Dave Cormack: New Aberdeen stadium '2025-26 season at earliest'
- Published
Aberdeen have planning permission for a new stadium at Kingsford, but the council has recently proposed a joint-facility at the beach
Aberdeen plan to limit the capacity of their new stadium to between 16,000-17,000 fans, with chairman Dave Cormack claiming it could save the club £16m.
The Dons are determined to leave their current home of Pittodrie but now say the earliest a new ground will be delivered will be the 2025-26 season.
And Cormack claims 30% of season ticket holders do not turn up each week, convincing them to lower the capacity.
"The basic equation for building a stadium is cost per seat," he said.
"We may have a choice over quality or a more basic stadium."
Pittodrie currently holds more than 20,000, although the biggest home crowd this season was nearly 5,000 short of capacity for the European Conference League qualifier against Qarabag.
In previous seasons, the club regularly had attendances nearer capacity for European ties and games against Rangers and Celtic.
"We want a stadium that rocks every week, that's full," Cormack said after the club's annual meeting. "Rather than spend £16m on 4,000 seats that you might use two or three times a year, why don't we allow the fans to basically sell their ticket to someone who might want to walk up to a game?
"We think 16,000-17,000 so far is the optimal number. But, if we achieve our goal of 15,000 season ticket holders, 30% don't turn up, that's 10,500 in the stadium. Even if all 15,000 turn up, maybe 1500 walk up and you let 500 away fans in, you've got a great atmosphere.
"It's all about maximising the capital investment."
New stadium could be 'first in Europe to be net zero'
Planning permission was given to build at Kingsford in 2018
Aberdeen have planning permission to build a new stadium next to their training ground at Kingsford, which is six miles away from the city centre.
However, Aberdeen City Council recently proposed plans to include the club in a joint facility next to the Beach Ballroom, which is less than 1,000 yards from their current Pittodrie home.
"It's an option we're looking at," Cormack said. "That's exciting when you look at the images that have come out. But we're at step one on the business case. Once we have the business case, that will allow us to go out and look at the funding options to see how we do this.
"It's clearly an exciting project for the city. And that it could be net zero, renewable energy, hydrogen whatever based, fully heated and powered, would likely be a first. If not in Europe, the world."
An Aberdeen council committee recommended last month that the club would have to fund the stadium themselves, but Cormack says that does not make building at the beach less appealing.
"We've got to build a stadium at Kingsford on our own anyway and this site was never available to the club," he said.