Aberdeen critical of council response to stadium proposal

Aberdeen Football Club has warned that the city council risks missing out on a "transformational" boost to the local economy if it decides against a proposed shared community stadium to replace Pittodrie.

The Scottish Premiership club was responding to a report in the Press & Journal newspaper that claimed their latest offer "to break the deadlock in talks over a new beachfront stadium looks set to be thrown out".

Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack offered to give Pittodrie and the surrounding land to the council to secure a proposed 99-year lease on the replacement ground.

But finance convener Alex McLellan was quoted as saying that "if Dave Cormack needs to raise capital to fund the stadium, he should be looking to the private market" to sell it himself.

In response, the football club stated on their website:, external "It was Aberdeen City Council who proposed a shared community stadium and leisure centre and who asked Aberdeen Football Club if they would consider staying in the city centre and being the major tenant for the centrepiece of the beach masterplan.

"The ball is not in our court. It is well and truly in the hands of our council leaders – only they have the mandate and the ability to secure public, capital investment to drive a major infrastructure project like this.

"The leaders of the opposition parties understand this. Sadly, our current administration does not and continues to deliberately miss the point, which is both disappointing and disingenuous."

Aberdeen say the council's co-leaders promised 18 months ago to research similar projects where a football club was the anchor tenant in a community stadium.

"A new economic impact report from BiGGAR Economics revealed that this transformational project will generate £3.2bn into the local economy over 50 years," the club claim.

"If this was just about a new stadium for the club, we'd look at moving ahead with Kingsford [an alternative out-of-town site] or explore the major challenges of trying to redevelop Pittodrie."

Aberdeen hoped the report would persuade the council to "work together to seriously evaluate the project" but "instead, all we've seen from them are mis-leading briefings to the media, dismissing the economic report by a reputable company used by the Scottish Government".

The city council has been approached for comment.