Breaking News - New Stadium and Training Facilities

[ILikeJam]

What are you on about now?

You misunderstood what I said because you were desperate to pull out "I'm nae gan to westhill".

Aberdeen FC play in Aberdeen. Kingsford is not in Aberdeen and the stadium is tacky and has no character. Out of town stadiums are bad, Amsterdam has a metro, it's Amsterdam and it's the Amsterdam ArenA. King's links and pittodrie are both viable options if the club wanted to.

You said: "Sorry I really couldn't give 2 hoots about a driving range for about 10 folk if I have to go to Westhill to watch football."
Think it's fair to translate that as "Destroy one of the city's best golfing assets because I don't give a fuuck about golf and can't be ar$ed travelling 7 miles to watch the Dons"

At least your latest post makes some decent points. The last thing I want is a sh!te stadium at Kingsford - they have to f*cking nail it - but a few fairly low-rent artist's impressions of the stadium probably aren't the best basis to make judgements on potential quality and atmosphere.

What's your basis for Kings Links and Pittodrie being viable when the club have given reasons why they're not?

[stansmith]

I find it very strange both of you who have taken more offence to a blinkin driving range being moved than Aberdeen FC.

We're not moving to Westhill for one game. It's nae I wouldn't travel to Westhill to watch a game. I certainly wouldn't want to travel there every game for the next 40 years and neither will our support once they realise we're stuck with it.

The prospect of becoming one of these clubs is mortifying



Pittodrie is do able but not the Kingsford way they want it to look. Yule says the stands must be knocked down and rebuilt. And?...

King's Links would cost whatever more. So? It's the place where there are no risks regarding crowds potentially collapsing, and an iconic place which could be very successful.

[afc1903mad]

Aberdeen FC play in Aberdeen. Kingsford is not in Aberdeen

Technically, Kingsford IS in Aberdeen and that's why its the Aberdeen Planning Department the application is going through

[donsviking]

I sat in high in the Dick Donald stand at the Limassol game with a friend who has been at Pittodrie many times but not in the DD. He looked round and said all that was needed was three wrap around stands replacing the South, Merkie and Main stands and we would have a decent ground for about half the cost of Kingsford. A third of our support walk to the ground and people park at all points of the compass. At Kingsford everyone will have to go by car or bus and the traffic problems getting up to 20,000 fans out of the ground at the end of the game will be horrendous. There is no reason why Pittodrie could not have been redeveloped over the last 20 years other than the fact that Milne never intended doing so. He always intended demolishing our home of 114 years and covering it in flats. He has let the ground deteriorate over that time and then claimed that it was too expensive to maintain and we would have to move. We are the only major club in Scotland to move to a new stadium in our case to a site well outside the city and if we do move we should rename the club Aberdeenshire FC. I suspect that crowds will be no better than at present at Kingsford and may well be worse. That plus the debt we will be taking on could put the future of the club in doubt. That would be some legacy for Milne to leave us with. If we have to leave Pittodrie ( and I don't think we do) it should only be for a site across the road at the beach where there is plenty of room and it would tick all the boxes of the current site.

[Jupiter]

I don't know why you are all argueing about a new stadium that is never going to happen. The club still haven't told us where the money to build it is coming from.

[Leopardman1983]

I sat in high in the Dick Donald stand at the Limassol game with a friend who has been at Pittodrie many times but not in the DD. He looked round and said all that was needed was three wrap around stands replacing the South, Merkie and Main stands and we would have a decent ground for about half the cost of Kingsford. A third of our support walk to the ground and people park at all points of the compass. At Kingsford everyone will have to go by car or bus and the traffic problems getting up to 20,000 fans out of the ground at the end of the game will be horrendous. There is no reason why Pittodrie could not have been redeveloped over the last 20 years other than the fact that Milne never intended doing so. He always intended demolishing our home of 114 years and covering it in flats. He has let the ground deteriorate over that time and then claimed that it was too expensive to maintain and we would have to move. We are the only major club in Scotland to move to a new stadium in our case to a site well outside the city and if we do move we should rename the club Aberdeenshire FC. I suspect that crowds will be no better than at present at Kingsford and may well be worse. That plus the debt we will be taking on could put the future of the club in doubt. That would be some legacy for Milne to leave us with. If we have to leave Pittodrie ( and I don't think we do) it should only be for a site across the road at the beach where there is plenty of room and it would tick all the boxes of the current site.

^^this with bells on. This is the last chance for SM to leave a "legacy" - and when kingsford is rejected, we will back to square one. What a mes....

[Aldo1983]

I don't know why you are all argueing about a new stadium that is never going to happen. The club still haven't told us where the money to build it is coming from.

Whilst the cost of the arsenal and new spurs stadiums are way higher than ours...they still have had issues paying for them. That's despite selling their land for more money than we would ever get, selling players for £45m and getting TV deals worth a megamillionbillion a year.

I've no idea how we can make the money for the stadium.

[notinmyname]

I find it very strange both of you who have taken more offence to a blinkin driving range being moved than Aberdeen FC.

We're not moving to Westhill for one game. It's nae I wouldn't travel to Westhill to watch a game. I certainly wouldn't want to travel there every game for the next 40 years and neither will our support once they realise we're stuck with it.

The prospect of becoming one of these clubs is mortifying



Pittodrie is do able but not the Kingsford way they want it to look. Yule says the stands must be knocked down and rebuilt. And?...

King's Links would cost whatever more. So? It's the place where there are no risks regarding crowds potentially collapsing, and an iconic place which could be very successful.

Ok so upfront I'm not here to be a keyboard hero and talk about how much more I know than everyone else... not my thing - did that 25 years ago when I was a young student and the aberdeen maillist was de rigueur. Grew up and learned my lesson! (Interesting meeting ups tho!

So to various cogent points! We should base no decision on various posturing refuseniks nor indeed rabid 'get-it-built-ers' nothing ever gets done by shouting loudest. If someone enjoys local football and enjoys the football experience of walking to a local team then the banks of dee actually provide a much more authentic experience! Some of my best experiences of football have been following devronvale down to the central belt (never lived with in Banff but the old boy is from there so it's a great experience). If someone is a fan of aberdeen they should go where the club thinks is best, rather than narrowly prioritise their own experience at the expense of the wider good. We can all fantasise about other ideal scenarios (what no railway!!! Where's the roof... summer football) but the club haven't spent 5m on consultants for nothing (soil specialists at pittodire etc) and if we're honest they have probably been shafted by council turnover and resetting of relationships per election cycle.

So we are where we are... emotions (mine included) and a seeming minority (going by the 60% drive figure above plus others) who cling to pittodrie and are less than enthused by the change to 'pint/walk' that constitutes their match day experience (no doubt a great experience but...). To offset this you have misery of driving (again it's 60%) of people from all over the north east having to negotiate the nightmare that us aberdeen's under invested road infrastructure.

I think energies (such as they are) might be better deployed on defining the match day experience people want. Is it a fan zone? Is it, might it be, a US style tailgate... something else? The idea I find strange is that pubs that pay nothing to the club provide an experience that the club couldn't out perform massively! Two (of many) examples... ed fest - pop up bars all over the place that chrge London prices! Weather - Nordic countries have outdoor 'social' sporting events in worse weather than kingsford (another advantage of getting away from the beach btw)

Anyway - points made - feel free to chose a random sentence from my detailed and nuanced responce to rail against

[thebeachend]

Why spend a fortune when the game, not just in Scotland, everywhere is done. it will be part time in Scotland within 10 years. The world will be watching the Tokyo Trailblazers and other such sh1te. Why spend millions for a white elephant out of town that will be empty in a generation. On that happy note I'll leave you to debate the merits of a roof or a standing section.

[afc1903mad]

Ok so upfront I'm not here to be a keyboard hero and talk about how much more I know than everyone else... not my thing - did that 25 years ago when I was a young student and the aberdeen maillist was de rigueur. Grew up and learned my lesson! (Interesting meeting ups tho!

So to various cogent points! We should base no decision on various posturing refuseniks nor indeed rabid 'get-it-built-ers' nothing ever gets done by shouting loudest. If someone enjoys local football and enjoys the football experience of walking to a local team then the banks of dee actually provide a much more authentic experience! Some of my best experiences of football have been following devronvale down to the central belt (never lived with in Banff but the old boy is from there so it's a great experience). If someone is a fan of aberdeen they should go where the club thinks is best, rather than narrowly prioritise their own experience at the expense of the wider good. We can all fantasise about other ideal scenarios (what no railway!!! Where's the roof... summer football) but the club haven't spent 5m on consultants for nothing (soil specialists at pittodire etc) and if we're honest they have probably been shafted by council turnover and resetting of relationships per election cycle.

So we are where we are... emotions (mine included) and a seeming minority (going by the 60% drive figure above plus others) who cling to pittodrie and are less than enthused by the change to 'pint/walk' that constitutes their match day experience (no doubt a great experience but...). To offset this you have misery of driving (again it's 60%) of people from all over the north east having to negotiate the nightmare that us aberdeen's under invested road infrastructure.

I think energies (such as they are) might be better deployed on defining the match day experience people want. Is it a fan zone? Is it, might it be, a US style tailgate... something else? The idea I find strange is that pubs that pay nothing to the club provide an experience that the club couldn't out perform massively! Two (of many) examples... ed fest - pop up bars all over the place that chrge London prices! Weather - Nordic countries have outdoor 'social' sporting events in worse weather than kingsford (another advantage of getting away from the beach btw)

Anyway - points made - feel free to chose a random sentence from my detailed and nuanced responce to rail against

Excellent points they were