Peterborough United co-owner Jason Neale has provided an update on the League One football club’s stadium plans, with the team considering a new ground to replace London Road.
In a blog post published on the club’s website, Neale said that the ground, which for commercial purposes is known as the ABAX Stadium, is “showing her age”.
Back in October, the owners of Peterborough signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the city council over the purchase of the stadium. Under the terms of the MOU, the deal for the sale of the stadium to the club is expected to be finalised within six months.
United sold the ground to a property developer in 2003 before the stadium was then sold on to the council in 2010.
Neale has said that the MOU for the stadium was a “momentous announcement” for the club but one that “simply signalled the formal start of a process”, and he has now provided an update on the plans going forward.
Neale added: “While there are a number of threads addressed in the MOU, I’ll start with the one closest to everyone’s thoughts. That being the ultimate disposition of the ABAX London Road ground.
“The owners and club executive are already hard at work drafting a five-year plan looking at two options for the stadium. One option is refurbishing the existing ground and the other is the potential to build a new ground elsewhere in the City of Peterborough. In either case the result must be a stadium of which the entire Posh community can be proud and that supports our aspirations to return to Championship flight football and thrive once we get there.
“While both options present individual challenges, refurbishing the existing ground has great constraints. I think we can all see the ABAX London Road ground has been well loved through the years and she is showing her age.
“I want to be clear on the following point. Should the planning process result in a decision to build a new ground, that ground will be sited inside the limits of the City of Peterborough. To answer the obvious next question, it’s far too early in the process to start discussing specific locations should it come to that.”
Image: Peterborough United
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