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Football stadiums
FC United, the club now in the Unibond Premier League that was formed when the Glazers took over Manchester United, are planning to develop a 5,000-capacity stadium at their spiritual home at Newton Heath within the next three years. They have averaged around 2,000 supporters at Bury’s Gigg Lane ground this season.
West Ham have launched a joint bid with Newham Council to leave Upton Park and move to the Olympics Stadium in Stratford after the 2012 games. They have said that the plan would allow athletics use of the stadium, but the running track is an obstacle to allowing football fans close to the game which is what they like and gives a much better atmosphere. There are also questions about who would pay for reducing the stadium capacity from 80,000 to 50,000. West Ham are
It’s the Red Knights at Manchester United, but Blue Square Premiership outfit Cambridge United are looking for an Amber Knight. Fans have pledged about £1.2m to buy the Abbey Stadium back for the club. But the supporters face a race against time to attract someone willing to stump up a £350,000 non-refundable deposit and prove they can raise the rest of the £3.5m needed to match what Grovesnor Developments have agreed to pay current owners Bideawhile.
Manchester City have unveiled ambitious plans for the development of their Eastlands stadium. They form part of a regeneration project for the area around the stadium which is in a depressed area of East Manchester. Ultimately City could relocate their training complex to the ground which would be an exception to the general rule of stadiums and training facilities being located some miles apart.
One of the problems of football finance is that the stadium is a capital asset which is used for its main purpose at most about twenty-five times a year. Football clubs have made efforts to hire out their function rooms for conferences and meetings, but this is a competitive market and one that has been hit by the recession. I have seen novel solutions abroad, for example at Utrecht in the Netherlands where there are shops and small businesses in the space available under the rising stands. But there isn’t much you can do with the pitch itself between matches if you