AFCB Bournemouth's chief executive Neill Blake, finally put the club firmly in the position of hunting for a new ground with his afternoon statement. Come 2020/21 it is hoped that the club will have a new stadium and a new place to play and while that will be exciting in itself, there will be many of us that will find it hard to leave Dean Court behind.
I was intrigued by the announcement that the time scale was fairly precise. It is not as long as we all think to 2020 and building a stadium is not a quick affair as planning position, transport access and legal paper work and building permits and safety measures all have to be settled as well as contractors brought in, while any legal challenges would of course lead to delays.
The part of the statement that had me wondering exactly where the new stadium could be located was when Neill said, "Therefore, we feel we have no other option but to find a new site and are working closely with Bournemouth Borough Council to identify a suitable location."
It is hard to argue with the club coming to this conclusion though. They tried very much to stay at Dean Court and a solution needs to be found as AFCB is now a Premier League club with a League One ground. The infrastructure needs to catch up with the progress that has been made on the pitch and if that means more supporters coming to watch the club that is pleasing to me.
I don't think it will be at all simple to keep to the timescale that the club has unless it is already fairly close to knowing the potential sites and has a good understanding of the costs and likely objections so I would not be surprised if more is said come the summer.
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| Dean Court has done the club well, but it may not have many season's to come. |
The part of the statement that had me wondering exactly where the new stadium could be located was when Neill said, "Therefore, we feel we have no other option but to find a new site and are working closely with Bournemouth Borough Council to identify a suitable location."
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In the past sites have been suggested or rumoured such as Iford and Mitcham, but finding a location inside the Bournemouth Borough is no easy challenge and I also think the relocation is obviously going to be a big loss for the suburbs of Boscombe and Springborne the business that have welcomed the extra business on match days. 
It is hard to argue with the club coming to this conclusion though. They tried very much to stay at Dean Court and a solution needs to be found as AFCB is now a Premier League club with a League One ground. The infrastructure needs to catch up with the progress that has been made on the pitch and if that means more supporters coming to watch the club that is pleasing to me.
I don't think it will be at all simple to keep to the timescale that the club has unless it is already fairly close to knowing the potential sites and has a good understanding of the costs and likely objections so I would not be surprised if more is said come the summer.
This looks to be a win-win situation for Structadene. One of the changes made back when the Sale+Leaseback was negotiated was that the land was re-zoned and can be used for housing (assuming my memory of the event is correct).
ReplyDeleteI suppose Findlay's FoKP will be happy as well.
We have to reserve judgement until we know where the club could be moving to.
Dean Court is too small for the top two divisions, but it is perfectly adequate for the next two. We may expect to be up there forever but Bolton, Wigan and Coventry force us to ask what happens when the music stops.
I had no real opinion either way when the Structadene contract was first signed but the moaners seem to have been correct. If only Maxim D had become involved a few months earlier, a lot of this could have been avoided.