Bill Bell

William Thomas Bell (21 January 1932 – 12 February 2013) was an English businessman and football club chairman who was the chair of Port Vale from 1987 to 2002. He spent the first twelve years at the club in partnership with manager John Rudge, until he controversially sacked Rudge in January 1999. As chairman, he concentrated his efforts on renovating and modernising Vale Park at great financial cost. However, the money for his ambitious projects dried up with his decision to axe Rudge, and he left the club in December 2002 when Port Vale entered administration.

Early life Bell was born in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent on 21 January 1932, and became a supporter of Port Vale in 1948. He worked on the construction of Vale Park as a maintenance mechanic and later opened a car dealership called 'WT Bell'. As the team improved to reach safety, Bell then focused his work on improving Vale Park and announced the start of a 'five-year plan' for the stadium after decades of neglect.

In the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, the Taylor Report meant that £250,000 worth of upgrades had to be made to Vale Park, with almost half of this amount being matched by the Football Trust. However, further problems emerged when the city council opened a market in Burslem town centre, and in an attempt to eliminate the competition closed Vale Park's market, which had been making the club £100,000 a year. In June, Bell negotiated the purchase of Chester City's grandstand at Sealand Road for £300,000, with half that sum coming from the Football Trust. It was placed above the Hamil Road Stand, the away end, and was opened for the league clash against Chester on 26 September 1992. However, Bell only offered Rudge a new contract at the end of the season, to the manager's disgruntlement. However, Bell continued to develop the stadium and announced a £1.4 million project to install seats at the Hamil End. However, in October Bell put the club's players up for sale and threatened to sell or liquidate the club if he received any further abuse from critical supporters. No one came forward to buy the club, and the club's total debt was revealed to be £1.5 million. Bell stated that "it is my ambition to see my job completed. We have decided to develop our own stadium fit for the Premiership". The fans abused Bell for his decision, and he again threatened to walk away from the club.

Horton kept the team from relegation in 1998–99, but could not prevent Vale from suffering the drop in 1999–2000 despite Bell giving him the funds to sign new players. Bell also announced that £1 million had been spent filling in more mine shafts and that Vale was losing £20,000 a week. Bell put his shares up for sale in November 2002 and sold £40,000 worth of shares, nowhere near enough to pay off the £593,000 Vale owed the Inland Revenue. The club was taken out of administration by the 'Valiant2001' consortium, and Bill Bratt became the new chairman. Bell maintained a quiet public profile after leaving the club, though he held a long-running legal dispute with the club over rent owed towards the club shop, which he still owned. Former marketing director Neil Hughes was put on trial at Stafford Crown Court after being accused of stealing more than £8,000 from the club, and he claimed in his May 2004 trial to have made up false invoices to cover tax and VAT with the knowledge of then chairman Bell; Bell denied the claim. He made headlines in September 2010, when a dispute with a builder at his Brown Edge home ended with Bell threatening the builder with an axe.