Originally Posted by
rustlinsweetiepapers
I bought my flat in Aberdeen ten years ago partly because it was walking distance to Pittodrie so I’m not unbiased but reluctantly accept the old lady is no longer the answer. But I can’t get away from the idea that building a football stadium just for playing fitba is a ridiculous project in this age. I was in Düsseldorf this past weekend and marvelling once more at the Esprit Arena.
I’ve been there for football (capacity 54,000, retractable roof and heating) and for sold-out concerts (maybe an even higher capacity, certainly felt like it at Die Toten Hosen). It has hosted racing (Vettel, Prost and Schumacher), Klitschko world championship fights and World Bowls in American football. It has even been the home of the Eurovision Song Contest.
I know many on this board follow German football so will know that Fortuna is a see-saw team (like Partick Thistle used to be) and currently in the Second Division. What makes the Esprit make sense is that it is the centrepiece of the Messe (exhibition fairground), close to the airport, massive parking and trains running to and from Central Station every few minutes when events are on. If I hadn’t spent much of my life in Aberdeen and known the knob-ends the city has as councillors, it would have been impossible to conceive why the football stadium was not an integral part of the new exhibition centre (close to the airport, rai link (maybe) etc … see above). Offshore Europe? Have the Stones play the stadium as Düsseldorf did (twice), put on the best boxing matches in Scotland, host Scotland internationals once Strachan is gone, put down an ice rink in the winter break for proper skating and hold a real Christmas Market. What an economic powerhouse for the region this development could have been.