FOOTBALL fans now have the chance to bid on more than 130 historic items from York City’s home ground, Bootham Crescent.

The auction has now gone live and supporters can own a bit of football history, following completion and the planned move to the new LNER Community Stadium.

City director, Richard Adams, said: “We have more than 130 assorted items for sale and to raise £100,000 in total would be fantastic. We’ve already had bids totalling almost £39,000 for the seats, the total raised so far being in the region of £60,000.

“We are moving to a new stadium and the expense can be huge, with replacement office furniture being a big factor. We’ve even had people, I’m not talking about thousands of people, maybe 50 or so, asking to buy bricks from the grandstand, concrete from the terraces, and pieces of the pitch.

“That’s something we can’t do ourselves because we’re still using the ground as a training pitch. But when the demolition starts, we’ll instruct the contractors to keep aside a pallet of bricks and some bits of concrete.

“To give you an idea of the value of these items, Chesterfield made about £130,000 when they moved to a new ground, and Bolton made about £170,000.”

The club has already started to buy furniture for the new stadium, and Richard added: “We have purchased some desks from the likes of Shepherds and a couple of other accountancy companies who change their furniture regularly.

“In the main office, for example, we are looking for 17 desks, but we only have 10 or 12 and they are very mix and match. We also need desks for the manager’s office and this money will go towards that sort of thing.”

The auction items, from signs to home dressing room bath taps, goal posts to the manager’s office desk, are all up for grabs, with the auction ending at noon on Thursday, February 25. Items will then have to be collected within seven days of the end of the auction.

Richard, who has been involved with the club as a fan, chairman, vice-president and now director since he was five-years-old, can be contacted on 07766 398073 for any further details on the auction.

The link for the auction is: www.yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk/news/bootham-crescent-items-now-auction