Redeveloping Pittodrie - Options

[pocrawred]

2 hours ago, Broken_Glass said:

With the current upsurge and Thelin feel good factor it wouldn't be the worst decision for the council or a private investor to reassess and invest.

Pie in the sky I know.

If we win trophies or the league in the next season or two, we should not parade the trophy from the balcony in the town house. Why should we pander to the acc when they are fucking us off. 

[Red Clive 1995]

3 minutes ago, pocrawred said:

If we win trophies or the league in the next season or two, we should not parade the trophy from the balcony in the town house. Why should we pander to the acc when they are fucking us off. 

Show it off in turra. 

[ERNIE]

44 minutes ago, pocrawred said:

If we win trophies or the league in the next season or two, we should not parade the trophy from the balcony in the town house. Why should we pander to the acc when they are fucking us off. 

Nae sure we should blame the council.They have no cash.Mind you with 3 full houses on the trot maybe it's a case of "Don't build it and they will come!"

[Andy_123]

45 minutes ago, ERNIE said:

Nae sure we should blame the council.They have no cash.Mind you with 3 full houses on the trot maybe it's a case of "Don't build it and they will come!"

As has been said before, ACC currently get all the benefits of a city centre based stadium while having to contribute absolutely nothing towards it. There is no business/commerical reason for them to offer the club help for anything really, and almost certainly the sole reason why they have been so unhelpful over the decades.

But don't be fooled, when (if) the day ever comes that AFC are finally in a position to put a spade into the ground somewhere else, ACC would fold and very quickly come to some arrangement to keep the club in town.

You saw it when the club got planning permission for Westhill - despite there being no suitable beach / city centre sites for the last 30 odd years, as soon as planning permission was granted for Kingsford there just so happened to be a site come available at the beach. Hugely caveated however, to the point that ACC knew it was going to be a non-starter, but enough to put enough pressure on the club to abandon the move and maintain the status quo so they could continue contributing nothing

[madjockmcferson]

3 hours ago, robbojunior said:

Easy is being used here in comparison to building a completely new stadium. So yes. It is easy. Demo a stand and build a new one is easier than building an entire new stadium and all the infrastructure. If you disagree with that you are an idiot or a fantasist.

you think its easier to have to redirect a whole bunch of existing infrastructure and work within space constraints such as pubic roads, public utilities, and minimize disruption to local inhabitants, and suffer a very large reduction in income for atleast a year each time you demolish a stand, rather than build a brand new stadium where you dont have existing infrastructure, have less people in your way, and you dont lose revenue?

[madjockmcferson]

1 hour ago, Andy_123 said:

As has been said before, ACC currently get all the benefits of a city centre based stadium while having to contribute absolutely nothing towards it. There is no business/commerical reason for them to offer the club help for anything really, and almost certainly the sole reason why they have been so unhelpful over the decades.

But don't be fooled, when (if) the day ever comes that AFC are finally in a position to put a spade into the ground somewhere else, ACC would fold and very quickly come to some arrangement to keep the club in town.

You saw it when the club got planning permission for Westhill - despite there being no suitable beach / city centre sites for the last 30 odd years, as soon as planning permission was granted for Kingsford there just so happened to be a site come available at the beach. Hugely caveated however, to the point that ACC knew it was going to be a non-starter, but enough to put enough pressure on the club to abandon the move and maintain the status quo so they could continue contributing nothing

i mean, if you wanted the revenue, and assuming thats their motivation and they are smart enough to pull this off, despite everyone here saying they are idiots, isnt that exactly what you would do? why use public funds when you dont have to. they sound like rational actors to me

[robbojunior]

1 hour ago, madjockmcferson said:

you think its easier to have to redirect a whole bunch of existing infrastructure and work within space constraints such as pubic roads, public utilities, and minimize disruption to local inhabitants, and suffer a very large reduction in income for atleast a year each time you demolish a stand, rather than build a brand new stadium where you dont have existing infrastructure, have less people in your way, and you dont lose revenue?

 It's easier to rebuild one stand than it is to build an entire new stadium yes.

And you have no idea what existing infrastructure has to be redirected so there's every chance it will be no more or less problematic or costly than having to bring in completely new services and infrastructure to a greenfield site like Kingsford.  And we've not even got on to looking at an alternative site like the beach which also has all the issues you just mentioned.

You're right, the loss of income while we rebuild stand by stand will be a big problem.  But we don't have £80m.  Redevelopment is easier because we at least have some feasible route to funding it, whereas a whole new stadium we don't.

Obviously if someone magics up the £80m then I will be fully on board with a new stadium.

[robbojunior]

Plymouth Argyle just completely rebuilt their main stand and managed to carry on playing at Home Park through the whole thing.  It can be done.

Hearts have done it, Hibs too.

[Ke1t]

6 hours ago, Red Clive 1995 said:

Show it off in turra. 

Get  big Heefer or ither beest tae haul it aroon the wee toons on a tattie kert. 

 

 

[Red Clive 1995]

24 minutes ago, Ke1t said:

Get  big Heefer or ither beest tae haul it aroon the wee toons on a tattie kert. 

 

 

Like a dream thon pic. Lose the horns and we could have the champion AA (Aberdeen Angus) bull from turra show leading the presentation trailer. 

[Jocky Balboa]

On 10/28/2024 at 8:55 AM, Schapenneuker said:

Hearts managed to expand their main stand on pretty much exactly the same footprint. As did Hibs. 

If we wanted to do it, then engineering wise, there's nothing to stop us. Financially is different. 

Btw, I fucking hate the RDS. Iain Donald's folly, and anyone with any vision at that time should have been thinking about the ground as a whole, not just chucking tens of millions at one massive carbunkle.

Donald made a huge mistake by acquiescing to the RDS, which brought the Wig Wam Bam onto the Board. The former is not his father and the latter was an Oxfam Chris Anderson. 

On 10/28/2024 at 9:17 AM, Red Clive 1995 said:

We should have been buying all the grun surrounding pittodrie instead of building the RDS.

No-one is going to convince me Milne didn't deliberately allow the stadium to become hemmed in by developments.

On 10/28/2024 at 9:58 AM, RUL said:

My recollection is after it was built the board couldn't afford it and Milne joined the board. He then began immediately talking about how we'd have to leave pittodrie.

I also recall a fan event where a board member said the land behind south was not available for sale and couldn't be built on.

The paint was barely dry on the RDS when he started mooting a move away around 1997. I remember the old stand-in joke among older, more astute Dandies at the time, was that he got on the Board so he could "knock soon Pittodrie and build hooses to turn a huge profit for himsel'!" and it was subsequently more accurate than many realised at the time. What is also worth considering, is Donald Jr. promised a full "fan consultation" which never materialised once the corrupt sparkie got his job and proceeded to tell us Pittodrie was done, with no room for redevelopment.

[madjockmcferson]

well we are hemmed in now so.....thats fun

[fine-n-dandy]

Buy up the few properties hindering extension of stands 🤷 doubt the cemetery inhabitants will give much a fk about their view

[Topi Kat]

3 hours ago, fine-n-dandy said:

Buy up the few properties hindering extension of stands 🤷 doubt the cemetery inhabitants will give much a fk about their view

I'm actually very surprised there's never been a petition to stop games being played at Pittodrie on a weekend when folk are paying their respects at Trinity Cemetry. Not remember there were objections from our Bellfield application that folk at the crem would be drowned out by Aberdeen fans?

[madjockmcferson]

44 minutes ago, Topi Kat said:

I'm actually very surprised there's never been a petition to stop games being played at Pittodrie on a weekend when folk are paying their respects at Trinity Cemetry. Not remember there were objections from our Bellfield application that folk at the crem would be drowned out by Aberdeen fans?

theres only 12 years between trinity being founded and pittodrie being built. no idea where the oldest part of the cemetery is but its not like they didnt know the stadium was there when they, presumably, extended it at some point, unless its always been that size?

either way, people are dying to get into Trinity cemetery, and Pittodrie, with our current glorious run. 

[milne_afc]

This also feels significant 

https://x.com/aberdeenfc/status/1851769059270103079?s=46

[BrisDon]

On 10/28/2024 at 6:42 AM, englishred said:

What ever way the club chooses to go, they should look to retain the same capacity or slightly increase it.  Growing the club means allowing for the future.  Hopefully some success on the pitch can help fund some of it especially if we get regular european football

Cormack has spoken about a smaller capacity in the past. Hopefully the recent attendances have convinced him otherwise. 
 

 

[Dynamo]

Pittodrie has never sounded better. 

[At The Border Guy]

On 10/27/2024 at 8:59 PM, Topi Kat said:

Actually, now I think about it, surely they could build some supporters bars inside the concourse area. How do Motherwell get away with selling alcohol in thier social club type bar pre-match? We not do something similar? Loads of space in there.

Caley have done something similar and got the Supporters Trust running it - Craft beer on tap and everything.

It was definitely in the Kingswells proposal as well, because the other options out there are shite.

[At The Border Guy]

On 10/27/2024 at 9:01 PM, Dynamo said:

South stand is the best stand in the league. They better not gentrify it

 

Reducing the Hun allocation surely counts as gentrification, so I'm all for that.

[Rubin]

if were staying and have to renovate

start by knocking down the RDS

for  the physical size of it , it holds half as many fans as similarly size stands elsewhere

then they could shift everything East leaving more scope for other stands being better built

Sir Alex is pointing the way

[At The Border Guy]

I can't imagine the earthworks under the South and Merkland Stands make ground prep any easier? Our options for each are probably limited to a simple replacement of seats and roof, unless they want to get an army of diggers and trucks in to take it down to a flat surface.

[Andy_123]

2 hours ago, At The Border Guy said:

I can't imagine the earthworks under the South and Merkland Stands make ground prep any easier? Our options for each are probably limited to a simple replacement of seats and roof, unless they want to get an army of diggers and trucks in to take it down to a flat surface.

Been discussed before - for years now both stands have been (very) slowly sinking into the ground year on year. Eventually there will come a point where they are deemed unsafe and closed down.

[sooth_stander]

On 10/29/2024 at 1:26 PM, robbojunior said:

 You're right, the loss of income while we rebuild stand by stand will be a big problem.  But we don't have £80m.  Redevelopment is easier because we at least have some feasible route to funding it, whereas a whole new stadium we don't.

Obviously if someone magics up the £80m then I will be fully on board with a new stadium.

Is it not the case that funding a new stadium is actually easier because there are grants available, loans are easier to come by, and shit like naming rights, whereas a piecemeal (stand by stand) rebuild, as well as eventually costing even more, doesn’t unlock stuff like grants and loans?

[fine-n-dandy]

Cormack could afford it easy.

Cormack park & the Cormackarena

hey Cormackarena 

[Dons79]

22 hours ago, milne_afc said:

This also feels significant 

https://x.com/aberdeenfc/status/1851769059270103079?s=46

It’s building. Beautiful sight to see, great noise from us.

[ab24_5qh]

Whatever option we go for, a Hampden sized pitch might be a good idea?

[Andy_123]

There is not a single aspect of Hampden we should be copying. Its an abysmal stadium 

[Hoppy]

22 minutes ago, Andy_123 said:

There is not a single aspect of Hampden we should be copying. Its an abysmal stadium 

it's an absolute shit hole.  A national embarrassment.

[dave_min]

3 hours ago, Hoppy said:

it's an absolute shit hole.  A national embarrassment.

I find it amazing that we have 4 huge stadiums in the central belt, and all of them are shite. Almost seems impossible to manage that.