Aberdeen FC's stadium move delayed by a year

Reporter

Saturday 26 May 2012

ABERDEEN Football Club's plans to move to a new multi-purpose stadium have been put back by at least another year because of a delay in land-sale agreements.

Custom byline text:

VICTORIA WELDON

The Dons were due to transfer to the new 21,000-seat arena at Loirston Loch, on the outskirts of Aberdeen, for the start of the 2013-14 season.

But in a statement from the club yesterday, bosses revealed the move to the £38 million stadium will now take place at the start of the 2014-15 season.

The news comes just two months after it was revealed the club was struggling to agree prices on buying various plots of land at the new ground.In the club statement, chief executive Duncan Fraser said: "From the outset, when we announced the original time-table, we did state it was an extremely robust and ambitious timescale, and that has proved to be exactly the case."The issue of land assembly in the locality of the site was always going to be one of the major challenges and, while we remain confident of a positive outcome, the process has taken longer than we had originally hoped."In addition, there is no doubt everybody connected with AFC was extremely disappointed with the season just finished, and the stadium being put back by 12 months will allow the number one focus next season to be in ensuring on-the-field success."Mr Fraser added that moving during the course of a season had been ruled out. He said the delay will offer the club, owned by property tycoon Stewart Milne, more time to ensure the move passes off smoothly.He said: "While the delay is disappointing, such is the scale of the project, it is imperative to ensure we are not giving ourselves unrealistic deadlines to work towards, and we can now carry on with planning for a further two full seasons at Pittodrie."Plans for the new stadium were approved by the Scottish Government and Aberdeen City Council at the beginning of last year. Guarantees are in place for Aberdeen FC to keep hold of their existing Pittodrie Stadium site –which is due to be developed for residential use – until the new ground is completed at Loirston.However, many Aberdeen fans remain wary of the decision to move. In a recent survey on the subject, 52% of supporters who responded said they were unhappy that the side is being forced to leave its current home at Pittodrie, while just 37% gave the plans their blessing.And in December last year, disgruntled supporters carried a coffin emblazoned with the club's crest and the message "RIP –Thank you Milne" to a match at Pittodrie against St Mirren.The group responsible also set up the website Aberdeen for Change to vent their anger at the plans to spend millions on a new stadium while the squad struggles on the park.Following yesterday's announcement, the group tweeted: "Some worrying points in that AFC statement on stadium. This delay has left the board very exposed to criticism."Fan Steven McMenemy posted: "No surprise the Dons move to new stadium had been delayed. Always looked optimistic to finish building for start of 2013-14 season."

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Aberdeen FC's stadium move delayed by a year

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED