Portsmouth FC’s ambition to move to a spectacular new waterside stadium could hit the rocks because of the club’s need to include shops in the development. Bankers interested in financing the £100m scheme have told the club that there must be a significant retail element along the 36,000-seater ground and housing, or the necessary cash will not be available. With the credit crunch biting the club have changed their plans to include shops, a hotel and supermarket.
Portsmouth FC’s ambition to move to a spectacular new waterside stadium could hit the rocks because of the club’s need to include shops in the development. Bankers interested in financing the £100m scheme have told the club that there must be a significant retail element along the 36,000-seater ground and housing, or the necessary cash will not be available. With the credit crunch biting the club have changed their plans to include shops, a hotel and supermarket. But the city council thinks such major changes would almost certainly spark a full-blown public inquiry and fears a new shopping development could drain the life from the city centre. The council fears shops at the development could threaten Gunwharf Quays and the proposed Northern Quarter city centre development. However, the club’s executive chairman, Peter Storrie, insisted that there would not be direct competition as ‘It’s other types of retail that will just make it profitable for us’. The leader of the City Council, Gerald Vernon-Jackson, responded, ‘From nobody else would we look at an out-of-town shopping centre, but because it’s the football club we will work with them on it.’ However, he didn’t offer too much hope: ‘Ministers will be unhappy about out of town shopping because of the effect on city centres. It will be a public inquiry and ministers will make the decision.’
A resolution to the takeover bid for the club is forecast within 10-14 days. Admittedly, this forecast comes from Mike Makaah of Prosports International, a South African sports management company which is one of the intermediaries fronting the bid. He argued that the revised plans for the new stadium made the club a better prospect: ‘The commercial element is a serious point of interest in the deal.’ Makaab refused to name any of those making the offer, although he ruled out Johann Rupert, one of South Africa’s richest men (linked with a possible buyout of Newcastle earlier in the year). Makaab continued. ‘None of them are football me at all – and none of them are involved in gold mining. What interests them about Portsmouth as opposed to any other British club is that it is the only Premier League club in that part of the world.’ That honour once belonged to Southampton, who built a new stadium on the back on it and are now burdened with debt and may join Leeds and Leicester in League 1 (assuming those last two clubs don’t get promoted which they may do). What the buyers are possibly overlooking is that Portsmouth is probably the poorest and most socially deprived city in southern England, despite recent efforts at regeneration and the success of the University.