The Aberdeen Mega-Hyper New Stadium Thread

[Aberdeen Cowden]

2 hours ago, fatshaft said:

Minutes from the final "public" meeting:

 

 

So, very well attended, 320 they thought, how many undercover agents other than myself among those though, who knows?
Meeting chaired by Alastair McKelvie, also in attendance the other three councillors for ward 13, and Burnett & Rumbles, the MSPs for the area. Guy from TV and a guy from the P&J/EE.

McKelvie lead off with his comments, points against:
•   Green Belt – we’ve heard all this one before
•   Big Buildings – didn’t catch his point as he kept moving away from the mic
•   Noise – apparently the noise from a Dons game is horrendous. Clearly never been near Pittodrie in his life
•   Air Quality - now I’m sorry, but what? Apparently the stadium will have a negative effect on the area. He didn’t explain how cars moving directly onto dual carriageways and away  rather than being gridlocked on King Street  and surrounds would increase this pollution, seems utterly perverse.

We then moved on to some of the NKS committee
•   The reason for Kingsford is co-location of stadium and training facilities, NKS feel there’s no need as plenty of other clubs (most) don’t do this. They of course fail to point out this is because traditionally stadiums were hemmed in in city centres and simply couldn’t do this. This is a progressive modern development where clearly it is preferable that they are co-located
•   This will lead to Prime 4 being granted change of use and developed, and houses on the other side of the road, leading to full development between Kingswells and Westhill

Lady who used to work for SEPA took the stage
•   Noise – again
•   Fan Zone noise – apparently this will also be deafening and go on for four hours before hand and two hours afterwards
•   There are otters, deer and 42 species of birds fly overhead.

Next up is the traffic “expert”
•   Parking – there will be yellow lines everywhere, but fans will ignore them because there will be no traffic wardens and police will be too busy to bother about parking violations
•   AWPR – This was the best bit, apparently “it only goes north/ south, what about people coming from the tyrebagger” – well Mr, they will join the AWPR at Craibstone and pop right across from there, they sure won’t come through tyrebagger woods unless they’re mintal. “And what about Banchory, Alford etc” – seemingly forgetting that these people all already come through Westhill for a home game. His points here were laughable
•   He then moved onto Arnhall parking, where there are currently 600 places sorted, but “how will fans cross a busy dual carriageway?”. He then brings up a picture of a footbridge the likes of which you see up and down the country. This was hysterical to the assembled crowd. Easily amused, you can understand Mrs Browns Boys popularity after this.

Diane Reid is next to speak talking about the legal issues
•   NKS have reserved Gillespie MacAndrew from Edinburgh as their advocates, they have history of blocking a similar development in St Andrews.
•   Costs will likely amount to £60k if they have to appeal a successful planning application for the stadium. So far they have £5k raised
•   They are looking for “loans” and pledges from the crowd, and everyone received a leaflet on leaving
•   The P&J has been very biased she adds to her piece
•   There is a site visit at 2pm on Sept 11th from the city councillors, they plan a protest

Questions and statements from the floor
•   It was pointed out not getting many is worse than no protest at all, they plan big numbers
•   If Dons lose and appeal, they will re-appeal
•   There seem to be concerns (from the club) that the ground could be contaminated, hence why machinery has been seen drilling in the fields
•   Question about concerts – apparently there was an outdoor wedding in the area last year and some poor woman could hear it in Kingswells
•   KCC was praised for it’s “tremendous job”.  John Gerrie (sp) stood and gave us all a run down on how often he’d been on TV and radio, and how his Radio Scotland interview had been repeated hourly. He seemed rather pleased with himself. He finished with “unfortunately the trouble with the press is they want to give both sides, so whenever I was on Stewarty Milne (or other) was on not long after giving the clubs view” .  Imagine that eh, the sheer cheek of the press trying to be fair?
•   Gerrie claims he stepped down from KCC so that he could approach the press as a plain citizen rather than as a community councillor, so KCC will not be withdrawing their objection.
•   He was very pleased with himself, and the allegations made are simply incorrect
•   Many residents were keen to precede their questions/statements with “I’ve been in Westhill since......” confirming of course they are not local and have themselves moved into green belt housing.
•   Police have not objected at all, seemingly to the disgust of residents
•   Ian Douglas raised a question about why if T in the Park was moved due to piplines under the site, are AFC being allowed to build here. He got this answer at the previous NO meeting which he was also at, but hey, let’s go again. As was again pointed out, the development is within the safe zones, and neither BP nor Shell, the stakeholders, have any objection to this build.
•   Ian Fyfe, a shareholder and Dons fan he says, then brought up why has this not been classified as a business relocation and blocked on those grounds. I couldn’t hear him properly so not sure what the argument is.
•   From the top table, disgust was expressed that the community facilities would “only” be a couple of football pitches, but no indoor gym or other facilities are going to be provided for the community by the club. Gotta love it!
•   Police again get it in the neck for not objecting
•   Finally we get to the crux – “does anyone know if property prices will go up or down”, ...more hilarity from the floor...they like a laugh these folks. Statement from top table again which ignores all studies where not a single one has shown a negative effect on house prices for similar developments, and a comment from the floor that it’s not like for like, elsewhere it’s Wembley, or Man City, but this is Aberdeen, there’s no attraction to them being on your doorstep!
•   Human Rights – oh yes, one of the highlights, why has no-one brought up the human rights violations of having this stadium in your locality, where are the human rights groups camping out on the site?

Next up were the two MSPs
•   Alex Burnett encouraged the room to concentrate on possible alternative sites. If this is the only possible location, Dons will have a better chance of getting this passed.
•   Mike Rumbles encouraged the room not to write to him (I can understand this, he doesn’t like communicating with his constituents-  from personal experience), and stated that he thinks it’s outrageous and perverse that Westhill/Aberdeenshire has no say in this development and this is simply wrong.  OK Mr Rejected at the ballot box list MP!! Irony not your strong point.

Meeting closed with a dig at the press, especially Aberdeen journals for mis-quoting them and being unfair, and supporting the Dons. The young reporter in front of me is shaking his head at this. I made sure as I left to point out that there may be 320 in the room, but it wasn’t all NKS/NO people. He gave me a wink, the little devil. 

And that was it, I took one of their pledge leaflets as I was leaving, and threw it in the bin outside. I’ve probably missed a bit or two, but you get the gist.

They are very well organised, and really know their planning and legal stuff now, what they don’t know, or are being deliberately disingenuous to the assembled crowd is what a modern game of football and football stadium is all about, they want to paint a grim picture, and the assembled mob loved it. 
 

Wasn’t there wouldn’t have gone.

Did you ask any questions? Why not ? Were you feart? What an opportunity to air your concerns. No point coming on here with your sarcastic whining, you won’t get another chance like that.

You are correct about the NKS folk though. If the club had them on board from the start, instead of a bunch of amateurs, this would have been done and dusted by now.

[lubo_blaha]

3 hours ago, EdTheDuck said:

The hysteria emanating from Pittodrie is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. All of it including historical hysterical such as “It has to be Loirston or we’re doomed”, “Rangers must be in the SPL or we’re doomed”, “it has to be a 10 team SPL or we’re doomed” and “it has to be 12-12-18 or we’re doomed”.  In the event that Kingsford looks like it may be knocked back I fully expect proclamations from the boardroom that there is a super-volcano under the main stand and a nest of giant Killer Bees in the rafters.

 

Everything coming from the residents of Westhill and Kingswells is unadulterated, damned lies.

 

BTW, the current match day experience is so bad fans are abandoning Pittodrie by the thousand (average league attendance currently up 25% on same point last season)

 

It doesn’t help, of course, when there are so many chumps buying this shite and not just swallowing it wholesale

 

but broadcasting it like they're Moses descending from Mount Sinai with the Word of God

This is spot on, it's embarrassing that any Aberdeen fan trusts Milne/the board's hysteria after all these years.  

Milne claims we would have to play Euro games in Glasgow if this doesn't go ahead. If the pro-Aurora arguments are to believed then we won't have to worry about European football as McInnes will leave and we will be playing in front of crowds of 8000. Yule coming out as well and saying there may not be an Aberdeen FC if Kingsford isn't delivered; what a load of utter sh!te. The scare stories from our own board are just as embarrassing as anything that comes out of the NKS group.

It's unfortunate that there has been a significant campaign against the stadium in that its almost created a siege mentality amongst sections of the support. People want the stadium to go ahead partly to rubbish the claims that there'll be drunken louts pishing in Westhill gardens and the impending terrorist attacks planned for when the stadium opens. 

[1320Lichtie]

No answer then, cheers

LuboBlaha nailed it

[aDONisSheep]

The more I think about it, the more I'm hoping it goes through.  I'm looking forward to heading out to the fans bar, having a couple of pints safe in the knowledge that I'm helping support the club.

Then I'm going to enjoy a supporting the mighty-mighty Dons v fvcked_if _I_care_FC.

After that, I'm going to bask in the surrounding of the newest and best stadium in the country, before heading back to the fans bar for a further 'supporting my club' session.

From there I'll either head back home or into town.  I'll then also marvel at the fact that it turns out that Kingsford isn't in an outer spiral arm of universe and is as easy to get to Aberdeen from, as it is from Culter.

Yours, top-red

aDONis

 

[DA Baracus]

The noise argument

I used to live 2 streets away from Pittodrie and could see the upper tier of the Dick Donald from my bedroom window. Even with the window open it was very rare to her noise during a match, even when I had the radio on and it sounded like a good atmosphere.

[resk]

 
Only  a few of these queing to get into Kingsford car park, many will park in Westhill area where unlike the surrounds of Pittodrie, it's not all parking badges. 

Roslin Street
Urquhart Road
Urquhart Street
The wee streets off Urquhart Street
Orchard Street
Sunnybank Road

The above are all streets within a 5-10 minute walk of a seat at Pittodrie and have no parking restrictions, in which me or my pal have parked our cars in the last two seasons. That's just off the top of my head and after a brief scan on Google maps. There are numerous additional streets there without permit restrictions.

We commonly park up anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes before kick off (depending on if we're nipping to the Pittodrie Bar for a swift yin). I think between us we have been to every home game in the past two seasons. I missed the kick off last Saturday because I was queuing for a pie, but we are almost always in our seats in the RDL before a ball is kicked.

If you think the traffic situation around Pittodrie pre- and post- match really constitutes a "gridlock" then I propose that you have a very loose definition of the term "gridlock", and that you may not have been to Jakarta or Manila.

[Salvo Montalbano]

Roslin Street
Urquhart Road
Urquhart Street
The wee streets off Urquhart Street
Orchard Street
Sunnybank Road

The above are all streets within a 5-10 minute walk of a seat at Pittodrie and have no parking restrictions, in which me or my pal have parked our cars in the last two seasons. That's just off the top of my head and after a brief scan on Google maps. There are numerous additional streets there without permit restrictions.

We commonly park up anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes before kick off (depending on if we're nipping to the Pittodrie Bar for a swift yin). I think between us we have been to every home game in the past two seasons. I missed the kick off last Saturday because I was queuing for a pie, but we are almost always in our seats in the RDL before a ball is kicked.

If you think the traffic situation around Pittodrie pre- and post- match really constitutes a "gridlock" then I propose that you have a very loose definition of the term "gridlock", and that you may not have been to Jakarta or Manila.

Have to agree with that - I've always found Pittodrie one of the easier grounds to get to and park at. Leave late morning, chips in Stonehaven, drop the missus off at the shops, drive towards the ground, park. On the way out, driving back to the shops is quite heavy but it's usually moving fairly well, pick the missus up, round the docks way to the A90 then back down the road stopping off somewhere on the way for tea. Even going up by train is a breeze really with a decent walk up from the station at the back of one with lunch/some pints en route, then back down again for the train down at the back of six. Can't see many people doing that at Kingsford - I'm surprised the local chamber of commerce hasn't mentioned that footfall in city centre shops, pubs and restaurants will be reduced with less people spending time in the centre (if any at all).

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

Agreed

Barring the actual distance to Aberdeen it is quite a good away trip. Never had issues with parking, usually park at the beach and jump into one of the golf clubs next to Pittodrie.  Going up on the train is fine as well. 30 minutes from station to the ground with a few pit stops along the way. About the same distance as Waverley to Easter Road.

With Kingsford it looks like the train is right out. Parking is going to be shocking. So it seems like the supporters bus is the way to go.

[strichener]

8 hours ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

11 hours ago, resk said:

Roslin Street
Urquhart Road
Urquhart Street
The wee streets off Urquhart Street
Orchard Street
Sunnybank Road

The above are all streets within a 5-10 minute walk of a seat at Pittodrie and have no parking restrictions, in which me or my pal have parked our cars in the last two seasons. That's just off the top of my head and after a brief scan on Google maps. There are numerous additional streets there without permit restrictions.

We commonly park up anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes before kick off (depending on if we're nipping to the Pittodrie Bar for a swift yin). I think between us we have been to every home game in the past two seasons. I missed the kick off last Saturday because I was queuing for a pie, but we are almost always in our seats in the RDL before a ball is kicked.

If you think the traffic situation around Pittodrie pre- and post- match really constitutes a "gridlock" then I propose that you have a very loose definition of the term "gridlock", and that you may not have been to Jakarta or Manila.
 

Have to agree with that - I've always found Pittodrie one of the easier grounds to get to and park at. Leave late morning, chips in Stonehaven, drop the missus off at the shops, drive towards the ground, park. On the way out, driving back to the shops is quite heavy but it's usually moving fairly well, pick the missus up, round the docks way to the A90 then back down the road stopping off somewhere on the way for tea. Even going up by train is a breeze really with a decent walk up from the station at the back of one with lunch/some pints en route, then back down again for the train down at the back of six. Can't see many people doing that at Kingsford - I'm surprised the local chamber of commerce hasn't mentioned that footfall in city centre shops, pubs and restaurants will be reduced with less people spending time in the centre (if any at all).

The chamber has mentioned it in the economic assessment.  Apparently the move from Pittodrie will only cost the city centre 500k per annum.  Almost as believable as Kingsford attracting 70% more fans than Pittodrie.

[Hedgecutter]

I'm looking forward to heading out to the fans bar, having a couple of pints safe in the knowledge that I'm helping support the club.... ... before heading back to the fans bar for a further 'supporting my club' session.

A bit like the 'Gothenburg System' that the Scottish miners embraced so that a cut of the pub's profits went to good local causes. Fife & the Lothians have a few pubs with the name Goth / Gothenburg because of that. Can't see why Aberdeen would be being interested in a seemingly random name like that though.

[fatshaft]

On 12/22/2017 at 13:18, Aberdeen Cowden said:

Wasn’t there wouldn’t have gone.

Did you ask any questions? Why not ? Were you feart? What an opportunity to air your concerns. No point coming on here with your sarcastic whining, you won’t get another chance like that.

You are correct about the NKS folk though. If the club had them on board from the start, instead of a bunch of amateurs, this would have been done and dusted by now.

I asked questions at the previous *no* meeting. In order to not be evicted from the room (they had police on hand for "troublemakers") so that I was up to date with their latest pish, I and others sat and listened and took in their latest ramblings as dictated above. 

But, if you weren't there, why are you and the other lad trying to claim the lunacy for the anti mob is fabrication? It's been publicly aired on their website, on twitter, on facebook, and at three public meetings as well as AFC public exhibitions.

You seem to want to go to great lengths to not be informed at all but just keep voicing your opinion?

 

Still waiting on where the "developer" is going to make his fortune from?

[HeartsOfficialMoaner]

If the local people don't want the stadium then it shouldn't be built, they need no reason. It's their place.

Has Milne offered to buy their houses from them and give them somewhere else to live? 

[Stellaboz]

Define their place?

[aDONisSheep]

1 hour ago, HeartsOfficialMoaner said:

If the local people don't want the stadium then it shouldn't be built, they need no reason. It's their place.

Has Milne offered to buy their houses from them and give them somewhere else to live? 

That is brillant :). Top trolling, not many many people can pull of the thick as shyt schtick as well as that!

Yours

aDONis

Edited December 27, 2017 by aDONisSheep

[Darren]

On 21/12/2017 at 23:55, PauloPerth said:

Roads can be re-routed, they could build up the way, tiers stacked rather than one behind the other. I wouldn't think it would be too much of a challenge architecturally when you see some stadia designs these days.  

The clubs only need 3 stands, one was already replaced in the 90's.

Just need the agreement of all the land and homeowners then. Piece of piss.

[fatshaft]

1 hour ago, HeartsOfficialMoaner said:

If the local people don't want the stadium then it shouldn't be built, they need no reason. It's their place.

Has Milne offered to buy their houses from them and give them somewhere else to live? 

Well, nothing would ever get built under that criteria.

However "local" is rather loosely defined here, as 40 years ago Westhill was a village of 20 hooses, now there's nary a local to be found. 

Why would he offer to buy their houses? The land is a landfill site, their houses are nowhere near the stadium. 

 

[PauloPerth]

1 hour ago, Darren said:

Just need the agreement of all the land and homeowners then. Piece of piss.

Yes, whereas moving to a new location is proving to be so straightforward isn't it?!

[Aberdeen Cowden]

7 hours ago, fatshaft said:

Well, nothing would ever get built under that criteria.

However "local" is rather loosely defined here, as 40 years ago Westhill was a village of 20 hooses, now there's nary a local to be found. 

Why would he offer to buy their houses? The land is a landfill site, their houses are nowhere near the stadium. 

 

So anyone who hasn’t lived there for 40 years isn’ t a local? Some residents haven’t lived anywhere else!

Westhill houses nowhere “near” the stadium???

You  fishing again or just had too much?

And before you ask again about the “developer” , get the council to put a ban on housing development at Pittodrie and you soon find out who it is and what the plans are for the resurrection of the NE economy. Again!

[Dunty]

1 hour ago, Aberdeen Cowden said:

So anyone who hasn’t lived there for 40 years isn’ t a local? Some residents haven’t lived anywhere else!

Westhill houses nowhere “near” the stadium???

You  fishing again or just had too much?

And before you ask again about the “developer” , get the council to put a ban on housing development at Pittodrie and you soon find out who it is and what the plans are for the resurrection of the NE economy. Again!

Where are all the houses next to the stadium?

 

If you're going down the residents route, then there's far more at Pittodrie who would be affected by taller stands. Same with Loirston.

[fatshaft]

15 hours ago, Aberdeen Cowden said:

[1]So anyone who hasn’t lived there for 40 years isn’ t a local? Some residents haven’t lived anywhere else!

[2]Westhill houses nowhere “near” the stadium???

[3]You  fishing again or just had too much?

[4]And before you ask again about the “developer” , get the council to put a ban on housing development at Pittodrie and you soon find out who it is and what the plans are for the resurrection of the NE economy. Again!

[1]The chair of WECC at their latest meeting has lived there FIVE years. He didn;t even know the name of the guy sitting next to him taking the minutes!

[2]Correct

[3]No, as above

[4]You said "the developer" would make a fortune out of Kingsford once planning application was approved. You've never said how this will be the case, you just obfuscate around it.  Now you've moved the goalposts to Pittodrie it seems......which is being sold to part-pay for kingsford.....I have a feeling you're about to say "w1gGY W4ntS p1TTodri3 4 fLats"