The path has been cleared for Aberdeen City Council to start work on plans for a new Dons stadium at the beach.
The focal point in the planned £100 million regeneration of the seafront has always been a new ground for Aberdeen FC – just yards away from their historic Pittodrie home.
But when councillors met yesterday to discuss the business case for the revamp, they were asked to ditch the ground from their blueprints.
Councillor says Dons should put in the work
Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Yuill has previously argued that there shouldn’t be any public money put towards a new home for the Reds.
And at yesterday’s meeting he called for the local authority to remove the new stadium from the list of projects attached to the £100m beach masterplan.
He said: “There are 18 projects listed, there’s only one we don’t believe should be progressed to a business case.
“That’s not because necessarily that the stadium shouldn’t happen, but we believe it should be Aberdeen Football Club that undertakes the work in terms of developing business cases, not this council.”
Stadium an ‘asset’ to Aberdeen beach
Fighting back, council leader Jenny Laing argued that it was in the authority’s best interests to “maximise the great asset it has” in the form of the football club.
She said: “The officers are going to bring back worked up proposals around how we can help develop these sports facilities, the Beach Ballroom, and the possibility that the stadium could be part of that.
“We should explore every opportunity that we have to try and keep it within the city centre so that we get that footfall.
“The people that are coming there will actually help to boost the economy.
“It doesn’t make any sense that the club would go off and do their own business case when we are looking at the integration of facilities.”
In the end 42 councillors voted to keep the Dons stadium in the plans while just two others sided with Mr Yuill.