Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack has not given up hope of moving to a new £80m stadium in the beach area of the city.
Despite leaders of Aberdeen City Council saying they will not use tax-payers money to build a new home for the club as part of a £150m regeneration project, Cormack is keeping his fingers crossed that they will change their minds when the administration meets on Wednesday to discuss the issue. The club recently put forward a case that a new stadium could generate £1billion for the local economy over fifty years with a plea for the council to become partners.
Council chiefs, however, are adamant that not a penny of local authority cash will go into the building of a new home for the Dons. Cormack revealed the previous Conservative-Labour coalition had approached him to express and interested in the Reds remaining in the city rather than move to a planned stadium in Kingsford, eight miles to the west of the city. Since then, the SNP has taken control of the city and turned that idea on its head.
The Aberdeen chief said: “The council are meeting on Wednesday to discuss the overall masterplan itself. There will be subsequent meetings which take place and, right now from reading the reports, the stadium is part of the masterplan.
“But how it gets funded is another question. We were approached about two years ago by the administration at the time and asked how we could help the city and keep the club in the city centre.
“Because economically it makes sense for them. We began a dialogue which has gone on over the last 18 months.
“Our appeal to the administration and city council is to get together over the next few months and really look at what this can do for Aberdeen.
“At a higher level the First Minister wants Aberdeen to be the net zero capital of the world. In order for us to achieve that and bring thousands of higher paid jobs to Aberdeen for that as the oil dies down over time, we need an infrastructure where families want to come and live in Aberdeen.”
Cormack congratulated the local authority for spending £400m on The Event Centre Aberdeen (TECA) in the previous administration but wondered what could be achieved by spending that kind of money in developing the beach area of the city. He said: “The most important thing is when we go out to look at funding sources for a joint stadium that it is a council stadium.
“When you are talking to potential partners the first question they ask is if Aberdeen City Council 100 per cent on board with this. Recent press coverage suggests it’s up for debate.
“Until such time as we can get everyone round the table we have to go out positively to these potential funding sources, where there are grants available. There is money out there from the net zero infrastructure stuff.
“The north-east of England is desperate to be the Aberdeen of renewable energy so there’s lots of competition out there. We’ve been looking for a home for long time and this option at the beach has never been an option.
“So it’s one we want to continue to explore. The stadium is still in the plan and if it is ratified on Wednesday I would urge everyone to think of the future of Aberdeen and bring those jobs here.
“We have to invest in the infrastructure. There’s no John Lewis now, no Debenhams. There’s the Beach Ballroom which is past its sell-by date. We need to invest in that infrastructure to get football back here.”
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