Huge news coming out of Spotland is that the Ogden Family have approached the club in a bid to purchase Rochdale AFC.
https://www.rochdaleafc.co.uk/news/2024/march/clubstatement_250324/
See the link above for the full story from Rochdale AFC.
The Ogden Family have released the below statement:
We are a family with strong Rochdale roots. Sir Peter Ogden and Lady Ogden were born in Rochdale. Our charitable trust, the Ogden Trust, which primarily supports the teaching and learning of physics in under-represented groups, has various ongoing initiatives in Rochdale schools.
We were made aware of the Club’s difficulties in recent weeks, and we held constructive initial meetings with the Club and the Dale Supporters Trust. We have since been monitoring the situation while the Club has been in exclusive discussions with WSH LLC. We were informed that the exclusivity period has expired and have since stepped up our discussions and diligence efforts.
In our view, the Club (and the Rochdale AFC Community Trust which is so closely associated with it) are community assets of immense value which need to survive. We intend to make an offer to the Club, but we need some time to ensure that our diligence is completed, and our offer can be properly formulated. Perhaps most importantly, we would like to ensure that all stakeholders have sufficient chance to review and consider our proposal. However, given the Club’s severe financial difficulties, time is not on our side.
To allow us the necessary time, we are making sufficient funds available to the Club to enable it to operate for the next 30 days. By the expiry of that period, we plan to have completed our diligence and formulated and presented our offer such that, assuming it is acceptable to the Club, we can conclude an investment before the end of the season.
We will use this period to actively engage with all stakeholders, including the town’s political figures, creditors and sponsors to ensure they are prepared to play their part in ensuring the survival of the club. This period will also be used to formulate our future plans for both First Team and Academy operations.
At this stage, we would like to set out the broad principles which will underpin our offer:
Our sole short-term motivation is to ensure that the Club survives its current financial crisis and remains a going concern and a community asset with the interests of the community at heart;
In the medium-term, our ambition is to assist the Club to become financially sustainable regardless of football success. We do not believe there is a silver bullet solution, but we hope our investment will give the Club the time (and resource) needed to properly explore the available options and then execute them as efficiently as possible;
Our offer is not financially motivated. The shares we would acquire will be held in trust for the benefit of the Rochdale AFC Community Trust and our decisions will be made solely in the best interests of the Club and the community;
We fully support the conclusions of the Fan Led Review – particularly in so far as they relate to governance and supporter engagement – and our offer will be consistent with their recommendations.