New Aberdeen Stadium

The New Aberdeen Stadium is a proposed stadium in Aberdeen, Scotland. It would be the home stadium of Scottish Premiership football club Aberdeen. The stadium would replace Pittodrie and would be located near Kingswells and Westhill in the west of Aberdeen.

Background

Plans for a new stadium began when the club indicated that further development of Pittodrie Stadium was not possible due to the age of the ground and the restrictions from surrounding land. The severe disruption to the clubs activities, and the potential to wipe out some of the club's debt by selling the club owned land for redevelopment, moreover, made a new stadium the only viable option.^[1] In July 2008, the club reiterated their desire to move forwards with a new 21,000 seat stadium, despite the financial crisis that had hit Aberdeen City Council in recent months.^[2] The plan is unrelated to the proposed Cove Rangers stadium also being built in the south of the city.

History

In April 2009, the Arena Project Board recommended a site in Nigg for the new stadium.^[3] The majority of fans responding to a questionnaire on the proposal from Aberdeen Supporters Trust opposed the building of the new stadium on the site.^[4] Amongst the 10% of Aberdeen fans who replied, 81.2% were against the location of the new stadium, and that the second site of Kings Links adjacent to the existing Pittodrie would be their first choice. 62.8% said they would attend fewer matches if the move was to go ahead.^[5] The Board considered that a site adjacent to Aberdeen's present home of Pittodrie Stadium was too small and too expensive.^[3]

The proposed site is within a Green Belt area, which the local council may donate to the project.^[6] Concerns have been raised over the new site due to the need to develop over Aberdeen's only fresh-water loch, and the resultant need for large car parking facilities.^[7] Approval for the project would trigger consent for other property developers who have had outline plans for this particular area for a number of years, but until now have been refused due to the Green Belt status.^[8]

Aberdeen City Council deferred a decision until the next full meeting of the local authority.^[9] The full council approved the project in May 2009, subject to planning permission.^[10] In August 2010, a planning application for the new stadium was submitted to the Council,^[11] which was approved in February 2011.^[12]

It was announced in August 2011 that Barr Construction Ltd will be the contractor for the construction of the stadium, which was scheduled to begin in 2012.^[13] In May 2012, construction of the new stadium was delayed for a year, until 2013, due to delays over land ownership.^[14] The project suffered a serious setback in August 2012, when Aberdeen City Council rejected a joint application by Aberdeen FC and Cove Rangers FC to build a community sports centre at the nearby Calder Park.^[15] Aberdeen FC chairman Stewart Milne said in November 2013 that further negotiations had taken place between the club and the City Council.^[16]

In August 2014, Stewart Milne announced that because of the plans being rejected by the current Aberdeen City Council administration, the training facilities and new stadium would be built on two separate sites. Milne confirmed that the training facilities would be announced in the coming weeks and that negotiations were ongoing with the local authorities over the stadium.^[17] In November 2014 it was announced that Aberdeen would build its long-awaited training facilities at Balgownie, on land owned by the University of Aberdeen.^[18]

Current development

The proposals for Balgownie and Loriston were dropped in May 2016, as Aberdeen instead announced their intention to develop a site at Kingsford, to the west of the city.^[19] This site would be served by the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (bypass), which is under construction.^[19] The club had proposed moving to the nearby site of Kingswells in 2003, but this had been dropped due to local opposition.^[19][20]

Aberdeen F.C. intends to sell its current home, Pittodrie Stadium, for housing development. This project received outline planning approval in April 2011.^[21]

Opposition

A community action group of local residents,^[22] called "No Kingsford Stadium", was established in May 2016 to campaign against the proposed development.^[23] A poll of approximately 500 local residents showed nearly 60% were opposed to the Kingsford proposal.^[24]

References