The years-long stalemate over plans for a new Aberdeen FC stadium at the beach has been broken – with shots fired by both the club and council.
Talks between the two sides are understood to be ongoing, though there has been little in the way of progress for some time.
Now the councillor controlling the city’s purse strings, Alex McLellan, has suggested it’s Aberdeen FC’s reluctance to part with cash that’s behind the stand-off.
But club bosses have gone in two-footed at the suggestion – branding that description of the impasse “disingenuous”.
They are taking umbrage at the prospect of being asked for millions more, having already sunk £5m into their search for a replacement stadium.
Our exclusive look inside the wrangle reveals:
- The significant costs the council and Aberdeen FC face to progress the stadium plans
- Suggestions the club is unwilling to pay that – while it would be a couple of million in the council’s already huge kitty set aside for regeneration
- And why club bosses fear their seaside stadium dream has become a “political football”
Where are the plans at just now?
As things stand, council pledges to work with Aberdeen FC to keep them at the beach as part of a massive regeneration project appear to have been put on ice.
Phase two of the ambitious £440 million seafront revamp was paused indefinitely earlier this year.
And Aberdeen FC further dampened any expectation of a breakthrough at its December AGM, when chairman Dave Cormack and chief executive Alan Burrows revealed plans to invest in the ageing Pittodrie.
It came after a “realisation” that they’d be there for the medium-to-long term.
The stadium is largely unchanged since the opening of the Richard Donald Stand in 1993.
But the promised spending on the tired ground has been described as “putting lipstick on a pig” by our readers.
And the Dons have been raising the threat of having to play European matches in the central belt, fearing the dispensation they’re given from Uefa to play at Pittodrie will end.
What is the council’s side of the story?
Now, SNP council finance convener Alex McLellan has told The Press and Journal his understanding of the drawn out talks over Pittodrie’s £80m replacement.
And he pins the blame on club bosses, saying they are unwilling to splash the cash on the necessary due diligence for a new stadium.
In his shared Town House office, with its coffee-stained walls and polystyrene roof tiles, Mr McLellan looks to explain where the discussions are at.
He answers my first two questions the same way – encouraging Aberdeen FC not to abandon hopes of a beachfront stadium.
“The council has been working behind the scenes with Aberdeen FC to look at plans for the beach,” he then adds.
“We have seen the visuals of what that could look like. The council has put money into plans to get them to a certain point.
“But it’s fair to say that if we were going to go any further, looking at a great level of detail, that would be when significant costs begin to rack up.”
Is Aberdeen FC reluctant to open their wallet?
Those familiar with negotiations between Aberdeen City Council and the football club have long alluded to what comes next.
Local authority bosses have taken a lot of the heat for the faltering talks.
But is the club holding out on the plans?
Mr McLellan stresses: “The cost of any further investigation would need to be shared between the council and Aberdeen FC.
“And I don’t think both parties are at that point where either are willing to put their hand in their pockets and take the exploration further.
“There will be significant costs and there’s obviously a significant risk associated with taking that forward…
“There can never be a firm commitment from the council to deliver on that investment that stand the test of time.
“The make up of the council can change, the leadership of the council can change.
“But certainly the SNP and Liberal Democrats are committed to exploring all options to keep the football club at the beach.”
Ball in AFC’s court: ‘Aberdeen City Council could stomach the cost’
The Press and Journal understands the accumulative cost of that joint design work would be something like £4m.
And it’s this £2m each – if it’s to be split down the middle – price that is suggested to be the stumbling block.
Mr McLellan’s alternative would give the city economy all of the forecast £1 billion benefit of New Pittodrie with none of the outlay.
He tells me: “I think we need to be quite clear that to move forward, there would be costs of millions of pounds for each of us – Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeen FC – to explore the option.
“Aberdeen City Council has a capital programme of hundreds of millions of pounds.
“And certainly, if there was a willingness from Aberdeen FC to look at detailed design, that’s something the council could consider as part of its budget moving forward.
“The club has plans for Kingsford, and I’m not saying they can just pick up them up and drop them at the beach….”
There’s one point Mr McLellan appears keen to make.
He says: “But I guess the simpler option perhaps would be the club having plans for a standalone football stadium, we would certainly welcome discussions on how we can facilitate that at the beach.
“That option remains on the table. It always has been.
“If Aberdeen FC wants to deliver to a football stadium at the beach themselves, we would be more than happy to sit down and see how we can assist them given the land ownership sits with the council.”
‘Disingenuous’: Aberdeen FC hits back
Though the idea may have been “on the table”, it has never been part of Aberdeen FC’s plan for a new seafront ground.
It has always been pitched as a “community stadium”, with an accompanying leisure centre and other benefits for locals.
This, crucially, is why the club believes the cost should be shared.
And if the ball was put in Aberdeen FC’s court to go it on their own without city support… it wasn’t long before Pittodrie chiefs hoofed it right back.
A club spokeswoman raged: “It’s never been our intention to build a stand-alone stadium at the beach.
“The previous political administration of Aberdeen City Council approached the club about being a key stakeholder in and tenant for an anchor project that would be the catalyst for the wider regeneration of the beachfront.”
She continued: “Aberdeen FC invested considerable executive time, over three years, on working with the council to develop plans for an integrated leisure complex and community stadium.”
The Dons had been all set to move out to the city’s outskirts at Kingsford to build a hard-fought stadium next to the Cormack Park training ground.
But the Conservatives and Labour councillors running the city urged them to remain near the city centre, fearful of the economic impact of the club’s withdrawal to near-enough Aberdeenshire.
The vision spelled out that Aberdeen FC’s new home would be tied to whatever replaces the doomed Beach Leisure Centre.
But that was at the start of 2021, and construction costs have only risen while the goalposts have been moved.
It was part of a multi-million-pound regeneration for the city centre and beach, which the Tories and Labour put £150m towards.
Three years – and following an SNP and Lib Democrat takeover – later, more detailed work on the beach revival has concluded it would cost about three times that budget.
And so work beyond the ambitious first phase, including a new “national attraction” playpark and improvements to Broadhill, has been paused.
That casts further doubt over the stadium.
How did change in council leadership affect the plans?
The SNP won the largest share of council seats in 2022 with a promise to “revitalise our waterfront, working with partners including Aberdeen FC with an aim to deliver new sports facilities and a new stadium”.
They further pledged to “work with Aberdeen FC and AFC Community Trust to explore options for their stadium and facilities to host select school fixtures and events”.
While the latter remained, something changed when a power-sharing deal with the Lib Dems was struck.
The main promise became to “not use public funds except where collaborative working is mutually beneficial”.
What’s the club’s take on this?
Aberdeen FC claims to have been given assurances of SNP support for the stadium plans, if they could prove it was “economically viable”.
And that’s why they put up cash for the independent economic impact study that projected the replacement stadium’s £1bn impact over 50 years.
But in the 30 months since their election, the Pittodrie replacement has gone from a shining beacon for beach regeneration to a “potential” in council reports.
With all that uncertainty, the suggestion that the Dons should bear the brunt of the detailed design of a stadium the council might yet pull the plug on entirely is too much of an ask for the side.
‘Plans have become a political football’
The club spokeswoman fumed: “In its manifesto, the SNP pledged to support a community stadium at the beach if it was economically viable.
“Aberdeen FC shared the costs of an independent economic impact study which revealed that a community stadium with associated leisure facilities would deliver more than £1bn plus into the local economy over 50 years.
“However, the current administration has scaled back their plans for the beachfront – which is absolutely their prerogative.
“But it’s disingenuous to suggest that the club is either stalling the process or not prepared to pay our share.
“The club has spent £5m on various plans for a new stadium in three separate locations.
“We’re not prepared to incur any further costs on plans which end up becoming a political football.”
‘There would need to be benefits’
Mr McLellan is keen to make the council administration’s stance clear.
It’s no longer the point blank refusal to pay for any of the stadium that it once seemed.
But it would require Dons cash to part with more cash upfront.
The finance convener tells us: “If we’re looking at collaboration on a much larger facility with significant community benefit, there may be a scenario where the council funds part of it.
“Detail would certainly need to be fleshed out.
“And there would need to be significant community benefits from any development which the council was contributing towards.
How would you like to see the wrangle resolved? Let us know in our comments section below
‘Making it happen will require political will’
When asked what the club needed to do to prove community benefit, he added it would be “about the detail, what facilities go into the stadium and how costs would sit”.
“We would need to be really clear that this would be a community building, for the community, so people were getting the best use of it.
“It would be a football stadium that’s not just open on a Saturday for football but seven days a week for people to use.”
Aberdeen FC countered: “We believe an integrated leisure complex and community stadium would be a major piece of infrastructure that enables the city to attract and retain the companies and people it needs to be at the forefront of the energy transition.
“But making this happen and raising the funding requires ambition and the political will.”
Our analysis on the Dons debate
Aberdeen FC has always insisted the stadium at the beach would require public cash – and now it’s clear that at least covers the detailed planning to make it a reality.
Without it, it’s bosses could still proceed with plan B… the already approved stadium out on the city outskirts at Kingsford.
But since presenting their vision for the beachfront arena, they’ve warned that would offer far less benefit to the community and the club’s own award-winning charity.
When Aberdeen FC Community Trust chief executive Liz Bowie spoke of the work the beachfront stadium would allow them to expand, the city centre location was key.
It would prove far easier for the majority to access their help there.
Community benefit was front and centre during Aberdeen FC’s pitch for the stadium in the Sir Alex Ferguson Lounge all the way back in October 2022.
It was even suggested it would be tied to new sports facilities replacing the Beach Leisure Centre, with the club potentially helping the city to run them
And a lack of city buy-in might mean club chairman Dave Cormack builds Kingsford without the same space for the Community Trust to cut costs – as the council estimates an £80m stadium might well come in at £100m by the time its built.
But despite the significant weight community benefit has been given in the club’s pitch, it remains a hang up for councillors – though they “value and acknowledge” the benefit the club adds to the city centre and “remain open” to talks.
Whether the sides can come to a Christmas truce and get the beach regeneration centrepiece out of no man’s land remains to be seen.
Read more:
Dons shelve beach stadium plans with Pittodrie spending spree confirmed instead
Burger van across from Pittodrie DENIED as council needs ‘strategic’ land
Aberdeen’s Beach Leisure Centre to be demolished by spring 2025 as ‘costly’ replacement put on hold
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