At long last there are signs of publicity about the mooted new stadium. The AFC website has a new section with assorted bits of gen that will help to inform people of what is going on and it’ll be exciting watching developments as they get rolled out.
Amazingly there seems to be a somewhat pointless rumbling amongst the chattering classes that the idea of relocating is a bad thing. How can this be? Only a few years ago there was a lot of effort put in by the club over the possibility of building a new stadium out at Bellfield near Kingswells and hardly a peep came from supporters against the idea. Now, long after the council sponsored (but did not pay for) a feasibility study into the proposed site and Kings Links, we have a minor spate of negativity - did any of these people submit comments to the study?
Could it be that these same naysayers are the ones who seek to find a contrary point of view over anything that Aberdeen FC tries to do? You bet!
Given the choice, nobody, not fans, not the board, not the club’s staff or anyone else would want to move from the traditional home of football. But look at the location of Pittodrie; there just isn’t room. It sits right on the street at two sides and close to another street on a third. The council has had the area zoned for housing for years and has wanted the club out of there for just as long. No planners would allow reconstruction where the crowd would have to pour out onto the highway like happens now. UEFA demands for stadium standards would force things into the design that just couldn't fit into the land available and modern day spectator expectations would not accept it if a reconstruction left them with cramped concourses and a low capacity ground.
Reading between the lines, it seems pretty clear that the Club would have preferred a better site than what has been tabled, but what choice was there? How many pieces of land are available anywhere in the city that would be big enough to house a modern stadium with car parks and training ground nearby? Answer: precious few, if any.
A new place is a huge opportunity, it isn't one that comes around in most supporters’ lifetime but we are getting it. Why not embrace the idea and get excited about it? Sure there will doubtless be problems along the way, but if the planning process goes well, we will end up with something wonderful. A place with atmosphere that is capable of generating more income beyond match days and that won’t cost a fortune to maintain for years to come. And let’s not forget that we can take some of Pittodrie with us - the granite façade from the Merkland end for starters, not to mention the thousands of memories and stories that go with the old place.
Nostalgia and history belong to the supporter and to the players from the past; the club has to continually look forward. The people who run it have to make sure that there is still something there to run in ten, twenty, fifty years time. That’s where the revamping of the youth development system was so important (something we are beginning to see coming to fruition). A brand new stadium with a team built largely on our own home-developed players will be a fantastic thing, a chance for a rebirth of the club we love. It is almost like regeneration on Doctor Who, only better. Embrace it and let’s get the thing done by everybody working together - the sooner the better.
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