Aberdeen earmarks 2019/20 for new stadium

Scottish football club, Aberdeen FC (AFC), has earmarked the start of the 2019/20 season for the opening of its new stadium, despite not having secured its preferred site.

During its Annual General Meeting (AGM) yesterday (14 December), the Scottish Premier League club’s chair Stewart Milne said that the timescale was realistic although there are question marks over the proposed Loirston Loch location.

AFC is currently waiting on an Aberdeen City Council decision for permission to begin building its proposed 21,000-capacity stadium, which is being lined up to replace its current Pittodrie home.

Milne also indicated that raising the funds for the development “in the current environment could be quite challenging”, although the club posted record revenues of £13.1m (US$19.9m, €18m) for the year ending 30 June 2015.

He said that there had been progress on the stadium plans, which were originally rejected by the council in 2012, adding that the planned development had “changed substantially”.

Designs for the development and integrated academy had been “revised” to include a transport strategy that “works for the stadium, works for the [local] school, works for the new settlement that takes place, as well as the new [nearby] Cove Rangers stadium”.

Cove Rangers is Aberdeen’s Highland Football League club located on the south side of the city.

The chair also revealed that the club had secured a two-year agreement to use the Countesswells training facilities at Robert Gordon’s College after its proposal to develop a new training ground at Aberdeen University’s Balgownie playing fields hit a “setback”.

“We have earmarked another site which is in a very good location and so hopefully we can get that finalised in the early part of the new year,” said Milne. “Once we get that tied down, we would start the planning process.”