OPPONENTS of a football club’s plans for a new stadium have hijacked a campaign slogan and snapped up domain names to protest at the proposal.
Aberdeen FC started using the hashtag #AllForAurora this week to get fans to back the switch from crumbling Pittodrie to a new-build in a city suburb.
But the club failed to register a website by that name in time and Aberdeen FC bosses were shocked to see a pressure group use allforaurora.com to argue against the new stadium.
The stunt by the No Kingsford Stadium group means unsuspecting fans are confronted with their own social media campaign, #DontBelieveAurora. It contained a list of claims about rising ticket prices, long journey times and declining attendance figures at Kingsford, near the Westhill area of the city.
Former manager Sir Alex Ferguson is among many who are backing the Aurora scheme, which would create a 20,000-seat ground and training centre.The club had previously sought to avoid public hostilities with No Kingsford Stadium, which was set up by disgruntled Westhill residents upset about the impact of the £50 million project.
But the club’s vice- chairman, George Yule, issued a strongly-worded response to their opponents’ latest tactic. He said: “Given the huge success of our Aurora campaign, particularly on social media, we’re not concerned about this type of small-minded nonsense.
“However, what is a concern is the huge amount of completely inaccurate information on this site from a small group people who are not accountable for anything they say to anyone, in the hope of misleading others.
“This is clearly a disruptive move by these people aimed at distracting focus and we recognise it for what it is.”
But the group hit back, saying: “It seems that the Aurora campaign is just like the stadium plans: not properly considered or planned. We purchased the domains to highlight this issue and spread the message of our campaign.”
Councillors are due to examine the application at a preliminary hearing on September 13, with a final decision in October.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here