A BOLTON business with a multi-million pound turnover is enhancing commercial and social life in the town.

The Reebok Stadium is already proving to be much more than a magnificent new home for Bolton Wanderers.

It is developing as an attractive venue for conferences, sales meetings, prestigious dinners, corporate entertainment and guided tours.

The Stadium's chief executive, Paul Fletcher, is conscious that they are still in a honeymoon period, but he is generally pleased with behind the scenes activity since the Reebok opened in September.

"We are achieving most of our targets," he said this week.

Mr Fletcher, aged 47, is now looking forward to forthcoming initiatives which he hopes will include the establishment of the Reebok as a popular centre for weddings.

If a civil wedding licence is granted - a decision is due soon - mad keen Wanderers fans will be able to tie the knot in various parts of the complex, including the home team dressing room.

Marriages would not be allowed on the pitch.

"We would have our own full-time wedding co-ordinator," Mr Fletcher said.

Another major development at the ground is the Middlebrook Exhibition Centre - a joint enterprise between the club and the local authority.

work is expected to be completed within the next two or three months.

"I can see it being a major regional, if not national, exhibition centre," Mr Fletcher said.

"We have had intensive interest and the marketing will commence as soon as we have a completion date."

The Centre will attract a wide range of events, including dog shows and antiques fairs.

It will also be a major local facility for sports such as basketball, netball, boxing, five-a-side football and badminton.

The stadium was designed as a rock concert venue, but so far there is no sign that the stars are on their way to Bolton.

Mr Fletcher says most top rock performers do not seem to be booking stadium venues this summer because it is World Cup Year.

But the Reebok had received one tentative inquiry about the possibility of staging a concert this year.

"It would be a big event for the town if it happened," he said.

Paul Fletcher, who was a successful player with Bolton and Burnley, started his exciting new job in September, 1996 - "when the directors of the club had already done 99pc of the hard work."

His tasks have included the naming of the stadium, stand sponsorship, sorting out the catering deal, selling the hospitality boxes/Lion of Vienna Club and organising revenues from "End of an Era" initiatives following the leaving of Burnden. The boxes have been a particular success and there are currently 12 companies on the waiting list. Mr Fletcher knows success on the football field is vital and he believes the team has had a lot of bad luck, but he is always aware that the Reebok needs to be a seven-day a week operation. He is delighted that it has become a focal point for the community. "The town has taken the Reebok to its heart," he said.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.