Abdullatif Al Saeed reveals latest on plans for redevelopment of Bristol Rovers infrastructure

Bristol Rovers executive vice president Abdualltif AlSaeed has insisted that he and other members of the club's hierarchy are looking to do things "the right way" when it comes to working with the council towards proposed plans for redeveloping both the Memorial Stadium and The Quarters.

With a number of supporters sharing frustrations towards the lack of communication from those above at Rovers this season in recent weeks and months, AlSaeed spoke with the fan-run 'GasCast' podcast to discuss a number of topics in order to reassure fans that significant work is ongoing behind the scenes.

One of the biggest topics of discussion has been in regards to the latest on putting together plans for the redevelopments of both the Mem and The Quarters, particularly the former with no plans shared publicly yet. Although there's no guarantee it's a final version, there is an initial draft of the plans for the training ground available to view publicly on South Gloucestershire Council's website for which the club plan to build around 90 houses as well as extra pitches and facilities.

Chairman Hussain AlSaeed first revealed that the club would be redeveloping the Mem as opposed to building a brand new stadium at the Fruit Market site in October 2023 with the proposal seeing both the East Stand and Thatcher's End (North Stand) redeveloped. This is expected to increase the stadiums total capacity to in the region of between 16,000 and 17,000.

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However, no plans for the stadium have yet been shared publicly and, although the vice president is keen to share them as soon as possible, he has urged supporters to be patient.

"I think initially to start with that there was some frustrations from the fans that ‘we haven’t seen it’ and part of our due diligence when we studied Bristol Rovers and we came in was, I think, the fans were disappointed too many times when it comes to the infrastructure part of things," AlSaeed told GasCast.

"The chairman, given his background, is focusing on the stadium and the training ground on a daily basis. He has a team around him to advise him on it as well.

"We don’t want to put anything out before it is a certainty. It will be frustrating for the fans because it does take a long time. This is nothing against the council or the country as a whole, if you want to redevelop a stadium or a training ground you have to go through a process.

"We started that process and people have seen the plans for the pre-application phase of the whole process and we’re waiting for the council to come back to us. They came back with a few notes and information and we’re engaging with them. The chairman has probably met them three or four times already. I know some of the guys at the club have met with local residents a couple of times.

"So the way that we’re looking at it, those developments are ongoing and happening. However, to have an official press conference and make it public, I think it’s really difficult for us. We don’t want to overpromise to people because whatever they’ve seen now on the website could actually be changed because the council can say ‘no, I want this, I want that, remove this, remove that’.

"To come out to the fans again and tell them ‘this is what’s going to happen’ and they come and see something else and they don’t see it, it’s just frustrating and we don’t want to do that. As a board, we feel like if we want to say something we want to do it and it’s a certainty and I think that that’s a way that you can build trust with the fans and that’s the way we’re approaching it.

"We’re working really hard to really speed it up but at the end of the day it’s out of our hands and hopefully in the next couple of weeks the chairman will talk with more detail about this. It’s his file that he’s been monitoring and that’s the situation."

In the podcast episode it was also revealed that the chairman is due to speak to club media at some point during the festive period which should offer more in depth detail of the plans and which specific stage of the process Rovers are currently at.

However, AlSaeed also explained that the hierarchy have had to repair a fractured relationship with the council as a result of the South Stand construction during which the structure was initially built without planning permission.

Due to the scale of the projects the board have for infrastructure at the club, it's been imperative to ensure that both parties are on good terms and that's also why the point of ensuring they following the right procedures properly was repeatedly stressed.

Asked whether there was a yet a target date for plans to be shared publicly, AlSaeed responded jokingly: "I think it’s really difficult to put a time because I know that the fans are going to remember it.

"I wish it’s tomorrow, honestly. I’m as excited to show people what we’re trying to do than anybody else but we’ve got to respect the council, especially with what happened to the South Stand. We’ve got to make sure that the relationship is right because with the South Stand they were not happy. We came into the club and it was built without permission and this set us back a lot and we had to come in and rectify this relationship.

"Obviously that all happened before we came in. We’re on good terms now. We want to do it properly. Even the scoreboard now we’re going to put up soon we’ve taken planning permission on it and doing it the right way. This is really important, especially with the council. Everybody involved really. The right way is always going to lead to positive things.

"We have to do it in phases because we still have to play football games at the Memorial Stadium so we’ll tackle the East Stand first and build on the right and left of it and remove the terraces completely. We’ll also do this in the West where there will be no terraces. So we’re not really going to redevelop the West but we will remove the terraces and have seats there and do some renovation to that area. Then in the North there will be a double tier on top of the existing one.

"As I’ve mentioned, we’ve engaged with the local residents about the plans," he added. "The council already has the pre-application of the new redevelopment. They know exactly what we want to do and we’re just waiting for their comments to come back to change this and that.

"Again, the chairman will give you so much more detail in a couple weeks. Fans who are asking now will have an opportunity to send their questions through and he will answer.

"What I know is that it’s in the pre-application with the council, the council met us three or four times about it and we’re really waiting for the feedback on what to change and keep. There’s a lot of parties involved and a lot of people that we need to keep meeting and getting feedback from to reach the final version where we think the council will give us the greenlight on."

You can listen to the full 'GasCast' podcast episode by clicking HERE...

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