Douglas Craig - in his own words
"In the absence of any buyer therefore, I am more than happy to carry on but I should point out that I do have an alternative. It is one, however, at which I am sure all the decent loyal supporters of the club would be horrified should I contemplate taking it. The alternative, put bluntly, is that I should use my share-holding to start a campaign to close the club down."
Douglas Craig, Chairman, December 1999
"No-one who owns a shareholding of 75% or more is likely to take kindly to being told what he must or must not do. "
Douglas Craig, February 2001
Question from Stephen Lilgert, N Yorks:
"Do you have any plans or intention to sell Bootham Crescent to property developers, subsequently moving the club to existing premises within or near to the city?"
Douglas Craig:
"No and neither does the Board."
February 2001
Question from Alistair Kirk, York:
"In recent months the barracks backing onto Bootham Crescent have been vacated and are available for sale. More recently the local council indicated that the site of Shipton Street School is to become available for sale. These two factors may well increase the value of Bootham Crescent. Bearing in mind that the ground has been seperated from the football club and placed into a holding company, as I understand it. Can you give the fans and citizens of York an assurance that there, is nor will be any intention of selling the current site of York City Football Club."
Douglas Craig:
" There is no intention to sell the site and York City FC has a long lease on the ground which is in excess of what the Football League requires."
February 2001
"I think that it was right that my fellow directors and myself did what we did and ensured that the club remained in the control of local people. "
Douglas Craig, July 2001
. . . six months later . . .
"If nobody wants the thing we will cash in . . I know other chairmen who've regularly been taking £100,000, £200,000, £300,000 in payments for their services. None of the directors, including myself, have taken a penny for donkeys' years. . . We've never had any dividends, we are simply now getting some benefit from the possible increase in capital."
Douglas Craig, January 2002
In the interests of fairness - the most recent statement - and the most important:
"The Parties are now very pleased to announce that subject to finalising the legal arrangements, an agreement has been reached in principle to enable the Football Club to continue to play professional football at Bootham Crescent for the foreseeable future."
- Extract from the joint statement from Bootham Crescent Holdings, Persimmon Homes Ltd and York City Football Club, February 2004