Paddy Davitt King's Lynn majority shareholder Michael Chinn is confident the Unibond Premier Division club can land a five-figure sponsorship deal for naming rights to The Walks stadium.

Paddy Davitt

King's Lynn majority shareholder Michael Chinn is confident the Unibond Premier Division club can land a five-figure sponsorship deal for naming rights to The Walks stadium.

Chinn's proposal earned approval from supporters at a well attended fans' forum after the Boston-based businessman revealed his company had held naming talks in the past with both Championship new boys Peterborough and Scunthorpe.

Chinn's Staffsmart recruitment business sponsored Boston United's stadium until 2006 and the Linnets' director confirmed he already had two interested parties.

"It would be another idea to raise revenue for the club," he said. "Clearly the fans come first and they would have to agree but I've approached two companies and they have said they would be keen. I believe you would be talking a five-figure sum for a big non-league club like King's Lynn.

"Peterborough offered me the option a few years ago at �100,000 per season when they were in League Two. Now a club in the Championship could name its price. I've also spoken to Scunthorpe in the past and they offered me a three-year deal for �50,000 per season."

Lynn chairman Ken Bobbins was confident the club could get backing from the council who own the stadium. The Linnets' hierarchy also reiterated remedial work is due to begin shortly following the club's Conference demotion on ground grading issues.

"Work on upgrading the floodlights will begin within the next week or two," said director Jimmy Suckling. "We're also meeting the council again in the near future to discuss the other building work. The money, as you know, has been earmarked from the council but we have had to cut the specification down and now the work must go back out to re-tender.

"The original spec had provision for things like under floor heating in the changing rooms. The reality is going down to the Unibond gives us more time to get the work done."

Lynn's board also addressed concerns over the Inland Revenue's recent compulsory winding up order served on the club. Director Colin Nichols confirmed Lynn had an agreed payment plan in place to pay off the outstanding debt.

"The bulk of the Inland Revenue debt dates back to when the club was coming out of administration some years ago," he said.

"For a variety of reasons no VAT returns were submitted for a period of time. We felt we had an agreement with the local revenue people in Norwich and we had come up with a payment plan. That had to rubberstamped by another part of the Inland Revenue which didn't happen hence the action they took, but we have now made a substantial payment to them and agreed a plan to pay the rest."

Lynn's board also confirmed deferred wages and expenses owed to last season's playing squad and manage-ment would also be paid within the next two months.