YORK Wasps Rugby League Club chiefs John Stabler and Russell Greenfield today revealed they are in the race to buy York City.

Stabler told the Evening Press they have met the £4.5 million asking price for City's ground, Bootham Crescent, and have also secured a further £1 million in backing, most of which would go towards improving the team.

Their main rival for the take-over is John Batchelor, driver-owner of a British Touring Car Championship motor racing team.

Batchelor has indicated he too would be willing to meet the asking price set by City chairman Douglas Craig for the football club and Bootham Crescent Holdings, its parent company which owns the ground.

Craig confirmed Stabler and Greenfield were officially in the running and said the timescale for any agreement with either party was "hopefully short".

"We are actively speaking to these two parties. We have had no firm indication or submission from anyone else," said Craig.

Asked what would sway the final decision, he added: "You will hear about that at the beginning of next week, hopefully."

Stabler and Greenfield are not advocating a merger between City and Wasps, but envisage a ground-share - firstly at Bootham Crescent and then moving to Huntington Stadium, the home of the Wasps at Monks Cross.

They would also be keen for the York City Supporters Trust to become involved in the running of the football club.

Stabler explained their plan would be to keep Bootham Crescent for about three years while Huntington Stadium was redeveloped to a 10,000-to-12,000 capacity stadium, meeting Football League and Super League standards.

He added that they were negotiating a possible purchase of Huntington Stadium, which is owned by City of York Council and leased by Cannons Leisure, and that the costs of redevelopment would be met by Stabler, Greenfield and their backer.

"The problem with Bootham Crescent in the long run regards the corporate side of things. There are few facilities for that kind of thing, while car-parking facilities are not good."

He added: "The £1 million sponsorship will be over a period of a few years, but we would want a substantial amount up front to safeguard the club's Football League status."

The duo have had a bid on the table for some time but only today made it public.

"There have been a lot of headlines about other bidders and we felt we should come out and make ourselves known," said Stabler.

"People are going to form an opinion about things and who the likely successful candidate would be and we felt we ought to be out there promoting our bid. We believe our bid would be good for professional sport in York all round.

"The two clubs are interlinked. You've got to have survival and success for one for the other to prosper."

Wasps chairman Stabler and vice-chairman Greenfield are former directors at Super League outfit Hull FC Rugby League Club and former Super League club Gateshead Thunder. They returned to Wasps in 2000 and effectively saved the club from going under.

"Hull FC was a big company and the good thing about it was their corporate hospitality and commercial activities. At Hull and Gateshead, the commercial sides were tremendous. That experience will be beneficial for York City.

"We have also learnt a lot being directors of York Rugby League over the years, and returning there has not been the easiest of tasks."

He added: "We are not on an ego trip or anything. We would like to see ourselves as custodians and guardians of professional sport in York."

Greenfield, who was meeting chief executive of City of York Council David Atkinson today to negotiate the Huntington Stadium plans, added: "We think we've got it all tied up and it's up to Douglas Craig to make a decision."

Updated: 14:17 Thursday, January 31, 2002