I said last week that Dundee’s proposed new Camperdown stadium could be a football white elephant if they suffered relegation and stayed down for a prolonged period.
Crowds in the Championship would fall well below what the Premiership guarantees.
The stadium might still generate income, but the lifeblood of a football ground is to host football matches, not just concerts and conferences.
With John Nelms and Transport Scotland engaging in an unedifying public war of words over access issues to the ‘Nou Campy’, the more worrying prospect is that the stadium may not go ahead at all.
Cool and calm heads are required to resolve this issue, frustrating though it is.
It’s highly unusual for any government agency to offer a public rebuke, but that’s exactly what happened to Dundee and their advisors over the Camperdown proposal.
I’m on record as saying I think Dundee must move from Dens.
If they could refurbish and generate the income there that they hope the new ground will provide, I’d argue they should stay put, but that’s unlikely.
You can’t build houses, a hotel, and a crematorium on the site at Dens while also retaining a football stadium.
So the opportunities for the huge increase in income, which the club thinks Camperdown can bring, seem unachievable at a renovated Dens.
‘Astonishing the issue still hasn’t been addressed’
Nelms says they’ll stay at Dens for another two years.
But unless – and until – the Camperdown access situation can be resolved the chance to reboot the club completely could wither on the vine.
And the access problem has been an issue for such a long time that’s it’s astonishing it’s still not been adequately addressed.
Football politics and real politics are two different beasts.
While Dundee might be used to dealing with the former, their inexperience in negotiating with the corridors of power in the latter has led to them being publicly scolded.
Nelms said: “We will keep fighting until we are not allowed to fight.”
Reading this quote, I was reminded of Kevin Costner playing legendary law enforcement agent Eliot Ness in the classic film The Untouchables as he tried to bring down Al Capone.
Transport Scotland and the Dundee City Council planning committee aren’t untouchable (or Prohibition-era Chicago gangsters), but they are very powerful bodies charged with serious statutory duties regarding public safety.
What next for Dundee FC stadium bid?
We can argue all we like about planning and policy procedures but they’re there for a reason.
They won’t be casually usurped or set aside for a football club, unless a workable and economic solution can be found to satisfy the legal duties of those who have responsibility for them.
Transport Scotland wouldn’t attempt to pick the Dundee team, and similarly the Dens hierarchy won’t be allowed to dictate or sway planning policy or requirements on an access issue where safety concerns are of vital importance.
The club and its advisors now need to bite their collective tongues, revisit their plans, and find a solution – if one exists – to reassure those who have the power to kill this project stone dead that there’s a resolution which can finally see spades in the turf.
The longer this sorry saga goes on, the less likely it is the Camperdown project will ever be more than a wistful pipe dream.
It may be that some egos will need to be reined in, and compromises found, if the new stadium is to become a reality.
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