City reveal new £1.26m ground costs (From Worcester News)

City reveal new £1.26m ground costs

8:00am Tuesday 7th September 2010 in

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JUST 24 hours after unveiling revised plans, Worcester City have revealed they are at least £1.5 million short of building a new stadium at Nunnery Way.

City want to build a ground to Blue Square Bet North standard for £2m, which will feature a 556-seater main stand and a covered terrace.

However, the figures did not include land and infrastructure costs, which have been set by site owners St Modwen at £1.26m.

The developer wants £100,000 for each acre of the 5.75-acre site and another £660,000 to cover the infrastructure costs, which have to be paid on vacation of St George’s Lane in June 2013.

That takes the overall cost of the project to £3.266m — and City look set to have £1.75m at best once the Royal Bank of Scotland debt has been settled from the sale of the Lane.

It is an alarming funding gap and one which appears to leave the future of the scheme in jeopardy.

Club officials are working with St Modwen to address the shortfall — there is still hope of a profit-share from the enabling development — but admit it is tough.

Director Andrew Watson said: “There are three aspects to the project — the land, the infrastructure costs and the stadium itself.

“We are doing our very best to do it but we have got a stacked hand. It’s not easy and even with these figures we are not going to end up with very much. It won’t be special, it will be very basic.

“Clearly we understand that to get planning permission, the council are going to want to see how we are going to fund it and we are in detailed discussions with St Modwen.”

City are consulting a quantity surveyor to evaluate the drawings and costings which they hope could reduce the stadium cost by £500,000 but they still have to find the remaining money to build it.

There is also the issue of a pedestrian footbridge across the dual carrriageway, costing around £750,000 which remains a sticking point for both parties.

City are tied to a contract with St Modwen, allowing the Birmingham firm to keep their options open until 2017, which will only fail if there is no hope of planning permission being granted in that time.

Watson added: “The legal position is that it has to be financially sustainable.

“The business plan states that we need overage from St Modwen to fund the stadium costs.

“I don’t think the city council will give planning permission to a project that is not sustainable.”

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