather day you can ever have, the whole of England was covered in snow.

The only thing that this field wasn't was yeah, here, yeah, we, we, we, we spent a lot of money to make sure that the field was just below soil warming, uh, proper drainage, whatever, and We were able to get the field perfectly clear, extremely soft, suitable for rugby, and we worked very hard to ensure that all accesses to the stadium were in good condition. No one could park cars anywhere because the

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s were full of snow, but anyway, that was broadcast. all over the world to World Rugby League Australia New Zealand South Africa or whatever, suddenly they could see a stadium with banana trusses that looked like what Simon English once said.

Remember Simon Eng wrote Great Britain's Football Field. He said it was like a stadium. a um uh what did they call it like a like a um I forgot what he said about it now you'll have to get to that later like a spaceship ready to take off yeah, take off yeah and obviously there was the rubby game later and then you had a couple of concerts also before we had the concert, the first one we opened in August and the following year we had two, three and four concerts in the first summer that we employed a A gentleman named Tony Stevens, you may remember Tony Stevens, who previously he had been business manager at Wibley Stadium, yes, and had some contacts and the promoter he knew very well, R had approached them about doing their first UK gig in 13 years.

They hadn't played here for a long time and the first one in the country was here. With a capacity of 35,000 people, all tickets were sold in the first 24 hours. We decided we would have another concert the next night. Yes, tickets were sold out again. people went to both concerts very loud pro fire people came from all over the country said they were going to invest £3 million in the business Amazing community locally behind the backs of those two uh next week with a Raymond Goby concert here classic spectacular Raymond goby Royal H whatever and a few weeks later also with Brian Adams is that SP, so everything in the first year and the fact that we have been exposed on television to the Commonwealth countries, suddenly everyone knew the alen macalpine stadium in In fact, it only became the Alfred McAlpine Stadium a Fortnite before we opened, we did it thanks to the £22 million the council gave us to help fund it.

It was going to be called Kirkle Stadium, yes the name was just changed and that helped. To fill the last billion pounds, they put their name on the stadium thanks to a million pound investment in the first three years, which helped finance absolutely billions and that's how it became, obviously, the maau wi stadium and the John Smith and that and and obviously I'm going to go back to Le's Road from last year 30 years ago now for you, I know you obviously would have been very busy anyway thinking about this place, but you must have had something Sad, some wonderful memories, but it must have been sad for you too, it was really your decision to move there, so last year, how did that feel for you?

Well, it was a little sad for many because I have been. support I mean, I've been a supporter of H Fano for just over 80 years. The first game I saw was during the First World War. Yes Yes. I think it was in 1943, a game in season 44 against Manchester City. I can remember it as it was. Yesterday we can, you always can, you can always, yes, and really, from the 19434 season until 1990, I got very attached to the old ground that I had been on before I got involved in N. I got involved in the season19697, that's when I first started.

I came to work here full time so I had attended matches before with Cl and I remember coming to a football match and making it to the quarter-finals. I think it was against Newcastle United with a capacity of 55,000. I was there for it, so five minutes to go. Come on, we also won the game one-nil against Newcastle and they scored in the last few minutes. Replay the following Tuesday in Newcastle because of all the extra time we lost. Newcastle won the cup and they won the cup again the following year. two shiny brlis so oh yeah I'm very attached to the stadium and that last match but you have to let your head rule your heart which spectators usually don't do yeah but I didn't have to choose you did , absolutely incredible. work and that last game at Le Road, whoever was there, no one will forget it, it was great, you opened the four stands so the fans on the ground could come in and I remember at the end I played and the fans came running. on the pitch and we were talking Talking there were fans still there an hour later crying W come I'm still calling this project making the dream come true and it was the dream that Keith Hanvey had when he was a player here before he became commercial manager when he looked at the killer bench , yes, a stadium, yes, and that's true, it's not made up, you ask, he asked his daughter, you know that, yes, and I can probably remember such an old photo from the last game.

It had four sides full of city fans, but deep down two sides of this stadium were fantastic because they had both the old Le Ro and the new us. It had, yeah, it was right inside the uh, yeah, and like I said, Kei Vision was in when he was playing in the early 1980s, that a new stadium could be built on this land, well Keith, the one who first thought of the new me. I know there was serious thought given to whether we could have a new stadium and the chances were really slim to be honest at the time so you gotta be grateful to Keith for that you gotta be grateful for uh John Harmon and for getting the council to back us , we had a problem financing this because we, we, we couldn't pay any bills for building this until we developed the old stadium, we couldn't develop it until we played the last game here, yeah. there was a funding element before we could raise the money to develop the old site yes so they had to support it so John Harmon played his part obviously granny Leslie's clever involvement with the council to get them interested in not being interested at all and suddenly being excited and uh B Fletcher for his industrial noun along with Tony Steven to help produce commercialism to uh finance Final Phase and all your work George too, we can't, we can't forget about Well, yeah, I mean, for the last four years, from the end of the first and second phase to the end of the third phase, the final opening, which was a four-year period, I was doing it at the same time because I have become in The stadium manager, not the stadium executive or the stadium development manager, so I was doing two jobs which were hard work, that's why it took me four years and to raise the money for that as well and retirement, obviously, retirement had disappeared instead of me retiring. at 60 I didn't retire until I was 75 incredible and I'm going to ask the last question, so 30 years in this stadium looks as good as that F that first day, well, obviously better because the two, the other two are looking back , they are there. anything you would have changed or the stadium was exactly your image as close as it doesn't matter is yes, it's what we are Enis.

I couldn't have visited anymore to be honest, I mean I couldn't have visited anything. like the Tottenham Hospital building, whatever and the new everon, and the main thing was that we built this without incurring any debt when we moved in, we had some debt, but it wasn't so much on the back of the building, but obviously for spend a large amount of money. During the period from leaving the old stadium to moving into the new one, staff to pay or whatever and no opportunity to raise money or whatever, we ended up mostly moving here with negligible debt.

We had a million pound loan from the Football Association which will be paid back in five years, so with a debt there, yeah, now it's not like, I mean Everton, now what are they in debt to? God knows how much? Yes, docking points. because they can't afford to pay the builders of the new stadium or whatever and look at the Tottenham stadium it cost. I'm led to believe 1.2 billion, that's about 40 times the P29 million it cost to build this now, can you? let's say though, it's brilliant Say I haven't been to it, I may have been, I haven't been, it's 40 times better than this, I've never been, but definitely not, it's not right if you look back at this kind of 1998 when I finished this I guess inflation was £29m then it could be £50-60m but 60m is 20 times better than this and if they have any debt we never had any fairy godfather, not like the ones they had there, well, you started a stadium.

Manchester City from scratch, no money, no money and ended up debt free which is absolutely incredible in this day and age of our business and that's obviously a huge credit to you well it wasn't just me with a group of with a group of people, but I was kind of the one holding it together, to be honest, ex exactly, but no, I was the only one who was involved from the moment we started thinking about it, when they in 1985, yeah, you were, yes, until the moment when EV I finally gave up when I was 75 years old ex exactly George, can I thank you today?

This is what I thought I knew a lot about I. I started like I said in 1990, but just listening, I don't know what's going well, no one does. You write a book about this and it would fill a book too. You know I could listen to you all day. I have so many questions and obviously in the N. We are 30 years old on April 30 of the old game league. We have an open day. It's a shame you can't be with one. We could listen to you all day, but yeah, well. Unfortunately I can still afford to go on vacation.

I don't adapt, they pay me enough here, but you deserve it, you deserve the vacation, George. I know you could have retired 10 years earlier, but if you had, we wouldn't have had this stadium, so for all your hard work for everyone and for coming and sharing your story there, about half a dozen of us who were, uh, we have to be congratulated for this, of course, yes, yes, but you were the one who brought everyone together and you are and you say I'm sure that if we sit here in 30 years it will still look modern it will still look futuristic it won't be within 30 to 30 years well no, probably not me 20 love it hey George, where are you going?

You never know, I always hoped to be here to see the rest of the site developed because as you know with a nearby dam it had a ski slope, yeah here on this side it was just the change of government at the national level, oh that changed , Yes Yes. We had, we had it, we had the support of the national government for that, the government changed and was hit on the head immediately after the government changed, we realize that, so we are still waiting for the ski slope, no, like that which I hope we can. look at that before we all go, okay George, thank you very much, you're welcome.