POOLE Town have all-but secured an extension on their lease at Tatnam Farm, the Daily Echo understands.
Currently known as the BlackGold Stadium for sponsorship reasons, Dolphins’ lease at Tatnam Farm is set to expire in December 2024.
However, Poole’s short-term future at the site now looks to have been confirmed until December 2029, a five-year extension.
Billed as a temporary solution to their nomadic existence, Poole without a permanent home since leaving Poole Stadium in 1994, Dolphins will have been based at Tatnam Farm for almost three decades by the time the new lease expires.
Whilst Poole continue their efforts at constructing a new stadium away from Tatnam, they hope to use their current ground in the future as a training base.
Director and part-owner Andy Rossiter has long made extending the lease at Tatnam Farm a priority, telling the Daily Echo: “I can't believe after all the time I've been here and it's been one of those topics that has been top of my list, it's very, very close.
“All parties agreed, but when you're dealing with a local authority, the education board, the council and several other interested parties, it never comes together easily.
“But it's about seven parties that need to sign it off. We're almost there.
“We're just agreeing on the last bit of the paperwork. I would hope that by the end of the month we've finally put this to bed.
“Then we can start looking forward to a future that will include a new stadium.
“But that's a little way down the road.
“People basically know where we've talked about in the past, that's a real possibility.
“Now we are working with a national developer on a strategy that's going to be inclusive with the council to build that stadium.
“Instead of being a yearly renewal, we're going straight for another five year lease so that it runs until 2029.
“There is a possibility that there'll be other developments on the site here because as we progress up the football ladder and progress towards the Football League, I would like to keep this site going forward as a training ground, for community sports, for our youth teams, our training ground for our first team.
“Because if we reach the targets that I've set myself and set the club, within three or four years, we will have a full-time squad.
“We will be full time professional footballers and a professional football club, but a community minded football club.”
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