Gateshead F.C.

[Railway Blue]

Just been looking on Wiki at proposed new stadia. Just wondering about Graham Wood's new stadium for Gateshead on Prince Consort Road. According to the site the build has been going on since 2009. Anyone know if it's still being built

 

[Nansan]

On the back burner at present. Plan stalled in the financial crisis as potential partners and lease holders for office space pulled out. Also the chairman has been quoted as saying he no longer considers a new purpose built football ground vital to the future of GFC. Apparantly his views/opinions changed after the Grimsby play off semi with over 8000 in the ground, and to be fair there was a cracking atmosphere, (at least for us), although I doubt the GY fans behind the goal thought so as the view is pretty rubbish from there.

My personal view is that we would get consistently higher gates at a purpose built stadium in the town centre. It may just be an excuse but you often hear people cite the stadium as the reason why they don't return or attend regularly. Also our own facility would bring with it added match day revenue, (council currently get this), revenue from the leasing of office space, control of our own hospitality suites and of course feel like a proper football stadium. That said you can understand the chairman's position, as renting use of the IS from the council and having no maintanance and running costs helps reduce the amount that he puts in each season. Whether crowds will increase sufficiently for him to change his mind I guess we will just have to wait and see, won't happen this season though with the poor fare on offer.

 

[Railway Blue]

Thanks for replying Nansan. Does he still own that plot of land and did any groundwork get done? What I'm asking is, is it still a possibility it could still go ahead? Agree that the athletic stadium (even without the flooding) is still pretty soulless.

 

[Nansan]

No he doesn't own the land and no groundworks were done. Its all gone very quiet, whilst there are rumours that the club are looking at various derelict land sites with the council I can't see the chairman embarking on what would be an expensive project any time soon given his comments re the IS.