Stuart Milne

[CentreLine]

I see Stuart Milne is being regularly quoted in sports news items saying Pitodrie may not be fit to host European matches in the near future. There is no explanation about what aspects of the ground will be unsuitable. Personally I think he is just trying to put pressure on the Aberdeen local authority to pass his grand building plans and this is just a ploy.

Does anyone have any better perspective on it?

[Hibee87]

Maybe he is looking to spend 18+ million on a new stand which still wont be complient, its what big teams do is it not?

[hughio]

His agenda for years now has been to sell Pittodrie which, as a city centre site, is worth hundreds of millions to his house building firm.

As Chairman of AFC a reasonable person might assume he cared for the historical link with the stadium and the ease of access to locals on foot,the emotional bond with the space etc.

But no.
He'd rather shift the Club to a cheap site outside town on a windswept hill where people can drive to ......
Makes perfect sense...to him.


Surprisingly Dons fans are not to keen hence this press campaign.

Bogus.

[Hibs07p]

He's also bleating (pun intended) about having the worst training facilities in the SFPL, he can build a stand alone training complex, other teams have done it.

GGTTH
Scottish Cup Winners 2016

[lapsedhibee]

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I see Stuart Milne is being regularly quoted in sports news items saying Pitodrie may not be fit to host European matches in the near future. There is no explanation about what aspects of the ground will be unsuitable. Personally I think he is just trying to put pressure on the Aberdeen local authority to pass his grand building plans and this is just a ploy.

Does anyone have any better perspective on it?

It's well known that the schematics there are a problem.

[green&left]

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His agenda for years now has been to sell Pittodrie which, as a city centre site, is worth hundreds of millions to his house building firm.

As Chairman of AFC a reasonable person might assume he cared for the historical link with the stadium and the ease of access to locals on foot,the emotional bond with the space etc.

But no.
He'd rather shift the Club to a cheap site outside town on a windswept hill where people can drive to ......
Makes perfect sense...to him.


Surprisingly Dons fans are not to keen hence this press campaign.

Bogus.

Worth £18m according to a Scotsman article a while back.

[Jones28]

Pittodrie is a hovel, let's make no mistake about that. But to suggest that the only alternative is to build a £50m complex on the outskirts of Aberdeen is ludicrous. The DD stand is fine, so why can't a phased reconstruction of the whole site be done? There aren't many restrictions on them, especially where the away fans are housed, in terms of space etc.

Like hughio says, something's amiss

[WhileTheChief..]

I heard him on the radio last night and agree with him completely.

They need a new modern stadium and training facilities, same as we did years ago, and the council block them at every turn.

The council should be doing whatever it can to help them build a cracking modern facility in the city.

I think he was simply making the point that for the city not to have a top class stadium reflects badly on the city itself. He's right.

[.Sean.]

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Pittodrie is a hovel, let's make no mistake about that. But to suggest that the only alternative is to build a £50m complex on the outskirts of Aberdeen is ludicrous. The DD stand is fine, so why can't a phased reconstruction of the whole site be done? There aren't many restrictions on them, especially where the away fans are housed, in terms of space etc.

Like hughio says, something's amiss

I prefer Pittodrie to lifeless stadiums like McDiarmid, St Johnstone or one of those bowls with different coloured seats every other team has down south. Likes of Reading, Swansea, Southampton, Leicester and countless others basically all have the same stadium. Boring.

[SirDavidsNapper]

Their home support would dwindle if they left Pittodrie and moved to the outskirts of Aberdeen. Unless there's a ulterior motive by Milne why not redevelop Pittodrie?

[heretoday]

The good people of Westhill don't want a ruddy great football stadium plonked in their midst and who can blame them?

[The_Todd]

The location of the planned new stadium seems mental though. It'd be like us moving to Straiton, if Straiton was another mile or two out of the city. I get the reasons why, Pittodrie is crumbling and can be sold for big money due to location but still - football is expensive enough a pasttime as it is for fans without making it awkward to get to into the bargain.

[hughio]

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I heard him on the radio last night and agree with him completely.

They need a new modern stadium and training facilities, same as we did years ago, and the council block them at every turn.

The council should be doing whatever it can to help them build a cracking modern facility in the city.

I think he was simply making the point that for the city not to have a top class stadium reflects badly on the city itself. He's right.

I don't know the details and am prepared to apologize if I'm wrong but I've heard nothing about a genuine attempt to upgrade Pittodrie in a way that's compliant.Of course its easy to submit grandiose plans that will never be approved and then bleat about it.Its much easier to imagine a sale and redevelopement out of town as a business plan.

The cynic in me says that if a modernised stadium plan were appoved it would cost a load of money and the only real source of cash is the development value of the city centre site.
It may be worth only £18 million as a site but with litterally hundreds of houses and probably a supermarket to boot it would be worth hundreds of millions once you add in the profits of house sales..Mr Milne's business.

[Since90+2]

The property market in Aberdeen is on its arse so there is no chance he would be making hundreds of millions profit from Pittodrie , he would probably make a decent few quid but nothing like that.

I would be surprised if the stadium in Westhill is approved , its a pretty well off area and im sure some pretty influential people who live there wont be keen on having a football stadium and everything that brings with it to their area.

[Iain G]

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I don't know the details and am prepared to apologize if I'm wrong but I've heard nothing about a genuine attempt to upgrade Pittodrie in a way that's compliant.Of course its easy to submit grandiose plans that will never be approved and then bleat about it.Its much easier to imagine a sale and redevelopement out of town as a business plan.

The cynic in me says that if a modernised stadium plan were appoved it would cost a load of money and the only real source of cash is the development value of the city centre site.
It may be worth only £18 million as a site but with litterally hundreds of houses and probably a supermarket to boot it would be worth hundreds of millions once you add in the profits of house sales..Mr Milne's business.

I think hundreds of millions in profit is probably a bit of an exaggeration

I assume, in his head, he is trading the cost of the land and profit from any Pittordie development against the cost of building a new stadium? But the oil and gas market is not in good shape in Aberdeen so where is the money to spend on new flats/houses? If this had happened 5-10 years ago it would have been worth a lot more to Stewart Milne.

[Jones28]

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I prefer Pittodrie to lifeless stadiums like McDiarmid, St Johnstone or one of those bowls with different coloured seats every other team has down south. Likes of Reading, Swansea, Southampton, Leicester and countless others basically all have the same stadium. Boring.

I agree, which is why I would rather they did a phased rebuilding on the current site. Easter road is a modern stadium but I don't think it could be described as soul-less.

[SirDavidsNapper]

Aberdeen only have themselves to blame for not redeveloping the stadium and building a training ground during the oil boom years. They've missed the boat. They have a hovel of a ground which is soon going to be even worse than Tynecastle and train on a public park while outspending the likes of Hibs and Hearts on players. Now they're desperately seeking planning permission to build elsewhere as the penny drops. No sympathy.

[Colr]

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Pittodrie is a hovel, let's make no mistake about that. But to suggest that the only alternative is to build a £50m complex on the outskirts of Aberdeen is ludicrous. The DD stand is fine, so why can't a phased reconstruction of the whole site be done? There aren't many restrictions on them, especially where the away fans are housed, in terms of space etc.

Like hughio says, something's amiss

Cross subsidy from development?

[Jones28]

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Cross subsidy from development?

What's that?

[Hibbyradge]

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I prefer Pittodrie to lifeless stadiums like McDiarmid, St Johnstone or one of those bowls with different coloured seats every other team has down south. Likes of Reading, Swansea, Southampton, Leicester and countless others basically all have the same stadium. Boring.

Every stadium is lifeless until it's match day, regardless of where it's situated.

I want a comfortable seat with decent legroom and a good view regardless if the stadium looked like the Emirates or the PBS.

[stokesmessiah]

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I think hundreds of millions in profit is probably a bit of an exaggeration

I assume, in his head, he is trading the cost of the land and profit from any Pittordie development against the cost of building a new stadium? But the oil and gas market is not in good shape in Aberdeen so where is the money to spend on new flats/houses? If this had happened 5-10 years ago it would have been worth a lot more to Stewart Milne.

The oil and gas market is on its arse up here, that is for sure. But it seems to have had no effect on building work, there are new houses and commercial and industrial buildings going up everywhere you turn.

[Carheenlea]

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I prefer Pittodrie to lifeless stadiums like McDiarmid, St Johnstone or one of those bowls with different coloured seats every other team has down south. Likes of Reading, Swansea, Southampton, Leicester and countless others basically all have the same stadium. Boring.

It's good to go to a ground like Pittodrie a couple of times a season for the nostalgic aspect, and the fact it's different to the identikit grounds you highlight, but I wouldn't like to be going there every other week.
The bigger grounds in Scotland at least still have their own identity - Easter Road and Tynecastle both very different, and Celtic and Rangers have great looking grounds that are not alike. Aberdeen can surely redevelop Pittodrie in a similar manner to us and Hearts in the 20,000 seat region. Hope the council does turn them down and they can then bring Pittodrie up to standard instead.

[Iain G]

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The oil and gas market is on its arse up here, that is for sure. But it seems to have had no effect on building work, there are new houses and commercial and industrial buildings going up everywhere you turn.

But are they all sitting empty or actually being bought / filled?

[Sylar]

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He's also bleating (pun intended) about having the worst training facilities in the SFPL, he can build a stand alone training complex, other teams have done it.

GGTTH
Scottish Cup Winners 2016

He only has himself to blame for that.

When the University were building the Kings Sport Village, Aberdeen FC were approached to be partners in the development, asking for some degree of capital to be put toward the project. The facility is sensational - it has an excellent indoor 4G, full size pitch (which is state of the art), it has excellent gym facilities and quite brilliant sport therapy facilities/employees. Yet Aberdeen wanted nothing to do with it, despite it being a stone's throw from Pittodrie. As a result, I've no sympathy whatsoever for Aberdeen.

Moving the stadium to the outside of the city would be a disaster. Pittodrie in its current form needs a lot of love, as it is falling apart a little. But moving miles out of town would be awful for the Aberdeen fans, and travelling fans. Right now, it's an easy one to get to - plenty of parking, walkable from the centre/train station and has eateries/pubs around about it for pre/post-match. Remove that, and you'll see a relatively empty new shiny stadium.

[Billy Whizz]

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He only has himself to blame for that.

When the University were building the Kings Sport Village, Aberdeen FC were approached to be partners in the development, asking for some degree of capital to be put toward the project. The facility is sensational - it has an excellent indoor 4G, full size pitch (which is state of the art), it has excellent gym facilities and quite brilliant sport therapy facilities/employees. Yet Aberdeen wanted nothing to do with it, despite it being a stone's throw from Pittodrie. As a result, I've no sympathy whatsoever for Aberdeen.

Moving the stadium to the outside of the city would be a disaster. Pittodrie in its current form needs a lot of love, as it is falling apart a little. But moving miles out of town would be awful for the Aberdeen fans, and travelling fans. Right now, it's an easy one to get to - plenty of parking, walkable from the centre/train station and has eateries/pubs around about it for pre/post-match. Remove that, and you'll see a relatively empty new shiny stadium.

I presume they've exhausted all avenues to redevelop Pittodrie?

[green&left]

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He only has himself to blame for that.

When the University were building the Kings Sport Village, Aberdeen FC were approached to be partners in the development, asking for some degree of capital to be put toward the project. The facility is sensational - it has an excellent indoor 4G, full size pitch (which is state of the art), it has excellent gym facilities and quite brilliant sport therapy facilities/employees. Yet Aberdeen wanted nothing to do with it, despite it being a stone's throw from Pittodrie. As a result, I've no sympathy whatsoever for Aberdeen.

Moving the stadium to the outside of the city would be a disaster. Pittodrie in its current form needs a lot of love, as it is falling apart a little. But moving miles out of town would be awful for the Aberdeen fans, and travelling fans. Right now, it's an easy one to get to - plenty of parking, walkable from the centre/train station and has eateries/pubs around about it for pre/post-match. Remove that, and you'll see a relatively empty new shiny stadium.

Yep. The out of town stadiums work well on the continent where they don't have the same bevvy culture as us, they have relaxed licencsing and drinking laws, and when they integrate the stadium into the wider public transport network.

There's a new vid/fly through here. Does look quite impressive, just the location looks a bit ****. Hertz will also be raging as it looks like they'll only have the 2nd largest glass curtain

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/...um-could-look/

[Geo_1875]

No sympathy. They've had years of relative success in one of the richest cities in the country and failed to invest in their infrastructure. Now they are putting pressure on the local authority and will no doubt involve national government at some point. It's what self-proclaimed big teams do.

[Liberal Hibby]

There really was a touch of the Pieman about Milne's comment about playing European games in the central belt if his plans are not approved. You could almost tell he was itching to say 'not fit for purpose'.

[Phil MaGlass]

Where they are wanting to build the new stadium is easier to get to and quicker than where they have the old stadium, if I am right in thinking. It would also be easier for alot of their out of town fans to get to by car/bus.

[hughio]

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He only has himself to blame for that.

When the University were building the Kings Sport Village, Aberdeen FC were approached to be partners in the development, asking for some degree of capital to be put toward the project. The facility is sensational - it has an excellent indoor 4G, full size pitch (which is state of the art), it has excellent gym facilities and quite brilliant sport therapy facilities/employees. Yet Aberdeen wanted nothing to do with it, despite it being a stone's throw from Pittodrie. As a result, I've no sympathy whatsoever for Aberdeen.

Moving the stadium to the outside of the city would be a disaster. Pittodrie in its current form needs a lot of love, as it is falling apart a little. But moving miles out of town would be awful for the Aberdeen fans, and travelling fans. Right now, it's an easy one to get to - plenty of parking, walkable from the centre/train station and has eateries/pubs around about it for pre/post-match. Remove that, and you'll see a relatively empty new shiny stadium.

Very interesting post.
Knowing the area,that would have been a brilliant option by the sound of it.

Having taken some soundings from folk who actually do this kinda developement stuff I need to retract my comments about the level of profit available even in a good market.

My beef however is that its easy for a housebuilder /developer to think in terms of sacrificing tradition for profit and justifying it with economics.A football club is more than that.(see that thread with the Hibs colour footage from 1949)