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John Nelms lays out timeline for new Dundee stadium as he opens up on ‘the soul’ of Dens Park and ‘Frankenstein’s lair’

The Dark Blues chief sat down with media to provide an update on their Camperdown project.

Dundee managing director John Nelms. Image: David Young
Dundee managing director John Nelms with an image of the club's proposed new stadium. Image: David Young

John Nelms remains confident Dundee will get the go-ahead to start building their new home at Camperdown Park despite recent delays.

The Dark Blues chief revealed the expected hearing date for the new ground is due to be after the New Year – five months after the original date of August 12.

Last week’s approval to start building a new training centre at Riverside Drive has boosted the club owner’s hopes of getting a second green light for the big project at Camperdown Park.

However, Dundee still expect to be playing at Dens Park until the end of next season at least.

Frustration

And Nelms admitted there has been some frustration at the time the process is taking.

How entrance to Dundee’s new stadium at Camperdown could look. Image: Dundee FC

“I think everybody that’s going through the process in Scotland is frustrated,” Nelms said.

“We’re not unique in that manner.

“We’re trying to get things moving, we’re impatient.

“But we have to respect the process. And that’s what we’re doing.

“To secure the next 100 years for the football club, to do all of these things for the community, to bring another asset to Dundee, if we have to wait a little bit and be a bit patient, I think it’s worth it.

“Tim Keyes and I share the same frustration. But we are committed.

“Once we decide we’re going to do something, we’re going to see it all the way through until you tell us we can’t do it, and then we’ll fight that as well.”

Confident

He added: “We’re as confident as we can be.

“I’ve been through this process many times. With a process like this, you usually have red flags that come up. This one has no red flags.

An image of Dundee's planned new stadium at Camperdown Park. Image: Holmes Miller Architects. .. George Cran/DCT Media Date; 20/08/2024
An image of Dundee’s planned new stadium at Camperdown Park. Image: Holmes Miller Architects.

“It has some yellow, some light-yellow flags.

“But everything else has been green, green, green, green, green.

“So from a technical standpoint, we’re quite confident.

“From a vote standpoint, we just don’t know. That depends on who’s voting at the time.

“I think of the group that voted just recently [on the Riverside Drive training complex], I think they saw the vision and understood the vision.

“I think that they would see and understand the vision here. There’s all kinds of things that Dundee gets passed by for but we don’t think that Dundee should get passed by.

“And this helps make it so that we don’t.

“We bring these people to Dundee, and they stay in Dundee and spend money in Dundee, get taxed in Dundee, all of these things.

“It is a big deal for the city of Dundee.”

Timeline

The question is when?

The Dundee owners have been working on a new stadium for the past decade.

They are closer than ever to realising their plans but more patience will be needed.

Asked when the team might be in the new stadium, Nelms admitted the expectation that Dundee will still be playing at Dens Park until at least the end of the 2025/26 season.

Concept image of Dundee's new stadium at Camperdown Park. Image: Holmes Miller Architects
Concept image of Dundee’s new stadium at Camperdown Park. Image: Holmes Miller Architects.

“I think that you will see, if we get a positive outcome in January, you will see things starting to happen on site third, fourth quarter of next year,” Nelms said.

“That process should move a lot quicker. It is set up in a way that it should be more streamlined, because of our planning permission in principle on steroids, as I call it.

“Then from the time that we actually get in and put a brick down on the stadium, it’ll be 12 to 14, potentially 18 months once it actually comes out of the ground.

‘Excitement’

“The interesting thing is, as this has taken time, the technology has moved on and some things have come down in price.

“So as it’s taken us more time, we’re actually adding things to the stadium to make it even more exciting.

Dundee owners Tim Keyes and John Nelms. Image: SNS
Dundee owners Tim Keyes and John Nelms. Image: SNS

“The other thing is now that things are starting to actually happen, people are seeing it’s now happening and want to be a part of it.

“It’s actually better than what we thought it was going to be.

“We’re looking at sponsors lining up before a brick has been laid, which shows the excitement from partners.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to be involved in something of this nature, particularly in a city like Dundee.”

Leaving Dens Park and ‘Frankenstein’s lair’

There are fans who don’t want to see their club leave Dens Park.

The club have played home matches on the site since 1899 and moving would be an emotional wrench for everyone associated with the club.

Nelms appreciates that but insists the move is very much needed.

“We’ve had 11 years of memories, good, bad, all of them. It has been our home,” Nelms said of Dens.

“She’s an old lady.

Dens Park
Dens Park. Image: Craig Foy/ SNS Group.

“During COVID, I explored it a lot. There is a part of that building, it looks like Frankenstein’s lair. The old electrical room is unbelievable.

“[General manager] Jim Thomson has been here a long time, and he showed how you had to pull a lever, sparks and smells and everything else, and then wait 30 seconds before you pull the next lever.

“And then if something happened to the lights, you had to shut the whole thing down and wait for a half hour.

“You had to be an engineer to turn a light on back then.

Gordon Strachan and Archibald Leitch

“So yeah, absolutely, there are all kinds of good memories that are there, just like everything else.

“And Gordon Strachan, we talk about all the time. He’s had good memories there, but he’s had some really bad memories there as well. But they are memories.

Dundee technical director Gordon Strachan at Dens Park. Image: Dundee FC
Dundee technical director Gordon Strachan at Dens Park. Image: Dundee FC

“But it’s just time. I mean, we’re trying to put on an entertainment product in a, basically, 19th century building. So it’s really hard to do.”

He added: “Stadiums, they do have a soul, and it will be hard.

“It’s part of your family that’s dying, so to speak but we’re moving on to the next hundred years.

“Somebody actually asked me what [stadium architect] Archibald Leitch would say if you’re still at Dens Park.

“And he goes, ‘why are you still there?’

“It wasn’t built to last this long.”

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