The chairman and manager have their say on the stadium relocation plans

Stewart Milne

RedTV | Full interview with Stewart Milne | please click here

Hopefully the news will be well received. It is a big boost for the players, Derek and his coaching team, for our fans and hopefully for all of the city. Hopefully everyone can see something special can be delivered on this site. What this new site opens up is the opportunity to have a stadium and a soccer academy on the same site, side by side. There are massive advantages to the club for being able to do that.

I think what has happened in the city in the past 18 months has been a wakeup call for us all. We have come through the best part of 40 years benefiting from the North Sea on our doorstep. We haven’t done nearly enough in terms of delivering major infrastructure for this city. The City Council now have worked very hard over the last couple of years to get a city deal in place that is going to start to deliver things that this city is lacking. I think there is recognition from everyone that a stadium and top class training facilities for the football club are an essential part of the infrastructure for the whole of the region.

I think the location we have come up with here is great in terms of serving our own fans, first and foremost that is the most important thing, for fans in the city and out in the shire. Also for our own fans and away fans coming up the A90, onto the WPR and virtually straight into the stadium.

The idea is to get in with the planning permission for the Soccer Academy as early as we can then then later tin the year follow that up with an application for the stadium. We will have to go through a full consultation process. Ideally we would like to see ourselves getting on the ground with the soccer academy in the first half of 2018 and the ideal time scale for the stadium, would be 2019/2020.

There is no plan B. I think if we reached 2020 and we still had no plans for a stadium on the ground then this club is in a very difficult situation. We would be struggling to meet European requirements and to play European football here. We know how difficult it gets because of every year that passes.

I would like to think there is a change of mood within the city. Over the next five years we have to make things start to happen and we are determined that the delivery of the stadium and training facilities is very much part of the city plans for that period.

Derek McInnes

RedTV | Derek McInnes talks about the plans | please click here

These are exciting times because the football club is looking to improve across the board. The statement we made on Thursday about the proposed new stadium and training ground underlines the determination of the football club to keep progressing in the years to come and build on the work we’ve done these last few years.

Improving the training facilities is massively important and the fact that we are looking to do this on the same site as a new stadium can only be positive. I’ve been banging on about the need for a training facility for a while now because other clubs have stolen a march on us in recent times. We’re a very professional club in all aspects of our work but not having our own training ground leaves us open to criticism. It has been well documented that is the single most important thing for us to progress.

It does help attract players because footballers come to a club for all kinds of reasons, but having success and improving as players is always central and if we are up against a club with better training facilities than what we have, it makes life harder to convince them to come here. Having this facility will address that.

From the point of view of our young players, the academy, being able to train there and to see the stadium in the background, it keeps it in the front of their minds the work they have to do to reach that ultimate goal. Even the matchday experience will benefit from having youth games going on there on a Saturday morning, getting supporters to come in early to see future Aberdeen players and then moving into the stadium to see the first team. That whole culture is exactly what it should be. It is such an important step forward for us.

From first team players to the youngest youth players, it is such an important step for the club.

From first team players to the youngest youth players, it is such an important step for the club.