September
Newsfile

Newsfile Archive

On the agenda was the progress of City's ambition to move to a new stadium

The press this week has quoted several local councillors showing their concerns over the creation of retail developments on the stadium site. Sam has been entrusted with providing the whole package for the new stadium inc a new home for Cardiff Athletics and the various retail outlets that accompany such a move.

Contracts are only weeks away from being signed so meddling councillors are not whats needed at the moment. A colleague of mine, who was originally against a new stadium, was at the meeting and posted the following report.

"Sam and David Temme addressed a group of fans today regarding the ground proposals and some negative reporting in the local press. It seems as if one or two misguided local councillors have expressed concern over the retailing attached to the new ground plans. This has not been helped by Rhodri Morgan chipping in with some stupid comments.
  Sam showed more detailed plans and discussed just how far the proposals have gone and I for one had not realised just how close this proposal is to fruition. The local council have put in writing to C.C.F.C. their agreement to the plans and it is due before the main council for final approval in the next few weeks. Once this has been agreed, a contract will be signed and the only obstacle left is planning permission which should be a formality. This was the reason that the concern over one or two councillors making silly remarks.
  Sam has stated that huge strides are being made in the drive for, not only a new stadium for the football but a new athletics stadium, community buildings to support these and centres for youth football training across Wales. He is very keen to promote the fact that this a Welsh project and that Welsh youth should stay in Wales. I deal with building plans regularly but my eyes were opened by the scale of what is proposed here. A new roundabout on the P.D.R. or the road in from Cardiff West services is planned. This will feed a new road linking into Leckwith Road. A new roundabout here will feed the athletics track to the left and the retail area/stadium to the right. The retail area has the proposed units as follows. A food outlet of some 80-100,000 square feet  ( I think a tenant may have already been found ) a 100,000 square foot non food, a 7,000 garden centre, a health unit of around 10,000 and one large store of around 40,000 square feet. The remaining units will be of 10,000 sq ft each. The stadium itself will lie beyond this area and be surrounded by car parking area. A "Park and Ride" scheme has also been devised to bring in the extra numbers.
 The stadium has been designed by the same man who did the Aussie Olympic Stadium, Bolton Wanderers, Huddersfield and the new stadium in Manchester which will be Man City's ground after the games there. This level of skill and expertise has been used across the whole scheme. Millions have to be spent on preparation of what was a council land fill tip a few decades ago. Compacting, levelling, deep piling and methane extraction will be needed before work can start. The athletics ground will have to be built and the infrastructure completed. The stadium seems to be designed in a way to allow plenty of light to reach the pitch. Sam mentioned that part of the design brief was a pitch up to the standards that we are used to and it seems as if the mistakes of The Millennium Stadium have been taken on board.
  As most of you know I did not want the stadium to be built, I was very happy to stay at Ninian. However, this is special. The ground looks incredible and what is to go with it is fabulous........I could go on and on but suffice to say there are ideas in there which are FAR in advance of ANY other ground in the country. Mention too was made of an advanced CCTV system with 3 police areas to weed out any problems. He is aware of the Huddersfield/Brighton problems but feels the club are not really to blame but says it will not happen in a new ground.
  The ONLY problem is the moans from a few people who should know better. Sam says that if Premiership football is to be achieved then a minimum of £100 million a year will be put into the local economy. This will benefit all the local businesses.....EVERY YEAR......It must succeed.......it is as close as next month in being agreed!!!"

What goes on behind the scenes is rarely brought to public attention. Read the above and just see the work being put in by Sam for our future.