Aberdeen's new stadium

[HibeeJibee]

Away and stop dreaming - no bid will happen ever in Scotland as you will be lucky to find a tournament that has ever had two stadiums as close as Edinburgh and Glasgow let alone 3 in EACH CITY!!!

He was a proposing a 16-stadium bid IIRC: which would actually be enough for the World Cup? If he'd throw Meadowbank in, Edinburgh can just do the Confederations Cup ourselves...

When push comes to shove, any bid in future could only comprise Scots-Irish, with us providing 4 stadiums in 4 cities; + the Irish (Eire or both) 5. Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dublin (most likely) would then provide 2nd stadium = 10. That scenario isn't happening anytime soon... perhaps ever.

[Joe DiMaggio]

But that's where it falls down. The first 2 are towns, both (Falkirk especially) not far from Glasgow + Edinburgh. Inverness isn't that big, and has a very small stadium currently, and would need a vastly improved rail link + road link + airport. And you've still only got 8 cities when you need 9. A Scottish town hosting Euros? Never.

Unless the Irish can find 5 cities (which I can't see... Galway perhaps - but now you're talking 3 total stadium reconstructions in reasonably small cities in SW Ireland) it doesn't fly. Now if you're having Scotland-Eire you'd be as well put the Northern Irish with Belfast in... but that's 3 nations, and still struggling to find enough cities + stadiums.

As I said before, even if you can meet the criteria - it would never threaten "proper" bidders.

You would think but looking at Portugals 2004 tournament they had Faro which only has a population just over 40,000 and another city just over 50,000.

The stadium in Inverness, Falkirk and Killie could be temporarily expanded as again in Portugal they used a lot of temporary stands.

But anyway its all theoretical as I can't see Scotland or Ireland even considering a bid in the near future anyway.

[La_Leyenda]

Scandanavia got more votes for Euro 2008 than Scotland-Eire did... and they are intending to bid again. That's 4 independent countries - spread over a far wider area - seperated by language, distance, also by seas. And Norway isn't even in the EU. And they've 3 seperate currencies too...

The Scotland-Ireland bid was an awful bid, thats why.

Not enough money was put up get both countries ready. No attempt was being made to improve infastructure. UEFA visited Aberdeen to view our stadiums plans which back then were being mooted for Kingswells, and were met with wild opposition which kinda puts doubts in your mind that the stadium would be built (and low and behold, the stadium isn't being built in kingswells).

It was a half hearted effort. I'd have voted for another country too to save us embarassing ourselves.

No it wouldn't!! The Scotland + "northern England" + 'maybe Wales too' bid would never make it to UEFA!! The FA wouldn't allow it... if they did, they would just bid themselves. The paper exercise of listing cities works, the actual practicality of it doesn't.

Thats your opinion. You seem to struggle with the concept that football forums are all about opinions, and when you make a post, that post doesn't suddenly become fact.

[HibeeJibee]

I hear Llanelli are bidding for the 2022 Commonwealth Games... but don't worry, it's assisted by the West half of Swansea .

[xaviermaw]

He was a proposing a 16-stadium bid IIRC: which would actually be enough for the World Cup? If he'd throw Meadowbank in, Edinburgh can just do the Confederations Cup ourselves...

When push comes to shove, any bid in future could only comprise Scots-Irish, with us providing 4 stadiums in 4 cities; + the Irish (Eire or both) 5. Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dublin (most likely) would then provide 2nd stadium = 10. That scenario isn't happening anytime soon... perhaps ever.

Na, he was proposing a Euro bid (6 groups of 4) but my point is UEFA wouldn't ever accept 6 stadiums and fans of 8 nations being based in our central belt - that is pure pish!!

You are right, a 'Celtic' Bid is our only hope (how about the Aviva in Dublin?) but the chances are slim to none.

[La_Leyenda]

You talk some pish by the way. One minute you are saying it is not a 'Joint Bid' but Scotland's bid with English councils helping out then you are giving England an automatic place, ala Joint bids.

Away and stop dreaming - no bid will happen ever in Scotland as you will be lucky to find a tournament that has ever had two stadiums as close as Edinburgh and Glasgow let alone 3 in EACH CITY!!!

And why is it a problem as a joint bid, but with England being the junior partner of Scotland?

When push comes to shove, any bid in future could only comprise Scots-Irish, with us providing 4 stadiums in 4 cities; + the Irish (Eire or both) 5. Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dublin (most likely) would then provide 2nd stadium = 10. That scenario isn't happening anytime soon... perhaps ever.

Then stop suggesting it. You mention it in every post, then tell us it'll never happen. What point are you trying to make?

[uni]

I do like the look of the stadium but its just too far away from any pubs. The location is my main concern (even though it will take me at most 10 minutes to drive there)

[La_Leyenda]

I hear Llanelli are bidding for the 2022 Commonwealth Games... but don't worry, it's assisted by the West half of Swansea .

Hilarious. I'm sure you'll get a lot of green dots for your effort there.

[La_Leyenda]

I do like the look of the stadium but its just too far away from any pubs.

There's a supporters bar being built into the stadium.

[HibeeJibee]

You are right, a 'Celtic' Bid is our only hope (how about the Aviva in Dublin?) but the chances are slim to none.

Within Scotland we could clearly produce Hampden, Murrayfield and New Pittodrie... you'd also put a new stadium in Dundee, white elephant like as it could turn out (even reduced to 20k post-finals). Eire could clearly produce Dublin (Croke or Aviva), Cork + Limerick - the GAA are finally both investing in their stadiums, and more agreeable to co-operate with 'Anglo' sports. Positive so far.

Problem is you've only 7 cities + stadiums and realistically you need 9 cities + 10 stadiums. So Dublin most likely gets both Croke and Aviva, and you add Belfast. Still a city short: so unless you get the Welsh on board, it's got to be a wholly unsatisfactory solution like Killie, Galway, Thurles.

Even then, having met criteria, winning vote looks very unlikely.

The other point from that: the island of Ireland is providing 5 out of 9 cities, and 6 out of 10 stadiums. Eire are senior partners and get Final IMO.

[Aberdeen Cowden]

Does someone have a contract signed to build this stadium?. I assume its the Stewart Milne Group and also the training facilities Cove Rangers etc.

No-one else will get a look in - and guess who'll be buying Pittodrie at a knock down price?

I just hope there is no public money going into this.

[Darren]

1 - If the council approve the planning application, then yes, I think they will. The club in fairness are very determined to make it happen, perhaps more determined than they are to see a winning team on the park, and the business people that they are they'll get it built.

2 - Stuart Milne has promised to fund it himself if he has to, however I don't think he'll need to actually pay out £40m of his own money.

The sale of Pittodrie I would suggest will earn between 10 - 15 million.

The naming rights of the stadium will no doubt be sold for a sizeable figure. Emirates paid £100m for 15 years at Arsenal. We obviously won't command that (and actually wouldn't need to), and of course at the other end of the scale Livingston only commanded a five figure sum for a three-year-deal with Braidwood Motor Company. However, being a prominent club in Scotland, and with the chance always there we'll be regular visitors to Europe, I think we'd perhaps be looking for at least 10% of what Arsenal got, perhaps for a longer term (20 - 25 years).

The Dons have also offered local investment opportunities to businesses. I don't really know what they would get out of investing in the stadium, I'm not that business savvy, but if Ian Wood can simply donate £50m to fund a civic square in Union terrace gardens, then I'm sure others will be happy to have their name branded alongside the new stadium.

I would reckon we would probably manage to raise a conservative amount of £20 - 25 million, with add ons from local investment. We may even sell Frazer Fyvie for £10m to seal the deal. As long as the costs don't spiral out of control, then I don't think its actually a great deal to Stuart Milne to pay off the rest.

Cheers for not resorting to a stock reply about Hearts' main stand plans. I would just like to point out to a few other posters that this thread is about Aberdeen's new stadium plans and, to clarify, Hearts have not had any plans for a £51million stand for about a year now.

La_Leyenda, I think you are being overly optimistic in your financial projections, to say the least.

On point one, the council will probably grant planning permission but this is not a guarantee that the construction of the stadium will go ahead by a long stretch.

Moving to point two, I have seen no evidence of Stewart Milne suggesting he will fund the new stadium himself if he needs to and I would be extremely surprised if that is the case, given how frugal he has been over the last decade or so.

£10-£15million is a fair estimate for the land at Pittodrie. Given that Aberdeen are circa £10million in debt, this leaves you at +£5million in a best-case scenario. The new stadium is said to be costing up to £40million.

Now, this is where the problems in your post begin to arise. I think the chances of anyone paying £10million+ for the naming rights to Pittodrie are incredibly slim. While I take your point that Aberdeen are a high-profile club in Scottish terms, I would hardly say that regular European football is a guarantee and I do not see what would be attractive for a business about 'sponsoring' your new stadium. Arsenal are a global brand - hardly anyone outside of the north-east cares about Aberdeen FC and everyone up here is probably aware of who local businesses are anyway.

There is absolutely no chance that Aberdeen FC will accrue £20-£25million in local investment for the new stadium. Without checking up any facts, I would imagine this is unheard of in British football.

Sir Ian Wood's "generous" offer of £50million towards the civic square is, in my opinion, all about leaving his mark on the city. It's a legacy thing, and really quite selfish. Business people aren't interested in football clubs any more, and they would have very little to gain from being a benefactor.

As has already been mentioned, the council won't help out. They can't even afford to collect my bin on a weekly basis or fix potholes.

In short, I think these plans, however attractive, are completely unworkable. Which leaves the Dons in a pretty sticky situation, because staying at Pittodrie clearly isn't an option.

[Aberdeen Cowden]

Cheers for not resorting to a stock reply about Hearts' main stand plans. I would just like to point out to a few other posters that this thread is about Aberdeen's new stadium plans and, to clarify, Hearts have not had any plans for a £51million stand for about a year now.

La_Leyenda, I think you are being overly optimistic in your financial projections, to say the least.

On point one, the council will probably grant planning permission but this is not a guarantee that the construction of the stadium will go ahead by a long stretch.

Moving to point two, I have seen no evidence of Stewart Milne suggesting he will fund the new stadium himself if he needs to and I would be extremely surprised if that is the case, given how frugal he has been over the last decade or so.

£10-£15million is a fair estimate for the land at Pittodrie. Given that Aberdeen are circa £10million in debt, this leaves you at +£5million in a best-case scenario. The new stadium is said to be costing up to £40million.

Now, this is where the problems in your post begin to arise. I think the chances of anyone paying £10million+ for the naming rights to Pittodrie are incredibly slim. While I take your point that Aberdeen are a high-profile club in Scottish terms, I would hardly say that regular European football is a guarantee and I do not see what would be attractive for a business about 'sponsoring' your new stadium. Arsenal are a global brand - hardly anyone outside of the north-east cares about Aberdeen FC and everyone up here is probably aware of who local businesses are anyway.

There is absolutely no chance that Aberdeen FC will accrue £20-£25million in local investment for the new stadium. Without checking up any facts, I would imagine this is unheard of in British football.

Sir Ian Wood's "generous" offer of £50million towards the civic square is, in my opinion, all about leaving his mark on the city. It's a legacy thing, and really quite selfish. Business people aren't interested in football clubs any more, and they would have very little to gain from being a benefactor.

As has already been mentioned, the council won't help out. They can't even afford to collect my bin on a weekly basis or fix potholes.

In short, I think these plans, however attractive, are completely unworkable. Which leaves the Dons in a pretty sticky situation, because staying at Pittodrie clearly isn't an option.

Planning permission for 350 houses at Pittodrie already submitted. At £100k profit (at least) for every SM "box" that's a lot of money for the chairman. Building the new stadium will net another tidy profit.

There better not be any of our money going towards this - even if is called a community stadiium.

[EdTheDuck]

Planning permission for 350 houses at Pittodrie already submitted. At £100k profit (at least) for every SM "box" that's a lot of money for the chairman. Building the new stadium will net another tidy profit.

There better not be any of our money going towards this - even if is called a community stadiium.

I could have sworn I saw something about houses being built at the new site to help fund it (they'd only need to build about 400 and the job's a good un)

edit - or was that Trump's golf thingy i'm thinking of?

[La_Leyenda]

Moving to point two, I have seen no evidence of Stewart Milne suggesting he will fund the new stadium himself if he needs to and I would be extremely surprised if that is the case, given how frugal he has been over the last decade or so.

I can't find a quote on the internet to link to, but I'm fairly sure Stuart Milne has been on record to say that he would make up any shortfall himself.

£10-£15million is a fair estimate for the land at Pittodrie. Given that Aberdeen are circa £10million in debt, this leaves you at +£5million in a best-case scenario. The new stadium is said to be costing up to £40million.

And why would we have to pay off the debt straight away? No-one else is.

Aberdeen have an agreement with the bank to pay back the debt, like all other clbus do. If we sell pittodrie, that cash won't be seized by the bank.

Aberdeen have also explained that the new stadium will bring in additional income, increasing turnover, and therefore increasing the club's ability to pay off the debt.

Now, this is where the problems in your post begin to arise. I think the chances of anyone paying £10million+ for the naming rights to Pittodrie are incredibly slim. While I take your point that Aberdeen are a high-profile club in Scottish terms, I would hardly say that regular European football is a guarantee and I do not see what would be attractive for a business about 'sponsoring' your new stadium. Arsenal are a global brand - hardly anyone outside of the north-east cares about Aberdeen FC and everyone up here is probably aware of who local businesses are anyway.

I think you're being a little bit over exagerated there.

Fact is, the new stadium will be headline news in Scotland. Everyone knows the name "Pittodrie", its a symbolic name in Scottish football. Therefore the naming rights for the stadium are lucrative, as that will become the name everyone knows the stadium buy, a stadium that could within the next 25 years host European Championship games should Scotland ever bid for them.

I don't think £10million for a 20 - 25 year lease is too ambitious, especially when Aberdeen bring in £1 million a year through advertising and sponsorship at the moment.

There is absolutely no chance that Aberdeen FC will accrue £20-£25million in local investment for the new stadium. Without checking up any facts, I would imagine this is unheard of in British football.

I never said it was from local investment.

I made them findings based on the sale of Pittodrie, the naming rights, and perhaps local investment. £20 - 25 million is therefore a modest target.

[SS RED]

Planning permission for 350 houses at Pittodrie already submitted. At £100k profit (at least) for every SM "box" that's a lot of money for the chairman. Building the new stadium will net another tidy profit.

There better not be any of our money going towards this - even if is called a community stadiium.

God you sound like a right sad twat. I hope it's all paid for with council money...then we can spend more on signing new players...

[La_Leyenda]

God you sound like a right sad twat. I hope it's all paid for with council money...then we can spend more on signing new players...

I hope its all paid for out of money that has been earmarked for charities and good causes.

I also hope all NHS funding for the next ten years is transfered to Aberdeen to give the city an underground system, helping to ease the traffic congestion caused by the new ground.

But no doubt someone, somewhere, will only bloody go and moan about it, at which point I hope Stewart Milne shoots them.

[Aberdeen Cowden]

God you sound like a right sad twat. I hope it's all paid for with council money...then we can spend more on signing new players...

No I aint sad and I aint no twat either - I'm actually on your side!

I just don't like what has happened to AFC. It should never have come to this.

[MP_MFC]

If Aberdeen are looking to push ahead with a new stadium, they, or any other Scottish team for that matter, should look towards Llanelli's Parc Y Scarlets. Saw this place last year in the Europa League, cracking stadium, decent atmosphere, brilliant views and a lot of revnue generating options.

Wiki

Some pics of....

[Lewis-HFC]

Stadium looks really good, would be nice to see another good modern stadium in Scotland go ahead - although isn't exactly ideal for the Aberdeen fans.