Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack is clinging on to hope that the club’s projected £80million stadium will be part of the local authority’s £150m beach regeneration plan.
Leaders of Aberdeen City Council have come out to say no council cash will be put into the stadium plan as Cormack waits for the result on the issue when councillors discuss it tomorrow.
The club recently put forward a case that a new stadium could generate £1billion for the local economy over 50 years with a plea for the council to become partners.
Joint council leaders in the SNP-Liberal Democrat coalition, however, stressed they were against any money leaving their coffers for the building of a new home for the football club.
Cormack revealed the previous Conservative-Labour-Independent coalition had approached him to express an interest in the Reds remaining in the city rather than moving to a planned stadium in Kingsford, eight miles to the west of the city.
Since then, the SNP has taken control of the city and turned that idea on its head.
Cormack said: “The council are meeting on Wednesday to discuss the overall masterplan itself.
“There will be subsequent meetings which take place and, right now from reading the reports, the stadium is part of the masterplan.
“But how it gets funded is another question.
“We were approached about two years ago by the administration at the time and asked how we could help the city and keep the club in the city centre.
“Because economically it makes sense for them.
“We began a dialogue which has gone on over the last 18 months.
“Our appeal to the administration and city council is to get together over the next few months and really look at what this can do for Aberdeen.
“At a higher level the First Minister wants Aberdeen to be the net zero capital of the world.
“In order for us to achieve that and bring thousands of higher-paid jobs to Aberdeen for that as the oil dies down over time, we need an infrastructure where families want to come and live in Aberdeen.”
Cormack congratulated the local authority for spending £400m on The Event Centre Aberdeen (TECA) in the previous administration but wondered what could be achieved by spending that kind of money in developing the beach area of the city.
He said: “The most important thing is when we go out to look at funding sources for a joint stadium that it is a council stadium.
“When you are talking to potential partners the first question they ask is if Aberdeen City Council are 100% on board with this. Recent press coverage suggests it’s up for debate.
“Until such time as we can get everyone round the table we have to go out positively to these potential funding sources, where there are grants available.
“There is money out there from the net zero infrastructure stuff.
“The north-east of England is desperate to be the Aberdeen of renewable energy so there’s lots of competition out there.
“We’ve been looking for a home for long time and this option at the beach has never been an option.
“So it’s one we want to continue to explore.
“The stadium is still in the plan and if it is ratified on Wednesday I would urge everyone to think of the future of Aberdeen and bring those jobs here.
“We have to invest in the infrastructure. There’s no John Lewis now, no Debenhams.
“There’s the Beach Ballroom which is past its sell-by date. We need to invest in that infrastructure to get football back here.
“The independent economic report that was done, not just by the club but jointly with the council, demonstrated we as a football club and all our supporters would get 38 million people through this stadium in the next 50 years.
“It would also deliver at least a billion pounds of economic upside to the city, not the football club, but to the city of Aberdeen.
“We are willing participants and our appeal is for us all to get together, get on the same page and get out there with a joint front to try to raise the money we need from government and commercial sources to try to get this project done.”
