Aberdeen new beach stadium plans shelved as club to invest in Pittodrie upgrades

Aberdeen's ambition of moving to a new stadium has been shelved with the club set to invest in upgrading its current Pittodrie home.

A new stadium has been on the lips of fans for decades, from the failed move to Nigg in the late 2000s to the protested plans for a Kingsford stadium.

Supporters got excited when designs first showed how a potential beachfront stadium could look just a short walk away from their Pittodrie home.

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However, plans hit a standstill in 2022 when the club and city council found themselves disagreeing over who should foot the estimated £80million bill.

Plans to move out of Pittodrie were first proposed in 2003 as the club eyed up a location at Bellfield Farm, but significant backlash from local campaigners ended those plans.

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They then turned their attention to Loirston Loch in Nigg, with fans rejecting the idea in 2009 as they wanted to remain close to their current home.

Planning permission was granted in 2010 before the project was killed off in 2016 as focus turned to the Kingsford proposal, combining the new Cormack Park training facility with a new stadium.

It too saw a backlash from fans over its location out of the city, so plans were halted and Cormack Park was built as a standalone training ground.

Then came the beachfront proposal, with the plans to leave Pittodrie moving closer when details of the beachfront regeneration first began to emerge.

However, council bosses told the Dons they would need to foot the bill - recently estimated at £80million - to build the new stadium near the Beach Ballroom.

Fast forward to this week's AGM, and Dons chairman Dave Cormack confirmed the impacts of the Covid construction inflation, declining Pittodrie land value, and changes at the top of the city council have forced a rethink.

The Reds had intended to utilise the millions from the sale of Pittodrie to help fund the new stadium.

A previously published report also found that the new beach stadium could bring a significant economic boost to the city, as well as a major increase in visitors.

That came before a halt on the second phase of the beach masterplan which has also hindered Aberdeen's plans to relocate to the beach as the council paused the next stage of the regeneration.

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And despite the lack of progress on the stadium front, Burrows insisted plans to relocate to Westhill had not been killed off despite fans making it clear they wanted to stay closer to their historic home.

While suggestions for how Pittodrie is set to be upgraded were vague, one idea floated did hint at safe standing in the popular Red Shed, which would aim to mirror the success of the standing section at Celtic's Parkhead home.

Burrows insisted that all options remain on the table, as he said: "Rather than getting bogged down into specifics, we need to be open to all ideas about what might come forward with the new stadium.

"But in principle there still is very much a desire to liaise with the local authority on the beach masterplan. We still believe that a new stadium at the beach could be very positive for the city.

"I think there has been a lot of work done to demonstrate the potential value of that. The value of £1billion over 50 years was the figure listed and we still believe as a football club that despite the challenge economic circumstances, that very much rings true."

How would you like to see Pittodrie upgraded? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.