New Cardiff City stadium

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This article or section is about a planned or proposed stadium.
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New Cardiff City Stadium
Location	Leckwith, Cardiff
Broke ground	scheduled September 2007
Opened	scheduled December 2008
Owner	Cardiff City Stadium Ltd
Construction cost	£29,000,000
Tenants

Capacity
30000

The New Cardiff City stadium is a proposed development of a 30,000 seater ground, intended to be the new home of Cardiff City F.C.

1 Overview
2 Planning
3 Joint football/rugby?
4 Developers and contractors
5 Tenants
6 Schedule
- 6.1 Detail timetable
7 Name?
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Overview

The new stadium will be built on the site of the nearby Leckwith Athletics Stadium. The project also includes a retail park and requires the rebuilding of the existing athletics stadium at another location.

The overall 60 acre development at Leckwith will cost £100m, and will provide:

A new 25,000 seater stadium home for Cardiff City FC
A new athletics venue for Cardiff
438,700 sq ft retail development between three major retaillers
A housing development on the site of Ninian Park

[edit] Planning

Due to the scale and expense of the project, it has encountered long planning delays, although construction is now due to begin in late 2007. Some fans and elements of the media have speculated that the project would not go ahead at all, although since the turn of 2006, there have been many encouraging developments.

First mooted as a long term target by new owner Sam Hammam, the new stadium first gained public approval after a meeting between Hammam and Cardiff Lord Mayor Russell Goodway in January 2002, giving the club 12 months to agree a planning and business plan^[1]. In November 2002 the club and the council signed an outline agreement for the development, subject to later agreement for outline planning permission^[2].

In March 2003, stories began to emerge that the Chief Executive of the Millennium Stadium wanted Cardiff City to use their stadium instead, and saw no viable plan for two 50,000+ seat capacity stadium in the Welsh capital^[3] This was increased in light of Cardiff City's promotion to the Championship in May 2003 with local fears over traffic and access problems^[4].

However, on 20 August 2003 Cardiff councillors gave unanimous approval to the stadium plans, although expressed concerns over the need and scale of the retail development but understood its need to fund the stadium^[5]. On 9 September 2003 the Welsh Assembly gave approval to the plan^[6].

In April 2004, Cardiff Council gave the first phase covering the stadium with a capacity of 30,000 seats and new athletics track approval^[7]. The next phase was held up by various legal and technical delays from November 2004^[8] to January 2005, when the council gave approval to three detailed plans for the retail development, subject to agreement of suitable underlying business plans^[9].

However, although development could have then started in May 2005, the underlying need for seed financing revealed the financial status of Cardiff City football club as poor, with £30+ million of debt and the need to sell star player and club captain Graham Kavanagh to Wigan Athletic F.C. in March 2005. It was also revealed that players and staff had not been paid for a month as the club struggled to honour a wage bill believed to be £750,000 a month, while auditors were looking at possible cutbacks^[10]. On 1 March 2005 the club delayed the development until at least July 2005^[11].

After a 1-0 home loss to Sheffield United and a mobbing by fans, on 6 March 2005 Hammam apologised to fans, and released club accounts which showed club debt at March 2004 at £29.6 million^[12]. Effectively, this was the start of the end of the Hammam era at Cardiff City, as he could not fund the required development.

After a summer sale of players, the entry of former Leeds United chairman Peter Ridsdale and numerous rumours, the development was given a 90 day time period by Cardiff Council from 31 December 2005 to finalise the underlying business plan^[13]. On 31 January 2006 the developers secured Asda as the lead retailer of the new development, which enabled the final funding of the stadium to start^[14]. This allowed the council timetable to extend by four months to September 2006^[15].

On 24 October 2006 Laing O'Rouke won the contract to develop the 30,000 seat stadium, which Ridsdale stated would be ready for December 2008^[16]. On 27 November 2006 Cardiff Council approved the business plan for the stadium, allowing the final planning approval to be gained from the council authority and the office of the Deputy Prime Minister.^[17]

[edit] Joint football/rugby?

Ridsdale and rugby union side Cardiff Blues benefactor Peter Thomas are investigating the potential of a shared stadium. Blues currently play in a restrictive and old stadium on the north side of the Millenium Stadium.

Russell Goodway, the former Cardiff council leader and chief executive of Cardiff Chamber of Commerce, backed the idea of developing a conference centre on the Arms Park site, saying: "I think it is a fabulous idea. It is exactly the right sport for a new generation convention centre which is exactly what Cardiff needs."

Although Cardiff Blues chairman Peter Thomas has spoken of the sporting and commercial rewards for Wales if the Blues and City were to ground-share, there is likely to be opposition from the Cardiff Athletics Club. The club's President, former Wales great Bleddyn Williams, said: "There is no way the Arms Park would be sold, it would be a tragedy." The club, which is a body of sports including bowls hockey and tennis, owns the seven-acre Arms Park site, which is believed to be worth around £15m.

Any development would also allow the Millennium Stadium's North Stand, currently known as "Glanmor's Gap" after Glanmor Griffiths, the president of the WRU who delivered the stadium in 1999, to be completed with the addition of 8,000 more seats.

[edit] Developers and contractors

The lead developer is PMG Developments, a Cardiff based property developer led by Cardiff City director Paul Guy and former Wales rugby captain Mike Hall.

Laing O'Rourke will be contracted to build all the highway improvements necessary to cope with the increased capacity, as well as the demolition of the Leckwith stadium and the construction of the retail park. Cowlin has been picked as the preferred contractor for the new athletic stadium.

[edit] Tenants

Tenants signed up for the retail development include:

Asda - In January 2006, supermarket group Asda agreed development of a 55,000 sq ft store with parking spaces, totalling 92,000 sq ft^[18]
Costco - a retail complex of 135,000 sq ft
JJB Sports

Matalan were named in an original planning application, but pulled out in March 2005^[19].

A facility called The House of Sport will be set up, as a "leisure and lifelong learning facility."^[20] Ninian Park itself will be redeveloped into a residential housing scheme.

[edit] Schedule

Leckwith Road will be widened to a dual carriageway over 18 months, with the scheme allowing for an extra access lane to become available on matchdays.

The plan requires the demolition of the existing Leckwith athletics stadium, which the council are insisting the replacement of is built before the start of construction on the new football stadium. This will avoid the city being without a major athletics facility for up to 11 months between the demolition of Leckwith and the building of a new athletics facility nearby.

But developers have said that the main infrastructure work including highway improvements, drainage, gas supply and electricity cables can be carried out in a way that will allow Leckwith to remain open until July 2007. As an alternate, the developers have offered to pay for the athletes' transport costs to alternative training tracks, allowing demolition of the athletics stadium will occur sooner rather than later.

Work is scheduled to begin on the new athletics stadium in January 2007 with the track and throwing areas expected to be open for use by the end of July 2007. The new athletics stadium is expected to be completed by October 2007 and it is hoped that Cardiff City F.C.'s stadium will open in December 2008, in a motion agreeing the schedule by Cardiff Council on 27 November 2006.

[edit] Detail timetable

27 November 2006: Stadium business plan approved by Cardiff Council^[21]
November 2006: Three-month period begins for possible legal challenge to deal. The council also has to receive approval from the National Assembly for disposal of the Leckwith land at less than market value.
Early 2007: Work to start.
Early Spring 2007: Building of the retail park can be begin along with the major highways works around Leckwith Road.
Summer 2007: New athletics track scheduled to be finished around the middle of the summer.
Summer 2007: Contractors Laing O'Rourke move in to begin demolition of existing athletics stadium, followed by building of the football stadium.
Christmas 2008: Stadium completed. First game targeted for either Boxing Day 2008 or New Year's Day 2009 - if no slippage in any of the building work.

[edit] Name?

Inevitably, the commercial needs for funding will probably mean that the stadium gains a sponsor's name.

Popular names amongst Cardiff City fans at present include "Stadiwm Caerdydd, Capital Stadium, Parc Ninian, Keenor Park, Bluebird's Nest, Dragon's Den". A popular and likely choice is for the new ground to retain the name 'Ninian Park'. Despite it possibly formally being called something else. The name "St Davids Stadium" is often used by the media, but remains controversial with fans and Cardiffians for its unoriginality.